[W/K] :: Macintosh Operating System

  Macintosh Operating System
       
           (Mac OS) Apple Computer, Inc.'s
          proprietary operating system for their Macintosh family of
          personal computers.
       
          The part of the operating system that simulates the desktop is
          called "{Finder."  The multitasking version of Finder was
          called "{MultiFinder" until multitasking was integrated
          into the core of the OS with the introduction of System 7.0 in
          1990.
       
          The Macintosh series provides a built-in graphics language,
          called "{QuickDraw", which provides a standard for software
          developers.
       
          Mac OS 8, scheduled for delivery in July 1997, contains a
          number of significant improvements, including new
          human-interface features, increased system stability and
          performance, a PowerPC processor-native Finder, tighter
          integration of Internet access through panel-based
          "assistants," Personal Web Sharing, and the ability to run
          Java applets and programs through Mac OS Run Time for Java.
       
          Mac OS X ("X" for 10) is based on FreeBSD.  Apple released
          the kernel of Mac OS X Server as "{darwin", under an open
          source license.
       
          See also Macintosh file system, Macintosh user interface.
       
          (2002-06-29)