MacNN Forums - Where to buy old software for Class MacOS?

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Hawkeye_a

Nov 20, 2013 10:21 AM

Where to buy old software for Class MacOS?

So i've got a Mac running an old version of MacOS (7.5.x), and i'd like to start using it. I've put a bunch of freeware on it and its sitting nice and pretty.

But i'd like to get some software, legally, from that era, but not sure what version to get nor where to find them... i'd like to get...
-Photoshop
-Microsoft Office

So far , i've been scouring Amazon, with not much luck.

And while i know this might be a stretch, is there any browser that will work? I managed to get Netscape on there, but even going to google.com throws up like a thousand javascript errors.

Any suggestions?

P	Nov 20, 2013 10:57 AM

There are old iCab versions, but how well they work with a modern site is more than I know:

iCab - Downloads

andi*pandi

Nov 20, 2013 12:27 PM

With software that old, you could try ebay for old disks. Trying to recall if I had photoshop running on 7.5... I think I still have the disks for Canvas, which could satisfy your image editing needs.

I might have word 4 on disk, not sure. My machine with 7.5 is in the closet...

does the machine have a cd drive or just floppy?

Spheric Harlot

Nov 20, 2013 12:33 PM

You want Word 5.1a. Nothing earlier, and nothing later.

is not

Nov 20, 2013 01:08 PM

I have found Word 5.1 on eBay new and sealed :eek:

New SEALED Microsoft Word for The Macintosh Version 5 1 for OS 6 1 or Later | eBay

For iCab, I can test whatever you want before buying it, it is my daily browser on Mac OS and Mac OS X. Once you buy it, the registration is valid for any desktop version :thumbsup:

Have a look at System 7 Today now that you have a real Mac

is not

Nov 29, 2013 01:05 PM

How are your adventures going?

Hawkeye_a

Dec 3, 2013 12:52 PM

I've put it on hold for now. I'll be going home in a month, so i'll be rummaging through all the old software i had, which is in a box in the attic.

Thanks for the System 7 Today link!

The old Mac is a fully able computer. the *only* thing holding it back is a compliant browser (which cannot be hard to implement, i'd imagine), and stuff to keep up to date with web protocols/standards for emails and such. As far as productivity, little has changed since IMHO.

Cheers

is not

Dec 3, 2013 03:26 PM

I have had hard a time with email on Mac OS 9 trying to check my gmail and iCloud accounts. PowerMail worked but is not free and I can not find a way to register an ancient OS 9 version. So I can not figure out how are you going to be able to check mails on 7.5.x ?? Of course it'll depend on your mail provider protocols/standars. Let us know when you come back to your old Mac :)

Earlier versions archive | CTM

is not

Dec 3, 2013 03:27 PM

Also, you can find some stuff at Pure Mac: Software for Macintosh

shifuimam

Dec 10, 2013 06:41 PM

There's a lot of stuff you're going to have to sort-of pirate.

However, if you're talking about trying to remain above board, at least recognize that most of the software we're talking about is ancient. Adobe is well aware that all of its Pre-OS X versions of its software are openly available for download at macintoshgarden.com. The thing is, someone who is downloading Photoshop 2.0 for System 7 probably isn't interested in subscribing to Creative Cloud, so there's $0 in lost revenue by that ancient copy of Photoshop being downloaded.

Same goes for pretty much every major software publisher except EA, and the entire Internet knows that EA gets off on being giant twats to their customers. :P

Also, a LOT of old software is from developers or publishers that simply don't exist anymore. You're gonna have hella hard time trying to track down those people just to send them the $10 they asked for in 1993 for some random utility or game.

Hawkeye_a

Dec 18, 2013 03:49 PM

Quote, Originally Posted by shifuimam (Post 4260820)

Yeah i came across macintoshgarden.com, but didn't download anything.

But anyway, what i find astonishing is that in the 10-20 years since, hardware power has grown astronomically, yet usage patters are essentially unchanged. The only thing in OSX which IMHO would justify the beefier specs we have today is Quartz Extreme (and other multimedia stuff). The biggest changes we have seen in personal computing has come from cloud stuff (Google, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) and devices(iPod, smartphones, tablets).

As an example, the OSX finder(the UI design of it anyway) probably could have been implemented in OS7.5, a modern browser could have been implemented for the systems from that era as well. IMHO. And with a modern browser all that cloud stuff becomes possible. (Heck OS9 even had iTunes, iDVD, iMovie). /end rant :)

P	Dec 19, 2013 06:33 AM

One thing you can't do with a 20 year old Mac is modern compression methods, and arguably encryption is out as well since the servers at the other end could not keep up 20 years ago. Without compression, you don't have all the media that we like to keep around now: movies, photos and audio streaming all over. You can't fit it on the hard drives of those days either. Office programs haven't changed much, though.

Spheric Harlot

Dec 19, 2013 06:41 AM

Also, audio and video applications can do stuff that seemed outlandishly futuristic twenty years ago.

8 tracks of AUDIO recording into your computer (using five-to-six-digit external hardware)! Real-time pitch correction or physical modeling!

Live video filters!

Hawkeye_a

Dec 19, 2013 10:53 AM

Quote, Originally Posted by P (Post 4261676)

I agree. i lumped all that into 'multimedia stuff'. Any image/sound/video processing requires the beefier specs, no argument there.

But, the 'usage patters', the way humans do that stuff on a computer has hardly changed. You load up the video, edit it in a window, and export/share it. Yes the UI has changed, there are more filters and its faster. But the underlying pattern hasn't changed much.

I guess what i mean is, if we had an OS7.5-9 like system on our machines today is there anything we wouldn't be able to do with it? A fully compliant browser and up-to-date 'digital hub' apps would cover a lot of the sage for average users, what do you think?

Yes, OSX is a monumental achievement, and having a *NIX system at the core makes for a level of flexibility probably envied by even Microsoft. But are we buying new machines just to run new 'system software'/platforms, as opposed to the apps/functionality enhancements?

shifuimam

Jan 14, 2014 05:04 PM

I was off 'NN for awhile, so sorry for the bump...

I still use my IIci to do a lot of modern stuff - IRC, email, browsing, word processing, etc. Of course I can't watch movies or play music on it, but do you really need that now that your average smartphone has large enough storage to hold a huge library of music - with streaming from services like Pandora and XBOX Music to augment your own collection?

The biggest thing missing on these old OSes is a modern browser. Classilla is available for OS 9 on PowerPC, and it's pretty great - it can handle CSS3 and JavaScript, but only to a certain degree before it starts to get slow and/or unstable. Of course, if web designers weren't so obsessed with using bloated JS libraries and instead relied on HTML5 and CSS3, I think that would be less of a problem, and System 7 and OS 8 would be more capable.

is not

Jan 16, 2014 01:34 PM

Quote, Originally Posted by shifuimam (Post 4264211)

I still use my IIci to do a lot of modern stuff - IRC, email, browsing, word processing, etc.

Cool !! How do you check your email? I mean what client do you use?

Thanks.

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