Mac OS 8

Mac OS 8
developer	Apple Computer, Inc
License (s)	Proprietary, Apple EULA
Current  version	8.6 (May 10, 1999)
ancestry	Macintosh system software or Mac OS Copland technology from Mac OS 7.6
Architecture (s)	Motorola 68k , PowerPC
timeline	Mac OS 8 (68k, PPC) Mac OS 8.1 (68k, PPC) Mac OS 8.5-8.5.1 (PPC) Mac OS 8.6 (PPC)
Languages)	Multilingual
www.apple.com/support/macos8

Mac OS 8 is an operating system from Apple that was introduced on July 26, 1997. It was developed on the basis of System 7 , which was around six years old at the time , and continued the integration of numerous functions from the discontinued Copland project that began with Mac OS 7.6 . As with version 7.6, version 8 also bears the new name Mac OS .

Mac OS 8 is therefore considered to be the largest development step in the series of classic Mac OS operating systems, which still descend directly from the Macintosh system software from the first Macintosh computer from 1984. It was one of the best-selling versions of Mac OS: within the first two weeks of its launch, 1.2 million copies had already been sold. The successor Mac OS 9 was released on October 23, 1999.

Copland

→ Main article : Copland (operating system)

In 1994 Apple wanted to introduce a completely new operating system together with the first PowerPC-based Macintosh computers. The Copland project was started for this purpose. The goal was a system that was based on a microkernel and that was capable of preemptive multitasking and memory protection . In addition to the balloon help , the user interface should have numerous wizards and context menus . The whole system should also be multi-user capable and work natively on the PowerPC processor.

First the release date was postponed to the end of 1995, later to mid-1996 and then the end of 1997. In November 1995 a beta version for software developers was released. The Copland development, on which about 500 developers were working and which cost more than 250 million dollars in total, was still not finished at this point and hopelessly behind schedule. While Apple therefore had to put off its demanding Macintosh users with the outdated System 7 , Microsoft was already enjoying great success with Windows 95 and the first serious Linux distributions appeared on the market.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 taken less than a year to develop, in 1997 Apple decided to stop Copland and move as many functions as possible into a revised System 7 integrate. The first innovations from the Copland project were already incorporated into version 7.6. In Mac OS 8.0 , many have been integrated. However, Apple was only able to realize quite a few of the goals set for the Copland project in 2001 with Mac OS X.

The published pre-release versions of Copland were already identified as System 8 and Mac OS 8.0 . The eventually released Mac OS 8 is based directly on Mac OS 7.6 and not on Copland, although some of the technologies that emerged from Copland were carried over into the regular Mac OS.

Development and technology

The most obvious innovation in Mac OS 8 is the Appearance Manager , which allows different themes to be used for the entire surface. The "Apple Platinum" design developed with Copland, which was based on the look of the classic "Macintosh system", was used as the standard. With version 8.1 the HFS + was introduced and version 8.5 was the first Mac OS that only supported the PowerPC processor. It also brought the QuickDraw 3D 3D graphics engine and the Sherlock desktop search with it.

Mac OS 8.0

In the “Tempo” project, work was carried out on the further integration of numerous innovations from Copland into the existing System 7 , which had been renamed to Mac OS from version 7.6. A trial version was released in advance as Mac OS 7.7 for developers. On July 26, 1997, the final version 8.0 was presented to an international specialist audience. The most important innovations for the user were:

• custom system fonts
• custom window colors
• Context menus
• even popping up windows in the Finder
• Multithreaded Finder (It was possible to continue working while the Finder was copying files.)
• Eyedropper tool for color adjustments
• any picture as a desktop background
• HTML -based help
• AFP support for TCP / IP

Mac OS 8.1

On January 19, 1998, Mac OS 8.1 was released. It is the last version that can run on 68k systems and at the same time the oldest Mac OS for which the CarbonLib for PowerPC systems was ported. Upgrading from Mac OS 8.0 to 8.1 was free.

The biggest innovation in version 8.1 is certainly the HFS + file system . It lifted numerous limitations of its predecessor HFS . It allows longer file names and supports larger partitions and files. The support for data exchange with Windows NT and DOS-based systems has also been improved. Mac OS 8.1 supports long filenames such as those used by VFAT .

Because of an agreement between Apple and Microsoft, Apple committed to deliver Internet Explorer with its operating system. For this reason, Mac OS 8.1 included version 3 of the browser for the first time, but this was replaced by Internet Explorer 4 shortly after its appearance.

Mac OS 8.5

Mac OS 8.5 was released on October 17, 1998. It was the first version of the classic Macintosh operating system that could only run on the PowerPC platform. The biggest innovations were the 3D graphics engine QuickDraw 3D, the faster scripting language AppleScript and the desktop search system Sherlock. The font display and modem configuration have also been improved. The redesigned installation process was faster and required less user input. The 8.5.1 update established compatibility with newer Macintosh models and fixed minor bugs.

Mac OS 8.6

In version 8.6, which was published on May 10, 1999, the Multiprocessing Service 2 was integrated in order to enable individual applications to do limited preemptive multitasking . However, there was still no memory protection. Still, Mac OS 8.6 was more stable and there was a noticeable increase in performance. Owners of versions 8.5 and 8.5.1 could migrate to version 8.6 for free .

Trivia

In 1997, an operating system that was fully compatible with Mac OS 8 was announced under the name Crypto Operating System . It should have supported encryption according to B2 classification and should have run on Motorola 68030 as well as PowerPC-based Macs. A Saxon company called Omega GmbH was the manufacturer. However, the announcement remained.

history

The Copland developed by Apple in 1994 and discontinued in mid-1996 was also referred to as Mac OS 8 in the last developer version D11E4 and had the code name “Maxwell.” The operating system that finally appeared as Mac OS 8 (which had still been developed as Mac OS 7.7) has nothing in common with Copland, except that some of the developments from Copland have been continuously transferred to Mac OS .

version	Publication date	Code name	Remarks
Older version; no longer supported: 8.0	July 26, 1997	tempo	This version was originally planned as Mac OS 7.7 , of which beta versions were also released. Includes the Platinum design developed for Copland .
Older version; no longer supported: 8.1	January 19, 1998	Bride of Buster, Scimitar	The last version to run on a Macintosh with a 68k processor. Introduced HFS + , which in the long term was to replace HFS as the file system. On the PowerPC the lowest version on which the CarbonLib is available.
Older version; no longer supported: 8.1		Men in Black	pre-installed, specific version of the iMac
Older version; no longer supported: 8.5	October 17, 1998	Allegro
Older version; no longer supported: 8.5.1	December 7, 1998	The Ric Ford Release	This version does not contain any new features. Several bugs have been fixed and it is compatible with other Macintosh models such as: B. the Power Mac G3 from January 1999.
Older version; no longer supported: 8.6	May 10, 1999	Veronica
Legend: Old version Older version; still supported Current version Current preliminary version Future version

Mac OS 8.7 had beta versions codenamed "Sarah," but the final version was released as Mac OS 9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Apple Sells 1.2 Million Copies of Mac OS 8 ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), Apple, accessed: 30. March 2007. 
2. ↑ Mac OS X - History , kaipahl.de, accessed: July 20, 2010.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Apple's Copland Project: An OS for the Common Man , Tom Hormby, November 8, 2005, lowendmac.com, accessed July 21, 2010.
4. ↑ Hopeful project: Copland , APPLE HISTORY - CHAPTER # 10, - PAGE 2, macprime.ch, accessed: July 21, 2010.
5. ↑ Christoph Laue: Using WebWasher under Mac OS 7.6. In: Heise online . November 18, 2000 . Retrieved March 13, 2016.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Mac System Software , operating-system.org, accessed: 21. July 2010.
7. ↑ Mac OS 8 and 9 Compatibility List , Apple, accessed July 21, 2010.
8. ↑ Stephan Ehrmann: MacOS 8.1 for download. In: Heise online . January 29, 1998 . Retrieved May 28, 2016.
9. ↑ Apple-Microsoft contract about to expire ( memento of January 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), macwelt.de, February 25, 2002, accessed: July 21, 2010.
10. ↑ Hans Weiß: Mac operating system with B2 security. In: Heise online . September 25, 1997 . Retrieved March 13, 2016.
11. ↑ ApfelWiki: COS - Crypto Operating System for the Mac