by Stephen L. Childress from the July 1983 issue of Micro magazine (Note: The figures are not available for this article because they are impossible to read on my source.) The modularization of the I/O system allows OS-9 to enhance the standard I/O at run time, not assembly or patch time. Device names and addresses are not fixed by the operating system but, rather, the program may attempt I/O to any device name.

by Stephen L. Childress from the June 1983 issue of Micro magazine Unless you’ve been on sabbatical to Siberia of late you will have noticed the swell of interest in the Unix operating system software. Most new and all the old popular 16-bit computers are supporting Unix or one of the numerous look-alikes. Why all the furor? It seems at last we’ve begun to rethink computer programming and usage. Recognizing that software development is expensive and timeconsuming, we must exploit the falling cost of today’s hardware.

by Phil Daley from the June 1983 issue of Micro magazine The operating systems that I have seen available for the Apple use essentially the same read/write routines, but they have been modified or changed. All the disks created by any one system can be read by any other system if you know the procedure. Modifying disks to make them copyprotected (unreadable) is a different technique and a different topic. The Operating Systems covered in this article all use standard DOS 3.

by Howard Baldwin RUNS BEOS ON INTEL AS NEW APPS ARE UNVEILED from the November 1997 issue of MacWorld magazine As Apple celebrates strong sales of Mac OS 8, Be (650/462-4100, www.be.com), developer of one of the oter operating systems for PowerPC CPUs, continues to bop along with new releases of its software. In July, the company shipped its BeOS Preview Release for PowerPC, followed by an update that adds AppleTalk printing and improves video drivers and IDE support.

by Galen Gruman from the November 1997 issue of MacWorld magazine How quickly the dream died. In December 1994, Apple ended its Macintosh monopoly, giving Power Computing and Radius licenses to make their own Macs. With Wtndows 95 on the horizon and the success of an Intel/Microsoft duopoly clear, Apple’s leaders and the industry saw a chance for the Mac market to gain a new level of competitiveness, flexibility, and innovation.

by Stephen Beale from the November 1997 issue of MacWorld magazine Apple Computer drove spike through the heart of its Mac OS-Iicensing program when it announced on September 2 that it will acquire the core assets of Power Computing, the company that built the largest Mac-clone business. Apple will exchange $ 100 million in common stock for Power Computing’s Mac OS license and 200,000-name mailing list, and also has the right to retain Power Computing executives involved in direct marketing, distribution, and engineering.

by Henry Bortman and Jeff Pittelkau from the February 1997 issue of Australian MacUser magazine The Mac commnunity has been electrified by the announce1nent that Apple’s next OS will be based on NeXTstep technologies. But, if this hybrid OS does not meet our expectations, Power Mac users will soon be able to use a third-party alternative: a strategy we dub ‘Plan Be .’ Apple has its work cut out for itself.

by Steven Noble from the February 1997 issue of Australian MacUser magazine Apple computer has bought NeXT Software, and is going to use that company’s high-perfor­mance operating system (OS) NeXTstep as the basis of the next major revision of the Mac OS - code-named Rhapsody. This is good news, because NeXTstep has many of the fea­tures that bring speed, stability and strength to next-generation operating systems, including protected memory, preemptive multitasking, and a modern vir­tual memory system.

by Clifford Colby with Stephen Howard & Kelly Ryer from the February 1997 issue of Australian MacUser magazine On 20 December 1996 Apple announced it was buying NeXT Software for $US400 million and would use NeXTstep - NeXT’s Unix-based operating system - as the underpinnings of its future operating system. The announcement ends all speculation that Apple might acquire Be for the same purpose. According to Ellen Hancock, Apple’s chief technical officer, the company is commit­ted to releasing a beta version of the next-generation OS to select user sites and developers by the end of 1997.

by Richard Foxworthy, Editor from the February 1997 issue of Australian MacUser magazine By now, most readers will have heard the news - Gil Amelio and the crew at Apple Computer spent their Christmas break writing large cheques - totalling $US400 million - to acquire NeXT Software, the company launched by original Apple co-founder Steve Jobs after losing a 1985 power struggle with then Apple CEO John Sculley. In a twist that will delight many and horrify some, Steve Jobs himself - the single person most responsible for the Macintosh - is part of the deal.