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Looking Back At OS X's Origins

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-fail-at-history dept.

DJRumpy writes "Macworld Weekly has an interesting look at the history of OS X from its early origins in 1985 under NeXT and the Mach Kernel to Rhapsody, to its current iteration as OS X. An interesting, quick read if anyone is curious about the timeline from Apple's shaky '90s to their current position in the market. There's also an interesting link at the bottom talking about the difference between the original beta and the release product that we see today."

8 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. our motto... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Apple Computer -- proudly going out of business since 1977!"

    1. Re:our motto... by Lev13than · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Apple in the early 90s was a terrible company with shitty, slow, bug-ridden products (maybe I'm biased - I owned a Performa 5200) and terrible customer service. It certainly didn't help that their share price was less than a loaf bread.

      To understand how they got from 1996 to where they are today you need to remember that, flow of funds aside, it was actually NeXT that acquired Apple. Apple didn't pick up an operating system - NeXT acquired a hardware distribution channel.

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
  2. What the article doesn't mention by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is Steves war on color in the Operating System. Every single release of OS X has removed significant amounts of color from the operating system and applications. The latest iTunes is just another example of that, I absolutely hate it because I cannot quickly glance at the icons and figure out which one is which. Maybe it's just a rationalization 20 years later for why Apple didn't adopt color graphics earlier.

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:What the article doesn't mention by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Steve Jobs was fanatical about WYSIWYG on the Mac. Since there were few color printers available in the 80's, it was common knowledge that Jobs felt that color display violated his WYSIWYG philosophy.

      The good old days when Desktop Publishing was the new technology...

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    2. Re:What the article doesn't mention by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Colors in OS X are often muted because of people doing visual work. Many (if not all) of Apple's Pro apps use grayscale window controls and highlights regardless of what the rest of the system is configured to use.

  3. Blasphemy! by D+Ninja · · Score: 5, Funny

    The REAL history of OS X...

    And on the sixth day, Steve Jobs said, "Let there be OS X" and OS X was created, and it was good.

    That's how it goes, right?

  4. There was no NeXTstep 4.2 by WillAdams · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was OPENSTEP 4.2 --- which Apple actually sold for a time, along w/ providing free Y2K patches and free upgrades to NeXTstep 3.3 or OPENSTEP 4.2 to license holders of earlier versions.

    Amusing rumour is that ``Yellow Box'' was so named because Bill Gates, when asked if he'd develop for NeXT stated, ``Develop for it? I'll piss on it.''

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/14/gates_says_jobs_saved_apple/

    As nice as Mac OS X is though, I'd still rather have NeXTstep:

      - Display PostScript
      - built-in PANTONE colour library
      - vertical, movable menu bar w/ tear off menus and pop-up menus
      - top-level Print, Hide, Quit and Services menu
      - TeX provided by default and supported by the nifty TeXview.app
      - inspector-provided sort options for Miller-column filebrowser view
      - re-sizeable Shelf which can store multiple file selections as a single icon
      - nifty apps which made use of Services and Display PostScript like beYAP.app, Altsys Virtuoso, poste.app &c.

    William

    --
    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  5. Re:Best. Gates Quote. Ever. by bonch · · Score: 5, Informative

    That pretty much sums it up right there. I know its probably meaningless for most people in the world, but when those who claim to be "in the know" start taking sides between Apple and MS on "innovation," they really need to just check that right there.

    You're buying into Bill Gates' bullshit. Apple didn't "steal" anything; they had an agreement with Xerox. Many of the guys who worked on the Mac were hired from Xerox.

    Several conventions originated at Apple, such as the "File Edit View Window Help" menu or the phrase "cut and paste." Lisa was already in development when Apple visited Xerox to see what they were working on, so while they were influenced by what they saw, it wasn't an inspiration to go in some whole new direction.

    Much of this is detailed at Herztfeld's site, including sketches and screenshots of their GUI work.