Rhapsody (operating system)

Rhapsody
developer	Apple Computer, Inc.
License (s)	APSL and Apple EULA
Current  version	1.0, internal 5.2 (unpublished)
ancestry	4.3BSD-Tahoe ↳ NeXTStep (<3.0) 4.3BSD-Reno ↳ NeXTStep (≥ 3.0) ↳ OPENSTEP (≥ 4.0) 4.4BSD ↳ Rhapsody (≥ 5.0) FreeBSD ↳ Darwin ( macOS , iOS etc.) NeXTStep → OPENSTEP ↳ Rhapsody ↳ Mac OS X Server 1.x ↳ Mac OS X 10.x (macOS)
Architecture (s)	x86 and PowerPC
Others	Should completely replace the classic Mac OS, it was then developed further to Mac OS X, which is now called macOS .
http://www.rhapsodyos.org/ (unofficial)

Rhapsody [ ɹæpsədɪ ] was the project or code name of Apple's then new operating system generation during the development phase between the acquisition of the company NeXT in late 1996 and the public announcement of Mac OS X in 1998, at which it was ultimately developed. After Copland and Pink (later Taligent ), it was Apple's third attempt to modernize its in-house operating system - originally the Macintosh System Software (1984-2001), which was technically obsolete as System 6 in 1988 and System 7 in 1991 .

Rhapsody should completely replace the classic Mac OS and was developed on the basis of OPENSTEP (originally NeXTStep). Apart from two developer versions, the only published Rhapsody version is Mac OS X Server 1.0  (1999) to 1.2v3 (2000). This makes it the first operating system to be called “Mac OS X” .

The Mac OS X version 10.0 developed between 1998 and 2001 is based on Rhapsody, and thus OPENSTEP and NeXTStep. The free parts of it, u. a. the specific BSD -Userland and the XNU - Kernel , were published as Darwin in the source code under free licenses. Mac OS X, which continues to use this BSD base, was renamed OS X (without “Mac”) in 2012 and macOS in 2016 . The iOS developed from 2005 is also based on Darwin.

Development history

After Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, which he had left in 1985 in a dispute , the modern Unix operating system OPENSTEP 4.2 from NeXT was further developed in the Rhapsody project into a successor operating system for the outdated System 7 . The original plans involved, the object-oriented OpenStep - programming interface (API) from the last NeXT operating system OPEN STEP 4.2 under the new name Yellow Box to use it also for Windows and Solaris was. In May 1997, Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in the USA that software programmed under Rhapsody could be compiled for Windows and other operating systems without any problems if the underlying OPENSTEP -compatible framework Yellow Box is in the Windows- Version is installed. This type of compatibility is known as source code compatible . Apple, which since 1994 with the Macintosh , the -Rechnern PowerPC - architecture used, but had to first of all the purchased OPEN STEP operating system only for the platforms Intel i486 , Motorola 680x0 and Sun SPARC had been available port on its own platform. The relatively easy portability was thanks to the Mach microkernel , which had already been ported to HP PA-RISC in previous NeXTStep versions and allegedly to PowerPC in the laboratory, but on which the performance is said to have caused difficulties. Up until 1997, Apple was still fully geared towards a multi-platform strategy, which is why Rhapsody initially ran not only on the PowerPC but also on Intel i486 PCs - from 1997 there were three installation media for the Rhapsody Developer Release: for Power Macintosh , for the Intel PC and the Yellow Box framework for Microsoft Windows NT . The other processor architectures (m68k, SPARC) were not continued at Rhapsody.

To compatibility to be replaced Macintosh operating system from version 7.6 in " Mac OS to achieve was renamed" was with Blue Box , a virtual machine installed in Rhapsody, so on a virtualized Mac OS 8 old Macintosh software on Rhapsody Power Macintosh could run. The Blue Box could not run on the Intel version . The NeXTStep libraries, the Yellow Box , should be used for new programs . In addition, the new operating system relied entirely on Java .

The modern design of Rhapsody, however, depended entirely on the yellow box framework , and accordingly programs would have had to be ported more or less laboriously . Software suppliers such as Microsoft, Adobe and Macromedia, whose applications were indispensable for the Macintosh ecosystem, showed after WWDC 1997 that they were unwilling to take on this effort. At the same time, internal work was carried out to integrate the Blue Box even better into Rhapsody. However, it soon became clear that it was not possible to integrate the outdated programming interface of Mac OS 7.6 into Rhapsody without having to forego the advantages of a modern design with preemptive multitasking and memory protection, which only the Yellow Box offered. At MacWorld on July 8, 1998 in New York, it was finally announced that Rhapsody would come onto the market as Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999 - without an Intel platform and without a Windows framework. Steve Jobs himself described the Rhapsody experiment as a failure.

In order to still enable a smooth transition from the classic Mac OS to the modern Unix operating system Mac OS X, which is derived from OPENSTEP, a new framework was created: Carbon . This essentially consisted of the programming interfaces of Mac OS 8 , which were historically introduced with the first Macintosh system in 1984, minus those functions that stood in the way of modern design such as memory protection and multitasking and some underused redundant functions. As a bridging technology, Carbon was able to represent around 75% of the original Macintosh construction kit and was introduced both integrated in Mac OS X and as CarbonLib under Mac OS 8 and 9 . The software suppliers only had to make minor adjustments to existing programs so that they could be run natively on both Mac OS (with CarbonLib) and Mac OS X. Thanks to Carbon, even Apple was able to transfer some programs directly from Mac OS 8 to Mac OS X without having to reprogram them from scratch.

For new programs, however, the OpenStep or Yellow Box framework adopted by NeXTStep was largely used, which was renamed Cocoa from 1998 when the development of Mac OS X began .

Rhapsody was stopped in 1998 and Mac OS X started - at the beginning of development, however, Mac OS X is another version of Rhapsody - with the difference from Carbon as the new (old) programming interface. While Rhapsody was more oriented towards NeXTStep / OPENSTEP (e.g. in the version number), Mac OS X was designed as a partially compatible successor and maintainer of the Macintosh platform (e.g. both in version number and name: on Mac OS 9 follows Mac OS X, meaning as a Roman number 10).

Appearance

The graphical user interface of OPENSTEP was adapted to Mac OS 8 at Rhapsody . The "program bar block" with "Info", "File", "Edit" etc. by OPENSTEP was moved to the upper edge of the screen in a bar, as was the case with Mac OS 8. The design theme was also trimmed on Mac OS a program switching list (top right in the system bar, as in Mac OS) added.

Technical design

OPENSTEP (Version 4.2 from 1996/1997) was based on the Unix derivative 4.3BSD and used a Mach 2.5 kernel. To make this system for the Macintosh hardware available, it had to the PowerPC - architecture to be ported. At the same time, however, the system was updated to 4.4BSD-Lite and the kernel was also updated to Mach 3, with parts of MkLinux (which was already a working Mach 3 kernel) and parts of the FreeBSD kernel. This core system was first published in the version of Mac OS X Server 1.0 (Rhapsody 5.3, 1999), including the open source and under free license Userland, as the Darwin operating system (version 0.1, 1999). The kernel was called XNU and placed under the free APSL license . Under Rhapsody the kernel does not yet identify itself as XNU, but this is effective, just as Darwin 0.1 (the core of Mac OS X Developer Preview 1 and Darwin OS 0.1, both from 1999) essentially corresponds to Rhapsody 5.3.

Further - proprietary - components of the system were the Yellow Box as the further developed object-oriented framework OpenStep , as it was contained in the OPENSTEP operating system up to version 4.2 and in Solaris (and from which later emerged under Mac OS X Cocoa-API ), the Blue Box ( which was further developed under Mac OS X as a Classic environment ) to be able to use applications for Mac OS (only in the PowerPC version), and a Java environment . Carbon from the later Mac OS X for easy porting of Mac OS applications was not yet included. In addition, many of Apple's own technologies such as QuickTime were ported to Rhapsody (and thus to Yellow Box or later Cocoa).

The first two developer previews of Mac OS X 10.0 (both 1999) were very similar to Rhapsody, but already offered the (unfinished) Carbon programming interface that was compatible with the classic Mac OS . The Darwin system kernel has been continuously developed by Apple since then and forms the basis for all subsequent Mac OS X-based operating systems - of which Rhapsody (or NeXTStep / OPENSTEP) is the forefather.

history

Since it was developed directly from OPENSTEP version 4.2, Rhapsody starts with version number 5.0. OPENSTEP, up to version 3.3 still under the product name NeXTStep, was only available from version 4.0 for the i486 - and the SPARC architecture - in addition to the original Motorola 68k architecture of the NeXT hardware, whose production had to be discontinued in 1993. Since Apple used the PowerPC architecture for their own Macintosh computers, the operating system first had to be ported to PowerPC, whereby the Intel version was initially continued. After the abandonment of Rhapsody as a failed project, Mac OS X emerged , which was only published on PowerPC, as Apple now had no further interest in marketing the operating system for non-Apple computers. While Mac OS X Server 1.0-1.2v3 identifies internally or as Rhapsody, each note was out with the release public beta of Mac OS X 10.0 (previously the votes to developer Developer Previews and) away.

product		Rhapsody		Publication date	Architectures , processors	comment
Surname	version	version	Code name
Rhapsody	Developer release	Older version; no longer supported: 5.0	Grail1Z1 (ppc) Grail1Z4 (x86)	August 31, 1997	PowerPC 603 (G2) Intel i486	only given to developers; there is a patch to support the PowerPC G3
	Developer Release 2	Older version; no longer supported: 5.1	Titan1T7 (ppc) Titan1U (x86)	May 14, 1998	PowerPC 603 (G2) Intel Pentium MMX	only given to developers; there is a patch to support the PowerPC G3 ; first version of Blue Box
	1.0	Older version; no longer supported: 5.2		-	Intel, PowerPC	unpublished
Mac OS X Server	1.0	Older version; no longer supported: 5.3	Hera1O9	March 16, 1999	PowerPC 603 (G2) PowerPC 750 (G3)	Intel version dropped, with support for the Power Macintosh G3 (Macs with PowerPC G3 processors)
	1.0.1	Older version; no longer supported: 5.4	Loki1A2	April 15, 1999		the operating system itself is mistakenly identified as “Hera1O9” (code name)
	1.0.2	Older version; no longer supported: 5.5	Loki2G1	July 22, 1999		the operating system pretends to be “Hera1O9 + Loki2G1” (code name)
	1.2	Older version; no longer supported: 5.6	Pele1Q10	January 14, 2000	PowerPC 603 (G2) PowerPC 750 (G3) PowerPC 7400 (G4)	Support for Power Mac G4 (Macs with PowerPC G4 processors)
	1.2 v3	Older version; no longer supported: 5.6	Medusa1E3	October 27, 2000		last version, sold until mid-2001, superseded by Mac OS X Server 10.0.3
Legend: Old version Older version; still supported Current version Current preliminary version Future version

Web links

• www.rhapsodyos.org - Shaw's Rhapsody Resource Page (English).
• www.xor.mcom.de/xoralt/aussicht/rhapsodi.htm - structure
• toastytech.com/guis/rhap.html - user interface
• wwwbs.informatik.htw-dresden.de/svortrag/ai94/Maschek/ - summary
• Rhapsody timeline
• Leo Becker: 20 years ago: Mac OS X Server provides a foretaste of modern macOS. In: Heise online . 16th March 2019 . Retrieved March 18, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Shaw’s Rhapsody Resource Page, Rhapsody Timeline (English), accessed on February 26, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Shaw’s Rhapsody Resource Page, Rhapsody Media (English), accessed on November 28, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Shaw’s Rhapsody Resource Page, System Requirements for Rhapsody (English), accessed on January 10, 2016.
4. ↑ NEXTSTEP / OPENSTEP for Mach Release 4.x for Intel Processors, Hardware Compatibility Guide (English), July 24, 1998, accessed on January 10, 2016.
5. ↑ Shaw's Rhapsody Resource Page, Rhapsody 5.1 for PC Compatibles , accessed on January 10, 2016.
6. ↑ NeXTeZine 01/2003: The Rhapsody FAQ (English, p. 25ff, PDF page 28ff), David R. Shaw (PDF, 989K); NeXTeZine by Markus Schmidt and Joacim Melin
7. ↑ From NeXTeZine 01/2003, p. 31 (PDF page 34): Will existing 68K and PowerPC applications run on Rhapsody? In Rhapsody 5.0, no. This version didn't come with Blue Box. Rhapsody 5.1 and later versions for PowerPC had Blue Box, but the Intel versions did not.