The Apple Network Server's all-too-secret weapon (featuring PPC Toolbox)

7 hours ago

The Apple Network Server (ANS) ran a customized version of IBM AIX called Harpoon, which included a native AppleTalk stack and support for Apple Events.
The concept of 'symbiotic applications' allowed classic Mac OS clients to offload heavy computations (like generating fractals or parsing JSON APIs) to the ANS server via the PPC Toolbox and AppleTalk.
The author built a Hacker News client where the ANS server fetches and parses the API, then sends text data to a 68K Mac (Color Classic) for display, enabling the Mac to handle modern web tasks without TLS 1.3 or significant CPU load.
The history covers the AIM alliance, PowerPC transition, and the eventual cancellation of the ANS line in 1997 after Apple acquired NeXT, despite its technical capabilities.

The Apple Network Server (ANS) was heavily based on the Power Macintosh 9500 and initially ran MacOS, but production units shipped with AIX due to customer preference for Unix.
At Comdex 1996, Apple CTO Ellen Hancock announced that the ANS could be made to run MacOS or Windows NT via a ROM swap, but the line was cancelled by Steve Jobs in 1997.
A former Apple employee recently revealed that development ROMs for both MacOS and Windows NT exist; the MacOS ROM has been dumped and works, while the NT ROMs are confirmed but not yet available.

bIRC is a native Mac IRC client with native windows, toolbars, split views, semantic colors, and system notifications, not a web wrapper.
It implements IRC protocol (RFC 1459/2812) and supports a wide range of IRCv3 extensions.
bIRC aims to replace the sunset Textual as the best IRC client on Mac, with features like message tags, server-time, CHATHISTORY, reactions, typing indicators, redaction, and multiline.

IBM i (originally AS/400) is a unique operating system with an integrated Db2 database at the kernel level, treating database and OS as one inseparable unit.
It uses an object-based architecture instead of file-centric, with Single Level Storage (SLS) treating all memory and disk as one flat address space.
The TIMI abstraction layer ensures decades-long backward compatibility, allowing programs from 1990 to run on modern hardware without recompilation.

Recreated a local dial-up ISP using a Raspberry Pi, phone line simulator, and USB modem to emulate late-90s internet access.
Connected an iBook G3 via the phone line simulator, achieving speeds up to 33.6 kbps over POTS.
Configured Linux tools mgetty and PPP on the Pi to handle modem calls and network bridging.

The author previously used an Arista 7050QX2-32S switch, which is nearing end of life, and sought alternatives due to the vendor's unique support for third-party daemons like BIRD.
Whitebox switching options like SONiC and DENT were considered; DENT uses switchdev for Linux kernel integration, allowing hardware offload similar to Arista.
A Mellanox SN2010 switch with Spectrum ASIC was selected for its switchdev support, and Debian was installed after configuring the kernel and udev rules for mlxsw.

The Apple Network Server (ANS) was heavily based on the Power Macintosh 9500 and initially ran MacOS, but production units shipped with AIX due to customer preference for Unix.
At Comdex 1996, Apple CTO Ellen Hancock announced that the ANS could be made to run MacOS or Windows NT via a ROM swap, but the line was cancelled by Steve Jobs in 1997.
A former Apple employee recently revealed that development ROMs for both MacOS and Windows NT exist; the MacOS ROM has been dumped and works, while the NT ROMs are confirmed but not yet available.

bIRC is a native Mac IRC client with native windows, toolbars, split views, semantic colors, and system notifications, not a web wrapper.
It implements IRC protocol (RFC 1459/2812) and supports a wide range of IRCv3 extensions.
bIRC aims to replace the sunset Textual as the best IRC client on Mac, with features like message tags, server-time, CHATHISTORY, reactions, typing indicators, redaction, and multiline.

IBM i (originally AS/400) is a unique operating system with an integrated Db2 database at the kernel level, treating database and OS as one inseparable unit.
It uses an object-based architecture instead of file-centric, with Single Level Storage (SLS) treating all memory and disk as one flat address space.
The TIMI abstraction layer ensures decades-long backward compatibility, allowing programs from 1990 to run on modern hardware without recompilation.

Recreated a local dial-up ISP using a Raspberry Pi, phone line simulator, and USB modem to emulate late-90s internet access.
Connected an iBook G3 via the phone line simulator, achieving speeds up to 33.6 kbps over POTS.
Configured Linux tools mgetty and PPP on the Pi to handle modem calls and network bridging.

The author previously used an Arista 7050QX2-32S switch, which is nearing end of life, and sought alternatives due to the vendor's unique support for third-party daemons like BIRD.
Whitebox switching options like SONiC and DENT were considered; DENT uses switchdev for Linux kernel integration, allowing hardware offload similar to Arista.
A Mellanox SN2010 switch with Spectrum ASIC was selected for its switchdev support, and Debian was installed after configuring the kernel and udev rules for mlxsw.

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