Running
without a restart.

An Interview with Samuel Rydh, Lead Programer of Mac-on-Linux

A very important part of Apple's strategy to move current users to the new BSD MacOS X environment is the concept of the Blue Box, or Mac Classic App. It allows the vast majority of MacOS 9 legacy software to continue to work under emulation.

Now, thanks to an Open Source project managed by Samuel Rydh, Linux/PPC users can also run Macintosh software in a highly compatible emulation mode.

While most nine-year old children are trading Pokemon cards, Samuel Rydh was already programming in BASIC. Currently a PhD student in mathematical physics at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Samuel has taken only a few courses in formal programming, preferring to study the code of other programmers, and experimenting to learn from his own experiences.

MOL booting under Linux (click for larger)

His software company, Ibrium, has released several successful software utilities for the Mac including MacDim, Notepad Deluxe, and his latest project – Mac-on-Linux.

Mac-on-Linux (MOL) is a software emulator that natively accesses the PowerPC processor to provide speeds that are much faster than the type of emulation done in Virtual PC. After a few minutes of using Word 98, checking mail, and browsing the net under MOL, it's likely you will forget that you're actually running an application under Linux!

If you have a MacOS 9 CD, you can download the MOL rpm and boot the Mac CD under Linux just a few minutes. After you have become comfortable with the emulator, editing /etc/molrc allows you to boot your normal Mac system disk - even if it's on an HFS+ partition!

How did this Mac programmer get interested in Linux? Samuel comments,

"When MkLinux was first released, I took the opportunity to take a closer look at the architectural design. Before that, I had only done occasional programming in Solaris. I've managed to stay away from the Wintel platform (...almost anyway)."

Word 98 under MOL (click for larger)

Historically, Mac emulators have had a sordid past. At MacWorld/SF in 1997, Be demonstrated VirtualMac from fredlabs. While the buzz at the show said this would help the BeOS soar, a few months later the project was dead.

Why should MOL enjoy better success? The Open Source model really shines here. Linux is a free operating system, and MOL is a free emulator that runs on top of it. Unlike a closed-source application, the open source development of MOL has meant rapid bug fixes and contributions from other programmers.

But why would a shareware author like Samuel decide to take an Open Source approach with MOL?

"From the beginning, I started on MOL out of curiosity. I wanted to see if the design model I had in mind would work or not. There were a few open questions, primarily concerning the code quality of the MacOS ROM (which actually amazed me, given the history of the MacOS).

I decided to make MOL an Open Source project mainly because I think Open Source is a good way to guarantee that a software project continues to live in health. I also wanted to do my share helping the PPC Linux platform gain momentum."

Continue our interview with Samuel Rydh on page two, with additional snapshots and benchmarks...

Page two