Rhapsody (OS)
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Rhapsody was the code name given to Apple Computer's next-generation operating system during the period of its development between Apple's purchase of NeXT in late 1996 and the announcement of Mac OS X in 1998.
Design
The defining features of the operating system were a Mach microkernel, a BSD operating system layer, the Yellow Box object-oriented frameworks from NeXTSTEP, and the Blue Box compatibility environment for running "Classic" Macintosh applications, which was only released on the version for PowerPC.Rhapsody was first demonstrated at the 1997 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). There were two subsequent Developer Releases for computers with Intel x86 or PowerPC processors. The full version was intended for release in spring of 1998. At the 1998 MacWorld Expo in New York, Steve Jobs announced that Rhapsody would be released as Mac OS X Server. It ultimately shipped in 1999, in the form of Mac OS X Server 1.0, and its code base was forked into Darwin, the open source underpinnings of Mac OS X.
The PowerPC version of Rhapsody can be run on most real hardware but is unable to run on any current emulators. The x86 version of the OS runs on Connectix Virtual PC 4.2 and older computers with Pentium processors.
Name
The name is likely a reference to two things:
- To composer George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." In addition, Gershwin's name was used by Apple as the code name another next-generation operating system, the successor to the never-completed Copland operating system (Copland itself was named after another American composer, Aaron Copland). Apple at the time used a series of music-related code names for operating systems, including Tempo (Mac OS 8), Allegro (Mac OS 8.5), and Sonata (Mac OS 9).
- To Purdue University's oft-utilised NeXT shareware and source FTP repository, which was located at an assortment of music-inspired hostnames, among them symphony.cc.purdue.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu, and rhapsody.cc.purdue.edu.
See also
External links
- [NeXT Archive]
- [Shaw's Rhapsody Resource Page]
- [Toastytech GUI Gallery] - Screenshots of Rhapsody Developer Release 2
- [GUIdebook > Screenshots > Rhapsody DR2] - Screenshots of the Rhapsody (Intel version) and their components
| History of the Apple Macintosh Operating Systems |
|---|
| Mac OS>Classic Mac OS (History): System 6 · System 7 · Mac OS 8 · Mac OS 9 |
| Mac OS X (History of Mac OS X>History): Public Beta · v10.0 · v10.1 · v10.2 · v10.3 · v10.4 · v10.5 |
| Mac OS X Server: Rhapsody (OS)>Rhapsody · Mac OS X Server 1.0 · Mac OS X Server |
| Other OS projects: A/UX · Taligent · Copland · Darwin (operating system)>Darwin |
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