We always talk about the history of macOS as if the beginning of that operating system was in the year 2000, with the launch of the first version of Mac OS X. But before that there was a whole saga of versions of the so-called macOS Classic that only those most veterans we will have used at some point. Fortunately those versions can live on through simple emulators like Mini vMac.
Welcome to macOS 7
We talked about Mini vMac a while ago along with more examples of emulating old macOS systems: its operation usually starts with you installing the emulator on your Mac and booting a classic system ROM. Now the configuration tasks are reduced to zero: you just have to open a website.
Does it ring a bell? There are still traces of this user experience in macOS Monterey’s System Preferences.
You can check it from this MinivMac website, the result of the work of the developer Leonardo Javier Russo running all the emulation through said website instead of running it natively. When we open it, it appears directly macOS 7 startup and desktop.
A tip: reduce the size of the browser window, since the resolution used by macOS 7 was very small. You can browse system folders and see what it was like to use a Mac in 1991, with an interface that on some computers it still had to be seen in black and white.
Special mention also to the System Preferences, since some traces of design and user experience that endure today are still recognizable in them. Of course, those who claim that these Preferences need a redesign are not lying, and it is likely that we will see it in macOS 13, which will be presented next Monday at WWDC 2022.
