You can download Mac OS 8 and run it on your PC like a monster

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Mac OS 8 Electron App
Mac OS 8 Electron App (Image credit: Felix Rieseberg)

What you need to know

  • Some people really like Mac OS 8.
  • Someone turned it into a downloadable Electron app.
  • That means you can run it on anything, including a PC.

Some people are big fans of Mac OS 8 and it turns out Slack developer Felix Rieseberg is one of them. So much so that he decided that the best way to spend his time was on creating an Electron app that emulates it. And you can download it, for free, now.

Amazingly, it works equally well whether you're running it on a $300 Windows notebook or a $50,000 Mac Pro.

[It works] ... well, actually - on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Bear in mind that this is written entirely in JavaScript, so please adjust your expectations. The virtual machine is emulating a 1991 Macintosh Quadra 900 with a Motorola CPU, which Apple used before switching to IBM's PowerPC architecture in the late 1990s.

But this isn't just something you can run and look at because it's pretty. You can use it as well – and it'll run your favorite apps. So long as they happened to be on a Macworld demo CD from 1997, anyway.

In fact, you'll find various games and demos preinstalled, thanks to an old MacWorld Demo CD from 1997. Namely, Oregon Trail, Duke Nukem 3D, Civilization II, Alley 19 Bowling, Damage Incorporated, and Dungeons & Dragons.There are also various apps and trials preinstalled, including Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, StuffIt Expander, the Apple Web Page Construction Kit, and more.

Ah-mazing!

Unfortunately, you can't connect your new Macintosh Quadra 900 to the internet but you can transfer files to it if that's how you like to roll.

You can learn more about macintosh.js over on the project's GitHub page, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.