Apple Computer Inc set out the roadmap for its future operating system releases yesterday at its Developers Conference in San Jose, giving software developers a path to Mac OS X (ten), for delivery early in 1999. Mac OS X, also once known under the names Sonata and Cyan, will include pre-emptive multitasking, memory protection and advanced virtual memory, said Apple’s interim CEO Steve Jobs, and be fully optimized for the G3 PowerPC processor. Developers will get their hands on the first versions early in 1999, for final shipment onto the market in the fall. Leading up to that release, Jobs promised Mac OS 8.5, code-named Allegro, due this fall, followed by Mac OS 8.6, an update for Allegro due in the first quarter of next year. As suspected (CI No 3,356), Rhapsody, the MacOS replacement Apple acquired from Jobs’ NeXT Computer Inc for $400m at the beginning of 1997, now has a reduced role in Apple’s future, mainly, it appears, as a transition aid to Mac OS X. Instead of the total rewrite that Rhapsody would have required, Mac OS X will need only a tune up of around 10% of the code of existing MacOS applications, a far less daunting transition. A first customer release of Rhapsody – for publishing and internet solutions says Apple – will be launched later this year, and will contain the microkernel based core OS and advanced development environment that will eventually find their way into Mac OS X. Based on a subset of the current Macintosh application programming interfaces, Mac OS X will use 6,000 cleaned APIs along with some new ones for its development environment, dubbed Carbon. Early Carbon specifications and a porting tool called Carbon Dater are available now for G3 systems, and will work on Mac OS 8 via a library.
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