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My goal for this page is to provide a clear but brief summary of Apple's OS strategy
as presented at this year's WWDC at the San Jose Convention Center. For a more in-depth
evaluation, check out the NUMUG
Trip Report.
The Rhapsody OS rests on the core technology taken from the Next OS (called Mach),
and includes memory protection, pre-emptive multi-tasking and many other features
of a modern operating system. One way of looking at it is that it rests in a Unix
shell (in fact, during one demonstration, they showed a Mac running in this Unix
environment).
Layered upon this Core OS are the Mac OS APIs (known as the
blue box) and the Openstep APIs (known as the yellow
box). These APIs are integrated into one system providing the Macintosh with
a user friendly interface (which we have come to expect from a Mac), an advanced
look and feel (extended GUI features and more user customization), and a powerful
memory protected, pre-emptive multi-tasking core (e.g., program crashes will no longer
cause the system to crash).
The Java APIs are also going to be built into the operating system rather than layered
on top of it as they are now. This system-level support of Java provides a stronger
foundation for writing Java applets and applications for the Mac, and faster executing
code.
The most exciting news delivered at the conference was the announcement, and demonstration,
of cross-platform support. A developer can write an application in Rhapsody
on the Macintosh, and without changing any code, recompile the application to have
it run in Windows 95 and Windows NT.
First of all, there will be a version of Rhapsody which actually runs on Intel machines.
Pre-Rhapsody Mac applications will not be able to run on this machine, but all Rhapsody
Mac applications will. This also gives the Intel machine the complete look and feel
of a Macintosh running Rhapsody (natively, not on top of Windows).
For those who prefer the Windows look and feel, the Yellow Box will also run on Windows
95 and Windows NT. This means you can take an application written for Rhapsody on
the Mac, re-compile it in the above environment without changing any code, and the
application will run in Windows 95 and Windows NT with the Windows look and feel.
Finally, the Yellow Box will be able to run on top of the Mac OS, allowing Rhapsody
applications to run in "emulation" mode on Macs not running the Rhapsody
OS.
To help clarify all the above, here is are some brief definitions of terms:
- Mac OS
- The old Mac OS (7.6, 8.0, etc.) running on raw hardware (Mac and Mac clones).
- Mach
- The Core OS of Rhapsody (from Next technology) incorporating memory protection,
pre-emptive multi-tasking and other modern OS features.
- Blue Box
- A virtual hardware system layered on Mach with the old Mac OS
running on it.
- Yellow Box
- A set of OpenStep APIs together with new Apple APIs, including Java.
- Rhapsody on PowerPC
- Blue Box and Yellow Box integrated, layered on top of Mach on top of PowerPC
hardware.
- Rhapsody on Intel
- Yellow Box layered on top of Mach on top of Intel hardware.
- Duel OS Strategy
- Apple will be supporting duel-operating systems: Mac OS, and Rhapsody.
The current version of Mac OS is 7.6.1, with 8.0 scheduled for July of this year.
I currently have a beta version of 8.0, and it has some really nice improvements.
If anyone is interested in hearing more about 8.0 features, feel free to e-mail
me.
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