![[macface.gif]](mac.gif)
The only shock users upgrading to system 7.5.1 might experience is the new face of the Macintosh Operating System. During the boot process of previous system versions, the user was greeted with a dialog box saying Welcome to Macintosh. You won't see that tired-out box in system 7.5.1 and above. Apple replaced it with the new icon shown above, left representing their operating system, recently named Mac OS. The new symbol, based on the happy Macintosh face of old combined with a human-face profile, will make it easier for Macintosh users to identify whether a product is compatible with their computer, not unlike the Microsoft Windows icon. This is especially necessary since Power Computing introduced the first Macintosh clone in May. The Apple Macintosh is no longer the only computer on the market using the Mac OS.
No matter how good a program is there is probably something more
that you'd like it to do. But at the same time, it probably does things
you'll never do. Apple has joined with
IBM, Lotus,
Adobe, and Novell to set standards for a customizable component software
architecture called OpenDoc. With OpenDoc, to be released later this
year, users access multiple part editors and services in a single Open
Doc document. Not only does this mean you can combine parts from
traditionally competing products and use them all together, but you can
combine modules to take care of your word processor, spreadsheet, and
graphics needs without shuffling through multiple applications.
The first major rewrite of the Macintosh
Operating System promises many long awaited and badly needed
improvements. A big criticism about system 7.5 is its memory
requirements. Even if you run a clean system (with very few third-party
extensions) its hard to get by with only 8 megabytes of RAM and expect
to do much more than run one major application.
With
system 8, code-name Copland, you can use the entire system, with all
its bells and whistles, and have plenty of room left over for
applications on 8 megabytes of RAM. You'll also experience fewer
crashes with Copland. In current versions of the Mac OS, its up to each
program to cooperate and not steal allocated blocks of memory. With
Copland's protected memory, it s less likely for applications to bump
heads with each other and with the operating system. And because
Copland is multi-threaded, if an application does crash, you can just
reboot that application without disrupting processes like printing.
Copland addresses the growing networking needs with the a product
they call OpenTransport. OpenTransport, the replacement for MacTCP, is
currently released with the new PCI PowerMacs such as the Power Mac
9500, and soon released 8500 and 7500. It will be available e for other
Macintosh computers later this year. Currently it supports AppleTalk,
Novell IPX, and TCP/IP. PPP and SLIP will not be supported at the time
of OpenTransport's initial release, but will be at a later date.
For more information on Copland, Open Doc, OpenTransport, and
other Macintosh related issues, check out the following WWW sites:
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