Operating systems, Apple Macintosh

Finally, we come to the venerable old man of the graphical operating system world, the Apple Macintosh. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Wozniak built the first Apple, and was the technical wizard. Jobs was the sales and marketing guy, and together they built and marketed the Apple II, which Jobs dubbed the computer for the rest of us. The Apple II was an immediate success, as it had color graphics, and useful applications such as Visicalc were available for it. For 1977, it was quite a spiffy machine. 

Which of these classic operating systems can be looked at as the model on which modern graphical systems such as Windows 2000 and the Apple Macintosh are based ... 

The Xerox Star, released in 1981, was the first operating system to use a mouse and have a graphical user interfece (GUI). In the early 1980 s, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak produced the Macintosh computer for Apple. The Macintosh s operating system, which was based on the Xerox Star, was the first successful commercial Windows operating system. In 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 and, in 1995, Windows 95. These operating systems made Windows the most popular operating system for both business and home computers. 

The 68000 was the first 16-b microprocessor to incorporate 32-b internal registers. This asset allowed its selection by designers who set out to port sophisticated operating systems to desktop computers. In some ways, the 68000 was ahead of its time. If IBM had chosen the 68000 series as the core chip for its personal computers, the present state-of-the-art of the desktop machine would be radically different. The 68000 was chosen by Apple for its Macintosh computers. Other computer manufacturers, including Amiga and Atari chose it for its flexibility and its large internal registers. 

Like many others, I worked on mainframe computers in the 1970s, cursing their inflexibility on a frequent basis. The first personal computer I used (in 1979) was a Commodore PET, which used audio cassettes for data storage. The IBM PC was introduced in 1981 but required the user to be fluent in the Disk Operating System (DOS) computer language. DOS was an early Microsoft development, but it was very clumsy. I remember the first time I used an Apple Macintosh in 1984. You switched it on and it just worked. I remember thinking, This is what computers should be like )... 

Each GUI has its own standards for interapplication data exchange. Popular examples are today Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) in Microsoft Windows, Inter-Apphcation Communication (LAC) in the upcoming version 7 of the Apple Macintosh operating system, and AppUcation Communication Services (ACS) on the Digital platforms under DECWindows. 

Hardware environments are another challenge to compatibility, especially since the most obvious choice can be risky. When we developed STN Express it was obvious that this software should be compatible with the IBM PC. But since then, the Macintosh has become increasingly popular. There are fads and fashions in the computer market just as in other areas. Today, front-end software should work not only with the IBM and Apple PCs but also with the DEC, Commodore, and NEC, to name a few. Preferences vary over time and also by country. We have seen that the Commodore is rather popular in Germany and the NEC seems to dominate the Japanese market. Those brands are virtually unknown in the United States, while the IBM PC is relatively unfamiliar in Japan. STN Express currently works with MS-DOS the standard interface should also work with, at least, the UNIX and Macintosh operating systems. Perhaps more will be necessary in the future. 

Fully Compatible with IBM PS/2, PC. XT, and AT Systems or 100% Compatible Systems Operating in VGA, EGA, CGA or MCGA Modes. Macintosh n and Mac LC Computers, Apple 0 Computers, AT T/ Olivetti Systems, and DEC VT220 Terminals... 

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