Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8 is an operating system from Apple, which was presented on 26 July 1997. It was developed on the basis of the then about six years old System 7. The name first used in this version of Mac OS is not just a new look, but also the integration of many new features that Apple had developed in the project Copland. MacOS 8 was therefore the largest evolutionary step in the series of classic, not Unix-based Mac OS versions. It was one of the best-selling versions of Mac OS. Within the first two weeks after launch 1.2 million copies had already gone over the counter.
The most obvious new feature in Mac OS 8 was the window manager named Platinum. He gave the whole system a consistent look and allow you to load different themes. With version 8.1 the HFS was introduced and the version 8.5 was the first version of Mac OS, the only supported the PowerPC processor. It also brought the 3D graphics engine QuickDraw 3D and desktop search Sherlock. The successor - Mac OS 9 - appeared on 23 October 1999.
Copland
In 1994, Apple wanted to introduce along with the first PowerPC -based Macintosh computers developed by scratch operating system. To this end, the project was started Copland. The goal was a system that was built on a microkernel, and preemptive multitasking and memory protection mastered. The user should have in addition to the balloon help numerous wizards and context menus. The whole system should be multi-user and work natively on the PowerPC processor.
First, the release date was postponed to the end of 1995, and later on in mid-1996 and late 1997. In November 1995, a beta version for software developers has been published. However, the Copland - development, in which about 500 developers worked and the total of over $ 250 million cost was still not finished and hopelessly in arrears. Apple had to put off with the aged system 7 the demanding Macintosh user. At the same time celebrated Microsoft Windows 95 its great success and the first serious Linux distributions appeared on the market. Inspired by Microsoft's revision of MS -DOS and Windows 3.11 to Windows 95, which had not even taken a year of design time, it was decided at Apple in 1997 to stop Copland and so many features of it as possible in a revised system 7 to integrate. The first innovations from the Copland project were flowing into the version 7.6. In Mac OS 8.0 introduces numerous were integrated. Many of the targeted in Copland project objectives could but realize Apple Mac OS X only in 2001.
Mac OS 8.0
In the project tempo numerous innovations from Copland were incorporated into a system 7.6. A test version 7.7 was released under the name of Mac OS for software developers in advance. On 26 July 1997, the final version 8.0 was presented to an international audience. The most important changes for the user were:
- Custom system fonts
- Custom window colors
- Context Menus
- Self- dows in the Finder
- Multithreading efficient finder ( The Next Working while the Finder files copied was possible. )
- Eyedropper tool for color settings
- Arbitrary images as desktop background
- HTML-based help
- AFP support for TCP / IP
Mac OS 8.1
The biggest new feature of version 8.1 is certainly the HFS file system. It lifted many restrictions on its predecessor (HFS ). So it allows longer filenames and supports larger partitions and files. Has also been improved to support the exchange of data with Windows NT and DOS - based systems. For Mac OS 8.1 support long file names, as used by VFAT. Mac OS 8.1 was released on 19 January 1998 and was the last Mac OS version that ran on 68k. Mac OS 8.1 is the oldest version whose applications were supported in OS X from the Mac OS 9 - carboxylic emulation on PowerPC systems.
Because of an agreement between Apple and Microsoft, Apple undertook to deliver Internet Explorer with its operating system. Therefore, Mac OS 8.1 included Internet Explorer 3, but was replaced soon after the appearance of the version 4 of the browser.
Mac OS 8.5
On 17 October 1998, Version 8.5 was released. It was the first version of Mac OS, which was only run on the PowerPC platform. The biggest change was the 3D graphics engine QuickDraw 3D, the faster scripting language AppleScript and desktop search Sherlock. Also, the font display and modem configuration has been improved. The revised installation process was faster and required less input from the user.
Mac OS 8.5.1
The version of Mac OS 8.5.1 fixes various bugs. New features were not included in the version published on 7 December 1998.
Mac OS 8.6
The release date of Mac OS 8.6 was the 10th May 1999. It the multiprocessing Service 2 was integrated to allow individual applications limited preemptive multitasking. Memory protection was therefore but no. Nevertheless, the version 8.6 stable, a significant gain in performance was was palpable. Owner of versions 8.5 and 8.5.1 were free to migrate to version 8.6.