by Polly Sprenger

2:10 p.m. 2.Mar.99.PST

Remember the Mac-in-a-box?

The one-piece computer was at the forefront of

the personal computing revolution. Nowadays,

the machines are more likely to be found

gathering dust in a classroom than being used to

run applications.

A loose group of Linux developers, headed by a

post-doctoral student at UC Berkeley, is trying

to change that.

"Right now, most of those old Macs serve as

doorstops," said Michael Schmitz, 37, a native of

Germany who has been doing post-doctoral

research at Berkeley since 1996.

Schmitz is in charge of developing the Linux

kernel for the Macintosh. Once he and the other

developers contributing to the project iron out

the bugs, those old Macs can be used to run new

applications for Linux.

At LinuxWorld in San Jose Tuesday, Schmitz's

own Mac SE was on display at the Debian booth,

and looked conspicuously low-tech among the

high-powered Compaqs and IBMs in other

booths.

Debian is a freely distributed version of Linux,

maintained by volunteers.

"The Mac SE is the most popular, most

widespread 68k machine, and no one can use

it," Schmitz said. "If people want to, they can

give these machines a new life."

The source code for the Linux-to-Macintosh port,

which includes an incomplete SE version, is

available free on the Net. Schmitz releases

periodic updates that are tested by

programmers around the world. Any bugs they

discover are fixed in later releases of the code.

Debian supporters will release a near-complete

version of the Mac SE port with its next Linux

update, version 2.1.

The Debian OS is available for the cost of a CD.

Mac users will be able to load the Mac portion of

that kernel by connecting an external CD-ROM

drive to a Mac SE.

While new programs for Linux are released all

the time, Schmitz said that there isn't a lot of

value for the SE end user.

"You can run a browser, surf the Web, and use

Word Perfect," Schmitz said. "But for other

applications, they're just not there yet for the

end user."

Neither Debian nor Schmitz plans to do more

with the source code than release it.

"I'm aware that lots of schools have these old

machines, and that this would be a way for them

to make them new again," Schmitz said. "But

I'm too busy with the kernel development [to

implement a distribution program]."

Schmitz said he wasn't aware that other

developers working on the project were trying to

get the word out about the program either.

"One of the problems is that the

active-development community is small,"

Schmitz said. "They're too busy testing and

doing bug reports.

"Once it reaches a critical mass, it just starts

taking off. It just hasn't reached that mass yet."