BootX (Apple)

BootX is the name of the boot loader used on Apple's PowerPC-based Macintosh computers to load Mac OS X. BootX locates the operating system kernel and the drivers necessary to start the operating system, loads them into system memory, and launches the kernel. It is part of the Darwin operating system layer and is open source under the APSL. An equivalent for Intel Macs has yet to be released.

BootX is also the name of a graphical bootloader developed by Benjamin Herrenschmidt, which runs as an application or an extension to Mac OS 8 and 9 that allows Old World Apple computers to boot Linux. It is no longer maintained by its original author, as it does not work with any current hardware, but it is still available, and further development may be possible. It is one of three Linux bootloaders which may be be used on most Old World Apple computers, the others being miBoot (included, but also independently enhanced by Jeff Carr of LinuxPPC, Inc.), and quik [1]. Newer Macs (iMacs or later) require a different bootloader, yaboot.

Finally, BootX was also the name of anti-virus software for the Amiga between 1989 and 1994.