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Articles: Mac OS - A Compact History
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Mac OS - A Compact History
We all know Mac OS, it's what makes the Mac the Mac. But where did it come from? Did magic software pixies simply leave a couple of disks on Apple's doorstep one morning? Did a bored mainframe machine (tired of world domination) decide to create something different to break the tedium? The history of Mac OS is long and winding and what this page aims to do is cover the evolution of everyone's favourite operating system, from its theoretical birth right through to desktop software used and enjoyed by users around the world. If I've missed something or got something wrong, please let me know - the history of Mac OS is a little 'blurry' at times and trying to get everything right certainly isn't easy =;)
Note: As this is a site primarily dedicated to 68K Macs, this page doesn't go into any great detail regarding those versions of Mac OS that will only run on PowerPC based machines (Mac OS 8.5 upwards). Yes it'll cover the later OS's but not in any great detail - if you want to know more about them, there's a big information resource out there known as 'the Internet'. Similarly I won't be covering any of the 'alternative' operating systems available for Macs (e.g. Minux, A/UX) - this is Mac OS all the way.
From Little Acorns...
Note: There have been many instances of Mac OS, Windows et al. being accused of stealing ideas from one another. This page in no way intends to give the impression that Mac OS was 'stolen' from the work done on earlier systems, these 'pre-Mac OS' sections are included as a way to detail where the entire graphical user interface came from, when the concepts were hit upon etc.
NLS - oNLine System
If you take a certain point of view you can say that Mac OS came into existence on the 24th January 1984. True, this was the day that the world was finally able to go and buy their very own machine that came with the funny little graphical operating system. However Mac OS didn't magically appear on that fateful day but instead had been in development for many years and can trace its roots all the way back to a technology demonstration on the 9th December 1968.
Doug Englebart and his team of researchers at the Stanford Research Institute had been working for six years on new ideas and ways to use computing and it was about time to demonstrate what they'd come up with. At this time, computing was still a new industry that was exploring every avenue of life. The computer would bring a whole new world, would solve all of the world's problems and was the epitome of the push button age. Computers were 'smarter', faster and far better than man and new fields such as Artificial Intelligence predicted that within mere years computers would be able to make decisions all on their own and improve the lives of every man, woman and child. The only problem with all these dreams and grand predictions was that computers were bloody awful to use. Gigantic rows of flashing lights, white coated scientists, giant spools of spinning tape and a scary world where entering the wrong character code would wipe out the entire system. Computers were the domain of science, not ordinary people, and the average man in the street was more than happy for the scientific types to handle all of this for him. To him a computer was something to be in awe of with its vast array of flashing lights and beeps and surely there was no practical reason why anybody but large institutions would ever need a computer (leading to arguably my favourite computer prediction of all time: The world will only ever need 6 computers - 3 for the US, 1 for the UK, and 2 for the rest of the world).
The industry had made some advances though and visual display units (VDUs) and keyboards had managed to be adopted but there were certainly other ways to not only control computers but to also make them far easier to use. It was these thoughts and works that saw Englebart and his team give a demonstration in 1968 that amazed some and totally baffled others.
Rather than think of the computer as a big calculator, Englebart and his team treated the computer as a virtual office in which users could deal with documents, collaborate with other users by sharing files and leaving notes or by actually working interactively (the team even demonstrated live audio-video conferencing), view several pieces of information at any one time (using 'windows') and easily search for information. Even the control interface received something of a redesign as the team demonstrated a 5-Chord Key Set (basically a 5 key keyboard) and a strange three button pointing device called a 'mouse' (although it used wheels rather than a ball which we all know and love). In 1968 this was all radical stuff and many at the conference accussed Englebart of having faked the whole thing.
NLS was no fake and the system was very much a complete package that not only made the computer far easier to use but also worked 'online', linking machines and creating many technologies and ideas that are still in existence today (for instance the team created 'hyperlinks' - text which could be clicked on to take users to another location). The intention was to create an NLS system that ran across continents (not just within single buildings) but even with its impressive goals, the NLS project ran into problems when the Stanford Research Institute cancelled its funding. With many of its brightest team members having gone off to work at Rank Xerox's Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC), NLS died a death...but its ideas lived on.
A Glimpse of The Future: Xerox PARC
In terms of technology NLS was dead, but the ideas and thinking behind it found a new home at Xerox's new PARC facility. Xerox had setup its research centre to create the technology of the future and it allowed the brightest and the best in the emerging computer industry to go ahead and develop technology without having to worry about making it commercially viable. It was in this free thinking environment that many of Doug Englebart's NLS team now found themselves.
The work done at PARC would greatly change the computing industry for decades to come and its first great success was in developing SmallTalk, an object-orientated language that was also an environment in which users could work with windows, cut and paste text, work with documents etc. The next step was to create a personal computer that would actually use it.
In 1972 there was no concept of a personal computer and users typically used remote terminals that were connected to either a mainframe or a mini-computer. The PARC researchers set out to develop a small, self-contained machine that included a processor, some form of data storage and sufficient input and output that a single user could use it. The end product was the Alto. Comprising of what would now be called a base unit (which incorporated a 16 bit processor, storage disks and power supply), a 606x808 graphical display, a keyboard and a three button mouse, the Alto also included connections that allowed printers and plotters to be connected to it, and also had an Ethernet connection which allowed it to be networked to other Altos.
The Alto needed an operating system though, and Alto OS was born. Written in BCPL, Alto OS had many applications that allowed users to work with documents, create graphics, develop new applications, work across networks and hundreds of other tasks. This was the first time that applications had been developed for a multi window graphical interface and most of the applications were extremely sophisticated - some even still influence today's applications. It also provided TELNET and FTP facilities.
Although never released to the public, over 1500 Altos were eventually in use by 1979 (both inside and outside the Xerox organisation) - the next machine got far more exposure though. Introduced at a computer trade show in 1981, the 8010 STAR Information System took the basic Alto and updated it with more storage, a higher resolution display, more memory and a faster network connection. The STAR was, in concept, very similar to Doug Englebart's NLS, and instead of users having to deal with a command line they instead were encouraged to think of the computer as an electronic office, complete with documents, folders and filing cabinets, calculators, in and out boxes etc. The screen displayed a desktop on which users found icons representing, amongst others, files, folders and in/out boxes. Of course clicking these icons opened them!
The STAR system also brought other concepts that we now take for granted: windows with scroll bars, caption bars that displayed the window's title, cutting and pasting of text, file copying etc. It wasn't without its problems though, the biggest being that windows couldn't be overlapped.
Xerox never made huge market gains (especially in the personal computing industry) but by the time STAR had been released a little upstart company called Apple had already gotten a peek at the future and were busily developing their own system...
Fantasy Becomes Reality: Lisa OS
In 1978 Apple embarked on a new project to create a $2000 business machine to complement the incredibly successful Apple II. Lisa was supposed to be 'grown up' computing that provided everything that business users would want. It was safe, reliable and very much a run of the mill machine - users would enter commands at the command line, get their work done and that would be it. A visit to Xerox PARC changed all that though and, after being shown what Xerox had been up to with the Alto, Steve Jobs became convinced that the command line was dead and that the future was the graphical user interface. Five years after the project began (and after numerous changes to its specification and design) the Lisa was finally released onto the world, sporting its all new graphical user interface. Lisa OS (standing for "Office System" as opposed to "Operating System") was the first time that the world at large had seen such a system and a generation of users brought up on command lines and obscure commands marvelled at an interface that relied on pointing and clicking. Xerox may have pointed the way with the Alto (and later the STAR) but Apple made it accessible (even if the price had spiralled to a near astonomical $9999).
Lisa OS unquestionably took ideas and concepts from Alto OS but it also added new features that would be adopted by every GUI in the future (e.g. drop down menus). Although those who had seen the Alto and the STAR machines had seen something similar before, to most users the Lisa was revolutionary and provided features that were nearly impossible to imagine: files and folders could be displayed in windows, applications could be launched by simply clicking on them, items were deleted by placing them in the Trash Can... In terms of the future Mac OS, Lisa OS also introduced the menu bar at the top of the screen that allowed users to drop down menus and select commands.
As was the intent behind the original GUI work done at PARC (and before), Lisa aimed to present the user with a graphical representation of his/her office and do away with command lines that alienated users and made computers difficult to use. In this respect it worked and did the job but the technology was slow and, sadly, take up of the new machine was lacklustre to say the least (usually down to the price tag).
Coming bundled with a spreadsheet (LisaCalc), a graphing tool (LisaGraph), a project scheduler (LisaProject), a drawing application (LisaDraw), a DEC VT terminal emulator (LisaTerminal) and various other bits and pieces, the Lisa was supposed to provide everything that users could possibly want (which ruined any chance of third party software development but such is life). Unfortunately for Lisa, Lisa OS was a couple of years ahead of its time. The technology (even at the seemingly ridiculous price that Apple were selling it for) simply wasn't up to the job and the result was that Lisa OS simply couldn't run at a decent pace. This was further hampered by the fact that, unlike the up and coming Macintosh, the Lisa hardware had to load everything from disk and it took an age to boot the machine (the Macintosh would go some way to fixing this by having certain elements of the low level software stored in ROM).
The Lisa OS went through several revisions that added functionality, improved performance and fixed various problems but by the time it reached version 3.1 the Lisa project was dead in the water. This was only further emphasised by the release of the MacWorks system that allowed the Lisa to run as a Macintosh (it even required Mac OS).
Birth Of The System Software: Mac OS 1
The Lisa had proven that the GUI could be made to work (albeit slowly), and at an affordable price (well, 'reasonably' afforable price). Power politics were going on in the anals of Apple though and the upcoming Macintosh was at the heart of it. Steve Jobs had assumed control of the Macintosh project and, after being ousted from the 'prestige' Lisa project, vowed to make Macintosh a better product - he also vowed to make the two machines as incompatible as possible. Macintosh would have a GUI operating system but it certainly wouldn't be Lisa OS.
Macintosh launched on 24th January 1984 and with it came the very first version of Mac OS. At this stage Mac OS existed as two distinct elements, the System and the Finder. Note: Although Finder and System would remain as two different components up until the release of System 5, for the purposes of simplicity I've grouped each major release of them as Mac OS . Therefore this initial release is titled 'Mac OS 1'.
System was the operating system 'proper' but Finder allowed users to actually browse the filing system and launch applications. Of course given the fact that the original Mac had no hard drive and a floppy drive of just 400Kb, the software gurus had their work cut out for them but they managed to squeeze both elements into a mere 216Kb - more than enough space for user data, applications etc. Of course by the time the desktop accessories (Calculator, Alarm Clock, Puzzle, Key Caps, Control Panel, Notepad and Scrapbook) and system fonts were added it just about filled the disk.
This first release of Mac OS introduced a lot to the world (even adding elements that had been missing in Lisa OS) and users found it very easy to pick up and use, but it was by no means perfect. Firstly it couldn't multi-task: users ran one application at a time and no more. Even the Finder was closed when another application ran. Secondly the file system MFS (Macintosh File System) didn't actually support folders. Ok it looked like it supported folders but in reality everything simply lived in the root of the disk and a flag told the Finder whether a file was in a folder or not. Even creating a folder was different as the 'New Folder' command didn't exist. Instead there was always a folder named "Empty Folder" - when you renamed it (to the name of the new folder that you wanted), a new 'Empty Folder' was created. There was also no concept of being able to 'nest' folders - so EVERYTHING existed at either the root folder or (at most) one folder down. As an added bonus, folders disappeared when the desktop was rebuilt AND they weren't displayed in File Open/Save dialogs - brilliant.
Mac OS 1.1
It didn't take Apple long to respond to user comments about the new OS though and a mere 4 months after the first release of System and Finder, Apple released System v1.1 and Finder v1.1g on the 5th May 1984. The big changes between the two releases were speed, and, after much code optimising, the revised System could startup 20% faster, and Finder could also start and shutdown faster (not only when the machine was started but also as the user opened and closed other applications). It wasn't all about startup and shutdown times though and Finder was also updated so that it could copy larger chunks of data - which sped up disk copying enormously!
For users though there were also changes on screen and Apple started to add new features and commands. The 'Clean Up' command appeared and it allowed users to tidy up the desktop and window contents. So too did the 'Set Startup' option which allowed users to specify which application they wanted to run when the machine first started up. And with the Mac starting to be viewed as a respectable desktop publishing environment Apple added Fonts and Font Mover. The next update though would take slightly longer than four months...
Evolution, Evolution, Evolution: Mac OS 2-6
Mac OS 2
The first update to Mac OS had taken a mere four months but Apple spent over eleven months working on the next release. Was it worth the wait though?
While System simply went up a single version (to v2.0), Finder underwent a major overhaul, jumping from v1.1g all the way to v4.1. The effort was worth it though and the new Finder was not only much faster but also introduced the ability to view folder contents as lists of small icons (rather than just large icons) (this could also be printed using the new 'Print Catalog' command in the File menu), and the 'Shutdown' and 'New Folder' commands (doing away with the "Empty Folder" approach from before).
Finder found itself under attack though. Previously when users closed the application they were using, Finder would automatically launch and allow him/her to browse folders or launch another application. The introduction of the MiniFinder changed this though and by selecting the MiniFinder command from the Special menu, users could choose their favourite applications. Now, instead of automatically launching Finder, the MiniFinder would display the list of chosen applications.
Perhaps the most impressive feature though was the ability to eject disks by simply dragging them to the Trash Can - Ok it's small but can you imagine living without it now? Previously users had to use the Eject Disk command.
Mac OS 3
Mac OS 2 had introduced some nice new features and commands, and had sped things up but hadn't really done anything spectacular. Apple realised that with the introduction of affordable hard disks it was time to make some changes. Mac OS 3 (System v3.0 and Finder v5.1) replaced the existing Macintosh File System (MFS) with a new Hierarchical File System (HFS). This was a major shake up of the operating system but it was well worth the effort, with the biggest bonus (for users) being the ability to nest folders. No longer did users have to create everything at the root level (or one folder down) but now they could create complex structures of folders within folders (and never be able to find anything again - or is that just me?).
Behind the scenes the new HFS technology made disk management far more efficient and this was critical given that the new OS was released with the new Mac Plus, a machine that was actively promoted as being able to use a hard drive (albeit an external one). Coupled with Finder's new Disk Cache code (which would store frequently used data in the same way that a memory cache did) and several other improvments to it, the latest Mac OS really did show the new machine off to its very best.
Mac OS 3.1-3.3
Any new technology is bound to suffer teething troubles though and Mac OS 3 was no exception with Apple hastily released an update less than a month later (System v3.1, Finder v5.2). Sadly this too was pretty bug ridden and less than 6 months after Mac OS 3's initial release, a second update was sent out (System 3.2, Finder 5.3). This new version of the software DID fix problems (about 30 in total) and it wasn't just insignificant problems, and amongst others it addressed data loss, system crashes, printing (the new software could actually print italic text - unlike the older version) and, possibly most importantly, the Calculator was fixed. Ever since the Mac Plus had been launched with its extended keyboard (which included a numeric keypad) users had complained that the button order of the keypad didn't match button order on the Calculator desktop accessory - this release finally fixed it.
Surely there couldn't still be bugs in Mac OS 3 though and, in reality, there weren't but it didn't stop Apple from releasing a third revision of the OS in January 1987 (System v3.3, Finder v5.4). This time though the revised version added new functionality rather than simply fix old functionality - there was also a fair amount of politics involved.
Apple had been touting its AppleShare technology ever since 1985 but hadn't managed to get the technology to work until 2 years later. AppleShare was heralded (by Apple) as being THE networking solution for offices and it allowed users to connect Macs and printers effortlessly and build networks without having to bang their heads against brick walls. After much frustration it was finally ready in January 1987 and Apple made sure they got it out into the big wide world as soon as possible.
Mac OS 4-4.1
Released in March 1987, Mac OS 4 (System v4.0, Finder v5.4) marked something of a first as it became the first version of Mac OS that went beyond the abilities of a Mac - by requiring 512Kb of RAM to run, it meant that the original Mac 128K was out in the cold. Beyond this claim to fame though Mac OS 4 actually brought very little new and was essentially released just to address several issues with AppleShare - the biggest two being a change to the Chooser (to include AppleShare) and a new AppleShare control panel component.
If Mac OS 4 was just a case of updating for updating's sake (rather than updating for bug fixes), Mac OS 4.1 (System v4.1, Finder v5.5) was very much more of the same. Released a mere one month after Mac OS 4, 4.1 was again primarily concerned with AppleShare and this time the OS was modified to work with the new AppleShare v1.1 that was needed by the brand new Macintosh II desktop machine. Another 'carry over' was the exclusion of a machine. This time the Mac 512 became outdated...mainly due to the fact that Mac OS now needed 1Mb to run. What a difference a month makes.
Version 4.1 did do a little bit more than just retread old territory though and the new version of the Finder could handle 'large capacity' drives - 'large' being anything over 32Mb!
Mac OS 5
Mac OS 5 (System v4.2, Finder v6.0) took 18 months to reach the market but it really did shake things up. It could be seen as the biggest change since Mac OS 3 in terms of functionality as it introduced multi-tasking. No longer were users restricted to just one application but now they could switch between them (using the 'Application' menu on the right of the menu bar) with applications that weren't currently being used being kept in the background and being given processor time when the 'foreground' application became idle. Admittedly there had been applications released already which offered this kind of functionality but this was the first time that Apple actually included it themselves. Sticking with the trend established for launching applications and browsing folders Apple called it 'MultiFinder' and, just like MiniFinder (which had been removed) and Finder, it could be selected via the Set Startup command (which itself had been improved).
As the Macintosh II series of desktops had been released, Mac OS 5 included a feature that applied purely to them: colour. Compact Macs were still black and white only but the desktop Macs allowed users to work in a colour environments and this new version of Mac OS at last allowed them to use it.
With major changes to the display (i.e. colour) and the MultiFinder, Apple could be excused for not doing anything else but Mac OS 5 included a swathe of new features: Control Panel could now have control functions added and removed (allowing it to control different elements of different machines), Backgrounder, DA Handler, Print Monitor, Easy Access and the ability to background print were all added. Also added was an improved 'About The Finder' dialog (which now displayed RAM usage for each application, just like the later 'About This Computer') and an improved copy progress indicator in the Finder which, by providing a 'Cancel' button, allowed users to cancel copying.
All of this new functionality didn't come without a cost though and Mac OS 5 was over 5 times the size of the previous version. On the plus side though (for confused users), Apple finally adopted a 'standard' naming convention and, instead of referring to System and Finder seperately, grouped them together under a single name of "System 5".
Mac OS 5.1
System 5 brought many changes to the Macintosh experience but the same could not be said of version 5.1 (System v4.3, Finder v6.0). Aside from adding a new version of the Apple HD SC Setup application and a new LaserWriter driver, it was practically identical to System 5 released less than 1 month earlier. And Apple wondered why users got confused.
Mac OS 6
System 5 had seen Apple adopt the far more familiar "System" naming convention but it was with System 6 that the approach became widely accepted and the concept of a distinct Finder and System was forgotten.
System 6 didn't really bring that much to the party in terms of user functionality but behind the scenes it was a different story. Apple worked hard to make System 6 far more stable than earlier versions of the OS. To the user System 6 was more a collection of enhancements of existing features: Colour support was improved but the Finder was still stuck in black and white (even on colour Macs), the MultiFinder was more heavily promoted, Erase Disk was enhanced so that it included a progress bar (and Cancel button), and the Get Info dialog now showed the file's version number.
Mac OS 6.0.1-6.0.8
Unlike in other sub-version releases, the updates to System 6 were less Earth shattering and most simply added support for extra machines (Note: System 6.0.7 is generally considered to be very 'buggy' and is best avoided). System 6.0.8 did add the ability to share printers and files with System 7 machines and this was important as Apple did support both System 6 and System 7 at the same time. The need for this came in because of the high system requirements needed by System 7 - many older Macs simply couldn't run it so, to keep users happy, Apple kept System 6 alive even while System 7 was available (they also tried to allow the two versions to co-operate and network with each other, hence System 6.0.8).
Around the corner though was possibly the biggest update to the OS so far...
Into The Big League: Mac OS 7
Mac OS 7
Mac OS had gone through numerous revisions and versions, introducing new features and technologies along the way but in 1990 Apple released what many people consider to be the biggest upgrade in the OS (until Mac OS X). System 7 was more than just an evolution of the existing software and for the first time the core of the system was rewritten so that it could use 32 bit addressing, which allowed users to use more than 8Mb of memory, and also allowed Virtual Memory to be setup (provided that the hardware supported it - which by that time most Macs did). Yes, users who'd bought Macintosh II machines in 1987 could finally take advantage of the built in Memory Management Unit provided by the Motorola CPU. Apple also revised the filing system and as of Mac OS 7, users could use hard drives with partitions of up to 4Gb - twice that available before!
Elsewhere System 7 saw the fusion of several existing features, turning them from being optional extras to built-in functions. The MultiFinder was now built in and the original (single task) Finder totally removed, and the AppleShare and AppleTalk networking and file sharing functions were now built directly into the operating system rather than being optional components.
Visually System 7 embraced colour wholeheartedly and, on a colour capable Mac, not only had a colour menu bar at the top of the screen but also made its windows look slightly three dimensional and introduced colour icons. Purely aesthetic but nice none the less. The Trash Can also got an overhaul, being treated as a 'proper' folder, items now placed in it had to be deleted using the Empty Trash command. Even the System Folder got an overhaul with Control Panels and Extensions now existing in their own individual folders.
There were brand new features though and System 7 was positively stuffed with all manner of new commands and functions: Aliases, AppleScript, WorldScript, PowerTalk, QuickTime, TrueType Fonts, Drag and Drop for text... Note: Not all of these features were bundled in System 7.0 (instead being available as optional elements to install) but as new revisions came along they slowly crept in and were installed by default.
Mac OS 7.0.1...
Just as with the earlier versions of Mac OS, System 7 also had several minor releases - unlike the earlier versions, System 7 had a seemingly never ending series of minor releases. First off the starting block was System 7.0.1 which included several minor bug fixes but it was also released alongside System 7.0.1p which was a version of the software specifically for use with the Performa machines (it also included several features specifically added for novice users).
System 7.1 was far more important though and, as well introducing a specific 'Fonts' folder within the System Folder (to store fonts), also marked the start of the Enabler system. This Enabler mechanism allowed new machines to run the OS without the need for a specific version release as had been the case with System 6. Previously any machine released AFTER the OS release required an updated version of the OS - now the old version of the OS could be used just as long as the appropriate 'Enabler' was available.
Next up came System 7.1.1 (a.k.a. "System 7 Pro") that took the AppleScript, QuickTime and PowerTalk components and bundled them in, rather than have them as seperate items. The introduction of the PowerPC CPU led to System 7.1.2 being released (which supported the new processor) - System 7.1.3 fixed the bugs in it.
So far System 7 had been evolving slowly but the release of System 7.5 saw a larger change as it integrated all of the features from the Performa releases, added a more helpful Apple Guide help system, and, possibly most importantly, added a progress bar to the startup screen.
And then Apple did an about face with System 7.5.3. Available in three different revisions (2, 2.1 and 2.2) System 7.5.3 fixed several minor bugs but each revision was needed to support new Mac machines - what happened to the Enabler mechanism is anyone's guess. More importantly it included support for hard drive partitions that were up to 2Tb in size - over 500 times that allowed before. System 7.5.5 combined all of these revisions and fixed yet more bugs. Amazingly System 7.5.4 was announced but never saw the light of day at all - the discovery of several major bugs at the last minute killed it off.
System 7.5.3 ignored the Enabler approach but the next release after 7.5.5 went and renamed the software again. After adopting the "System" naming convention with System 5, Apple rebranded the software "Mac OS" with the release of version 7.6 (this was possibly due to the release of several Mac 'clones' and Apple's attempts to create a strong brand name). As of Mac OS 7.6 Apple's intention was to release an update every six months and it promptly released Mac OS 7.6.1 six months later. It fixed a couple of bugs to version 7.6 and also marked the end of System 7.
End of An Era: Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8
Amazingly Mac OS 8 was originally supposed to be released as Mac OS 7.7 but Apple decided that it was such a radical overhaul and it introduced so many new features that a major revision was in order. The biggest change though was in the MultiFinder that, at last, was multi-threaded which in practical terms meant that users could do more than one thing at once. Now they could copy files while browsing folders or using applications. This worked on single processor machines but really came into its own on machines with more than one processor.
Just as Mac OS 7 had been a major leap visually over System 6, so too was Mac OS 8 a major leap forward. The menu bar was given a 3D look and feel (although Mac OS 7 users could achieve the same effect with Appearance manager) and this was extended throughout the Finder with everything looking far more rounded and substantial - it was all a world away from the black and white of Mac OS 1. Elsewhere the effect of the World Wide Web was being felt and Apple brought Personal Web Sharing to the Mac, allowing users to host their own web pages.
Mac OS 8.1
Although Mac OS 8 (and indeed Mac OS as a whole) still had a long life ahead of it, Mac OS 8.1 marked the end of the road for the venerable 68K based Macs, being the last version that could run on both the older 68K and newer PowerPC processors - from now onwards it would be PowerPCs only.
Mac OS 8.1 may have been the end of the road for the 68K Macs but that didn't stop it from introducing a major new piece of functionality - HFS+. The Hierarchical File System had been introduced way back in Mac OS 3 but with drives getting larger and larger it had led to enormous amounts of space being wasted. HFS+ used drive space far more efficient by dividing the drive into smaller segments and therefore wasting far less when saving small files.
Mac OS 8.5-8.6
The first version of Mac OS that would only run on PowerPC based machines, Mac OS 8.5's major claim to fame was the introduction of Sherlock. This was an advanced search program that worked not only on local drives but also on networks and even across the Internet.
By the time Mac OS 8.6 was released there was a wealth of new hardware available and Apple added improved support for USB and FireWire devices to the new release. They also added a 'Find By Content' option to Sherlock and the ability to run the all new Carbon API applications that pointed the way forward...
Where Next?
Mac OS 9
With Mac OS being PowerPC only since version 8.5, Mac OS 9 made no impact on the 68K community but it did bring some new features to the Apple world. Firstly it introduced the concept of multiple users. No longer did a machine simply exist as a machine and instead it could support several users, each with their own settings and configuratuion. Of course to do this users had to login at startup but it did allow machines that were shared between several users to feel far more personal.
Beyond multiple users, OS 9's biggest features were the ability to run AppleTalk over a TCP/IP connection and the addition of Software Update which kept users up to date regarding updates to the machine and downloaded them over the internet.
Version 9.1 improved stability and added a new menu item: Window. It was also the minimum version of Mac OS needed for the all new 'Classic Environment'. While the Mac world had been concerned almost purely with Mac OS, Apple had been working at shifting the OS in a totally new direction with the result being OS X. OS X was so radically new that it simply wouldn't run older software and, just as with the hardware switch from 68K to PowerPC, Apple knew that users would resist upgrading if they couldn't run their existing applications. The result was the 'Classic Environment' which can be thought of as an emulator - only in this case it was an emulator on a Mac to allow it BE a Mac. Now running alongside the new vision of Mac OS, OS 9's days were numbered and it was finally brought to a close with Mac OS 9.2.2.
Mac OS X
From the very first version of Mac OS, way back in 1984, the operating system had been a series of refinements and upgrades. With Apple's latest operating system, everything was scrubbed clean. Launched on the 24th March 2001, OS X inherited much from its predecessors in terms of functionality, ease of use, and visual look and feel but technically it was a totally different beast. Built on a Unix base (partially as a result of Next's NEXTSTEP), OS X was faster, more powerful and far, far more stable. It was better suited to the needs of modern users and the modern computing world, and offered a much better base on which to build on than the ageing Mac OS. What it wasn't though was backwards compatible.
To solve this Apple developed the 'Classic Environment' which allowed users to run certain versions of Mac OS 9 and therefore be able to use all of their old applications until new OS X versions became available.
Mac OS X may be a million miles away from the very first System and Finder released in 1984, it may offer far better performance, features and functions, it may be able to support technology and ideas never even dreamed of when Apple first squeezed the OS onto a mere 400Kb floppy disk, and it may take a piece of computing power many times more powerful than the original Mac 128 to run it, but it still owes it all to that original 216Kb of code that first wowwed the world with its funny graphical user interface and weird 'mouse' pointing device...
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