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Apple, at Last, Has New Operating System for Macs Seventeen years after first marketing the personal computer based on icon and mouse, Apple Computer will introduce on Saturday the first complete revision of the operating system for its Macintosh computers. The new Macintosh OS X (pronounced oh- ess-ten), as tempered by the company's tangled history, is a blend of several new technologies and the venerable Unix operating system, developed by Bell Labs in the 1960's and 70's. It will sell for $129 retail. Apple says the new software is more stable than its current Mac OS 9 operating system and offers new features like automatic networking and an instant wake-from-sleep capability in portable computers. Its new design makes extensive use of translucency, giving the computer desktop a three- dimensional appearance. It also adds gee-whiz features like the ability to permit Quicktime movies to continue to play visibly even after they have been reduced to icons on the screen. Equally important, the company says, is that a new, more modular structure of its programming code will permit easier adjustments and improvements. "We will be able to innovate on top of OS X really quickly now," said Avi Tevanian, the software engineer who led the development of the new operating system. Efforts on a new system have been under way since 1986. Apple embarked on the path to Macintosh OS X in 1996 after spending $430 million to acquire Next Inc., the company that was founded by Steven P. Jobs after he left Apple in 1985. The company had previously pursued a number of operating system efforts, including a project with I.B.M. known as Pink and an attempt, code-named Copland, that the company killed in 1996. Longtime Apple observers gave the company high marks today for finally shipping a more modern operating system. "The fact that they're shipping has to be seen as a very big success," said Andrew Gore, editor of the magazine Macworld. "They've stuck to most of their commitments." He added, however, that several features are still missing from the new operating system. The most glaring is that OS X does not permit users to watch DVD movies or create audio CD's, abilities that Apple has been promoting in an extensive advertising campaign and that are part of OS 9. These are expected to be added to OS X in the weeks ahead. Mr. Tevanian of Apple stressed that the company would permit a "gentle migration" between OS 9 and OS X, allowing users to have both systems on a computer and to switch between them by simply restarting the computer. Though only about 350 programs have been specifically adapted to take advantage of the new software, Apple's chief executive, Mr. Jobs, said there would be an "avalanche" by late summer and into the fall. Microsoft and other major software developers have indicated that they are adapting their programs for the new operating system. By JOHN MARKOFF Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/22/technology/22APPL.html?ex=986260307&ei=1&e n=8de33c51f3c6c6d3 janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky PD: 54/41/37 CD: 54/44/43 TEL: 613 256 8340 EMAIL: [log in to unmask] "A New Voice" home page: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ . "New Voice News" latest posts: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nvnNET/ . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn