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Video of 20-Year-Old Mac Operating System Running on an Apple Watch

Monday June 22, 2015 5:43 PM PDT by Juli Clover

As an entire computer that fits on our wrists, the Apple Watch already seems like something out of a science fiction novel, but a new video from software developer Nick Lee demonstrates just how far computing has come in the last two decades.

Lee's hacked an Apple Watch running watchOS 2 to run a port of a 20-year-old Macintosh OS, System 7.5.5, using the Mini vMac Macintosh emulator.

Watch on YouTube

When System 7.5.5 was released in 1996, it required a full PowerPC-based Mac to run, and in their smallest incarnation, those machines were clunky, heavy, and pretty far from the portable devices that we have now. Today, that same operating system can run on a tiny 38mm to 42mm wrist-worn computer.

Top Rated Comments

148 months ago

Am I a bad person to find this to be a pointless waste of time? Just my humble opinion.. why do people do this? Run haggy old OS on new devices and announce it? Yes, software is much more efficient today and hardware is minimalistic compared to 20 years back. Also, bears crap in the woods. So? Please feel free to join in and bash my existence if you disagree.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

148 months ago

@Menopause, I'm a worse person for only being able to focus on the bloody portrait video!

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

148 months ago

Am I a bad person to find this to be a pointless waste of time? Just my humble opinion.. why do people do this? Run haggy old OS on new devices and announce it? Yes, software is much more efficient today and hardware is minimalistic compared to 20 years back. Also, bears crap in the woods. So? Please feel free to join in and bash my existence if you disagree.

Your existence is terrible.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

148 months ago

As an entire computer that fits on our wrists, the Apple Watch already seems like something out of a science fiction novel, but a new video from software developer Nick Lee ('https://twitter.com/nickplee') demonstrates just how far computing has come in the last two decades.

Lee's hacked an Apple Watch running watchOS 2 to run a port of a 20-year-old Macintosh OS, System 7.5.5, using the Mini vMac Macintosh emulator ('http://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/').

When System 7.5.5 was released in 1996, it required a full PowerPC-based Mac to run, and in their smallest incarnation, those machines were clunky, heavy, and pretty far from the portable devices that we have now. Today, that same operating system can run on a tiny 38mm to 42mm wrist-worn computer.

Article Link: Video of 20-Year-Old Mac Operating System Running on an Apple Watch ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/06/22/apple-watch-runs-20-year-old-mac-os/')

Just to add to the pointless discussion, why do this? Because we can. The cool factor in my mind is through the roof. In a few years snow leopard will run on the watch.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

148 months ago

While incredibly useless in practice, the idea of it is very cool. We've come a far way! :D

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

148 months ago

Kudos on proper use of portrait video! Perfect for mobile viewing, ideally suited to the Watch's own portrait display, and elegantly showcasing the chosen strap style.

The chosen strap style remains the same from beginning to end. If something doesn't change, there is no reason to use video to capture it.

Capturing the strap wasted half of the available horizontal field of view even in portrait, and then wastes about 75% of the landscape viewing area on my display when played back.

Portrait video: always wrong

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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