Thread
Apple Older Software Downloads
I find the apple support site annoying at times. Sometimes I try to click on a support article and it just brings me to the regular /support page which is annoying. The "genius" people bother me I guess the faces are creepy haha
That means they've deleted the article you want. It's annoying because most of those links are from search engines.
Why do they wish to destroy information that can be useful? And yes, the links do come up in search engines and they just send you straight to the support home page. Seriously some one is going to have to back up the useful articles before Apple purges it all..
Because it is from the mid 90s, and they are paying to host something that has had no bearing on anything they have sold in pretty much two decades at the least.
It is nice when you get this sort of resource hanging around for decades but honestly, a _lot_ of the people using it these days never bought a new Mac in their entire life and some of them really hate what Apple is now and do not intend on buying a new Mac yet still want support for their old machine that they found in dad's closet or on ebay cheap or curbside.
Hosting files costs money. I suppose you could argue that "they are already hosting files and these take up 0.001% of their resources". On the other hand catering to 0.001% is not always good for the company's time/bottom line, etc, despite being good for PR.
Apple does not actually owe you this resource. Most of you are not Apple's target market either no matter what some people might want to think.
Please keep in mind that this is a generalization, I am not singling out any specific people. Just commenting on what I see.
And do not get me wrong, I like when I can go to a company's website and get ancient drivers/docs.
There's two pages, this one and another.
There is no way it happened last August. I downloaded stuff from the site just a few weeks ago.
Like I said, there was that page, and then the one we all downloaded from.
If you want to download the entire site, go to https://archive.org/details/download.info.apple.com.2012.11 That's where I got my copy. This includes all languages and is 7.4GB in size.
You can also "Browse" the collection and get individual files from that page.
You can also "Browse" the collection and get individual files from that page.
Has anybody mirrored all the Mac OS X 10.0.x-10.3.x updates and stuff that were cut off?
It would be good if one can take a Mac OS X 10.0.x-10.3.x system and modify it so that Software Update points to that hypothetical mirror instead of Apple's now (semi) defunct update site.
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It would be good if one can take a Mac OS X 10.0.x-10.3.x system and modify it so that Software Update points to that hypothetical mirror instead of Apple's now (semi) defunct update site.
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The Apple of Jobs hated legacy hated legacy products, if it wasn't obvious enough in software compatibility.
Well I've been searching and searching for a Mac 8.1 boot floppy or disk tools or something to get my old Powerbook 5600 working right again. I can find OS 8.1 - 8.6 in CD format but not for the floppy images. I knew if I looked longed enough I would finally find it.
Here is the link to the ftp site where I found it. OS 8 isn't the only old OS there along with other older software for Macs.
http://ftp.iinet.net.au/pub/macintosh-centro/MacOS/
Honestly you would think Microsoft and Apple and all the other major manufacturers of computer hardware would always keep an archive available for free to the public. If it was me I would be tickled to think that there were people out there still finding worth in my obsolete products.
Maybe my old vintage Apple/Mac collection will start being worth a lot more now.....;o)
Here is the link to the ftp site where I found it. OS 8 isn't the only old OS there along with other older software for Macs.
http://ftp.iinet.net.au/pub/macintosh-centro/MacOS/
Honestly you would think Microsoft and Apple and all the other major manufacturers of computer hardware would always keep an archive available for free to the public. If it was me I would be tickled to think that there were people out there still finding worth in my obsolete products.
Maybe my old vintage Apple/Mac collection will start being worth a lot more now.....;o)
The older OSX updates are still there, they're just a little harder to find
http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macos
or a search for say 10.1.5 will find it
http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macos
or a search for say 10.1.5 will find it
Looking at the Internet Archive (archive.org) it appears that the links on the page had been removed as early as August 2013. I have emailed Tim Cook about this and I would encourage all others who can to do the same. If he receives enough emails about this issue then he may put the page back up.
In addition, the Apple Older software downloads page at www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html seems to have been removed completely. As far as I can remember this page was identical to the other one. I think it has been removed fairly recently as it is still indexed on Google.
In addition, the Apple Older software downloads page at www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html seems to have been removed completely. As far as I can remember this page was identical to the other one. I think it has been removed fairly recently as it is still indexed on Google.
It's sad to see it go... Well, I'm glad the Internet Archive has a full copy of the website, I'm downloading it right now for future preservation. This stuff is invaluable!
I'm downloading all of it right now. 
One thing to note about almost all the mirrors (Including the internet archive's one) is that they are missing the Mac OS 9 Updates, as you had to go through a additional SLA page. Unfortunately these seem to be broken on apples server as well.
I Did find a few of the updates and they are available from my copy, but most of the language specific ones are missing
I Did find a few of the updates and they are available from my copy, but most of the language specific ones are missing
I got 9.2.2 some time ago, I think I still have it from when I updated my iBook.
What directories would these be in? I have:
Directory of V:\download.info.apple.com\Apple_Support_Area\Apple_Software_Updat
es\English-North_American\Macintosh\System
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> At_Ease
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> CFM-68K
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> ColorSync
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> CPU_Specific_Updates
27/11/2012 07:08 AM 3,418 index.html
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> Java
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_7.6.1_Update
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_8.1_Update
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_8.5.1_Update
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_8.6_Update
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_9.0.4_Update
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_9.1_Update
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_9.2.1_Update
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> Mac_OS_X
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> Older_System
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> OpenDoc
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> OpenGL
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Other_System
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> QuickDraw_3D
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> QuickTime
28/07/2013 04:56 PM <DIR> Speech
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> System_7.5.5_Update
28/07/2013 04:55 PM <DIR> System_7.5_Update_2.0
1 File(s) 3,418 bytes
22 Dir(s) 2,252,831,940,608 bytes free
I've got a couple more directories than you here.
Well, that stinks. I came here just to ask about the missing "older software" page, hoping it was a temporary problem. I know after 20+ years there wasn't much demand for those files anymore, but would it have killed them to leave the page up? It feels like being disowned by your parents. 
I emailed Tim Cook this afternoon, telling him what a fantastic resource it is for us vintage enthusiasts. I asked him to please reconsider shutting down the archive, and I encourage everyone to send an email requesting the same.
Ah, you're right. wo directories are empty and I also checked the Internet Archive. I only have:
Mac_OS_9.0.4_Update.smi.bin
Mac_OS_9.0.4_Update.smi.bin
Too bad they do not have it in Klingon. During System 7 days, somebody came out with a Klingon Alphabet font but the characters were lined up with the English alphabet. That sorta defeated a true Klingon based system on System 7.
Edit: Klingon Font not available, damn:
http://www.klingon.org/resources/software_mac.html
Edit: Klingon Font not available, damn:
http://www.klingon.org/resources/software_mac.html
Since we're going there, has anybody ever come up with a Vulcan font?
Anyway, since all this stuff is freeware basically, it would be technically OK for someone to have a public mirror, no?
It would then be guaranteed to not go anywhere as long as that third party mirror exists.
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Anyway, since all this stuff is freeware basically, it would be technically OK for someone to have a public mirror, no?
It would then be guaranteed to not go anywhere as long as that third party mirror exists.
c
From what I understand technically apple is the only one allowed to distribute it. However I can't realistically see apple pursuing anyone hosting a mirror of it.
I do have a online mirror it it, the link is a couple of pages back
I do have a online mirror it it, the link is a couple of pages back
As long as we're talking about official updates that were made available for free by Apple, I don't see any reason why it should be forbidden to host them wherever we want and redistribute them free of charge as long and as much as we want.
Now, when talking about full operating systems on the other hand, that's a different story - we're only allowed to redistribute up to 7.5.5 legally, although I'm pretty sure nobody at Apple would care a single second about following releases too (especially now that they're giving away for free even their latest OS!).
In my opinion, it's still better to have a full copy of everything, updates and full releases, safely stored, and maybe just avoid redistributing later material out in the wild.
Now, when talking about full operating systems on the other hand, that's a different story - we're only allowed to redistribute up to 7.5.5 legally, although I'm pretty sure nobody at Apple would care a single second about following releases too (especially now that they're giving away for free even their latest OS!).
In my opinion, it's still better to have a full copy of everything, updates and full releases, safely stored, and maybe just avoid redistributing later material out in the wild.
Agreed. That's the same sort of premise that's behind the Internet Archive, if my understanding is correct.
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