If by "ultimate" you mean most flexible and backwards compatible, then a Mac II can be that, but you have to plan in those terms.


IMO, it can be the "ultimate" 6.0.8 system in the same sense that a late G4 PowerMac can be the ultimate Leopard system. Both predate the system software by several years and both have a slower processor than the models that were current when the system software came out, but both can boot in earlier versions of system software and run legacy software that the newer machines can't. And in the Mac II's favor, I doubt it will take the same kind of relative performance hit in System 6 against say, a Iici, as a late G4 in Leopard would against a quad core Mac Pro.

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[emphasis mine] Good point, this is exactly what I am going for!

I would like to build a system that has (some of) the best pre-7 hardware and software. It seems that so many people run for System 7, even on 8MHz Macs, and in doing so exclude some of the early Mac apps that weren't fully compatible with it. I would like to build a machine that showcases those apps.

Perhaps I should have referred to it as "The last stand pre-System 7 Mac II". This Mac would be able to run legacy software (and hardware) that newer Macs and newer OSes can't run.

If I were you, I'd probably put System Software 5.1 or 6.0 or 6.0.2 on it try to make it into the ultimate Mac workstation circa 1987-1988 when it was the $10,000 beast, not the aged champ of yesteryear circa 1991 when 6.0.8 and System 7 came out.

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Indeed. I did focus a bit on compatibility because there are a few apps that ran on early OSes but work fine with System 7. Since these apps/hardware work fine with later OSes they are not as quite exciting to see back in operation. Having said that, it does not need to be exclusive.

So what apps and hardware would make a 1987-1990 Mac person envious? :ii: