Mac OS X Public Beta

Mac OS X Public Beta
developer	Apple Computer, Inc.
License (s)	EULA ; APSL , BSD , GPL , among others
Basic system	Darwin
Kernel	hybrid ( XNU )
ancestry	Unix → BSD ↳ NeXTStep / OPENSTEP ↳ Rhapsody ↳ Mac OS X (macOS) Mac OS Classic ↳ Mac OS X 10.0+
Architecture (s)	PowerPC
timeline	Public Beta → 10.0
compatibility	POSIX , FreeBSD , Mac OS Classic
Languages)	multilingual ( details ), u. a. German
appleseed.apple.com/betaprogram/

Mac OS X Public Beta " Kodiak " was a time-limited beta version of Mac OS X 10.0 from Apple , the first edition of macOS . The desktop operating system, which was introduced at the time under the name Mac OS X, was intended to replace the classic Mac OS line . The public beta was presented to the public on September 13, 2000 at the Apple Expo in Paris at a price of USD 29.95 (adjusted for inflation in 2020 around USD 44) or DM 79 (2020: ≈ € 53). In the form of a publicly available beta test , it gave early adopters an insight into the upcoming operating system.

The public beta was followed by four between 1999 and 2000 free to software developers emitted alpha versions , Mac OS X Developer Preview 1-4 (short DP1 to DP4), which offered jointly with the public beta version of the option programs for the new operating system to develop or to port existing software from Mac OS 8 and 9 to Mac OS X - in other words: Mac OS Ten . The developer tools were also freely available, as Apple was hoping for programs from third-party providers when the finished version was released .

The developer previews as well as the public beta already had version number 10.0. The US public beta had internal build number 1H39 and the international beta was 2E14 .

Development history

The public beta followed Mac OS X Server 1.0 (1999), which was the first published version of Apple's new OPENSTEP- based operating system. While Mac OS X Server 1.x followed OPENSTEP 4.2 (1997) as a version of Rhapsody (version 5.x), a completely new interface was worked on with Mac OS X 10.0. In contrast to OPENSTEP (4.x) and previously NeXTStep / NEXTSTEP (up to 3.3, 1995), the Platinum surface was adopted from the classic Mac OS in the Rhapsody (5.x) project , which was introduced with Mac OS 8 in 1997 and originally in Project Copland had been developed. Thus Rhapsody is the first operating system from Apple is that big as basic parts of the of NeXT uses acquired NeXTStep / OPEN STEP operating system and complemented by Apple's own developments. Mac OS X Server 1.0 (Rhapsody 5.3, 1999) to 1.2v3 (Rhapsody 5.6, 2000) as well as the first two alpha versions of Mac OS X 10.0, Developer Previews 1 and 2 from 1999, also use this classic Macintosh interface in platinum design.

Mac OS X Server 1.0 was actually just an inserted version and used the never released operating system Rhapsody 1.0 (called Rhapsody 5.2 at its core). This was considered necessary by Apple because the real goal of the development, Mac OS X, was not yet ready. In addition, the multi-platform concept was not pursued any further: if Rhapsody was still available for PowerPC (Apple's own hardware platform) and Intel x86 PCs (at least i486), Mac OS X Server 1.0 (Rhapsody 5.3) was only available for Apple's own Power Mac series servers released. It represented a necessary technological leap as a replacement for the outdated system 7 (1991, renamed from version 7.6 1997 to "Mac OS 7.6") and Mac OS 8 (1997) and was considered pure due to its insufficient compatibility with existing Macintosh applications Marketed server operating system. Classic Macintosh applications could only be executed in a virtualized environment called Blue Box on a Mac OS 8 started in a virtualized manner, which ruined the advantages of the new operating system. As a server operating system, however, Mac OS X Server 1.x (Rhapsody 5.x) benefited from the OPENSTEP legacy, as NeXTStep already offered many server-typical network functions and supported numerous network protocols.

With Mac OS X 10.0 it should be possible to completely replace Mac OS, which still descends directly from the "system software" of the first Macintosh computer from 1984. For this it was necessary that classic Macintosh applications also run on the new operating system. A clear reference to the classic Mac OS was also established in the name and version and the reference to OPENSTEP was removed from NeXT. Thus, Mac OS 9 releases (1999) instead of Mac OS 8.7, although the difference of Mac OS 8.1 to 8.5 (1998) was significantly greater than that of 8.6 (1999) on Mac OS 9, Mac OS Thus, the successor state of Mac OS should X 10.0, which has now followed Mac OS 9, will clarify. The project name "Mac OS X" - the letter X also stands for the Roman ten - was also retained in the finished operating system.

From 1999 developer previews were given to developers so that they could adapt their programs to the new programming interface (API) Cocoa (a new version of Yellow Box) and the new operating system base Unix - as was the case with the developer releases of Rhapsody (1997/1998 ). This substructure comes from the legacy of OPENSTEP (1988–1997) and the OpenStep API of the same name (NeXTstep API until 1995), which was referred to as "Yellow Box" in Rhapsody 5.x. However, since classic Macintosh applications were not easily portable to the new Cocoa API, Apple introduced the Carbon API, which was developed for compatibility . Developers only had to make minor adjustments to applications for the Macintosh so that they could also run on the new Mac OS X and benefit from the advantages of the modern operating system kernel. Such applications, also known as English carbonized applications were called (in German about "carbonized applications"), could also be on the classic Mac OS version 8.1 (but only on PowerPC) are carried out when there was installed the CarbonLib. That was the big difference between Mac OS X Server 1.x and the first Mac OS X Developer Preview - Mac OS X DP1 included the Carbon API so that customized Macintosh applications could run natively. This was also implemented by the developers of many Macintosh programs, so that soon the most important applications were also available for Mac OS X, while on Rhapsody (and Mac OS X Server 1.x) in addition to very few yellow box applications (Cocoa Applications) that ran natively, the bulk of the unmodified classic Macintosh application only had to run within the blue box , i.e. on classic Mac OS within a virtualization environment and thus without the advantages of the modern operating system kernel. In order to continue to support unmodified Macintosh programs, a further developed blue box in Mac OS X , renamed the Classic environment , remained part of the operating system until Mac OS X Tiger (10.4, 2005).

The publication of the core components in the source code was also new . Apple hoped that this would help freelance developers to work and ultimately improve the Unix substructure of Mac OS X. This Unix part had already been borrowed in NeXTStep from FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and other open-source projects and further developed by NeXT. As part of the Rhapsody development, the BSD base components were updated from 4.3BSD to BSD4.4Lite and the kernel was expanded from Mach 2.5 to a FreeBSD / Mach 3 hybrid kernel. With Mac OS X, these parts were first published under the name Darwin , the kernel with the name XNU .

From Developer Preview  3, the new Aqua interface was finally included, which among other things uses new fonts and revised controls as well as introducing the dock known from NeXTStep / OPENSTEP . The icons have also been made larger and more detailed. The new desktop should have the look and feel of the Macintosh GUI and at the same time reflect the modern surface of NeXTStep / OPENSTEP with its dock.

The last preliminary version released only to developers was Developer Preview  4 (2000). With the Public Beta (2000), the operating system, including the innovative Aqua-Desktop, was also publicly available to users for the first time. Since Mac OS X was neither finished nor stable, users who purchased and used Mac OS X Public Beta are also referred to as early adopters . Apple itself only rated Mac OS X 10.0 (“Cheetah,” 2001 version 10.0.3 or later) as mature enough to be used on new Power Mac, eMac and iMac computers and the iBook and PowerBook laptops as deliver a pre-installed operating system. A recovery medium for Mac OS 9.1 or 9.2 remained part of the scope of delivery until 2002 with Mac OS X 10.2 ("Jaguar").

The total time it took to develop a new, modern operating system and merge System 7 with OPENSTEP was almost five years (from early 1997 to mid-2001): Rhapsody Developer Release (Rhapsody 5.0) was given to developers in 1997 and Mac OS X 10.0 was released in 2001 . The last adaptation to the classic Mac OS, Mac OS 9.2.2 , was also made in 2001. However, it took another year for the new operating system with Mac OS X 10.2 to become the standard and pre-installed on every Mac. It was not until 2007, with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5, 2007), that the Classic environment was removed from the operating system. Meanwhile, Apple worked on migrating many programs from the Macintosh API Carbon to the NeXTstep API Cocoa, e.g. B. Finder , which was completely rewritten for Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6, 2009). Many a third-party program was only ported to Cocoa later: Adobe, for example, only carried out this complex step with Creative Suite  5 (2010).

System and software

Like its successors, the public beta is based on the Unix-based Darwin operating system , here in version 1.2.1, and its kernel XNU.

Stability should be guaranteed through preemptive multitasking and memory protection. At the Macworld Expo in June 2000 , Apple's CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the stability of the system with the specially developed test application Bomb.app .

The public beta included the applications known from NeXTStep, including TextEdit , Preview , Mail (before: NeXTMail), QuickTime Player or Terminal . In addition, a simple MP3 player ( iTunes had not yet been developed), HTMLEdit (a WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebObjects ) and Sketch (a vector drawing program for demonstrating Quartz capabilities) were also included.

Old programs that run under Mac OS 9 will continue to be supported via the Classic environment if a real Mac OS 9, which is necessary for virtualization, has been set up.

Third-party native applications were very rare at the time. Many applications had been developed for NeXTStep, for example OmniWeb , or were GUI - front ends for Unix-compatible CLI applications .

history

All versions designated as Developer Preview , as well as the Public Beta , are pre-versions of “Mac OS X 10.0”. All pre-release versions are named "Kodiak"; The name of Mac OS X should only officially become part of the operating system name with version 10.3 "Panther" (2003). The following Prerelease versions have been made available by Apple:

Mac OS X version	Darwin version	date	Build	stage	Remarks
Developer Preview	0.1 *	May 10, 1999		alpha	first  version released to developers who visited WWDC 1999 * the operating system identifies itself as "Mac OS X 10.0", not as "Darwin 0.1"
Developer Preview 2	0.2	Late 1999		alpha	with this release it became clear that Mac OS X would not finish in 2000 as originally announced
Developer Preview 3	1.0	January 2000		alpha	on the MacWorld Expo 2000 in San Francisco delivered to developers version - it is the first version with Aqua - user interface and Dock
Developer Preview 4	1.1	2000		alpha
Public beta	1.2	September 13, 2000	1H39 2E14	beta	only selling version which therefore also of early adopters could be used

Life cycle

The Mac OS X Public Beta expired in spring 2001. So that the beta, which must run on suitable hardware, continues to start, the hardware clock must be set back to a date before May 2001. The expiry time only affected the Aqua surface, the Darwin system below was not affected.

Mac OS X 10.0 was released in March 2001, and public beta owners got a $ 30 discount on the license.

Web links

• John Siracusa: Mac OS X Public Beta. Review on arstechnica.com.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marcin Wichary: GUIdebook> Screenshots> Mac OS X Public Beta. Guidebookgallery.org, accessed June 21, 2011 . 
2. ^ John Siracusa: Mac OS X Update: Quartz & Aqua. In: arstechnica.com on January 14, 2000.
3. ↑ MACWORLD Expo - Live Coverage Of Steve Jobs Keynote. The Mac Observer, accessed June 21, 2011 . 
4. ↑ OS X then and now: What's changed since the beta. Retrieved October 22, 2014 . 
5. ↑ What is Mac OS X? Retrieved October 22, 2014 : “One relatively common notion about Mac OS X seems to be that there's not a lot of software for it. While it is true that the quantity of software available for Mac OS X is not as large as, say, that on Windows or Linux ... " 
6. ↑ Best Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 Prices. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 20, 2012 ; accessed on October 22, 2014 . 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.  
7. ↑ Mac OS X 10.0. Retrieved October 22, 2014 . 
8. ^ Mac's new OS: Seven years in the making. Retrieved October 22, 2014 : “The first applications will appear this spring; many more are targeted for later months. " 
9. ^ WWDC 1999 Report (English), Dave Polaschek; accessed on February 17, 2016.
10. ↑ Mac OS X DP2: A Preview (English), John Siracusa; accessed on February 17, 2016.
11. ↑ Analysis unknown Mac OS Public Beta system. Retrieved October 22, 2014 . 
12. ↑ Benj Edwards: Looking back at OS X's origins. In: Macworld . September 13, 2010, accessed September 29, 2011 .