Can I Embed Infinite Mac Instances Into My Own Website?

Updated

Yes. Infinite Mac explicitly offers an embed option: the site states you can "embed instances into your own site." The exact method isn't spelled out on the main page, but the site links to a page with more details on embedding, so the practical path is to open that link and follow the instructions there. Embedding is useful for education, demos, or nostalgia pages where you want a classic Mac or NeXT system running directly inside your own page rather than sending visitors to infinitemac.org.

What Infinite Mac Is

Infinite Mac is a collection of classic Macintosh and NeXT system releases and software that run in a web browser. You pick a version of System Software, Mac OS, A/UX, Mac OS X, or NeXTStep from the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s, and it runs inside a virtual machine. An "Infinite HD" disk with representative software from that era is also available, and you can run a custom version with your choice of machine and disks.

The catalog is organized by year, with 81 releases total and 32 marked as notable. Examples from the early years:

Year Release Date Notes
1984 System 1.0 January 24, 1984 Initial system software release, shipped with the Mac 128K
1985 System 2.0 April 8, 1985 Added "New Folder" and "Shut Down," MiniFinder, Choose Printer DA
1985 System 2.1 September 17, 1985 Added Hard Disk 20 support and the HFS file system
1986 System 3.0 January 16, 1986 More complete HFS support, RAM disk cache, zoom boxes, redesigned control panel
1987 System 5.0 October 8, 1987 Introduced MultiFinder, revised Finder about box, improved printing
1988 A/UX 1.0 February 9, 1988 UNIX System V Release 2 with BSD networking, TCP/IP, NFS
1988 System 6.0 April 30, 1988 Added MacroMaker, Map, and CloseView utilities
1988 NeXTStep 0.8 October 12, 1988 First public preview: Mach kernel, Objective-C API, Display PostScript UI
1989 A/UX 1.1 February 10, 1989 HyperCard, color displays, CD-ROM support, faster disk and SCSI I/O
1989 NeXTStep 1.0 September 11, 1989 Kill applications from Workspace Manager, redesigned Preferences

How Embedding Fits With the Rest of the Site

The main page describes several related capabilities alongside embedding:

  • Run any release — each entry has a "Run" action that launches the system in the browser.
  • Customize — each entry also has a "Customize..." action, and the site notes you can run a custom version with your choice of machine and disks.
  • Import and export — on some operating systems, files and disk images can be imported and exported using drag and drop, and virtual CD-ROMs can be mounted. The welcome screen in each machine has more details.
  • Embed — instances can be embedded into your own site.
  • Other links — the site also points to a page to learn more, a way to "monkey around," a recent-changes page, and a donation option to support the project.

What to Check Before You Embed

The main page confirms embedding exists but doesn't document the technical steps, so treat the linked embed page as the source of truth. Before committing to an embed, verify:

  1. The embed instructions themselves — open the embed link from the site and follow its method rather than guessing at an iframe URL.
  2. Which release you want to embed — with 81 releases across System Software, Mac OS, A/UX, Mac OS X, and NeXTStep, pick the specific version (or a custom machine/disk combination) that matches your audience.
  3. Interaction behavior — drag-and-drop import/export and virtual CD-ROM mounting are described as available "on some operating systems," so confirm the behavior for your chosen system on its welcome screen.
  4. Attribution and support — the project accepts donations and links to its own documentation; if you embed it publicly, point users back to Infinite Mac.

If your goal is simply to let visitors try a classic Mac, embedding is the intended path. If you need a specific machine-and-disk configuration, use the customize option first, then embed that instance.