Guests and compatibility

The two guests are siblings, not ports.

The alpha includes the PowerPC guest. NOW-68K is retained as a pre-Carbon architecture and future release feature; its current build is stale and its source-level capabilities are not an alpha promise.

The PowerPC guest uses CarbonLib and provides the one-window Workshop across Mac OS 8.6–9.2.2. It carries the broadest UI surface and is the only guest that can use the bundled, optional NOW Extension and its deeper Mirror features.

NOW-68K is a non-Carbon Toolbox application for the historically targeted System 7.1/MacTCP environment. Its compact main window and console preserve the connection, screen, file, process, software, and hardware subset that fits the machine. It intentionally omits iCloud, Chat, Mirror, and the resident.

The contract remains symmetric even when capability coverage is not. An older or smaller guest refuses or omits what it cannot serve; the host must not infer support from product identity alone.

Use Choose the right guest for the release boundary and the module index for the retained source-level map.