A History of OSx86 – Part I

[bender12]

bender12!

 

You've got a starring role in Part II!

 

Sweet. Just let me know what my lines are so I can practice!

[superjunaid]

That was an awesome read! And I'd say thats exactly where I started as well. Can't wait for Part II.

[U.C.]

Mash, you seriously are a good story teller. And yes there really should be a movie. Something like "Marklar - the dark side of the Intel Transition". I want Part II bad now.

 

 

Man, but this brings back a whole lotta memories. And it involved a major amount of reading guides, threads, wikis and what not.

[diplomat]

are you serious? this scene is like what the white man did to our music in the early days... and you wanna write about it as if it's all good?!?! don't get me wrong, I'm no saint, I do my dirt too, but would I write a "A History of..." piece after jacking? no, that's dry snitching!

 

it doesn't matter, it's the hardware and culture that makes the Mac the Mac. OS/2 could of been OS X and still have died.

 

keep jacking for beats

[poofyhairguy]

are you serious? this scene is like what the white man did to our music in the early days... and you wanna write about it as if it's all good?!?! don't get me wrong, I'm no saint, I do my dirt too, but would I write a "A History of..." piece after jacking? no, that's dry snitching!

 

it doesn't matter, it's the hardware and culture that makes the Mac the Mac. OS/2 could of been OS X and still have died.

 

keep jacking for beats

 

It is not a story about jacking software and piracy. If you want to read one of those stories then go read how Windows and Office became the market leaders that they are.

 

It is not a story about Macs either- it is a story about an exciting time in nerd history. The story of events that proved that no entity- not even the great Apple- can completely determine the the fate of its software/hardware creations in an internet enabled world. This is not the first story like this. Nor is would I say posting on forum is the most brazen way to tell such stories.

 

This is a great tale, and we are lucky its being told with someone with insight and talent. With Tiger in its last update (if tradition holds), the momentum is slowing down. OSx86 faces an uncertain near future- who knows how long before Leopard's insides are common knowledge. All we know is that the community will continue to play with what's under the curtain and represent a certain extreme (nerd) in the OSX community that actually probably does Apple well in the long run.....

 

Can't wait for part 2- Just please give the next chapter a title. It will make for a better pdf one day!

[Zulu.Walker]

Great read, I can imagine a paperback by SWAD in a few years when people really get heated up about this. I can still remember trying to run OS7 and OS8.5 under emulation more than a few years back... PearPC was the really exciting stage, but without most of the basic functions of OSX, it wasn't any fun... fast forward to today, and things have drastically changed... Who'd have ever thought things would turn out this way?

 

Can't wait for the complete writeup. Too short, totally sweet.

[OSXtasy]

WOW , I just remembered, I had tried the "deadmoo" VM image before I got the 10.4.3 to attempt to run native. I had forgot about that (it was'nt a really "exciting" experience for me, as it ran like {censored} on an athlon 64 with a gig of ram, but it DID run) None the less, I guess that truly was my "first" experience with osx86.......

[mac-mini]

i remember when i was a guest looking for a way to run mac os x on my Pc faster than pearPC but i had sse2 and wasn't interested in downloading all the patches. i wanted something that just worked like a real mac

[borisbadenov]

Looking forward to the next installment. It would also be interesting to hear how others learned of this.

 

I had learned of PearPC just prior to OSX86 and thought it was an interesting project but far too slow for any useful application. After a few months of tinkering with the PearPC settings, I was about to just ditch my efforts and then OS86 came along. The timing could not have been any better as I had become infected with the Aqua theme and all things Mac.

 

Great site, great help and great members here. My favourite site on the web

[venomq]

to the admin :

 

the whole story ist good to hear but i try to install at my laptop osx without actually can do that.

 

i am for this osx on pc but what is the point???no drivers no nothing only the ones who are in the real mac osx and some extra wich u can get .

 

one year i try to install and i actualy did it with 10.4.3 but without internet so i deletet it again and i will propably never install something like that again because i dont want to buy some etra pc witch is compatible with osx86 fully in the present time.

 

if i actually buy one(in 1 or 3 years) i will buy something wich is compatible of course.

but my point is it is only to 20 or lower % compatible to all pc in the world(correct me if i am wrong

 

i wish it would be something like 90 to 99%.(but this will never happen)

 

why can the driver from 10.4.3 for intel gm855 work for 10.4.8 or even 10.4.9?without setting around!

 

10.4.3 worked nice for me but without internet its a little {censored}:P

 

i think the whole osx86 story is something like ....get an ipod or an ipod clone with ipod software

wich is not compatibel to the clones hardware and some peaple try to succeed!

 

windows is {censored} becouse of its bugs and the dll story or like every day settings...formatting and so on

mac osx dont have that.

if i install macos86 i will have the same problem like windows.settings over settings becouse of the incompability and so on....endless story like windows.

 

probably every one from here should buy a apple computer....no problems right????this is the reason to go to macs

 

sorry for my bad english but english is foreign language for me!

 

i am waiting for answers.

[borisbadenov]

Venomq, yes, the best thing to do if you like a Mac is to buy one; support the OS that you like the best by buying one. Because Mac has less of a hardware base to support than Windows, there wil be less hardware supported. The best thing to do is to scour the HCL list for compatable components and/or laptops and buy accordingly. Too often I have seen people purchase pc parts and then realise that what they have is not compatable. A square peg willnot fit into a round hole. And as far as my rig goes, I would like to say it has 99.9% of the real mac features.

[mifki]

If you try to run os x on a old amiga machine it wont work, it isnt even supposed to work, its why its called a hackintosh, me, my machines, all 4 of them work 99.9% the same as my imac and my macbook. I aint complaining

[bender12]

Just a little more history (before Part II is out)...

 

The only reason I really worked so hard on making a bootable, installable OSX distribution for x86 machines was so I could 'demo' OSX86 before the intel Macs came out. I was pretty sure I was going to buy an intel mac, I just wanted to play with it before hand. I feel that many people wanted to do the same. I'm guessing at least 75% of the people who downloaded and installed OSX86 on their generic PC, who were serious about OSX86 and Macs, ended up buying an intel mac when they were released. Sure, there are a lot of people who downloaded it just to install it and show it off to their friends. Apple didn't lose any money on those people, they were never going to buy OSX or a Mac anyway. But for the people like me, who have basically loved OSX since the OSX86 days and are now converted over to Macs and OSX, the OSX86 project was immeasurably valuable.

 

Sure, there are probably some people who still use an OSX86 machine for their daily machine. There might even be a few people who are using OSX86 as their 'production' machines, perhaps even for work and depending on that machine for their income. That's rather insane, but I'm sure there are a few. Shame on you. Purchase real Apple hardware. Get legal.

 

So far, I purchased an iMac for my wife, a Macbook for myself and a Mac Pro for my main workstation at home. The Mac Pro has 7GB of FB-DIMMS (all Apple branded) and an 1900 XT. I've also purchased Aperture for my photo editing. Definitely not cheap. Apple got my money, and it's rightly deserved.

 

As far as the future of the OSX86 project... well, when I was making the bootable DVD's I knew why I was making them. I limited (not on purpose, but just by not trying to include additional drivers and hacks for AMD processors and such) the original bootable DVD's to only work mostly on hardware that was very similar to the dev machine. I had hardware purchased a motherboard that gave me the same network, sound and video as the development machines. I wasn't striving to make it fully functional on every PC. It was a demo, not something you should use for anything other than testing and demoing. So anyway, as far as the future of OSX86... it was fun during the day but I don't see a future for OSX86. The entire project, in my eyes, was just for me to get OSX86 running before I could purchase real Macs that officially supported. There is no future for the OSX86 project for me. The future is here, I own real Macs that run OSX on x86 hardware. Mission accomplished. OSX86 will continue for people who just want to hack at it and do something you're not supposed to be able to do (run OSX on standard X86 hardware) just 'because'. But the people who were serious about buying Apple hardware already have done so. There may be a few more people who test out OSX86 and convert to Macs, but the majority of who were going to already have.

 

And just FYI, I had written all of my notes on how I created the bootable DVD's, how the packages were modified, how some of the testing was done and included everything on the Release1 release. JAS used those notes to start his adventure. By the time 10.4.4 was out, I had already purchased my own iMac so I was out of the scene and I remain out of the scene (only found this article because of Digg). I left my notes on that DVD just for others to learn from, and they did. I left it for others to continue the project if they wanted, knowing I considered the project done. Just as I have left the scene, rumor has it Jas has also left the scene after acquiring his real Mac.

 

So yes, support Apple hardware and software buy becoming legal. If you use and like the product, purchase it.

[macFabri]

Amazing ! I remember all this time. I was checking it day by day in mac iBook G4 and buy one PC to start the install of the firsts images.. Thank you all guys to make possible be a part of this revolution! What a great time!

[Nikkorasu]

I wish that Apple would release a version for the PC. I would purchase that even if it were something like $199... Not that I necessarily think my PC looks pretty or anything, but I hate having to go through hardware like it's tinfoil. Plus my wife hates it when I have tons of hardware laying around.

 

BTW... I think this history is great! I was totally in to trying to get OS X for x86 going... but alas, when it comes to programming or anything like that I know absolutely nothing about that. Someday I'll have my bohemuth iMac or something and I'll be completely happy.

[tonymacx86]

Can't wait for the sql

[Apple Freak]

Publish a book on it!! There might be a compromise between us and Apple!

 

(I almost cried when I hear this story...)

 

By the way, I'm going to spread OSx86 to the Windows conquer land, yet my home town...Taiwan

 

Swad, your our hero!!

[Gray_Matter]

Nice piece of writing, I'm very new to MAC and honestly had no idea just how long OSx86 has been floating around. Great work I look forward to reading part two.

[bballs91]

Wow great read, can't wait for part 2!

[Swad]

Part II will be coming shortly, although it may be awhile. Life is picking up again and my last semester in college is bearing down pretty heavy.

[mac.nub]

Very nice read Swad - reminds me of the good old days, where nothing worked properly - looking forward to part 2

[cabron]

dont forget the deadmoo image

 

for sure

dude this is so nostalgic

 

i remember that i've started to use osx86 since july/august '05

it's just a megamix of darwin x86 with leaked files without bootable gui (at least for me under vmware)

 

then some time latter deadmoo save THOUSANDS of lives release him disk image, i remember the only apps avaliable ub is the ones in osx and also a incomplete app folder pack due the leaked offer just the system installation. But for ordinary microsoft bob like i used to be it helps a million.

 

some bravo for guys who give us compiled open source intel binaries

some bravo for he guy who riped the mactel

some bravo for deadmoo who made it possible for almost everyone in these early days

 

since middle '05 i just think never more uses windows os on my ordinary pc, of course i had it installed for dualboot. but the migration was completed early '06.

[siddharth]

Waiting for part II.

[OMX-Knuckles]

Good stuff!!! Back in the OS 7 and 8 days I was infatuated with Macs- I got a "job" as a library assistant in 8th grade so I could hang out in the computer lab and use the 7100's and later 6500's and 8500's (the 8600 was like a tiny God back then- and I still remember the first G3 I saw!) OS 8 was so cool with the Platinum theme and shiny icons. I didn't have enough money to upgrade my Powermac 6360 to 8.1 so I got a custom Platinum theme for 7.6.1. A couple years later I tried to install Mac OS 8 on an AMD K6/2 and learned an early lesson about architecture differences! I paid mild attention to 9 and 10 but never could justify shelling out $500 for a used G3 or later, G4 that would be slower than my PC for graphics and video work; the primary reasons I wanted a Mac. I bought a Powerbook 3400 maybe 5 years ago but XpostFacto wasn't enough to get me my Mac OS X fix. I pretty much gave up for awhile, waiting for used G4's to drop in price. By the time that Sawtooth systems dropped to under $200 I decided it was futile because I could get a PC that was much faster for the same price. When I heard about OSx86 (or Marklar-Tiger; I didn't hear the term OSx86 until a little later) I was thrilled. Here was a chance to use a Mac without shelling out a few months pay to get something that could replace my PC.

 

I remember getting 10.4.1 back in August of '05- might've been before Deadmoo, I don't remember. Now that I think about it, I might've gotten some pre-Deadmoo image that didn't work very well, and found Deadmoo later. I remember having to convert my 10.4.1 image from .dmg to .iso and patch it to remove the TPM requirement. The farthest I got with that was VMWare under Windows; I was running a Pentium D with 945 chipset which wasn't supported under 10.4.1! That's what I get for getting the newest hardware I suppose. In either December '05 or January '06 I ran a desktop system with a Pentium M and 10.4.3. That was my first experience with fun stuff like kext editing and kernel updating. I wasn't too impressed with speed and application support (SSE2 sucks for hackintoshes!) so after a month or two I switched back to Windows. Last November I got a 10.4.6 image and ran that on my Core 2 until April when I got a new graphics card that lost CI/QE support. Last month I bought a 12" Everex laptop with a Core Duo an I've been running 10.4.8 since then- and I love it. The OSx86 community has come such a long way since the early days- there was a hell of a lot of innovation going on but the best support a newbie like I was could get was "add these kexts to your DVD and mess with the kernel and you might stop getting kernel panics on ICH7." Now there's solutions for everything.

 

Being able to use Mac OS X on off-the-shelf hardware is fantastic. I'm grateful to the community here that's making it possible- I hope Apple sees the possibilities and releases 10.5 as a sytem that'll work on standard hardware. Apple makes great hardware and has a fantastic Operating System, but they've gotten such a superiority complex and holier-than-thou attitude that it makes me sick. It's sort of like Al Gore combined with a commision-paid salesman from Verizon. Scary, huh? If Apple's marketing team could ditch the elitest attitude and quit acting like they invented the wheel and that every product that comes off thier production line is going to revolutionize the industry they'd be better off. Mac OS X is the best OS I've seen since IRIX 6.5. The GUI completely blows Luna and Aero out of the water. It's stable, easy to use and built on BSD so I can get my UNIX fix (I am root!). Thier systems are well-designed and fast and simple. (all of them seriously own- iMac, Macbook, Mac Pro- I want 'em all!)But it's the OS that drives Apple. I personally don't think that 10.5 will run on standard hardware. If Apple's smart they'll realize that they'll see that releasing the OS openly will hurt hardware sales big-time. But no matter what happens, we'll still have OSx86!

[mujahid7ia]

I remember using PearPC in the good old days... slow as molasses, but was some impressive coding. AltiVec support! lol :pirate2: