Text 65585, 49 rader
Skriven 2011-05-22 12:53:05 av Alan Zisman (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 65576 av Ed Vance (6465.windowsa)
Ärende: you will never see the op
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On 21-05-11 4:36 PM, Ed Vance -> ALAN ZISMAN wrote:

 AZ>> AND that both the commercial SoftMac and the free, open source
 EV> competitors
 AZ>> require the use of a Mac ROM image - presumably requiring access to a
 EV> Mac of
 AZ>> the appropriate era.

 EV> I noticed the MAC ROM was needed to be removed from a MAC and put in a
 EV> ROM Card that they sold so their emulator would work on a PC.

 EV> That makes it a Hardware/Software Emulator instead of just a Software
 EV> Emulator for the PC.

 EV> That's the first time I knew a computer emulator wasn't just software
 EV> only.

While the SoftMac guy sells the ROM Card that you discovered (I think you need
your own ROM chip for it), a ROM image file works fine - both with his emulator
and its open source competitors... and there are utilities around for making
your own ROM image file if you have access to an appropriate-era Mac.

I think the justification for the hardware card was in case Apple decided to
sue people using Mac emulators, a person with the ROM card could presumably
prove that they had ownership of a Mac and were re-using Apple's copyrighted
ROM software in a different context, not copying it illegally. (That's how
Apple successfully sued cloners in the 1980s).

It became a non-issue in the late-1990s, when Apple started making its ROMs
software-based and upgradable, and then started distributing upgraded ROM
images on the OS 8 and OS 9 installation discs - these ROM images can be used
with some of the emulators in place of images made by sitting down at an
old-model Mac.

In any event, Apple has never bothered with the users or creators of the Mac
emulation software - and their time has very much passed... there's not a lot
of interest (other than historical) in emulating a Mac from the 1990s.

Even with the so-called hackintosh movement - Apple has shown no interest in
going after hobby computer users, even those who post websites with
instructions or create utilities to help other hobby users run Mac OS X on PC
hardware. They have, however, taken legal action against any manufacturers or
stores who offer OS X on PC systems for sale.

So I don't live in fear that I will be taken to court over my Dell Mini 9
netbook...

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