Is System 7 available for free from Apple?

[livingfortoday]

Hey everyone, I just bought a Powerbook 1400cs off of the Marketplace here, and was looking to install System 7 on it. I've read some places that Apple offers System 7 as a free download now, and that only system 8 and above still need to be bought? Is this true? If so, where could I find it?

Any help, as usual, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[RacerX]

Mac OS 7.6 and later still need to be purchased. You can get System 7.5.5 here:

System 7.5.3 full install
System 7.5.5 update
Mac OS 7.6 boot disk (with CD-ROM support)​

System 7 documentation here:

System 7 Manuals​

And other interesting stuff can be found at Dan's System 7 Today site.

 

[ravenvii]

Yeah, System 7 is free up to System 7.5.3.

They can be found here.

EDIT: Beaten handily by the post above.

 

[livingfortoday]

You guys rock. That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

 

[RacerX]

I just bought a Powerbook 1400cs off of the Marketplace here, and was looking to install System 7 on it.

You may want to make sure that System 7 will run on your PowerBook 1400cs... there were two releases:

http://PowerBook 1400cs/133
PowerBook 1400cs/166​

The 1400cs/133 originally shipped with Mac OS 7.6.1 and the 1400cs/166 originally shipped with Mac OS 8.0.

I don't see the PowerBook 1400 listed on Apple's 7.1-7.6 compatibility page.

Edit: Just to clarify, the 1400cs/117 originally shipped with System 7.5.3... but I'm not sure if the linked version of 7.5.3 will work with that hardware... and 7.5.5 absolutely will not.

 

[livingfortoday]

That is odd. Apple-History.com says that the minimum OS on the 1400 was 7.5.3, so I was hoping it would work. It does also say the maximum was OS 9.1, so I could always try that if all else fails since I have a copy I'm not using anymore.

Kind of related, I downloaded all 19 parts of the System 7.5 installer, but was wondering how I could get them to the Powerbook. Assuming I could copy them onto floppies or even a CD, how would I go about doing an install of System 7.5 without the boot disk on a wiped drive?

 

[RacerX]

Assuming I could copy them onto floppies or even a CD, how would I go about doing an install of System 7.5 without the boot disk on a wiped drive?

The third link of my original post was for a boot floppy image that would let you have access to the system's CD-ROM drive.

With that image on a floppy and the parts of the 7.5.3 installation on a CD, you could install the parts off the CD... assuming that you can install 7.5.3 on your system (see edits of my second post).

 

[FullmetalZ26]

^ Grab a copy of the System 7.5 Network Access Disk and boot the PowerBook up with it. Make sure the drive is partitioned how you like and formatted, then copy the System Folder from the disk to the hard drive. After that, reboot off the hard drive and copy all of the installer chunks (slogging them on disk by disk, I suppose) onto the hard drive. Go ahead and open the SMI image, which will load the entire disk image and drop it on your desktop. Be sure to use the "Clean Install" option so the temporary system folder is removed.

System 7.5 Network Access Disk

 

[livingfortoday]

Ok, cool, I'll try the floppy+CD install when I get the Powerbook, and let you know how that goes.

I'm not sure which version of the 1400cs this is, or the exact specs, but I'll check when I get it and replace the display.

Thanks for your help.

 

[dpaanlka]

The third link of my original post was for a boot floppy image that would let you have access to the system's CD-ROM drive.

With that image on a floppy and the parts of the 7.5.3 installation on a CD, you could install the parts off the CD... assuming that you can install 7.5.3 on your system (see edits of my second post).

Geez RacerX, of all people to find me something that I've been hunting for quite awhile to add to my site. Thnx...

To the original poster - click link my signature. Oh yeah, if you can find a copy of 7.6 somewhere, you'd be much better off stability + speed wise.

EDIT: I see you live in Chicago, I could possibly help you out with your System 7 stuff if you're interested.

 

[wmmk]

is it possible to emulate old macs on a newer one? id really like to play with system 7 on my mini.

 

[dpaanlka]

is it possible to emulate old macs on a newer one? id really like to play with system 7 on my mini.

Yes... http://www.gibix.net/dokuwiki/en:projects:sheepshaver

 

[livingfortoday]

EDIT: I see you live in Chicago, I could possibly help you out with your System 7 stuff if you're interested.

Yeah, noticed you're a U of C student? So am I! Ha.

Well, it turns out I'm not getting the 1400 after all, due to some confusion concerning the power supply. I will probably be upgrading my Duo 210 to System 7.6 when I get my hands on it again in a few months, so I'll follow all the advice from this thread then.

Thanks again to all!

 

[wmmk]

Yes... http://www.gibix.net/dokuwiki/en:projects:sheepshaver

cool! so how do i load system 7 onto this?

 

[dpaanlka]

Yeah, noticed you're a U of C student? So am I!

Where did you read that? Because it is false. I am a Bradley student.

 

[livingfortoday]

Where did you read that? Because it is false. I am a Bradley student.

Curses! I must have been thinking of someone else, then, sorry. Don't know how I screwed that up. I actually don't even know where Bradley is.

 

[madmax_2069]

i thought OS 8.0 was free to get. i guess i was wrong. whats taking them so long to make OS 9.x free

 

[DZ/015]

Apple freely distributes System 6.0.3, 6.0.5, 6.0.8, 7.0, 7.0.1 and 7.5.3 and GS/OS 6.0.1 on their support website. They have some updates also, but those are the only complete systems available.

What bothers me is the lack of distribution of pre-system 6 systems. Back in the day they were readily available from dealers and user groups. Today Apple no longer lets anyone distribute them. Anyone have any of those old disks lying around?

 

[RacerX]

i thought OS 8.0 was free to get. i guess i was wrong. whats taking them so long to make OS 9.x free

Mac OS 7.6, 8.x and 9.x all contain licensed technology which Apple is not at liberty to freely distribute. Same with A/UX, NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP and Rhapsody.

There is a better chance that Apple will release Mac OS X v10.0.4 for free before any of the others. And that won't happen because Apple considers it too large (which is why you can't download the 10.1 upgrade even though it was given away for free by Apple when released).

 

[rjkells]

Old System software

What bothers me is the lack of distribution of pre-system 6 systems. Back in the day they were readily available from dealers and user groups. Today Apple no longer lets anyone distribute them. Anyone have any of those old disks lying around?

Having the old disks is more convenient, but if you want to make your own try http://www.rolli.ch/MacPlus/

 

[wmmk]

Having the old disks is more convenient, but if you want to make your own try http://www.rolli.ch/MacPlus/

just what i was looking for! i dont have a mac plus, but this should be fun n my mac mini

 

[JosiahPB]

How is it switching from System 7 to X?

 

[dpaanlka]

How is it switching from System 7 to X?

I don't think very many people have done that.

 

[climhazzard85]

How is it switching from System 7 to X?

I don't think there are that many Macs running 7 that would properly run X.

 

[ahunter3]

How is it switching from System 7 to X?

As previous posters have said, it's not a need many folks have. But based on my experiences with a WallStreet, which can boot both OS X and OS 8.1, I can tell you that you would not do it in one step. Older systems that lack the CarbonLib support aren't going to let you run the version of Startup Disk Control Panel that will allow you to select an OS X system to boot from. MacOS 8.6 will, MacOS 8.1 will not (or at least I was unwilling to devote the research and debugging efforts for getting CarbonLib to load on 8.1), and I think it is fair to assume no version of System 7 ever would.

Therefore, when your G3-accelerated PowerMac 9600 is booted into System 7, you would go to the Startup Disk Control Panel and select your MacOS 8.6 or MacOS 9.x volume and reboot into that; then once you are booted in 8.6 or 9.0 or 9.1, you again go the Startup Disk Control Panel and select your OS X volume (using the version of the Control Panel that recognizes OS X Systems), and reboot a second time.


To go the other direction would also not be a one-step operation. Old-world Macs don't let you select which "classic" operating systems to use as startup systems, although they give the appearance of giving you that option — the open firmware is too primitive or something of the sort and therefore only lets you switch back to "classic" style booting, at which point the computer reverts to the last non-X system selected. So to get back to 7 you'd have to reboot once to get back to 8/9*, then select 7 and reboot to get back to 7.

* And if you're running Panther or Tiger on your 9600, the Startup Disk PrefsPane in OS X may not do you any good at all, since Panther and beyond lack the instrux to reset oldworld hardware to boot a "classic" OS — on the WallStreet you'd have to do a power-reset every time you wanted to leave OS X and boot 9 (/8). Don't know exactly how you'd do it on a 9600, might require yanking the PRAM battery and waiting for your machine to party like it's 1909.