As of the posting of this tip, the Mac OS 9 downloads on Apple's support site are not fully available.
This tip of a method of obtaining the downloads was suggested by sdfox7. Special thanks to them for decoding
Software download library for vintage Mac software. Getting a beige Mac up and running can be very challenging these days. Older software updates are very hard to find, and of course you need Stuffit to download. Apple Mac OS 8 was another major overhaul of the OS from the earlier Mac OS 7.It added a new Platinum visual theme, a multi threaded Finder, better virtual memory, and many customization options.
how to discover old downloads.
Locate the support.apple.com website for the download. In the case of most of the system downloads for Mac OS 9, there is this link:
and
Mac Os 8 Iso Download
In event the link doesn't work, go to http://web.archive.org/ to find it. For this link, the example site is:
If you are looking for the 9.2.2 download, the direct link from that page is
https://clucerunun1988.mystrikingly.com/blog/how-many-downloads-does-fortnite-have.
Clicking through
First on the page you will find North American English, 9.2.2, 21.3MB.
When you right click, or control-mouse button the download link and select copy link, you obtain:
Edit this link to reveal just the file name and not the path going to it and paste it in your favorite search engine. In this case, the file name is:
Mac_OS_9.2.2_Update.smi.bin
Searching you'll find that this link has that download.
As it happens, the website:
has the download links for all the Mac OS 9 updates and others.
Mac Os 8.0 Download
You can use a similar method for many other downloads of older software.
As I also found out, .bin files even Mac OS X 10.9 understands. .smi files Disk utility won't open in Mac OS X 10.9, but it will convert to .dmg files.
If you copy the contents to a USB Flash drive of the same name as the dmg file (without the suffix), it can hold the installer in question and connect older Mac OS 9 machines to run the installer from. Just make sure the USB drive is formatted HFS+ no journaling, or FAT16 and under 4GB in size.
https://inmooranchli1970.mystrikingly.com/blog/jump-desktop-8-1-4-remote-desktop-utility.
The other thing to note, is that no Mac running Mac OS X 10.3 or higher supports the old style floppy disks of under 1.4 MB. The beige PowerMacs were the last that supported the 800k floppies with the single notch on the the corner. If you have floppies with two notches on either corner of the label, then they are 1.4 MB.
In event the link doesn't work, go to http://web.archive.org/ to find it. For this link, the example site is:
If you are looking for the 9.2.2 download, the direct link from that page is
https://clucerunun1988.mystrikingly.com/blog/how-many-downloads-does-fortnite-have.
Clicking through
First on the page you will find North American English, 9.2.2, 21.3MB.
When you right click, or control-mouse button the download link and select copy link, you obtain:
Edit this link to reveal just the file name and not the path going to it and paste it in your favorite search engine. In this case, the file name is:
Mac_OS_9.2.2_Update.smi.bin
Searching you'll find that this link has that download.
As it happens, the website:
has the download links for all the Mac OS 9 updates and others.
Mac Os 8.0 Download
You can use a similar method for many other downloads of older software.
As I also found out, .bin files even Mac OS X 10.9 understands. .smi files Disk utility won't open in Mac OS X 10.9, but it will convert to .dmg files.
If you copy the contents to a USB Flash drive of the same name as the dmg file (without the suffix), it can hold the installer in question and connect older Mac OS 9 machines to run the installer from. Just make sure the USB drive is formatted HFS+ no journaling, or FAT16 and under 4GB in size.
https://inmooranchli1970.mystrikingly.com/blog/jump-desktop-8-1-4-remote-desktop-utility.
The other thing to note, is that no Mac running Mac OS X 10.3 or higher supports the old style floppy disks of under 1.4 MB. The beige PowerMacs were the last that supported the 800k floppies with the single notch on the the corner. If you have floppies with two notches on either corner of the label, then they are 1.4 MB.
1.4 MB floppy looks like:
400k and 800k floppy look like:
Note how the 800k only has one notch for the write protect tab, and no other opening on the other corner.
The thread I learned about this method isLinks for Mac OS 9 Downloads are faulty!
Other older knowledgebase links can be found by this tip's methods:
Some of the articles linked to for these updates may refer to the old knowledgebase format which may yield links you can convert with archive.org,
as described below:
Note: the ii.net mirror that used to be linked to no longer exists.
Apple Mac OS 8 was another major overhaul of the OS from the earlier Mac OS 7. It added a new Platinum visual theme, a multi threaded Finder, better virtual memory, and many customization options. 8.5 and later require a PPC CPU. It was followed up by Mac OS 9.
Running MacOS 8 requires a supported Motorola 68K or Power PC based Macintosh (see the compatibility matrix), or one of the following emulators:
Basilisk II - Runs MacOS 7.x-8.1, emulates later color Motorola 68k based Macs.
SheepShaver - Runs MacOS 7.5.2-9.0.4, emulates a Power PC based Macintosh.
Release notes
8.6 was a minor release that mainly increased stability and increased battery life on laptops.
Mac Os 8 Download Iso
Apple offered a free update to 8.6 for users of 8.5 and 8.5.1.
Installation instructions
Emulation notes: To run MacOS 8.6 on newer hardware, we recommend the SheepShaver emulator, which emulates a PowerPC Macintosh.
Note: The foreign language versions that were here were corrupt and have been removed. If you have a foreign language version you would like to contribute, please see our contributions page.
