WTB - Rhapsody DP1 and NextStep 3

SAbsar · #1 March 2nd, 2005, 05:37 AM

Hi!
I'm looking to buy Rhapsody Developer Preview 1 (it only ran on PC, or any other preview that runs on a PC) and also, NextStep 3.

PM me!

RacerX · #2 March 2nd, 2005, 08:14 AM

Well, both Rhapsody Developer Release (Rhapsody 5.0) and Rhapsody Developer Release 2 (Rhapsody 5.1) are very rare, but pop up on ebay from time to time. If you are just wanting to "see" what it was like, I guess either would work. If you want to actually "use" Rhapsody as a primary OS, Rhapsody 5.1 was pretty close to the finish product (I use this as a daily OS on my ThinkPad). On the other hand, if you have a spare Mac, it is way easier to find Rhapsody 5.3-5.6 (Mac OS X Server 1.0-1.2v3) for around $35 on ebay. Plus there was way more software for the PowerPC version. I currently have Rhapsody 5.6 running on a PowerMac 7500 with a PowerPC 604e/225 upgrade.

If you find Rhapsody, a good place for getting started using it is my Rhapsody Resource Page. And I may be able to help point you in the right direction on things if you want to PM me.

As for NEXTSTEP, You can find 3.x on ebay quite often, but if you can't wait I would recommend Black Hole. If you are (again) just looking to "see" it running, either 3.2 or 3.3 would do. If you are wanting to be productive, I would suggest at least 3.3 with Apple's Patch 3 (includes the Y2K patch) and would highly recommend OPENSTEP 4.2 (with Patch 4) as it has more up to date software available for it.

SAbsar · #3 March 2nd, 2005, 09:12 AM

Yeah i *am* looking forward to actually using those OSes.
Now, OpenStep 4.2 IS intel-compatible right? and i dont need any other additional stuff (like any underlying kernel) to install it?

RacerX · #4 March 2nd, 2005, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAbsar

Now, OpenStep 4.2 IS intel-compatible right? and i dont need any other additional stuff (like any underlying kernel) to install it?

Yes, it is Intel compatible (I have the NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP compatibility lists here), no you done need to add anything like a kernel... it is not designed to be altered by the end user, there is no source code available for the underlying operating systems for either NEXTSTEP or OPENSTEP. These were proprietary operating systems with licensing restrictions set forth by other companies.

One of the major changes from Rhapsody to Mac OS X was the removal of any thing that would restrict making the code available to the public. While the foundations of Darwin are very similar to those of Rhapsody (and in turn OPENSTEP/NEXTSTEP), it is not the same or interchangeable.

drunkmac · #5 March 2nd, 2005, 05:06 PM

Any of you guys have a Rhapsody screenshot or anything? Or a link to a website where I could learn about it?

RacerX · #6 March 2nd, 2005, 05:48 PM

My site has tons of screen shots and info on Rhapsody... was there a specific thing you wanted to see in Rhapsody? I'd be happy to post something specific. Otherwise it pretty much looks like Mac OS 8.

drunkmac · #7 March 3rd, 2005, 06:52 PM

Yes actually. It runs on Wintel right? Which means I could have a Mac OS like OS on a Wintel box right? and what are the system requirements?

RacerX · #8 March 3rd, 2005, 09:58 PM

That is one of the issues of Rhapsody for Intel based systems, it was designed to run on PCs of that day... that day being 1998. Unlike Macs of 1998, PCs (and PC components) from back then are a little hard to find.

Also, Rhapsody 5.1 has a RAM limit. It won't run on a system with more than around 192 MB of RAM without making some modifications to the OS. And even after the modification, it won't use more than 192 MB of RAM (though it'll at least run). Apple put this limitation in Rhapsody 5.1 to keep people from using it rather than the final release version (which for PCs was never released).

This is another reason why I tend to recommend Rhapsody 5.3 or later on PowerPC systems. On Macs, Rhapsody 5.3-5.5 can access up to 1 GB of RAM and Rhapsody 5.6 can access 1.5 GB.

While there is definitely the coolness factor of running a Mac OS like OS on PCs, from a strictly productive stand point Rhapsody is better on Mac hardware.

The system requirements can be found here (and the driver list for Rhapsody 5.1 for Intel can be found here). I bought my IBM ThinkPad 760 ED because I knew it would run Rhapsody. I've never owned any PC that I couldn't run either NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP or Rhapsody on. A PC that couldn't run those operating systems would have no value to me.

Here is what Rhapsody looks like on my ThinkPad. Displayed is the System Profiler and the Workspace Manager's about window.