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Apple Older Software Downloads

No, Apple blocked 10.3.9 and lower (including OS 9, actually) from their SU servers. If it were as simple as running SU on 10.3, I would've done it by now!

In fact, I might install 10.4, install FCP 4, and get the updates from there. Since 10.4 is still update-able in that fashion, I don't see why it wouldn't work?

c

 
An update on the progress (or lack of) that I have made with this...

I have still not received a response from Tim Cook. I was obviously not expecting him to reply personally, but I had hoped my message would be passed onto another department. I may try going through the "mainstream" Apple support.

Has anyone got a reply from Tim Cook about this?

 
No, I didn't either.

I'll see if I can't bring it up at the shareholder meeting. Analysts would love that. :lol:

 
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I wrote an article a while back about how to run a transparent Software Update server:

http://www.318.com/2011/11/building-a-mac-and-ios-app-store-software-update-service/

I think I'll try it out (it's been a while!) and see how much I can download using my old script. Somewhere there are a few machines which had already downloaded everything - if I can remember where, I can ask the people who have them for a copy of those downloads...

 
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Does anyone here have an older (Lion or older) OS X Server machine which has been running the Software Update service? If so, you may have a collection on your disk already of older downloads.

I ran my script and ended up with 90 gigabytes or so. It'd be nice to merge in the older files and keep them available somewhere.

 
I sucessfully managed to download the archived site in it's entirity today after one failed attempt... accidentally cancelled the download. Anyway, have unzipped it and it comes out at just under 12Gb decompressed. Does this seem fairly complete?

I registered a domain just now and am going to upload the 2012 dump in it's entirity, but that being said I will also be cobbling together a basic, barebones page to firstly, be in compliance with the terms of the free hosting agreement, and secondly, provide a central resource that is OldWorld-friendly and isnt limited simply to being a mirror of the old support server... Ive got various old OSX Combo updates and other pre-OSX things here that I am sure would be useful to many if I were to host them as well, and of course links to other resources will be provided

Anyway, more on that when I actually have the time to get it up and running. :)

Cheers!

 
Sounds about right. I'll likely never need most of it but grabbed it all shortly after the site was pulled anyway.

I think I still have the 9.2.2 patch if someone needs that, but I'll have to check.

 
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Yep I figure if I don't get it now, I may regret it later... 10 years ago the idea of downloading an entire 12Gb website worth of stuff I will likely never use, simply for the sake of posterity was bordering on insane. Nowdays though it really is a fart in the breeze with fast broadband, unlimited bandwidth plans and cheap webhosting... Started the download before I left for work, came home to a shiney new 7.4Gb ZIP package, which i can decompress and upload to a site that costs me nothing to little.  If nothing else, it's one more person who can upload the files to another site, one more copy of the complete archive in existence, and that much less likely that it will ever be lost to the world forever. :) Whilst I personally will use a quarter of it at most, there are countless other people who will be able to make use of the rest for years to come. :)

 
Hey, is it possible to get a file listing of your copy of the archive?

My copy comes to just 9.04 GB, I grabbed it from apple's server using wget a couple of years back, after about 10 passes i thought I had everything (bar the os 9 updates) but it would be good to be able to check

 
I will see what I can organise mate... It definitely does seem that you are missing some things if it is only a little over 9Gb decompressed. I pulled my copy from the Archive.org link that was posted some time back, itself being pillaged from the original Apple site in around 2012. :) It seems fairly complete, and is about 11.4Gb from memory when decompressed.

This said, I did notice that dribs and drabs are still up on the Apple server... for instance the IIgs software is still actually hosted, however most of the other links come up dead, making it seem as though it is little more than just a dead shell of a directory stucture now with the odd bits and pieces still remaining in dark corners.

It's always quite possible that you ripped your particular copy of the site at a time when the decay had already began but was not yet to the point where the site was a skeleton and a majority of the files were still intact.

 
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Yeah the 'decay' had already started, it took two or three attempts to grab most files, after 10 or so passes i thought i had got everything, but evidently not :)

I'll grab a copy from  the internet archive and see what differs

 
Apple no longer distributes the  software or documentation; if you need the software, you have to download them somewhere else.

 
Oh hey, by the way, Did you know that Apple no longer distributes the software or documentation? If you need the software, you have to download them somewhere else.

 
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