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To cheers and thunderous applause, Apple iCeo Steve Jobs unveiled the next generation Macintosh operating system, Mac OS X, and promised to have it in stores by early summer.
The announcement was the highlight of Jobs' Keynote address at the Macworld Expo, which also saw the announcement of a new set of Internet based services for Mac users that Jobs dubbed iTools. The iTools services are the centerpiece of a redesigned Apple website, which was also unveiled Wednesday.
While the other announcements were impressive, the most attention was paid to OSX, which will bring to the Mac its first multitasking operating system. It will also bring the most radical change ever to the Macintosh interface, introducing a new look Jobs referred to as Aqua.
While Aqua and OSX do not eliminate the Finder as had been rumored, they introduce some new features and an entirely new look and feel. Incorporating the translucent color scheme of the iMac into controls, buttons, and even menus, users will be treated to save boxes which grow from the window in use, menus which are semi-translucent to reveal windows behind them, and a host of other very intutitive enhancements.
Aqua will allow users to search from any finder window, and will permit users to switch between views with a click of a button. In addition to icon and list views, Aqua adds a new browser type view, which lets a user navigate through the history of the windows they've opened. In the browser view, users are treated to a preview of virtually any document.
The new look will apply to any system software automatically, but applications must be re-written to take advantage of many of the new features. Users will have the option of running virtually any application which will run under OS9 virtually unchanged, with the same look and feel as they have now. Jobs claims a relatively painless rewrite of software by developers would 'carbonize' applications, allowing them to take advantage of the new interface, known internally at Apple as Carbon. The final step for developers will be to write totally new applications especially for OSX, which take full advantage of the new OS.
All three types of applications can run simultaneously under OSX, part of what Jobs called his "one OS" strategy. The bad news for owners of older machines is the requirement for raw power, as OS X will not run on machines with less than a G3 processor.
Jobs also announced a new series of Internet based tools known collectively as iTools, available only to users of Mac 0S9 through Apple's redesigned website. The tools include iDisk, which provides drag and drop storage on Apple's servers; mac.com, a new Apple branded e-mail service; Home Page, an automated web page builder which creates pages hosted on Apple's servers; iReview, professional reviews of websites; and KidSafe, a new method of screening websites suitable for children.
Jobs said the idea for iTools came when Apple realised millions of people, mostly Mac users, visit Apple's OSX powered web site weekly. Jobs says that gives Apple the chance to take advantage of the ability to have contro over both ends of the Internet transaction, making iTools possible.
Apple did not announce any new computers or configurations, dashing immediate hopes held by some users for a 17" iMac or a new, more powerful Powerbook. It did, however, announce a new, redesigned Appleworks. Version 6.0 features the addition of a presentation tool, and will retail for $79. Jobs also revealed Internet Explorer 5 for the Mac will be released within a month by Microsoft. He called the free browser "The best available for the platform."
January 2000
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