Press

Other World Computing, a leading provider of Macintosh products and technical support, has released version 2.0 of Ryan Rempel’s Unsupported UtilityXTM, a free software application which allows Mac OS X to operate on select pre-G3 Macintosh computers. The utility can be downloaded free of charge by visiting http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/.

“Until now, the only people that could use Mac OS X were those that bought a new Macintosh computer or owned a G3 or G4 computer that is currently supported by Apple,” said Larry O’Connor, president of Other World Computing. “Our goal with Unsupported UtilityX is to take care of the loyal Mac users who have older systems that are not supported for OS X. With the UtilityX application, these users can now run OS X and truly revitalize their older, but still exceptional Macintosh computers. They will also be able to take advantage of the newer software products, which are designed to only operate with OS X, as well as continue to upgrade their existing system with faster hardware products rather than having to invest in entirely new systems.”

Not only has Apple limited its support for OS X to Macintosh models driven by a G3 or G4 processor, OS X, as is, also cannot be installed on earlier machines. With the help of OWC’s Unsupported UtilityX, users can install Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server on certain unsupported pre-G3 systems from an unmodified Mac OS X CD and do so with only three more mouse clicks than it takes to install OS X on an Apple-supported model. When OS X is installed on a system with Unsupported UtilityX, the features and usage are the same as they are on an Apple-supported model. OWC also provides ongoing technical support for these older systems that use Unsupported UtilityX to run OS X.

With the support of Unsupported UtilityX, users of the following Apple PowerMac models can install and utilize Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server:

• 7300, 7500, 7600
• 8500, 8600
• 9500, 9600, and
• Selected clones (Umax S900 and J700; and Power Computing PowerWave and PowerTowerPro)

“Although not all older Macintosh computers will be able to run OS X, Unsupported UtilityX has made it possible to revitalize many older systems and extend their usability,” said Ryan Rempel, developer of Unsupported UtilityX and consultant to Other World Computing. “As we continue to improve the utility, we anticipate that more systems will be able to run OS X, and will see an increase in speed and functionality as well. We have received an overwhelming response to this utility, and as a result of our efforts, we have positioned OWC as one of the leading providers of ongoing support for Mac users.”

Unsupported UtilityX 2.0 was released to support OS X release 10.1. Ryan Rempel and OWC released Unsupported UtilityX version 1.0 in June 2001 to support OS X 10.0.x versions. A new version of the utility was needed as Apple changed OS X 10.1 significantly enough to require more than just some minor adjustments to Unsupported UtilityX to continue support. Unsupported UtilityX 2.0 supports up to OS X 10.1, as well as the prior OS X versions. Version 2.0 should also support recently released OS X 10.1.1 and future versions of OS X 10.1 as is or with a few minor updates.

For specific information on supported hardware, as well as instructions for installing and using Unsupported UtilityX v2.0, please visit Other World Computing at eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter.