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[MigMac]

Running MacOS9 on MacOSX host (not relevant for Linux or Windows)

You all know SheepShaver, a MacOS8/9 emulator created by Gwenolé Beauchesne who eventually stopped developing it. However, the software is still maintained and updated by a dedicated team at Emaculation: https://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

Sheepshaver has well known limitations: MacOS 9.0.4 is the limit, there’s no way you can install MS Office 98 and a few other apps, unexpected crashes occasionally occur on restart**…those are the main cons !

That being said, when compared to other emulators/VMs it has quite a lot of pros: clipboard and mouse integration (+ live scrolling with appropriate control panels add-ons), shared folder, also you can mount about any disk image (.iso, .img, .dsk…) by simply dropping it onto the OS9 desktop.

**Whereas crashes and freezes often lead to the total corruption of a VM, this is rarely the case with Sheepshaver. You relaunch it and you’re done more often than not

Developer Ed Mendelson (https://mendelson.org/macos9osx.html) has taken Sheepshaver to another level. I’ve been ‘working’ with him for a couple of weeks and his App is now well beyond the Beta phase, definitely a fine tool to enjoy an emulated OS9. Don’t get me wrong, he did 98% of the job, fixing, improving and tuning the app, I was there just for testing and suggesting changes…

On top of providing a standalone App that spares users the Sheepshaver set up tasks, the App comes with a main disk packed with pre-installed apps and lots of interesting options for better integration with the Host. Simply drop a file onto the App icon and it pops up on your OS9 desktop. Within OS9, drop a file into the ‘copy to host’ alias and there you have it on the OSX desktop. With the special OSA Menu you can send a command line to the terminal or open an URL in your default OSX browser. The most interesting add-ons are the virtual printers: instead of using « PrintToPDF », « Adobe PDF Writer » or even better « Jaws PDF Creator » to place a .pdf into the Shared Unix folder and then print it, you can print whatever document you want directly: a command is sent to your OSX default printer.

MacOS9 App details: download link => https://mendelson.org/Mac%20OS%209.zip (about 1,2 Gb)




- Universal App (runs fine on Sonoma)

- RAM set to 1024 Mo

- Main Disk: 3,78 Gb with many pre-installed apps and utilities

- Second Disk: 3,78 Gb. Empty. You can enable it via the option menu. Press the option key when you launch the app.



- Additional Disk: if you need an extra disc (to save huge PDFs, pics or vid files), you can add one. Make an empty image (no partition, the size you need) with Disk Utility, change the extension to .img instead of .dmg then drop it on to the MacOS9 App icon and follow the instructions. You’ll get a dialog from OS9 that will ask you to initialize the new disk. When you’re done, you’ll have your third disk on your OS9 desktop. It will be saved in the App package as AdditionalDisk.dsk.

- Emergency Disk: you can boot from it (option key when launch). It includes several tools: Disk Aid, Disk Warrior, TechTool Pro, Resorcerer. Once in a while it’s good to rebuild the graph of the boot disk with Disk Warrior, the system will run faster and maintenance tasks like rebuilding the desktop become far less time consuming.

- Boot from another disk or Cd-Rom: option key at launch, select the option

- Installers Folder: the main disk has such a folder, it includes all the installers that were used plus a selection of applications which the user might want to install as well (Word Perfect, File Maker, Conflict Catcher, Finder Pop and more…)

- Virtual printers: PDF on the OSX Desktop, direct printing to your default printer, select the printer if you have several printers on your network…those will work whatever your OSX system language is.



As you can see on his page, Ed also built other Apps, I’m currently exploring his System 761 App based on Basilisk: https://mendelson.org/macos9osx.html#basilisk

I’m very pleased with my customized MacOS9 App, it sure can’t be compared to the real thing -i.e. a real Mac and its hardware- but as an emulated environment it’s definitely enjoyable, functional and thanks to some scripted routines, more stable than a standard Sheepshaver VM.

[Bolkonskij]

Not being a SheepShaver (or emulation at all) user I still want to thank you for the info. It's great to see there's still a lot of work put into making the emulation experience better and in fact, it's for many people the only "Mac OS 9 experience" they have. (even though that makes many of us shudder :-D )

That said, I'll put a little news item on the mainpage and linking to your thread, MigMac, in hopes that those more interested in the MacOS9 App will find their way here!

EDIT: It's done!

[MigMac]

Thanks for him (Ed). Yes, any emulated environment can't be as good as the real thing. I had an iMac (G3, Indigo) something like 25 years ago, running MacOS 9.1. The good memories plus this kind of enhanced software will gradually lead me to buy myself a good G4 and dive again into real OS9 in a not so distant future.

[MigMac]

er... I wanted to edit the first post but I can't 

just a little yet very interesting additional info: with his latest version Edward Mendelson has embedded Crypto Ancienne (Carl and micro_inetd) into the app and pre-configured Classilla

=> you can now surf HTTPS   

[MigMac]

Here's the dl link for what is going to be the final version for a while:
https://mendelson.org/Mac%20OS%209.zip

Note on the proxy and HTTPS surfing: it is enabled when you start the app and disabled on shutdown