Mac OS 8

Mac OS 8.1 desktop
Website:	N/A
Company/ developer:	Apple Computer
OS family:	Classic Mac OS
Source model:	Closed source
Latest stable release:	8.6 / May 10, 1999
Kernel type:	Monolithic until 8.6, Nanokernel
Default user interface:	Apple platinum
License:	Proprietary
Working state:	Historic, not supported

Mac OS 8 is a series of versions of the Mac OS that supported a transition through major changes in the Macintosh hardware platform. Its earliest release still supported Macs with Motorola 68040; its later releases (Mac OS 8.1 and 8.5) shipped with PowerPC G3 systems such as the early iMacs and PowerMac G3s. It is most closely associated with the "second generation," PowerPC-based Macs that Apple sold in the interim. Over 1.2 million copies of Mac OS 8.0 were sold within weeks of its July 26, 1997 release with 2,000 copies sold by Cyberian Outpost in the first four days. ^[1] Image File history File links Mac_OS_Logo. ... Image File history File links Screenshot of Mac OS 8. ... This page as shown in the AOL 9. ... The term software company could be applied to; a) a company that produces software or b) a company that distributes software from a third party or c) a company that provides services for software. ... A software developer is a programmer who is concerned with one or more facets of the software development process, a somewhat broader scope of computer programming. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... The text below is generated by a template, which has been proposed for deletion. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... A kernel connects the software and hardware of a computer. ... Graphical overview of a monolithic kernel A monolithic kernel defines a high-level virtual interface over the hardware, with a set of primitives or system calls to implement operating system services such as process management, concurrency, and memory management in several modules that run in supervisor mode. ... In computer science, a nanokernel is a very minimalist operating system kernel. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... In Mac OS terminology, Platinum was the Appearance Manager theme that Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 used. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... The Motorola 68040 is a microprocessor from Motorola. ... 300 MHz Motorola PowerPC 750 processor with off-die L2 cache on the CPU module of a PowerMac G3. ... The iMac is a desktop computer designed and built by Apple Computer. ... The Power Macintosh G3 (commonly called beige G3s or platinum G3s for the color of their cases) is a series of personal computers that was designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from November 1997 to January 1999. ... IBM PowerPC 601 Microprocessor PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Mac OS 8.0

Version 8.0 was released on July 26, 1997, developed under the codename "Tempo." Improvements over System 7 included a multi-threaded Finder, a three-dimensional platinum appearance, and a number of performance related improvements to virtual memory, AppleScript execution times and system startup times. Help was available in the form of an Info Center (by means of html pages stored on the user's hard drive, with links to the Internet), as well as previously used systems such as Balloon Help and Apple Guide. It was the first client OS to support AFP over IP in addition to standard AppleTalk (this functionality could be added to System 7 via Apple-supplied updates, however). The release also introduced the "Simple Finder," an optional configuration of the Finder which reduced the menus to basic operations, in order to avoid overwhelming new users. July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... System 7 (codenamed Big Bang) was a version of Mac OS, the operating system of the Apple Macintosh computer. ... A thread in computer science is short for a thread of execution. ... Finder in column view Finder in icon view Finder in list view The Finder is the default application program used on the Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems that is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications. ... In Mac OS terminology, Platinum was the Appearance Manager theme that Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 used. ... AppleScript is a scripting language devised by Apple Computer, and built into Mac OS. More generally, AppleScript is the word used to designate the Mac OS scripting interface, which is meant to operate in parallel with the graphical user interface. ... Balloon help was a tooltips-type help system introduced by Apple Computer in their System 7 operating system release. ... Apple Guide was Apple Computers online help and documentation system, added to the Mac OS in System 7. ... The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is a layer 6 (presentation layer) network protocol that offers file services for Mac OS X and Classic Mac OS. In Mac OS X, AFP is one of several file services supported including Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP...

Mac OS 8.1

Released January 19, 1998, Mac OS 8.1 was the last version to run on both 680x0- and PowerPC-based Macintoshes. It introduced the new, optional HFS Plus file system format (also known as the Mac OS Extended Format), which supported large file sizes and made more efficient use of the space on larger drives due to using a smaller block size. To upgrade, the user had to wipe out the contents of his or her entire hard drive before upgrading to HFS Plus, although some third-party utilities later appeared that held a drive's data steady while upgrading to HFS Plus. Note that on 680x0 systems, the boot drive must be HFS Standard, however once the system is loaded HFS Plus disks may then be attached and used normally. January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... IBM PowerPC 601 Microprocessor PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... HFS Plus or HFS+ is a file system developed by Apple Computer to replace their Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system used on Macintosh computers. ... In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ...

Mac OS 8.1 also included an enhanced version of PC Exchange, allowing Macintosh users to (finally) see the long file names (up to 255 characters) on files that had been created on PCs running Windows 95, as well as supporting FAT32. PC Exchange was a Mac OS control panel that lets the operating system mount MS-DOS-format disks and mapped file extensions to the user-defined type and creator codes. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system that was developed for MS-DOS and used in consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me. ...

It is the earliest version of the Mac OS that can run Carbon apps. Carbon support requires installation of the CarbonLib software from Apple's web site and is not a standard component of a Mac OS 8.1 installation. Carbon is the codename of Apple Computers APIs for the Macintosh operating system, which permits a good degree of backward compatibility between source code written to run on the classic Mac OS, and the newer Mac OS X. The APIs are published and accessed in the form of C...

Mac OS 8.5

Released October 17, 1998, Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to run solely on Macs equipped with a PowerPC processor. As such it replaced some but not all of the 680x0 code with PowerPC code, improving system performance by relying less on 680x0 emulation. Parties interested in such things have noted that there are still many strings in the System file which make references to obsolete, unsupported 68k machinery. October 17 is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... IBM PowerPC 601 Microprocessor PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... IBM PowerPC 601 Microprocessor PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... The Mac 68K emulator was a software emulator built into all versions of the Mac OS for PowerPC. This emulator permitted the running of applications and system code that were originally written for the 680x0 based Macintosh models. ...

It introduced the Sherlock search utility; Sherlock allowed users to search the contents of documents on hard drives (if the user had let it index the drive), or extend a search to the Internet. Sherlock plug-ins started appearing at this time; these plug-ins allowed users to search the contents of other websites. Sherlock 2 for Mac OS 9, Files Channel Sherlock, named after Sherlock Holmes, is the file and web searching tool made by Apple Computer for the Mac OS, introduced with Mac OS 8. ...

Mac OS 8.5 included a number of performance improvements. Copying files over a network was faster than previous versions and Apple advertised it as being "faster than Windows NT". AppleScript was also re-written to use only PowerPC code, which significantly improved AppleScript execution speed. AppleScript is a scripting language devised by Apple Computer, and built into Mac OS. More generally, AppleScript is the word used to designate the Mac OS scripting interface, which is meant to operate in parallel with the graphical user interface. ...

The HTML format for online help, first adopted by the Finder's Info Centre in Mac OS 8, was now used throughout. This made it easier for software companies to write online help systems, but would contribute to making physical manuals become a thing of the past. // One difference in the latest HTML specifications lies in the distinction between the SGML-based specification and the XML-based specification. ...

In this release, the PPP control panel was removed and replaced with Remote Access. The Remote Access control panel provides the same functionality but also allows connections to Apple Remote Access (ARA) servers. AppleTalk Remote Access, or ARA, was a protocol stack that allowed AppleTalk to be run over modems. ...

The installation process was considerably simplified in Mac OS 8.5. In earlier versions the installer worked in segments and often required the user to click to continue in between stages of the installation. The Mac OS 8.5 installer generally required very little user interaction once it was started. Customisation options were also much more detailed yet simpler to manage.

From Mac OS 8.5 onwards the popular MacLinkPlus document translation software is no longer bundled as part of the Mac OS.

Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to support "themes," or skins, which could change the default Apple Platinum look of the Mac OS to "Gizmo" or "HiTech." This radical changing of the computer's appearance was removed at the last minute, and appeared only in the beta (The beta of Mac OS 8.5 was known as Mac OS 8.2), though, users could make (and share) their own theme and use it with the Mac OS. The Platinum theme in Mac OS 9 Charcoal was the new default interface font in the Platinum theme, replacing Chicago from System 7 Platinum theme in Copland Hi-Tech theme Gizmo theme In the classic Mac OS, the Appearance Manager controlled the overall look of the Mac GUI widgets and...

In addition to the themes support, 8.5 was the first version to support 32-bit icons. Icons now had 24-bit color (16.7 million colors) and an 8-bit alpha channel, allowing for transparency effects. 32-bit is a term applied to processors, and computer architectures which manipulate the address and data in 32-bit chunks. ... Nuvola icons for KDE are available in PNG format, which come in six sizes, and SVG format, which is scalable On computer displays, a computer icon is a small pictogram. ... In computer architecture, 24-bit is an adjective used to describe integers, memory addresses or other data units that are at most 24 bits (3 octets) wide, or to describe CPU and ALU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ... In computer graphics, alpha compositing is often useful to render image elements in separate passes, and then combine the resulting multiple 2D images into a single, final image in a process called compositing. ...

Mac OS 8.5.1

Mac OS 8.5.1, released December 7, 1998, was a minor update to Mac OS 8.5 that fixed a number of bugs that were causing crashes and data corruption. December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Mac OS 8.6

Released May 10, 1999, Mac OS 8.6 added a nanokernel that could handle preemptive tasks and its interface was Multiprocessing Services 2.x and later. But there was still no process separation; the system still used cooperative multitasking between processes, and even a process that was Multiprocessing Services-aware still had a portion that ran in the blue task, a task that also ran all programs that are not aware of it, and the only task that could run 68k code. May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Screenshot of Mac OS 8. ... In computer science, a nanokernel is a very minimalist operating system kernel. ...

Still, this free update for Mac users running 8.5 and 8.5.1 was faster and much more stable than either versions of 8.5.x, and is by some considered the most stable Classic OS. It was also the first Mac OS to have the OS version displayed as part of the startup screen. Many hardware upgrades require a minimum of MacOS 8.6.

Versions of Mac OS 8

References

1. ^ cnet news, Mac OS 8 sales on fire, August 8, 1997

External links

• Technical Note TN1102 Mac OS 8 Developer Information from Apple
• Technical Note TN1121 Mac OS 8.1 Developer Information from Apple
• Technical Note TN1142 Mac OS 8.5 Developer Information from Apple
• Technical Note TN1163 Mac OS 8.6 Developer Information from Apple
• Petition to release Mac OS 8 to the general public