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Mac OS 8

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Mac OS 8
Mac OS Logo
Mac OS 8.1 desktop
DeveloperApple Computer
OS familyClassic Mac OS
Working stateHistoric, not supported
Source modelClosed source
Latest release8.6.0 / May 10 1999
Kernel typeMonolithic until 8.6, Nanokernel
Default
user interface		Apple platinum
LicenseProprietary
Official websiteN/A

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 in the first four days. [1]

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. 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.

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, longer file names (up to 255 characters) 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.

Mac OS 8.1 also included an enhanced version of PC Exchange, allowing Macintosh users to see the long file names (up to 255 characters) on files that had been created on PCs running Windows 95.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In addition to the themes support, 8.5 was the first version to support 32-bit icons. Icons now had millions of colors (16.7m) and an 8-bit alpha channel, allowing for transparency effects.

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.

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 ran all programs that are not aware of it, and the only task that could run 68k code.

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

Version Release Date Changes Codename Price
8.0 July 26, 1997 Initial release Tempo $99
8.1 January 19, 1998 HFS+ file system Bride of Buster Update
8.5 October 17, 1998 PPC-only, Sherlock, Themes, 32-bit icons Allegro $99
8.5.1 December 7, 1998 Crash, memory leaks and data corruption fixes The Ric Ford Release Update
8.6 May 10, 1999 Multi-tasking, support for multiple CPUs. Veronica Update
Version Release Date Changes Codename Price

Notes

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