(Last updated March 29, 2021)
Qemu is a versatile open source emulator capable of emulating various guest systems on various host systems. We only cover Qemu's capabilities to run System 7.1 up to Mac OS X 10.5 while emulating the m68k or powerpc architecture on the Intel architecture. Qemu emulates the Power Mac G4 with G4/G3 processor (PowerMac3,1) or the Quadra 800 with 68040 processor.
Community-provided Qemu builds for macOS and Windows hosts are available through our forum. These include builds from the official source and experimental builds.
By running qemu-system-ppc on Linux, MacOS, or Windows, users can currently emulate Mac OS 9.0.4 up to Mac OSX 10.5 (This includes the classic environments.)
NOTE: this version of qemu is not yet available
By running qemu-system-m68k on Linux, MacOS, or Windows, users can currently emulate System 7.1 up to 8.1
Guides: qemu-system-m68k on macOS or Windows
Forum: (not available yet) qemu-system-m68k support forum
For those so inclined there is this forum thread, in which the development history of Qemu's capability to run Mac OS and OSX can be retraced. Be warned, it is the longest thread in the forum…
