> Mac OS 8 was intended to be Mac OS 7.7, but Steve Jobs decided to > change the > version number to 8.0 so he could pull the plug on the clone market. > The > clone makers had contracts guaranteeing that Apple would license them > all > version of Mac OS 7. >
This decision was made by Gil Amelio before Jobs came back as part of the NeXT purchase. It was done because Apple found that the original Mac OS license terms were causing them to lose money and they needed to renegotiate. The terms were for all of System 7, so Gil cancelled Copland - because that was simply not happening anyway - and renamed 7.7 to 8.0 - the number Copland was spose to use - so that Apple could renegotiate the license with the clone makers demanding a higher royalty. It worked and clones were allowed to make Macs that supported up to 8.1 which was when Apple - now under Jobs - bought out the license from PowerComputing - the most successful clone maker - the others got the message quickly and dropped their licenses. Oddly enough a couple of clone makers were allowed to continue to have a relationship with Apple - such as Marathon who makes rack mounts for G3s and G4s - and sell "Macs" to markets Apple was not involved in. The extent of this was incredibly limited though and its unclear if they just repackaged Apple hardware or if they actually built something - the former seems more likely. Mac OS 9 was to be Mac OS 8.7 and in fact a couple of items within the OS are still labeled version 8.7 by mistake. System 7 was outlined in '86 at the same time as Pink - Apple's original attempt at an object oriented, next generation OS. Pink was named after the color index cards its specs were laid out on, System 7 was codenamed the same way and was known as Blue. System 8 and 9 are basically evolutions of System 7 as people have said where as System 6 and 7 were really different families of the Mac OS all together. Classic in Mac OS X is technically termed BlueBox and if you open up Terminal and run Top with Classic running you will see the process named TrueBlue ... System 7 is still with us, oddly enough, as Gil Amelio said - The fact is we live with System 7 and it will be around in some form or another for the next 10 years ... 1996. Perhaps it was the only thing that Gil really had a grip on during his time at Apple. He was right, we won't be rid of System 7 until we are rid of Classic, and if Classic hangs around in some form for another two years his prediction will come true. David -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
