Five years old!
PING!
|
Posted on 03/25/2006 12:09:25 AM PST by Swordmaker
Here's the original, official Apple press release:
CUPERTINO, California—March 21, 2001—Apple® today announced that beginning this Saturday, March 24, customers can buy Mac® OS X in retail stores around the world. Mac OS X is the world’s most advanced operating system, combining the power and openness of UNIX with the legendary ease of use and broad applications base of Macintosh®.
“Mac OS X is the most important software from Apple since the original Macintosh operating system in 1984 that revolutionized the entire industry,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait for Mac users around the globe to experience its stability, power and elegance.”
Over 350 applications for Mac OS X are shipping today, with hundreds more coming by this summer. More than 10,000 developer organizations around the world are working on over 20,000 Mac OS X applications, including 4D, Aladdin Systems, Alias/Wavefront, Avid, Connectix, Dantz, Digidesign, EarthLink, FileMaker, IBM, Macromedia, Microsoft, MYOB, Palm, Sun, Symantec, and Thursby Software Systems.
Apple will also ship Mac OS X versions of its three most popular applications on March 24, available as free downloads at http://www.apple.com: iMovie™ 2, the world’s most popular and easiest-to-use digital video editing software; iTunes, Apple’s wildly popular “jukebox” software that lets users create and manage their own music library; and a preview version of AppleWorks® 6.1, Apple’s award-winning productivity application.
Mac OS X is built upon an incredibly stable, open source, UNIX-based foundation called Darwin and features true memory protection, preemptive multi-tasking and symmetric multiprocessing when running on the dual processor Power Mac™ G4. Mac OS X includes Apple’s new Quartz™ 2D graphics engine (based on the Internet-standard Portable Document Format) for stunning graphics and broad font support; OpenGL for spectacular 3D graphics and gaming; and QuickTime™ for streaming audio and video. Mac OS X also features an entirely new user interface called Aqua™. Aqua combines superior ease of use with amazing new functionality such as the Dock, a breakthrough for organizing, documents and document windows.
In addition, Mac OS X includes hundreds of new features, such as:
• Dynamic memory management, eliminating “out of memory” messages or need to adjust the memory for applications
• Advanced power management, so that PowerBook® and iBook™ systems wake from sleep instantly
• QuickTime 5, shipping for the first time as an integrated feature of Mac OS X
• Automatic networking, allowing users to get on the Internet using any available network connection, without adjusting settings
• A single interface to easily manage all network and Internet connections, including direct support for DSL systems that require PPPoE connectivity
• Full PDF support and PDF integration into the operating system, so that Mac OS X applications can generate standard PDF documents to be shared with any platform
• Direct support for TrueType, Type 1 and OpenType fonts, and an intuitive and flexible interface for managing fonts and groups of fonts
• More than $1,000 of the best fonts available today, including Baskerville, Herman Zapf’s Zapfino, Futura, and Optima; as well as the highest-quality Japanese fonts available, in the largest character set ever on a personal computer
• iTools integration into Mac OS X, for direct access to iDisk free Internet storage in the Finder and Open/Save dialog boxes, and free IMAP mail for Mac.com email accounts
• Built in support for popular HP, Canon, and Epson printers
• Easy to administer multi-user environment, with access privileges to keep documents secure
• Powerful web development tools and technologies such as WebDAV, XML, Apache and QuickTime
• BSD UNIX services including popular shells, Perl and FTP
• Support for symmetric multi-processing, so that on dual-processor Power Mac G4 systems, both processors are used automatically to deliver up to twice the productivity
• File system and network security including support for Kerberos
• Support for Java 2 Standard Edition built directly into Mac OS X, giving customers access to cross platform applications
Apple’s successful Mac OS X Public Beta, which shipped in September 2000, was instrumental in several key enhancements to the operating system. Apple shipped more than 100,000 copies of Mac OS X Public Beta and received more than 75,000 individual user feedback entries from Mac users and developers worldwide.
To help customers migrate to Mac OS X, Apple iServices will offer several new services, including a comprehensive set of Mac OS X training and certification offerings for Mac OS X system administrators.
Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X will ship with 7 languages—English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch— included on a single CD. In addition, the Mac OS X box will include a full copy of Mac OS 9.1, for running Classic applications, and the Mac OS X Developer Tools CD.
Mac OS X will be available through The Apple Store® (http://www.apple.com) and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $129 (US) beginning March 24, 2001.
Mac OS X requires a minimum of 128MB of memory and is designed to run on the following Apple products: iMac™, iBook, Power Macintosh® G3, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube and any PowerBook introduced after May 1998.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I owned the public beta.
It was cool.
That's nonsense. XP was released in fall 2001, about 6 months after OSX.
Why?
Because they changed where everything is! That's stupid. Who cares what the system does behind the scenes, but when they change the way I have to work, and make me relearn how to do the simplest things, its useless.
First time I used OSX I tried to network the new computer to the old ones. After five minutes I gave up and booted OS 9.2. It was a year before I even looked at OSX again. And things haven't gotten much better.
/rant
A dash of BSD, a pinch of MACH and a bucket of NextOS.
It was good to see Apple finally ship a decent OS. OS9 was sub windows 3.0.
I don't much about computers or networks. I'm just damn glad that Apple made the radical switch to OS X. There is a bit of a learning curve if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Classic (OS 9 and earlier) user. What I like best about it is that if an app freezes or crashes, it doesn't take the whole works with it. The computer keeps going so you can 'Force Quit' the troublesome application.
That may me no big deal when you're a single user. But as the guy who supports an office of macs, life is easier when the problem can be fixed while the computer is still up and running than when it ain't. I always hated being the troubleshooter for a careless user and have to pray through the startup that the OS wasn't also bolloxed when the app crashed.
No, it isn't. With the change from OS 9 to OS X, Apple could correct some issues that users had been complaining about for years. Some things in the old Finder were illogically placed... For example items relating to the Application were illogically placed under the "File" menu... with a completely new operating system, Apple could fix this irritating little issues that, while bothersome to a minority of Mac, were not important enough to bother the majority by changing in earlier versions. With OS X, there were already major changes... so why not change a few of those issues.
Apple took the opportunity to improve the placement of items in OS X... other than that, if you want your specific application icons on the Desktop, simply put them there... using the same methods or keyboard short cuts. Applications menus are, for the most part, exactly the same. The primary difference is the addition of an "Application" menu item for things directly relating to the application rather than the "File". They moved the "Quit" and "Preferences" there, which is a more logical location than the "File" menu. Similarly, Shut Down and Restart have been moved from OS 9's illogical "Special" menu bar location to under the Apple Menu.
If you want the ability to change applications from a drop down menu bar similar, but more powerful that Apple's old Application Switcher Menu, then just download ASM and install it.
OS X is as easy to network than OS 9.2... but with far more options and control.
Does it take some time to get used to? Of course. You gave up too soon.
I appreciate the comments, and I will look into ASM. I have been doing things a certain way since early 1985 and its rude of Apple to pull the rug out from under me.
I spend about 12 hours a day on the system, and its often either read a manual or do work--deadlines, you know. I hate to stop work to fuss with a manual.
That's why I still use Word 5.1a, Xpress 5.01, Photoshop 5.5 and Illustrator 6.0. But you should see the books and technical reports I can crank out with that combination!
The absolute only thing I use OSX for is Keynote, for speeches. And even then I do as much as I can in Classic.
When I can't get anything to run in Classic I'll have to retire I guess.
You're joking, right?
Windows 3.0 lacked many features that were already built into Mac OS 6 (release 1988)...
I understand. The only reason I keep Classic around is one single application: Pagestream4.1. It is a desktop publishing program that came out of the Amiga/Atari world that still blows Quark, Pagemaker, and Indesign out of the water. When it becomes available in OS X, OS 9 will be deleted from my system.
You won't have to retire... most of the upgraders I have worked with in graphics have had about a two week learning curve... and then say they would never go back to OS9.
You've heard of those now that OSX has them right? They're not useless overhead anymore now that apple has them? Did you like single apps crashing the whole system?
OS6 did have great 68K processor emulation technology. Too bad they were using emulation to run their file system and network stack.
I started on Apples, it truly hurt seeing the joke the company became under the suger water salesman.
Was glad to see Jobs back. Someone internal had to kick the company in the butt. Like only Nixon could go to China, Only Jobs could get apples OS out of the early 80s.
Have you read anything about the multi year effort to ship OS8? (not the version that finally shipped as OS8). OS8 was supposed to be what OSX became.
I wholeheartedly agree! My favorite piece of OS X boneheaded idiocy is how the mod-N key in the Finder doesn't create a new folder.
Ease of use. As for Preemptive multitasking, neither system had it. It only had co-operative multitasking. The only Operating System with Premptive Multitasking was Amiga OS.
In 1990 I was running an Amiga... and working on both Macs and PCs.
Single Apps crashed BOTH Macs and Windows... regularly.
OS6 did have great 68K processor emulation technology. Too bad they were using emulation to run their file system and network stack.
What are you talking about? The old original Mac OS was 68K native through OS 6... emulation was only required after it became PowerPC native after OS 7 was introduced.
I agree about the sugar water salesman...
Was it even the fall? I recall using Windows XP in my last year of high school (in the Spring of 2001).
But that was probably a Beta, now that I think on it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
