Editing Mac OS 8 (section)

==Copland==
{{main|Copland (operating system)}}

Starting in 1988, Apple's next-generation operating system, which it originally envisioned to be "System 8" was codenamed Copland. It was announced in March 1994 alongside the introduction of the first PowerPC Macs. Apple intended Copland as a fully modern system, including native PowerPC code, [[intelligent agent]]s, a [[microkernel]], a customizable interface named [[Appearance Manager]], a [[hardware abstraction layer]], and a [[relational database]] integrated into the Finder. Copland was to be followed by [[Copland (operating system)|Gershwin]], which promised [[memory protection]] spaces and full [[Preemption (computing)|preemptive multitasking]].<ref name="Copland">{{Cite book |last=Linzmayer |first=Owen |title=Apple Confidential – "The Copland Crisis" |publisher=No Starch Press |year=1999 |pages=225–226}}</ref> The system was intended to be a full rewrite of the Mac OS, and Apple hoped to beat Microsoft [[Windows 95]] to market with a development cycle of only one year.

The Copland development was hampered by many missed deadlines. The release date was first pushed back to the end of 1995, then to mid-1996, late 1996, and finally to the end of 1997. With a dedicated team of 500 software engineers and an annual budget of $250 million, Apple executives began to grow impatient with the project continually falling behind schedule. In August 1996, Apple [[chief technology officer]] [[Ellen Hancock]] froze development of Copland<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Apple Took its NeXT Step |url=http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1997/b3509223.arc.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120724143151/http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1997/b3509223.arc.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 24, 2012 |quote=in August, newly hired chief technologist Ellen Hancock froze development altogether.}}</ref> and Apple began a search for an operating system developed outside the company.<ref name="Copland" /> This ultimately led to Apple buying [[NeXT]] and developing [[Rhapsody (operating system)|Rhapsody]] which would eventually evolve into [[macOS|Mac OS X]] in 2001 (now named macOS).

At the [[Worldwide Developers Conference]] in January 1997, Apple [[chief executive officer]] (CEO) [[Gil Amelio]] announced that, rather than release Copland as one monolithic release, Copland features would be phased into the Mac OS following a six-month release cycle. These updates began with Mac OS 7.6, released during [[WWDC]]. Mac OS 8.0, released six months later, continued to integrate Copland technologies into the Mac OS.<ref name="Apple: The Inside Story">{{Cite book |last=Carlton |first=Jim |title=Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders |date=1999 |publisher=Random House Business Books |isbn=0099270730 |edition=2nd |location=London |oclc=925000937 |orig-year=1997}}</ref>