Emulators

Mac-on-Linux

Mac-on-Linux (MOL) lets you run the Mac OS under Linux on the PowerPC platform. MOL runs natively on the processor so it is very fast. Unlike most Mac emulators, MOL can run Mac OS 8.6 and later without a ROM image. It is Free Software available under the GPL.

Some features of Mac-on-Linux:

• Supports Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.1
• Full screen video
• MMU accelereaded X video
• Audio support
• Block device support (IDE, SCSI, Zip, Jaz)
• ADB & USB support for mouse and keyboard
• Ethernet (multiple interfaces supported)
• Runs natively - good speed!
• Very compatible
• Idle sleep (8.6 or later)
• AltiVec® support
• Multi-session support

MOL only runs on PowerPC hardware since no emulation is performed.

Another fun thing you can do with MOL is running MS Windows via Connectix Virtual PC for Mac OS ( screenshot).
You'll find MOL on your Mandrake Linux PPC CD. If you need help with setting up MOL, read First Look: Mac-on-Linux on MaximumLinux.

Executor

Executor is a commercial emulator that allows Windows or Linux PCs to run many applications originally written on a Macintosh.

The process is:

1. Install Executor.
2. Run Executor.
3. Install Macintosh applications.

The company that offers this product includes their own version of the Mac OS, so the program does not require a license from Apple Computer, nor a copy of Mac OS, nor Macintosh ROM chips.

Executor runs applications made for the 68K processor, including "FAT" binaries (Macintosh applications that run on both 68K and PowerPC processors). PowerPC-only applications are not supported.

Basilisk II

Basilisk emulates either a Mac Classic (which runs Mac OS 0.x thru 7.5) or a Mac II series machine (which runs Mac OS 7.x, 8.0 and 8.1), depending on the ROM being used.

You'll find a copy on your Mandrake Linux CD.

vMac

vMac is a Macintosh emulator that emulates a Motorola 68000 based Apple Macintosh Plus. A ROM image from a Plus is required. Currently, System 7.5.5 is the latest version that vMac can boot, which is the latest System a real MacPlus can boot. vMac runs in black an white.

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Ports To Mac OS

Mac Os 9.x

Since Mac OS revisions up to 9.x do not feature a command line shell, porting Unix software to them never really has caught on (and many Mac OS users are the exact opposite of your typical Unix user). You'll find a few ports like vim for Mac OS Classic or the Macintosh Port of GNU Emacs 20.6, whereas ambitious projects like LAMP (LAMP Ain't Mac POSIX) obviously are no longer of interest in the dawn of the glorious Mac OS X ;-).

The Mac Directory on O'Reilly lists Open Source software for the Macintosh, with some ports thrown in.

Mac OS X

Ah, well :-). The Mac OS X core operation system is called Darwin, which is an Open Source Unix implementation in its own right. This core system is available for Macintosh-PPC as well as for x86 machines (however, the graphical subsystem Aqua only runs on Macs).

If you have the developer tools installed, 'porting' your favourite Linux software consists often only of recompiling the source code. You can download these tools via ADC, provided you are a member of the (free of cost) ADC Online program.

If you rather want to do others do the compiling, you can get pre-compiled and easy to install packages of your favourite Linux software from these sites:

• Fink is a powerful software installation and maintenance system, basically a port of Debian's apt-get meta package maintenance system (akin to Mandrake's urpm). The complete list of Fink packages includes such goodies as XFree86, the Window Maker window manager, the GNOME environment and the GIMP.

• Darwin Ports is an ongoing effort to port the FreeBSD port system to Darwin.

• The OSXGNU Software Archive lists more GNU ports, including RPM and many of the GNU utilities we all love once we know how they work ;-).

• Last but not least, there is The GNU-Darwin Distribution. They aim 'to be the most free Darwin-based Unix distribution.' Which means they replace Aqua with your common Linux/Unix environment.

X runs in 'rootless mode' on Mac OS X, which means that all your X apps will appear in normal windows under Aqua, and efforts are underway, to make these windows look and behave like native Aqua windows.

More in-depth information on Darwin can also be found in the 'How to' and 'FAQ' sections of Darwinfo.

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Filesystem Utilities

HFS is the Hierarchical File System, the native volume format used on modern Macintosh computers. hfsutils is a software package that permits the manipulation of HFS volumes from Linux and other systems (similar to "mtools" for DOS disks). It is particularly useful for reading and writing HFS filesystems on 1.44M floppies, hard disks, CD-ROMs, Zip drives, and pretty much any media supported by the hardware drivers in Linux.

Several command-line programs are included in the package: hcd (change directory), hcopy (copy), hdel (delete), hdir (directory), hformat (format), hls (list), hmount (mount), humount (unmount), etc.

Also included is a graphical front-end for browsing and copying files (xhfs). The graphical front-end provides point-and-click access to Macintosh volumes, which is often more convenient than the command line. Files can be copied using a variety of transfer modes (MacBinary, BinHex, text, etc.)

You'll find a copy of this package on your Mandrake Linux CD.

Over the past few years, Apple has moved towards the new volume format HFS+ or 'Extended Format'. This format has been available to Macintosh users since MacOS 8.1 but unfortunately, it is not yet supported by the Linux kernel. 'hfsplusutils' is a package for accessing HFS+ formatted volumes. It consists of a library and set of tools that allow access to HFS+ volumes.

Several command-line programs are included in the package: hpmount (mount), hpumount (unmount), hpcd (change directory), hpls (list), hppwd (print working directory), etc. No write support, though.

You'll find a copy of this package on you Mandrake Linux PPC CD.

Currently it is not possible to access Linux partitions on the same system from any version of Mac OS.
For remote systems, you can choose between NFS, SMB and Netatalk.

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