DDRescue-GUI for legacy Macs released! And future plans

Hi all. After I realised there was some demand for up-to-date DDRescue-GUI on legacy Macs, I decided to make yet another version. This version utilises the excellent MacPorts (https://www.macports.org/) package manager to bring DDRescue-GUI to Mac OS X 10.5 (PowerPC) and re-add support for Mac OS X 10.6 (32-bit Intel)!

It is currently available to purchase here, and read on for more details.

Aside: The wonderful iBook G4

Partially I did this for the challenge, seeing as I was given an iBook G4 by a very generous friend, but I was also excited to make something useful with it. This iBook G4 is a beautiful (and beautifully designed) 18-year-old piece of hardware that, while old, can still be useful in 2022, which is especially impressive. I will be making some content about it soon, so stay tuned. Now back to DDRescue-GUI:

Support for other versions of Mac OS X

I haven’t supported Mac OS X 10.6 since 2017, so I’m very happy to have found a way to support this old but excellent version of Mac OS X. Furthermore, I have *never* supported PowerPC until this point, but I am pleased to report that DDRescue-GUI runs excellently on that platform, too. Support for the following platforms will also be added pending testing:

  • Mac OS X 10.6 (64-bit Intel)
  • Mac OS X 10.7
  • Mac OS X 10.8
  • Mac OS X 10.9

UPDATE: These platforms have all been tested to work now.

Missing feature: Output file mounting

This is just a quick note to say that output file mounting is currently unavailable, due to an incompatibility with these old platforms. I hope to add it back soon in an update.

Summary

I am excited to have released support for an entirely new platform, and to bring you some fresh new content in the near future. Support for Windows XP via Cygwin may also be added in the future. If you wish to buy the legacy Mac version of DDRescue-GUI, you can do so from here.

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About Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty

I'm a self-employed software developer working on Free Software projects, as well as studying for my degree with the Open University. Being pedantic when it comes to detail is fortunately useful for both of these things! A strong believer in free software, I have a few pay-for programs available under the GPLv3 and enjoy reporting bugs and helping to improve various open source projects, including volunteering at Wimborne Model Town to work on their river control system.

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