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| Author | Mac OS 9 on an iPad (Read 88787 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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wove
1024 MB  Posts: 1363 
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on: February 19, 2025, 03:32
Neither iPad OS nor iOS allows emulators on the app store. But being Apple and being rather capricious they do allow UTM SE on the store. So you can get a QEMU wrapper on the iPad. There are limits though. iPadOS does not allow a jit compiler to run and for all the hardware emulation options in QEMU I could get no sound working. UTM SE also only allows for emulation of PPC and Intel, so 68k and spare are not possible. My iPad is not the latest and greatest and even when new it was the base model. However MacOS 9 does run. System profiler says it is a G4 500Mhz AGP graphics machine, although in operation it feels a good deal slower than that. You can drag the pointer around with your finger, or use the Apple Pencil and there is a button on the UI that will bring up a virtual keyboard. I have not tried a keyboard and mouse, but I image it would be a much more pleasant experience using them. This is my first emulator on an iPad and it is an interesting experience anyway. |
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Jatoba
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256 MB Posts: 270 System 9 Newcomer!
Reply #1 on: February 19, 2025, 06:57
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Incidentally, jailbreaking = more options (and more device ownership)
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #2 on: February 20, 2025, 16:38
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Some time ago I've made acquaintence of an actual Apple employee that has been in the company forever. And he is also into retro Apple stuff! (Hi H. if you read this!). He told me that internally Apple has emulators for nearly everything on nearly every device, extending back to Apple II stuff, that they still maintain for internal use. (that is, Apple II stuff on modern devices, not the other way around... just wanting to make sure you get me right ;-) ) That aside, I wonder how useful a OS and it's software adapted for a mouse + keyboard control is on an iPad. I know you can connect all kind of peripherals to it, but is it really feasible? First impression is that it is more in the line of "watch, it is *actually* possible, though maybe not very plausible" but let me know if I misjudge it :-)
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #3 on: February 20, 2025, 17:05
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@Bolkonskij: so the touch versus type issues pretty much all go away using a keyboard for the iPad  this makes it work more like a normal computer—that's what I discovered playing with Basilisk II, and later on SheepShaver with Wine on Linux, on a Chromebook 
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #4 on: February 21, 2025, 03:39
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You are right @Bolkonskij running MacOS 9 on an iPad is about as useless as teats on a boar hog. However seeing System7Today in Cyberdog is still a delight. The iPad is at its core a consumption device and I am ok with that and while you can connect peripherals to the iPad it is never going to be anything more than a stop gap productivity device. I use emulators much the same way as others use games, in that it is simply a fun diversion. I came of age before computers, so I learned many daily management, tasks and chores before doing them on a computer became a thing. In many respects the iPad represents a lot of what I wished a computer would become. I write notes and draw/paint with a pencil, much as I did 50 years ago. I have music, videos, a camera, all my books, a calculator access to a greater world all in a simple to carry, simple to use device. I do love games, but am from an era where games were social activities and for me they remain so. I gather with friends and we shoot billiards/pool/darts. Bowling and softball are a lot fun. Solitaire of course is a single pursuit and it is a good time sink with cards or on the computer. Computer/console games have just never interested me.
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Jatoba
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256 MB Posts: 270 System 9 Newcomer!
Reply #5 on: February 21, 2025, 12:17
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I can vouch for iPad + keyboard combo (if it's one of those that attach to it). But mouse > touch, any day. No mouse = no go. Mac OS is just NOT built for touch UI. It works, but you have a generally-worse time without a mouse. Maybe a thin pen can improve the experience, but not fix the problem. Else Basilisk on e.g. a PSVita wouldn't have been so bad. (But it is.) Another issue is, I have yet to see a mobile (non-laptop) device powerful enough NOT to provide a miserable experience using Mac OS in any serious manner. Perhaps recent iPads are finally able of pulling something off? I will only believe it once I see it myself, though.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #6 on: February 21, 2025, 16:07
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I have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse which work well with the iPad. You can also mirror the iPad display to an Apple TV, which makes it into something of a desktop. A stylus makes a better mouse than a finger, but that is not saying much. Of course such a setup means leaving my comfortable easy chair for a desk. As @Jatoba notes the big problem is the basic older iPad is really not powerful enough to do a decent job of emulation. Using virtualization instead of emulation might produce better results, but I have not tried to run up an ARM based OS on the ARM based iPad. And again as @Jatoba notes desktop OSes are not well designed for touch based devices. (A lot of desktop OSes are really not designed very well at all
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #7 on: July 05, 2025, 04:40
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This is an old, but this past couple weeks I updated the OS 9 on an iPad by adding some peripherals. Brydge went bankrupt sometime back and were bought out and they dumped all the older Brydge iPad devices on the market. I got a keyboard that attaches to the iPad making it into a kind of clamshell laptop and an iPad trackpad. The few year old basic entry iPad remains underpowered for emulation tasks so OS9 is still slow. The keyboard is heavy metal and provides a nice stable base and it is a very nice keyboard to type on. When connected the trackpad provides a genuine onscreen pointer. Being a Magic Trackpad clone for the iPad one gets all the gestures etc. I would guess it runs at about the speed of a PB5300, but with enhanced input and a 10 hour battery life it is a nice device to mess around with. I installed the beta of iPad OS 26, just to see how "Mac Like" the iPad was becoming. The beta does run fine and with a keyboard and trackpad attached it is exceptionally similar to a Macbook.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #8 on: July 05, 2025, 09:14
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That does sound like a lot of fun, Wove!
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