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Running Mac OS X Natively on Pegasos

Posted by pudge on from the emulation-is-for-weenies dept.

Peter writes "The Pegasos is an interesting new platform, being one of the very few affordable non-Apple PowerPC systems. But to be a real alternative for me, I want it to run Mac OS X directly (without the need to use Mac-on-Linux or such). Have any of you Slashdot readers done this, and how much hacking did it take?" The Pegasos currently uses a G3/600, and ships with Debian Linux for PowerPC and MorphOS.

6 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. MorphOS on Apple hardware (like iBook2) by henrik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is it possible to run this OS on Apple hardware? There seems to be no Pegasos laptops available (yet?).

  2. OpenDarwin is being ported... by AlphaOne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since OpenDarwin is being ported to the platform, I'd be inclined to believe that just plain Darwin (MacOS X) would NOT run on the hardware as-is and therefore you can't run MacOS X on the system.

    When the OpenDarwin port is complete, you *may* be able to install MacOS X on a drive then overlay OpenDarwin on top of that and then be able to boot it onto the clone.

    Remember that Macs use Open Firmware to boot, so this clone would need either Open Firmware, something compliant to the spec, or hooks to make it work (or some combination of all three).

    Considering the cheapest 12" PowerBooks start at around $1200, I'd say the Apple premium isn't too bad. Granted, that's WAY more than these clones, but then you don't have to deal with the fuss of trying to shim MacOS X onto a non-native platform.

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    All opinions presented here aren't mine.
    1. Re:OpenDarwin is being ported... by downix · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As I happen to work for Genesi, I might be able to best answer this question:

      The Pegasos comes with Open Firmware, yes.

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      Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
  3. Theoretically speaking... by rufo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...Apple's Darwin *is* open source... if you could somehow hack the Darwin kernel to recognize and boot on that hardware, then it should be able to work.

    The problem is, that would probably take a serious amount of work, not to mention the possible legal snares with Apple - I don't know what the terming of the APSL is, but it may not allow such modifications. But I don't see it as being an impossible task.

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    My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
  4. Re:One big problem... by questamor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've known more than one person with a dual 400/500 G4 who's quite stunned with the performance of the iBook. Faster for many common user things. That's an 800MHz G3 compared to the Dual G4 (admittedly a lot older G4)

    The G3s can still hold their own with OSX very well, as long as the surrounding architecture is up to snuff.

  5. Re:Open Firmware Needed by TotallyUseless · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "Open Firmware is processor and system independent boot firmware."

    Hello, if you visit this site you might learn a little bit about Open Firmware... especially the Open part

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    Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!