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| Author | Finally! 7.6.1 in my native language on my 8600. (Read 214 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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eelco
32 MB  Posts: 41 System 7 Newcomer! 
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on: February 04, 2026, 21:10
And what a journey it has been. Some context: I have been searching for Mac OS 7.6.1 in my native language for years, probably over a decade now. It is easy to find Mac OS 7.6 in Dutch, MG has it, among others. But the update to 7.6.1 is language-specific and impossible to find. There are some installers to be found for 7.6 and 7.6.1 that are marked WW (worldwide, I presume?), but these never contain anything Dutch. The Apple System Restore CD I has only the English language version and so (I believe) does the Mac OS Anthology. In the past, this was never really an issue. Most machines would run fine with 7.6 or did not explicitly require 7.6.1. Until today. I have, in my collection, a Power Macintosh 8600 (the OG 200 MHz version). According to everymac.com it originally shipped with System 7.5.5. A quick search will drum up several places where one can download the 8600-specific version of 7.5.5. In fact, my 8600 was running exactly such a version, in English. Now, call me mad, but I have a thing for running my OS and software in my native language. It is not for a lack of fluency in English, strictly a preference. And I made the assumption, silly me, that if the 8600 required a specially prepared version of 7.5.5, surely a retail 7.6 would work, right? Wrong. But it took some trial and error to find out. With hindsight, the fact that both the Legacy Restore CD and the System Software Restore CD I wouldn't boot while a retail 8.1 would, should have been a sign. The 7.6.1 Disk Tools disk, also wouldn't boot, but at least it had the decency to tell me it was not compatible with the Macintosh it was tasked to boot. How thoughtful! Not to be outdone, I booted from the 8.1 retail disc and took to Appleshare and the Chooser, to mount my Windows 2000 Services for Macintosh share. This has the 7.6 files on it. Booted the installer and what do you know: this Macintosh isn't compatible with 7.6! Now, some more Googling led me to the Macintosh Repository, which, allegedly, had a Dutch Mac OS 7.6 installer specific for the 8600. Excellent! So I fire up my 2011 iMac (running up-to-date Linux, sorry), download the image and burn it. I place it in the drive of the 8600 and power it on. No joy. It finds the disc and spins it up, it just doesn't recognize it as bootable. So, I exchange it for the 8.1 retail disc and boot off that. But you can't eject the startup disk when the startup disk is not a floppy disk. I dearly wanted to see the contents of the 8600-specific 7.6 disc, so what do I do? Well, the answer was as follows: I got a floppy disk and the 8.1 retail disc, booted of the 8.1 retail disc, used Disc Copy to create the 8.1 PPC Disk Tools floppy, booted off said floppy with the 8.1 retail disc still in the drive, waited for the boot to complete, eject the 8.1 retail disc and insert the 8600-specific 7.6 disc. *sigh* Finally, it mounts to the desktop, and I can see its glorious contents. And indeed, it contains the installation files for 7.6. I execute the install script and lo-and-behold, it sees the 8600 as compatible! Not only that, but the custom setup options show there is a Mac OS 7.6.1 update included... IN THE SAME LANGUAGE! It was a hassle, but I got there in the end. Makes me wonder though, if sysadmins of a bygone era were forced to jump these same hoops everytime they had to reinstall a system. I, for one, love this hobby we have... |
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ShinobiKenobi
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256 MB Posts: 362 System 7 fan
Reply #1 on: February 05, 2026, 05:31
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I know what you mean about having to jump through so many hoops. I don't like that some things MUST be accessed in every difficult way possible. What I DO like, is BEING ABLE to find ways to make things work that would make MacGuyver proud.
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eelco
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32 MB Posts: 41 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #2 on: February 05, 2026, 07:26
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Quote from: ShinobiKenobi ...that would make MacGuyver proud. I sure hope my jumping through hoops made MacGyver proud, because if it didn't, I don't know what will.  I was looking in the System Folder just now, but I did not find an Enabler of any kind. If there was one, it should be in the root of the System Folder, right?
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #3 on: February 05, 2026, 13:55
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I purchased a used 8600 from the local college. It was Mach V version with the 604ev processor. I still do not really understand the differences. I believe that model originally shipped as either a 250Mhz or a 300Mhz. Over time I did pick up a 350Mhz daughter card from the PM9600. I got the system install disks with the machine and it had shipped with System7.6.1. That was a long time back, but I am pretty sure 7.6.1 was the oldest OS it would run. It was my first encounter running 7.6.1 and I really liked it. I was just getting into capturing video and it was the first machine I had that was really capable of doing a decent job at the task. System 7.6.1 could really be slimmed down to where there was very little background activity to disrupt the capture. I was very aggravated that it did not make the cut off for OS X. Although I did use some sneaky utility to get OS X installed, and from what I recall it did not run very well. BeOS R5 ran quite well and it was the last OS I used with the machine before selling it. I had by that point picked up a PM G5 which did run OS X very well and it remains in use. I sold it to a person who was interested in all of the old Apple hardware I owned at the time, and he also bought the IIfx, the Quadra840, the PM5500, along with monitors, keyboards, printers and scanners I had. The kids had all left the house and there was a lot of stuff that was just sitting around unused.
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eelco
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32 MB Posts: 41 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #4 on: February 05, 2026, 20:25
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The 8600 was on the market for just over a year. The original one came with a PowerPC 604e. Halfway through its lifespan they speedbumped it and fitted a 604ev. I believe the speedbumped one got released just after Mac OS 7.6 but before 8.0 came out. I can understand why Apple wouldn't support the 8600 and 9600 under Mac OS X. The pace of progress in hardware was still frantic at that time and, even though the 8600 was only three years old when OS X was released, it was obsolete. It's easy to forget how much of an improvement in speed the G3 brought to the table, especially when the bus clock was doubled from 50 MHz in the beige G3 to 100 MHz in the B&W G3. Quote from: wove ... the IIfx, the Quadra840, the PM5500...Those'd be worth a fortune today, probably weren't when you were selling them. I adore the IIfx. Was the Power Macintosh 5500 a black one?
Last Edit: February 05, 2026, 20:29 by eelco
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #5 on: February 05, 2026, 22:28
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PM5500s in black are pretty rare in the USA, Apple did not sell them here. We got the white ones and they were popular and common in schools. Worth a fortune is relative. Even in 2001/02 the fx 840, and 8600 were valued and while I am sure are worth much more today they brought an excellent price at the time. I do not tend toward collecting things. The //fx was my youngest's first trying at audio work and he was onto a G4 by the time it was sold. The 840 had video inputs and was being used as a display for a few different game consoles. The 5500 was the family and homework machine and served well. But the kids were off at work or college and the machines were just taking up space. I had picked up a QuickSilver around that time. It was a real piece of junk, but it tied me over until I got the PM G5. The 8600 is one of my all time favorites. It was rugged, expandable, easy to work on and very capable. I was mad that Apple which had for years at least hinted that all PowerMacs would run their new OS. Then boom no only a few would make the cut. (Over all I have always been a bit miffed that Apple made decisions about what was a suitable "user experience" when it always seemed to me that the suitability of the UX is something that should be decided by the user.
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ShinobiKenobi
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256 MB Posts: 362 System 7 fan
Reply #6 on: February 07, 2026, 01:43
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Just curious, but what didn't you like about the Quicksilver, wove? eelco, yes. I just installed a fresh Mac OS 8.0 on a blank partition, and it did not have an enabler by default. But if they were on the system, they'd be in the System Folder.
Last Edit: February 07, 2026, 02:58 by ShinobiKenobi
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #7 on: February 07, 2026, 13:39
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Wow, that's quite a journey indeed! Yeah, machines of that era can be picky about the System software used. I never got how anybody at Apple could find that a cool thing, except a few number pushers in Marketing perhaps. Since you're Dutch, I'm kinda curious. How was the Mac doing in the good ol' Netherlands? Here in Germany, it was pretty much a niche market, almost exclusively for DTP/Graphics during the 90s. I don't know how many times I had to answer whether my parents are graphics artists because we had a Macintosh at home. I know the Mac did fairly well in Sweden and France. Was Apple's success closer to them or was it more exotic like in Germany? Nonetheless, here in Germany we've had a little German-Mac-Community eco-system with a dealerships, a few software houses catering to the German market and a handful of committed shareware programmers churning out German language software. What was it like in the Netherlands? Did you guys ever get any software written in your native language?
Last Edit: February 07, 2026, 13:41 by Bolkonskij
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eelco
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32 MB Posts: 41 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #8 on: February 28, 2026, 21:07
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I'm not sure how the Macintosh faired in the eighties and nineties in the Netherlands. My interest in them came later, around 2007. Backtracking, I am finding some software. Major titles like Microsoft Office, WordPerfect and Internet Explorer are available in Dutch (as in: you can find them on abandonware sites in the present), but trying to find things like StuffIt, Fetch, QuarkExpress or Pagemaker in Dutch is really hard. I guess the problem is that I can only find today what people found worth preserving. The situation is the same for educational software for the PC. There was lots, I used some myself, but hardly any has been preserved. I am in the process of introducing my children to (old) computers and to do it in any meaningful way, the software has to be in Dutch, otherwise they're not going to use it.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #9 on: March 01, 2026, 17:13
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I am impressed by your patience and effort to get 7.6.1 on the 8600 in your native language. I fam sure I would have tossed in the towel, before ever reaching the goal. 7.6.1 really is very snappy on the 8600 and I would guess the result made the effort worthwhile. My 8600 introduced me to powerful graphics and video tools and helped me with skills I find myself still using. I recall only Japan and France as being noted for big involvement in Apple computers and software. However I do also recall online running into Apple involved folks from all sorts of places that seemed surprising to me. In the 50s and 60s the Netherlands were considered in the vanguard of electronics at least here in the US. I bought a cassette tape player in the early 60s, when 8-tracks were all the rage. If I remember correctly it was a Norelco, which was also the brand of my first electric razor. In the era before huge multi-national companies I wondered what kind of company makes razors and cassette decks.
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