Mac OS 8

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{{Infobox_OS | name = Mac OS 8 | logo = Image:Mac OS Logo.png | screenshot = Image:MacOS81 screenshot.png | caption = Mac OS 8.1 desktop | developer = Apple Computer | family = Classic Mac OS | source_model = Closed source | ui = Apple platinum | working_state = Historic, not supported | latest_release_version = 8.6.0 | latest_release_date = May 10 1999 | kernel_type = Monolithic until 8.6, Nanokernel | license = Proprietary | | website = N/A }}

Mac OS 8 is a series of versions of the Mac OS that supported a transition through major changes in the Macintosh hardware platform. Its earliest release still supported Macs with Motorola 68040; its later releases (Mac OS 8.1 and 8.5) shipped with PowerPC G3 systems such as the early iMacs and PowerMac G3s. It is most closely associated with the "second generation," PowerPC-based Macs that Apple sold in the interim.

1 Mac OS 8.0
2 Mac OS 8.1
3 Mac OS 8.5
4 Mac OS 8.5.1
5 Mac OS 8.6
6 Versions of Mac OS 8
7 External links

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Mac OS 8.0

Version 8.0 was released on July 26, 1997, developed under the codename "Tempo." Improvements over System 7 included a multi-threaded Finder, a three-dimensional platinum appearance, and a number of performance related improvements to virtual memory, AppleScript execution times and system startup times. Help was available in the form of an Info Center (by means of html pages stored on the user's hard drive, with links to the Internet), as well as previously used systems such as Balloon Help and Apple Guide. It was the first client OS to support AFP over IP in addition to standard AppleTalk. The release also introduced the "Simple Finder," an optional configuration of the Finder which reduced the menus to basic operations, in order to avoid overwhelming new users.

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Mac OS 8.1

Released January 19 1998, Mac OS 8.1 was the last version to run on both 680x0- and PowerPC-based Macintoshes.

It introduced the new, optional HFS Plus file system format (also known as the Mac OS Extended Format), which supported large file sizes, longer file names (up to 255 characters) and made more efficient use of the space on larger drives due to using a smaller block size. To upgrade, the user had to wipe out the contents of his or her entire hard drive before upgrading to HFS Plus, although some third-party utilities later appeared that held a drive's data steady while upgrading to HFS Plus.

Mac OS 8.1 also included an enhanced version of PC Exchange, allowing Macintosh users to see the long file names (up to 255 characters) on files that had been created on PCs running Windows 95.

It is the earliest version of the Mac OS that can run Carbon apps.

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Mac OS 8.5

Released October 17 1998, Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to run solely on Macs equipped with a PowerPC processor. As such it replaced some but not all of the 680x0 code with PowerPC code, improving system performance by relying less on 680x0 emulation. Parties interested in such things have noted that there are still many strings in the System file which make references to obsolete, unsupported 68k machinery.

It introduced the Sherlock search utility; Sherlock allowed users to search the contents of documents on hard drives (if the user had let it index the drive), or extend a search to the Internet. Sherlock plug-ins started appearing at this time; these plug-ins allowed users to search the contents of other websites.

Mac OS 8.5 included a number of performance improvements. Copying files over a network was faster than previous versions and Apple advertised it as being "faster than Windows NT". AppleScript was also re-written to use only PowerPC code, which significantly improved AppleScript execution speed.

The HTML format for online help, first adopted by the Finder's Info Centre in Mac OS 8, was now used throughout. This made it easier for software companies to write online help systems, but would contribute to making physical manuals become a thing of the past.

Mac OS 8.5 was the first version of the Mac OS to support "themes," or skins, which could change the default Apple Platinum look of the Mac OS to "Gizmo" or "HiTech." This radical changing of the computer's appearance was removed at the last minute, and appeared only in the beta (The beta of Mac OS 8.5 was known as Mac OS 8.2), though, users could make (and share) their own theme and use it with the Mac OS.

In addition to the themes support, 8.5 was the first version to support 32-bit icons. Icons now had millions of colors (16.7m) and an 8-bit alpha channel, allowing for transparency effects.

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Mac OS 8.5.1

Mac OS 8.5.1, released December 7 1998, was a minor update to Mac OS 8.5 that fixed a number of bugs that were causing crashes and data corruption.

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Mac OS 8.6

Released May 10 1999, Mac OS 8.6 added a nanokernel that can handle preemptive tasks and it's interface was Multiprocessing Services 2.x and later, but there was still no process separation, the system still use cooperative multitasking between processes and even a process that was Multiprocessing Services aware still had a portion that run in the blue task, a task that also runs all programs that are not aware of it and the only task that can run 68k code.

Still, this free update for Mac users running 8.5 and 8.5.1 was faster and much more stable than either versions of 8.5.x, and is by some considered the most stable Classic OS. It was also the first Mac OS to have the OS version displayed as part of the startup screen. Many hardware upgrades require a minimum of MacOS 8.6.

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Versions of Mac OS 8

Version	Release Date	Changes	Codename	Price
8.0	July 26, 1997	Initial release	Tempo	$99
8.1	January 19, 1998	HFS+ file file format, Carbon support	Bride of Buster	Free Upgrade
8.5	October 17, 1998	PPC-only, Sherlock, Themes, 32-bit icons	Allegro	$99
8.5.1	December 7, 1998	Crash, memory leaks and data corruption fixes	The Ric Ford Release	Update
8.6	May 10, 1999	Multi-tasking, support for multiple CPUs.	Veronica	Free Upgrade
Version	Release Date	Changes	Codename	Price