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MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

macrelix.org

11–20 of 83 posts

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#11
post #9
post #5

This makes me wonder.. Are there any quirky whimsical or nostalgic but still functional desktop OS out there.. Like the fantasy console PICO-8, but for Desktop applications?

The makers of Pico-8 just released a fantasy desktop called Picotron, and it's rather amusing. Not really a suitable daily-driver yet, though.

I've been having an absolute blast with it though! Don't think it's really geared to be daily drivable at all, just a fun environment to make stuff.

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#12
post #3

It doesn’t really go into what all it can do

Aside from the fun of having a CLI on a Mac, I also use it to dump the ROMs from my machines.

e: it also comes with Git (among other utilities) which might make it worth it to some people for that alone.

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#14
Makes me wonder. What would it take for Mac the tech to have this sort of feel/appeal again?

Would a full wintel+nvidia gpu daughterboard move any needles? Or something oddball and hardware like the lamp imac, idk.

Basically, computing nowadays feels very well baked and staid at times. Stuff like a unixy subsystem feels experimental in ways computing hasn't in decades.

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#15
post #5

This makes me wonder.. Are there any quirky whimsical or nostalgic but still functional desktop OS out there.. Like the fantasy console PICO-8, but for Desktop applications?

For me Ubuntu and Fedora give me nostalgia for Mac OS 10.5 and earlier. They remind me of that pre-iPhone era when software was shared via websites, when code signing and developer accounts hadn't become a thing yet, when the App Store was a radical suggestion, and before the OS became locked down with security and sandbox "features".

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#16
post #13

A installation guide would be great. I'm trying to install it and I don't know what to do with the mbin file. When click on it says something about connectfour application missing.

The mbin file can be opened with StuffIt Expander, it contains the installer application.

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#17
Not entirely on topic, but it is such a pleasant touch to see the titles for the properties displayed before the shell all lining up just by word choice alone. I've seen people who pad out code comments like that; it has this rather capricious, sculpture-like feeling to it.

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#18
post #5

This makes me wonder.. Are there any quirky whimsical or nostalgic but still functional desktop OS out there.. Like the fantasy console PICO-8, but for Desktop applications?

9front, seemingly Plan 9's de-facto successor, is almost surely quirky, often whimsical, at times nostalgic. It might even be functional, depending on how you define that[1]. Is actively developed, has a vibrant community. Puts an interesting spin on how you lay out systems, but doesn't diverge much from the Bell Labs formula. I'd certainly recommend giving it a shot, for the UNIX-inclined.

[1] I've daily driven it back in high-school, for all that's worth. Wrote assignments in troff and all. Some people might be able to tell of less mundane success stories as well.

Re: MacRelix – Unix-like features for classic Mac OS

#19
Poking through it - it looks like it might include Perl, but no idea about what level of Perl-Unix-ism it might support. But I didn’t enjoy rereading ye old Perl implementation with Tolkien references [1] to give a feel for what the source file is about.

[1] https://github.com/jjuran/metamage_1/blob/4d1a24875036fee128...

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