corbin_a2 said:
How dose one get a copy of Rhapsody?
The Developer Release versions are pretty rare these days (though a set of developer Release 2 was sold on ebay in Europe last week).
The best versions (in just about every way) are the Mac OS X Server 1.x releases, which have been running about $35US when I've seen them in online stores or winning bids on ebay. The primary advantage is that they have more software available to them. There is almost no software for Rhapsody 5.0 (the first developer release) and some software doesn't function in Rhapsody 5.1 (the second developer release). Also, there is much less software for the Intel version (of Rhapsody 5.1) than the PowerPC versions (Rhapsody 5.1, 5.3-5.6).
Rhapsody 5.3 (Mac OS X Server 1.0) can be upgraded to Rhapsody 5.5 (Mac OS X Server 1.0.2) via a free download from Apple. That is a very stable version and lets you run Mac OS 8.6 in Blue Box.
Rhapsody 5.6 (Mac OS X Server 1.2 and 1.2v3) were hardware compatibility releases designed to add support for early G4 based PowerMacs.
Also, the sets of CDs are different between the 1.0 and 1.2/1.2v3 boxed sets... the 1.0 CDs comes with a nice
Third Party Software CD that wasn't included in the later versions.
Even though Apple only supported running the public versions of Rhapsody on G3 (or better) systems, they actually run very nicely on PowerPC 604 series processors. I have Rhapsody 5.6 running on a 7500 (with a 604e/225) and an 8600 (with a 604e/300), and both run very nicely even with graphically intensive applications.
And Rhapsody can also be run on 603e systems like the PowerBook 3400c. I ran Rhapsody on my 3400c for a while, but the major draw backs of it were the 800x600 display (like Mac OS X, Rhapsody really needs at least a 1024x768 resolution) and the lack of Blue Box (Blue Box doesn't function on 603e processors).
In the end I decided against running Rhapsody on my 3400c in favor of sticking with using my IBM ThinkPad 760ED (a Pentium/133 running Rhapsody 5.1). Even though my 3400c was way faster than my ThinkPad, the 800x600 resolution proved more of a hindrance than the slower performance (and lack of software) on the ThinkPad.
And just for
total disclosure... I've been using Rhapsody for years now and have a nice collection of software. It is the lack of software that usually slows people down when starting out in Rhapsody, and it is getting harder and harder to find developers that are still willing to sell licenses for their old Rhapsody software. In some cases, they can't generate license strings anymore due to the fact that they no longer have any systems running Rhapsody.
What this means is that new Rhapsody users are often limited to freeware or making the best of available features in
demoware.
If that isn't much of an issue, between the OS and hardware, you can put together a nice Rhapsody system for around $50 or less. The main thing is patients in finding the OS.
