Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

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.

Recent Apple Archive articles

iPods, notebooks, and other modern electronics more readily replaced than repaired, 12.07. Whether it's an intermittent failure or a broken display cable, more often than not it's cheaper to replace a broken electronics device than repair it.
Options for replacing your older iPod, 11.19. Whether you've run out of space on your old iPod or want features it doesn't have, here are your options in new and used iPods.
Could the $200 'green' PC with gOS Linux become a threat to Apple?, 11.14. The low cost, low power Everex desktop comes with a customized version of Ubuntu Linux, has a Mac-like Dock, and sells for $400 less than the Mac mini.
Leopard different, a bit buggy, but worth the upgrade, 11.02. Leopard on a Power Mac G4 and a MacBook Pro: It runs well on both computers, but each has some odd bugs, and some of the changes are a step backwards.
More in the Apple Archive index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 'WallStreet' PowerBook G3, May 1998 - WallStreet offered 3 screen sizes and CPU speeds from 233 to 292 MHz.
Group of the Day: Mac UK is for Mac users in the United Kingdom.
February 9 in LEM history: 00: Think choices - Promoting the Macintosh - 01: Apple vs. Mac clones - 05: Apple and the $100 laptop - Yojimbo - Core Duo vs. G5 - 07: The story behind After Dark - Microsoft Office 2007
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 02.02. Used 2 GHz, $700; 2.4, $999; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.8, $1,699; 3.06, $2,199; new 2.53, $1,610; 2.66, $1,839; 2.8, $2,109; 3.06, $2,550; more.
Best G3 iMac Deals, 02.02. 500 MHz CD-ROM, $40; 450 MHz DVD-ROM, $60; 600 MHz CD-ROM, $230 shipped; 700 MHz CD-RW, $300 shipped.
Best eMac Deals, 02.02. 1 GHz SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 Combo, $100; SD, $360; 1.42 GHz Combo, $299; SD, $439.
Best Mac mini Deals, 02.01. Used 1.25 GHz G4 Combo, $369; 1.5, $399; Core Solo, $399; 1.83 GHz Core Duo SD, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $759; Server, $985.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 02.01. 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $200; 1.33 GHz, $259; 14" 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $399.
Best Titanium PowerBook G4 Deals, 02.01. 800 MHz Combo, $285; 867 MHz SuperDrive, $400; 1 GHz Combo, $549.
Best 13" MacBook & MacBook Pro Deals, 01.29. Used 1.83 GHz, $570; 2.0, $599; 2.4 GHz, $800; 2.26 MB, $849; new, $925 after rebate; Pro, $1,108, 2.53, $1,399 a/r.
Best Power Mac G5 Deals, 01.29. 1.8 GHz single, $399; dual, $479; 2.0, $549; 2.5, $609; 2.7, $799; 2.3 GHz dual-core, $709; 2.5 GHz Quad, $939.
Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 Deals, 01.29. Mac OS X 10.0, $30; 10.1, $20; 10.2, $50; 10.3, $50; 10.3 Server, unlimited users, $130.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2010 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.