Mac OS 8 is the eighth major release of the

classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Mac (computer), Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and end ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

for

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computers, released by

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

on July 26, 1997. It includes the largest overhaul of the classic Mac OS experience since the release of

System 7 System 7 (later named Mac OS 7) is the seventh major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. It was launched on May 13, 1991, to succeed System 6 with virtual memory, personal file shari ...

, approximately six years before. It places a greater emphasis on color than prior versions. Released over a series of updates, Mac OS 8 represents an incremental integration of many of the technologies which had been developed from 1988 to 1996 for Apple's ambitious OS named Copland. Mac OS 8 helped modernize the Mac OS while Apple developed its next-generation operating system,

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

(renamed in 2012 to OS X and then in 2016 to macOS). Mac OS 8 is one of Apple's most commercially successful software releases, selling over 1.2 million copies in the first two weeks. As it came at a difficult time in Apple's history, many

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

groups refused to traffic in the new OS, encouraging people to buy it instead. Mac OS 8.0 introduces the most visible changes in the lineup, including the

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

interface and a native

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

multithreaded Finder. Mac OS 8.1 introduces a new, more efficient file system named

HFS Plus HFS Plus or HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Extended) is a journaling file system developed by Apple Inc. It replaced the Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS 8. ...

. Mac OS 8.5 is the first version of the Mac OS to require a

processor. It features PowerPC native versions of

QuickDraw QuickDraw was the 2D graphics library and associated application programming interface (API) which is a core part of classic Mac OS. It was initially written by Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld. QuickDraw still existed as part of the libraries ...

AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control of Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in macOS in a package of automation tools. The term ''AppleScript'' may ...

, and the Sherlock search utility. Its successor,

Mac OS 9 Mac OS 9 is the ninth and final major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever", highlight ...

, was released on October 23, 1999.

Copland

Starting in 1988, Apple's next-generation operating system, which it originally envisioned to be "System 8" was codenamed Copland. It was announced in March 1994 alongside the introduction of the first PowerPC Macs. Apple intended Copland as a fully modern system, including native PowerPC code,

intelligent agent In artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent is an entity that Machine perception, perceives its environment, takes actions autonomously to achieve goals, and may improve its performance through machine learning or by acquiring knowledge r ...

s, a

microkernel In computer science, a microkernel (often abbreviated as μ-kernel) is the near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system (OS). These mechanisms include low-level address space management, ...

, a customizable interface named

Appearance Manager The Appearance Manager is a component of Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 that controls the overall look of the Macintosh graphical user interface widgets and supports several themes. It was originally developed for Apple Computer, Apple's ill-fated Copla ...

, a

hardware abstraction layer Hardware abstractions are sets of routines in software that provide programs with access to hardware resources through programming interfaces. The programming interface allows all devices in a particular class ''C'' of hardware devices to be acc ...

, and a

relational database A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...

integrated into the Finder. Copland was to be followed by Gershwin, which promised

memory protection Memory protection is a way to control memory access rights on a computer, and is a part of most modern instruction set architectures and operating systems. The main purpose of memory protection is to prevent a process from accessing memory that h ...

spaces and full

preemptive multitasking In computing, preemption is the act performed by an external scheduler — without assistance or cooperation from the task — of temporarily interrupting an executing task, with the intention of resuming it at a later time. This preemptive sc ...

. The system was intended to be a full rewrite of the Mac OS, and Apple hoped to beat Microsoft

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

to market with a development cycle of only one year. The Copland development was hampered by many missed deadlines. The release date was first pushed back to the end of 1995, then to mid-1996, late 1996, and finally to the end of 1997. With a dedicated team of 500 software engineers and an annual budget of $250 million, Apple executives began to grow impatient with the project continually falling behind schedule. In August 1996, Apple chief technology officer

Ellen Hancock Ellen Mooney Hancock (April 15, 1943 – April 19, 2022) was a technology manager from the United States who worked for IBM and Apple, among others. Early life and education Hancock was born April 15, 1943, in the Bronx, New York City, and raise ...

froze development of Copland and Apple began a search for an operating system developed outside the company. This ultimately led to Apple buying

NeXT NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

and developing Rhapsody which would eventually evolve into

in 2001 (now named macOS). At the

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is currently held at Apple Park in California. The event is used to showcase new software and technologies in the macO ...

in January 1997, Apple

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(CEO)

Gil Amelio Gilbert Frank Amelio (born March 1, 1943) is an American technology executive. Amelio worked at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the semiconductor division of Rockwell International, and was also the CEO of National Semiconductor and Appl ...

announced that, rather than release Copland as one monolithic release, Copland features would be phased into the Mac OS following a six-month release cycle. These updates began with Mac OS 7.6, released during

WWDC The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is currently held at Apple Park in California. The event is used to showcase new software and technologies in the macO ...

. Mac OS 8.0, released six months later, continued to integrate Copland technologies into the Mac OS.

Mac OS 8.0

Developed with the

codename A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in ...

"Tempo", Mac OS 8.0 was announced on July 22, 1997, and released on July 26. The early beta releases of the product which were circulated to developers and Apple internal audiences, were branded as Mac OS 7.7, superseding the then-current release, Mac OS 7.6. The software was renamed Mac OS 8 before final release. Major changes in this version included the Platinum theme, a Finder which was PowerPC-native and multithreaded, and greater customization of the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

. Other features introduced in Mac OS 8.0 include the following: *Customization of system fonts and increased use of the user-set accent color. *Pop-up

context menu A context menu (also called contextual, shortcut, and pop up or pop-up menu) is a menu in a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears upon user interaction, such as a right-click mouse operation. A context menu offers a limited set of choic ...

s, accessed via ctrl-click with a one-button mouse. *Pop-up (or tabbed) windows in the Finder. *Spring-loaded folders. *Live scrolling. *WindowShade widget in window titlebars. *Multithreaded Finder — file copy operations run in a separate thread and don't block the Finder UI. *Redesigned color picker. *Desktop Pictures control panel, allowing photographs to be set as the desktop background; not only tiled patterns. *Simple Finder, an option which reduces Finder menus to basic operations, to avoid overwhelming new users. *Relocation of the 'Help' menu from an icon at the right end of the menu bar to a standard textual menu positioned after the application's menus. *A faster Apple Guide, featuring

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

help pages. *Native support of

Apple Filing Protocol The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), formerly AppleTalk Filing Protocol, is a proprietary protocol, proprietary Communications protocol, network protocol, and part of the Apple File Service (AFS), that offers file services for macOS, classic Mac OS, ...

over IP. *Performance improvements to

virtual memory In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage, is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a ver ...

, AppleScript execution and system startup times. *Faster desktop rebuilding.

Mac OS 8.1

Released on January 19, 1998, Mac OS 8.1 was the last version of the Mac OS to run on Macs with

Motorola 68000 series The Motorola 68000 series (also known as 680x0, m68000, m68k, or 68k) is a family of 32-bit computing, 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and ...

processors. It addressed performance and reliability improvements. It introduced a new file system named

HFS+ HFS Plus or HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Extended) is a journaling file system developed by Apple Inc. It replaced the Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS 8. ...

, also named Mac OS Extended, which supported large file sizes and made more efficient use of larger hard drives via using a smaller block size. To upgrade, users must reformat the hard drive, which deletes the entire contents of the drive. Some third-party utilities later appeared that preserved the user's data while upgrading to HFS+. The 68040 systems do not support booting from HFS+ disks; the boot drive must be HFS. Mac OS 8.1 was the first system to have a

Universal Disk Format Universal Disk Format (UDF) is an open, vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media. In practice, it has been most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, supplanting ISO 9660. Due to its desig ...

(UDF) driver, allowing for

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

support on the Mac for the first time. It also shipped with the new

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

runtime (JDK 1.1.3). 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 were created on PCs running

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and supporting

FAT32 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...

. Mac OS 8.1 is the earliest version of the Mac OS that can run

Carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

applications. Carbon support requires a PowerPC processor and installation of the CarbonLib software from Apple's website; it is not a standard component of Mac OS 8.1. Applications needing later versions of CarbonLib will not run on Mac OS 8.1. More recent versions of CarbonLib require Mac OS 8.6. As part of Apple's agreement with Microsoft, 8.1 included

Internet Explorer 3 Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (IE3) is the third version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser which was announced in March 1996, and was released on August 13, 1996 by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and on January 8, 1997 for Apple Ma ...

initially, but soon switched to

Internet Explorer 4 Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (IE4) is the fourth version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser that Microsoft unveiled in Spring of 1997, and released on September 22, 1997, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions availa ...

as its default browser. Mac OS 8.1 was free for Mac OS 8 owners and was available in February 1998 via the apple.com website.

Mac OS 8.5

Released October 16, 1998, Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to run solely on Macs equipped with a

processor. If Mac OS 8.5 is installed on a 68k system, the

Sad Mac The Macintosh startup sequence for Apple Macintosh (or Mac) computers includes hardware tests and diagnostics which can trigger the startup chimes and/or other instances of success or failure of the startup routines. The startup sequence provid ...

error screen will appear. As such, it replaced some, but not all, of the 680x0 code with

code, improving system performance by relying less on 680x0 emulation. It introduced the Sherlock search utility. This 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 allowed users to search the contents of other websites. Mac OS 8.5 includes several performance improvements. Copying files over a network was faster than prior versions and Apple advertised it as being "faster than Windows NT".

was also rewritten to use only PowerPC code, which improved AppleScript execution speed significantly. Font Smoothing, system-wide

antialiasing Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used be ...

for type was also introduced. The

format for online help, first adopted by the Finder's Info Center in Mac OS 8, was now used throughout. This made it easier for software companies to write online help systems. The PPP control panel was removed and replaced with Remote Access, which provides the same functionality but also allows connections to

AppleTalk Remote Access AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) was a protocol stack that allowed AppleTalk to be run over modems. It became a fairly major product for Apple Computer in the early to mid-1990s when their first portable and laptop computers were available (and very p ...

(ARA) servers. The installation process was simplified considerably in Mac OS 8.5. In earlier versions the installer worked in segments and often required a user to click to continue in between stages of the installation. This was a holdover from the days when the OS was distributed on multiple floppy disks, disk swapping promoting a natural segmentation model. 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 onward, 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" themes. This radical changing of the computer's appearance was removed at the last minute, and appeared only in beta versions, though users could still make (and share) their own themes and use them with the OS. The Appearance control panel was also updated to support proportional scroll bars, and added the option for both scroll arrows to be placed at the bottom of a scroll bar. Along with themes support, 8.5 was the first version to support

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels. Although especially ...

. Icons now had

24-bit Notable 24-bit machines include the CDC 924 – a 24-bit version of the CDC 1604, CDC lower 3000 series, SDS 930 and SDS 940, the ICT 1900 series, the Elliott 4100 series, and the Datacraft minicomputers/ Harris H series. The term SWORD ...

color (16.7 million colors) and an

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

alpha channel In computer graphics, alpha compositing or alpha blending is the process of combining one image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render picture elements (pixels) in separate pass ...

, allowing for transparency-translucency effects. The ''application palette'' made its debut with 8.5 – the application menu at the right side of the menu bar could be resized to show the active application's name, or 'torn off' into a palette of buttons. This palette could be customized in many ways, by removing the window frame and changing the size and layout of the buttons. Apple provided no user interface to set these options, instead making them available via AppleScript and

Apple Events Apple events are the message-based interprocess communication mechanism in Mac OS, first making an appearance in System 7 and supported by every version of the classic Mac OS since then and by macOS. Apple events describe "high-level" events such ...

and relying on third parties to provide a user interface for the task. By setting it to display horizontally and turning off the window border, the palette's look and function could be configured to resemble the

task bar.

Mac OS 8.5.1

Mac OS 8.5.1, released December 7, 1998, was a minor update to Mac OS 8.5 that fixes several bugs that caused crashes and data corruption.

Mac OS 8.6

Mac OS 8.6 was released on May 10, 1999, as a free update for Mac users running 8.5 and 8.5.1. It added support to the

Mac OS nanokernel The Mac OS nanokernel is an operating system kernel that serves as the basis of most PowerPC based system software versions 7 through 9 of the classic Mac OS, predating Mac OS X. The initial revision of this software is a single tasking system w ...

to handle preemptive tasks via the Multiprocessing Services 2.x and later developer API. Mac OS 8.6 improved PowerBook battery life, added Sherlock 2.1, and is faster and much more stable than either version of 8.5.x. It is the first version of Mac OS to display the version number as part of the startup screen. However, there is no process separation; the system still uses cooperative multitasking between processes, and even a process that is Multiprocessing Services-aware still has a portion that runs in the "blue task", which also runs all programs that are unaware of it, and was the only task that can run 68k code.

Reception

While CNET's initial review of Mac OS 8 was more circumspect, its editorial staff named it one of the best products of 1997 in their year-end roundup. ''MacHome Journal'' said "OS 8 is a substantial upgrade with greatly enhanced capabilities, particularly for Power Macs. It isn't simply a minor bug fix, as the fractional upgrades to System 7 have been, so it should be high on your list of scheduled software purchases".

Versions

Compatibility

Notes

References

External links

* from

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...