Games - Mac OS history

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	Games - Mac OS history

On January 24th, 1984 Apple Computer introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer, with the Macintosh 128K model, which came bundled with the Mac OS operating system, then known as the System Software. The Macintosh is widely regarded as, and credited for, popularizing the graphical user interface. The Mac OS has been pre-installed on almost every Macintosh computer ever sold. The operating system is also sold separately to the computer. The original Mac OS was heavily based on the Lisa OS, previously released by Apple for the Lisa computer in 1983, and also used concepts licensed from the Xerox PARC Xerox Alto which Steve Jobs and several other Macintosh team members had been previewed in December, 1979.

Also in 1984, Apple partnered with Microsoft, in an agreement where Microsoft would create versions of Word and Multiplan (Predecessor to Excel) for the Mac OS. For the majority of the 1980s, the Mac OS lacked a serious amount of software compatible with it. With the introduction of System 7 more software began to become available for the platform. System 6 was the first major change of the operating system, although the Mac OS kernel was kept the same from the System 7 revision until the last revision of the OS, Mac OS 9.

Early history

Development

The Macintosh project started in early 1979 with Jef Raskin, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. In September 1979, Raskin was given permission to start hiring for the project and was, in particular, looking for an engineer that could put together a prototype. Bill Atkinson, a member of the Lisa team, introduced him to Burrell Smith, a service technician who had been hired earlier that year.

In January 1981, Steve Jobs completely took over the Macintosh project. Jobs and a number of Apple engineers visited Xerox PARC in December 1979, three months after the Lisa and Macintosh projects had begun. After hearing about the pioneering GUI technology being developed at Xerox PARC from former Xerox employees such as Jef Raskin, Steve Jobs negotiated a visit to see the Xerox Alto computer and Smalltalk development tools in exchange for Apple stock options. The final Lisa and Macintosh operating systems most used concepts from the Xerox Alto, but many elements of the graphical user interface were created by Apple including the menubar and pop-up menus, the click-and-drag theory was developed by Jef Raskin.

Unlike the IBM PC, which used 8 kB of system ROM for power-on self-test (POST) and basic input/output chores (BIOS), the Mac ROM was significantly larger (64 kB) and held key OS code. Much of the original Mac ROM was coded by Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the original Macintosh team. He was able to conserve some of the precious ROM space by interleaving some of the assembly language code. In addition to coding the ROM, he also coded the kernel, the Macintosh Toolbox and some of the desktop accessories (DAs) as well. The icons of the operating system, which represented folders and application software were designed by Susan Kare, who later designed the icons for Microsoft Windows 3.0. Steve Capps wrote the Macintosh Finder and Macintosh system utilities.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mac OS history ]

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