Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, MacBook Pros and more. Optical Drives for Apple iBooks, Powerbooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros in Stock. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

OWC: Premium Memory for Mac without the Premium Price. DDR2 4GB from $47.99, DDR3 4GB for Unibody $79.99, Mac Pro 4GB $97.99. Expert Support, Free Installation Videos & Guides. www.MacSales.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Apple Archive

Aquify the Mac OS

- 2001.04.20

OS X version 10.0.1 is now available, but unfortunately it doesn't run on all Macs. Since this is Low End Mac, not everybody here has an OS X-ready computer. If you happen to have one that OS X doesn't run on, you don't have to suffer watching other people run an OS with that beautiful Aqua UI.

You can make your older Mac look like it has OS X on it with very little effort. Here is how:

First, you need to get a piece of software called Kaleidoscope. I talked about this in Make Your Mac Your Own last month. Kaleidoscope lets you have all different types of User Interfaces. It will also let you change your System font.

After you install Kaleidoscope, you will need to find an Aqua scheme. You can do a search online for one, try Google to search. There was once a good scheme called Aqua III. Once you download a scheme, drop it in the Kaleidoscope Schemes folder.

You aren't done yet. Open the Kaleidoscope control panel and select your scheme. You will have the Aqua UI on your computer now. (The red button closes the window, yellow hides it, green fits to view).

Next, you will need to download PowerWindows. This gives you the fading window effect and the solid window dragging of OS X. Set the control panel for solid window dragging and fading menus, nothing else.

After this you will need to extract the Lucida Grande font from iTunes. Open iTunes in ResEdit, or Resorcerer. Also create a new ResEdit file on the desktop, and name it Lucida Grande. From iTunes, copy the "stfnt" and "FOND" resources and paste them into your new file. Get info on the new file (in your resource editing program), and change the type to FFIL and the creator to DMOV. Save the file. You will now notice that the file has a font icon on it when you return to the Finder. If you open it, you will see the Lucida Grande font sample. Drop it onto your system folder to use it.

In the Kaleidoscope control panel, change the system font to Lucida Grande. In the Appearance control panel, change the Views font to Lucida Grande as well, and the size to 12.

You might be asking "why doesn't the font look as smooth as in OS X?". Well, to fix that you will need to download SmoothType. Once this is downloaded and installed, you will notice that your fonts are very smooth.

To get the dock, you will need to download and install A-Dock. With A-Dock installed, you will have a dock which works much the same as the one in OS X.

Even if you don't have a G3 or G4, you can still experience the beauty and even some of the functionality of OS X, all in OS 8 or 9. LEM

Recent Apple Archive articles

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.