Web site: macos.apple.com:80/macos/releases.html (not active)
Origin: USA
Category: Desktop
Desktop environment: GUI
Architecture: Motorola 68000, PowerPC
Based on: System 6
Wikipedia: System 7
Media: Install
The last version | Released: 7.6.1 | April 7, 1997
System 7 – an operating system from Apple and was released on May 13, 1991. It is directly derived from the Macintosh System Software, as it was first introduced on the first Apple Macintosh in 1984.
The “System Software” version 7 follows System 6 (also “Macintosh System Software 6”) and is the first version that bore the name Mac OS from January 1997, with version 7.6. Retronymously, System 7 is therefore often referred to as Mac OS 7, although this is only correct from version 7.6 onwards.
System 7 is the only Macintosh operating system that has ever been licensed for non-Apple computers, “Macintosh clones.” The successor operating system Mac OS 8 was released on July 26, 1997.
In the “Star Trek” project, System 7.1 was ported by Apple and Novell to IBM-compatible PCs, but was not marketed.
The first ideas for System 7 emerged when System 6 was completed. In March 1988, developers and managers met to brainstorm about the future operating system strategy. All ideas for the operating system based on the current Macintosh system were written on blue index cards. This eventually became System 7 in the “Blue Project”. The development team itself was also associated with the color blue: they were called “Blue Meanies”, an ironic allusion to the “Blue Meanies”, the evil beings in the Beatles film Yellow Submarine.
System 7.1.2 was the first version for PowerPC-based Macintosh computers. Applications that did not support PowerPC processors could be run using the system’s built-in Mac 68k emulator.
The Macintosh clones (“Mac clones”) are responsible for the fact that version 7.7 was already released as Mac OS 8.0: Due to the contract with Apple, only System 7 could be sold on the clones. With the takeover of NeXT at the end of 1996 and the paradigm shift within Apple, the clone program was discontinued.
There is a leaked beta version of Mac OS 7.7, codenamed “Speedy,” which had already adopted the appearance of Copland in the form of the “Appearance Manager.” When it was released, the operating system was finally called Mac OS 8.0, codenamed “Tempo.” The name had already been used by Copland, which was announced in its last developer version as the upcoming “Mac OS 8,” but never appeared. Mac OS 8 is therefore not Copland, because technically speaking, Mac OS 8.0 (“Tempo,” aka Mac OS 7.7 “Speedy”) is very similar to the previous version Mac OS 7.6. However, Apple is continuing the process of transferring usable Copland technology into the classic Mac OS, which it began with Mac OS 7.6.
