Computer Advocacy Computer Advocacy[Ed: Links to web pages and/or e-mail addresses which have become inactive since the publication of this article have been enclosed in curly brackets { }. Replacement links have been provided where possible.]
I have been a Macintosh user for about a decade, and I've probably booted my machine up thousands of times. Each time, I've been greeted by the familiar smiling computer saying "Welcome to Macintosh." Recently, thousands of Macintosh owners have been booting up their Macs to a different greeting, because they use operating systems other than the MacOS.To some, running more than one operating system on a Power Macintosh is not such a strange idea. Ever since the revolutionary RISC PowerPC processor was integrated into the Macintosh line in computers such as the Power Mac 6100, companies such as Insignia, Inc. have offered emulators for various operating systems. Tenon even offers a package which emulates a UNIX environment. Recently, Connectix Corporation introduced a product which emulates a complete Intel MMX processor and the associated PC hardware, such as a "SoundBlaster" card or an IDE CD-ROM drive. With this product, given sufficient disk space, users are able to run operating systems such as IBM's OS/2, NeXT's OpenStep, RedHat's Linux, and Microsoft's Windows 3.1, Windows95 and Windows NT on the same machine. The problem with this approach is that the software is emulating pieces of hardware, so performance is poor on all but the fastest PowerMacs.
New operating systems that run natively on Macintosh hardware have been the latest fad. Be Inc., the Linux/PPC group {www.linuxppc.org}, and even Apple itself have made significant progress with these new operating systems.
Their original idea was to construct a new computer line which would utilize the least expensive hardware they could find, their policy being that if you could not get it off the shelf at the local electronics shop, it shouldn't be a part of the machine. With this new attitude, they constructed a dual-processor PowerPC computer. They also built an operating system with the same mentality, constructing it from the ground up. Their advantage has been that they are not constrained by old "legacy" code so they were able to design a streamlined, modern OS. Provisions are built in for as many CPUs as you want, protected memory and "threads" for multitasking. This is a stark contrast to the MacOS, which generally uses one thread at a time. If you click your mouse down, the machine essentially stops until you let go. In the BeOS, you can click down, resize a window and copy a disk while playing two QuickTime movies. Also, if one part of the system crashes, you can continue working without the need to reboot.
Since their OS runs on the PowerPC chip, it was not difficult for them to port it to run on the Mac. Since the dominant programming language used within the BeOS is C++, all of the developers that I have spoken to find it a pleasure to program for. Several other recent developments have allowed the new OS to run on Pentium machines, and most importantly, a program called "SheepShaver" has been released, which will run MacOS 8.1 and many common Mac programs within a window on the BeOS desktop.
If you really want to get your hands dirty, and Linux is something that you are interested in running, I suggest you check out Tim O'Connor's article, "Should You Create Your Own Internet System With Linux?" in the Spring 1997 issue of Connect. I find running my own Linux system extremely empowering and a great learning experience. Installation is almost identical to the procedure for RedHat for the x86 architecture, but since the Macintosh hardware is so standardized, installation on a Mac is probably easier than it is on a PC. When you boot your machine, once the "Mklinux Booter extension" loads, you have the option to boot into Linux or into the MacOS.
Most software that is available for Linux for PCs is available for Mklinux. The most interesting new software came in late 1997 when Netscape posted a version of Communicator for Mklinux. There is complete support for sound, serial communication (such as PPP), and ethernet networking. On my system, I routinely run X, PGP, Secure Shell client/daemon, Apache, Pine, Tin and Emacs. My only complaint is that there is no support for printing via LocalTalk, so you can only print to printers that use a serial port (such as a Apple StyleWriter) or an ethernet port.
Early releases of this new operating system have shown enormous potential, because it is UNIX-based and can be used on both the PowerPC and the Intel architectures. The most interesting part of the package will be the "Blue Box," a version of the MacOS which can run in a window from within Rhapsody, allowing you to run your old Macintosh applications. The Blue Box is not an emulator, but a compatibility environment, which will not run on the Intel version of Rhapsody.
The Rhapsody project is promising for several reasons. Because its foundations are in UNIX, it will be a very stable system. It will also allow users to run standard UNIX servers such as the Apache webserver. With an Intel version, the potential user base is large enough to lure many software developers. Because of the Blue Box, former MacOS users will not be alienated. Macintosh developers are keeping a close eye on developments in this project. You should always make sure to read up on the ins and outs of a particular OS before you install it, and make backups before you try anything! I find it useful to install everything on a separate external hard disk or onto a large removable disk.
I think that all of these projects will mature very quickly, and will eventually be available as complete solutions for the average user. For now, they are best used by very ambitious or advanced users, and developers who are interested in an adventure. Support can be found on listservs and elsewhere on the Internet.
Should you decide to try any of these systems out, proceed with caution! None of the systems is very secure in its default configurations, so consult documentation before running them on a network, and as always, make plenty of backups. ![[ C ]](../icons/CSmSum98.gif){kind=icon}
Posted May 18,1998. Last reviewed November 30, 2005.
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