Play These Retro Mac OS Versions in Your Browser
If you used a Mac in the 80s or 90s, you probably remember what is now called “Classic Mac OS”, the predecessor to the OS called macOS today. You might think you’ll have to find an ancient Mac on Craigslist to use that operating system again, but that’s not true: you can try them all in your browser right now.
A site called InfiniteMac , created by Mihai Parparita , offers virtual machines running all major classic Mac operating systems from 1985 to 2001. Simply browse the collection, find something you want to try, and click Run .
Everything downloads directly into your browser, meaning you don’t need to install anything. Each car comes with stickers to help you find your way, as well as a built-in hard drive full of games and goodies.
There’s even a special hard drive called Saved HD where you can save any files you create. They are saved locally on your computer, but any other operating systems you open on InfiniteMac will have access to them. You can also drag files from your computer into the window and find them in the Outer World folder. Everything is very smooth.
There’s a ton of software you can try, including everything from games to older versions of QuarkXPress. Also available at the bottom of the window is a collection of CDs that you can mount directly on the emulated system. There are several games, including Myst , and several software collections that were bundled with the magazines at the time.
And you’re not limited to macOS—there are also working versions of NeXTSTEP, which Steve Jobs worked on after leaving Apple in the 1980s. A lot of the code and ideas from this system, combined with elements of the classic Mac OS, later became the macOS we still use today. Not many people remember using the system, mainly because the systems were absurdly expensive, but after playing with them you can see how our modern macOS is starting to take shape. It’s a fun experience and a great way to remember a particular era of computing.
The current Mac operating system, released in 2001, 23 years ago, called Mac OS X, has been around longer than the “classic” OS that Apple offered for a total of 16 years. If you think about it, the iPhone was released in 2007, which is 17 years ago, which means the iPhone has been around longer than the classic Mac OS has been around.