Apple Computer Inc characterises System 7.5 as the most popular operating system upgrade the company has ever released. It reckons that by next quarter, when System 7.5 will have been on the market for little under a year, more people will have bought it than have bought System 7.1 since that operating system’s release 30 months years ago. The figures show an installed based for System 7.5 of around 5.5m. Upgrades to System 7.5 that will support the second generation of Power Macs will ship before Copland, code-name for System 8, which is still expected in mid-1996, although Apple has announced no definite dates. The enhancements to 7.5, which were promised more than a year ago (CI No 2,370) include a native version of Apple Guide that runs faster; graphics and multimedia support with three-dimensional capabilities as standard; Open Transport, a networking scheme that provides native support for Internet Packet Exchange and TCP/IP; PowerTalk, mail-enabling middleware; and QT Conferencing, document and videoconferencing technology. But Apple is still not saying when Copland will ship, nor what it will be called, but it will ship as shrink-wrapped software and come under the same pricing strategy as previous Mac OS releases. Last month at its worldwide developer conference, where developers got to see Copland working, Apple said it would unveil Copland’s full schedule in 90 days. Although we’ve already detailed Copland extensively (CI Nos 2,565, 2,370 & 2,432), Apple’s latest comments are that Copland will have the best user interface yet, the best media-rich environment, and integrated communications and collaboration. Latest tweaks include improvements to input-output via changes in algorithms. Apple describes the input-output as having a modular design and a hardware abstraction layer for improved portability between processors – just in case the world tires of the PowerPC, no doubt.
