Where can I find software for my Macintosh?

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6.37. Where can I find software for my Macintosh?

This answer is longer than the ones on finding software for other computer systems. I apologize to all you non-Mac folks; I'm biased heavily in favor of the Macintosh.

My favorite archive site for Macintosh stuff, complete with games, utilities, developer's tools, virus programs, and anything else your heart could desire, is as follows:

mac.archive.umich.edu:/mac

The University of Michigan Mac archive can be pretty busy, so you may want to use one of its mirrors.

(MO) wuarchive.wustl.edu:/systems/mac/umich.edu
(Oregon) archive.orst.edu:/pub/mirrors/archive.umich.edu
(Iowa) grind.isca.uiowa.edu:/mac/umich
(Australia) archie.au:/micros/mac/umich
(Israel) ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/mac/umich
(Switzerland) nic.switch.ch:/mirror/umich-mac
(United Kingdom) src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/packages/mac/umich
(Japan) ftp.u-tokyo.ac.jp:/pub/mac/umich
(Sweden) ftp.sunet.se:/pub/mac/mirror-umich
(Taiwan) nctuccca.edu.tw:/Macintosh/umich-mac
(Taiwan) ftp.ccu.edu.tw:/pub/mac
(France) anl.anl.fr:/pub/mac/umich
(Germany) ftp.uni-paderborn.de:/mac

Files from the Umich Mac archive are also available via electronic mail. For information, send an e-mail message

To: mac@mac.archive.umich.edu
Subject: <subject line is ignored>
Body: help

One of the finest collections of Macintosh software is sumex-aim.stanford.edu, housed at Stanford University. Sumex is home to hundreds of megabytes of Macintosh freeware, shareware, and demonstrations of commercial software. You can get there by FTPing to

sumex-aim.stanford.edu:/info-mac.

Sumex is an extremely popular FTP site, and it can be difficult to access it. A slew of mirror sites are also available for your FTPing pleasure, however. So, if you can, use your nearest mirror site rather than sumex.aim.stanford.edu.

You can find a complete and current list of Sumex mirrors via FTP.

sumex-aim.stanford.edu:/info-mac/help/mirror-list.txt

Here is an abbreviated list of Sumex mirrors.

(Arizona) amug.org:/pub/ftp1/info-mac
(Hawaii) ftp.hawaii.edu:/mirrors/info-mac
(Massachusetts) gopher.lcs.mit.edu:/pub/INFO-MAC
(Virginia) ftp.uu.net:/archive/systems/mac/info-mac
(Iowa) grind.isca.uiowa.edu:/mac/infomac
(Missouri) wuarchive.wustl.edu:/systems/mac/info-mac
(Australia) archie.au:/micros/mac/info-mac
(Austria) ftp.univie.ac.at:/mac/info-mac
(Finland) ftp.funet.fi:/pub/mac/info-mac
(Germany) ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de:/pub/mac/info-mac
(Japan) ftp.center.osaka-u.ac.jp:/info-mac

You may also access Sumex via e-mail. For help, send electronic mail

To: LISTSERV@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU
Subject: <subject line is igored>
Body: $MACARCH HELP

Another useful site is ftp.apple.com. This is Apple's semi-official repository for system software, developer tools, source code, technical notes, and other things that come more or less straight from Apple's mouth. Unfortunately, the materials at ftp.apple.com are arranged pretty badly, but you can unearth some of Apple's treasures. Some material at this site may not be distributed outside the U.S. or by other sites that don't have an official license to distribute Apple system software, so read the various README documents online here.

Note: If those three sites don't fill your desire for Mac software, read the Mac FTP list, an enormous list of sites featuring software for the Macintosh. It is posted periodically to the Usenet newsgroups comp.sys.mac.misc, comp.sys.mac.apps, and comp.sys.mac.games.

On the Usenet, you'll find Mac software on the newsgroups comp.binaries.mac and alt.sources.mac. Discussion of alt.sources.mac takes place on alt.sources.mac.d.

Note: Other conversation about the Macintosh can be found on the Usenet newsgroups comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sys.mac.digest, comp.sys.mac.games, comp.sys.mac.hardware, comp.sys.mac.programmer, comp.sys.mac.system, comp.sys.mac.wanted, misc.forsale.computers.mac, comp.sys.mac.portables, comp.sys.mac.databases and a variety of others.

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