I completed my project to install 3 different versions of the Mac OS onto my recently acquired PowerBook G3 “Lombard.” Below are the resulting screenshots of the computer started into Mac OS 8.6, Mac OS 9.2.2, and Mac OS 10.3.9 “Panther.”
"About this Computer" window under Mac OS 8.6
Startup Disk control panel from Mac OS 8.6
As I mentioned in my prior post about this project, I partitioned the Lombard hard drive into three volumes, each named after the codename of the version of the Mac OS I was going to install onto it.
"About this Computer" window from Mac OS 9.2.2
The “About this Macintosh” window became “About this Computer” during the brief span when Apple licensed their operating system to third parties like Power Computing and Motorola. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1998 he quickly killed the licensing program.
Startup Disk control panel in Mac OS 9.2.2
The OS appearance evolved significantly between 9.2.2 and 10.3.9:
"About this Mac" window under Mac OS 10.3.9
Startup Disk preference pane under Mac OS 10.3.9
This was a fun project that provided a quick tour through three versions of older Mac operating systems and reminded me of many reasons why Mac OS X Snow Leopard is something that’s benefited from many years of user interface development!
Nitpick: Mac OS 9.2.2 is actually Limelight Update 1 (LU1).