SheepShaver allows users to run Mac OS Classic under Snow Leopard

Leading up to the release of Mac OS X back in 2001, many users were worried about compatibility with Mac OS 9 and below. Mac OS X was completely different from its predecessors, and only some Mac OS 9 applications that were “Carbonized” would run natively in Mac OS X. Users would have lost access to all of their older applications and documents if Apple didn’t create a Classic environment that emulated Mac OS 9 from within Mac OS X. However, Classic reached its end of life in Mac OS X v10.4, and later versions of OS X didn’t include it at all. Also, since Apple had made the switch from PowerPC to Intel-based machines, any new Apple computers that ran on Intel processors couldn’t use Classic, even if they were running Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier.

For those who have legacy applications that need to be used, there are two possible solutions. If you have a relatively old Macintosh lying around that’s capable of running older versions of Mac OS, you could boot it into OS 9 and run the application on that computer. If you don’t own an older Macintosh or don’t find that to be a practical solution, you can try SheepShaver, a PowerPC emulator that runs under Mac OS X. The project began over 10 years ago as a commercial application for BeOS, and is now free and open-source and runs on multiple platforms, including Windows and Linux. The Mac version of SheepShaver is a universal binary that can run natively on any Intel-based Mac.

Before you decide to try SheepShaver though, keep in mind that it is not intended for a typical Mac user, and requires users to obtain a ROM file and perform a variety of steps, which is outlined in this helpful step-by-step tutorial. If you decide to try SheepShaver out for yourself, let us know how it goes in the comments.

For more details on SheepShaver, including the somewhat complicated set up process, read TidBITS.

Product [SheepShaver]