MARCH 5, 1997
VOLUME 11 ISSUE 10
Tempo’s official name: Mac OS 8
By MacWEEK Staff
Apple announced today that the OS code-named Tempo will be officially
known as Mac OS 8, a name that was reserved for the company’s failed
next-generation OS project, code-named Copland.
“It would be confusing to not call it 8,” said Jim Gable, vice president
of AppleSoft product marketing. “We feel very strongly it is a major
upgrade.”
Gable said that the user-interface changes in the Tempo release merit more
than the Mac 0S 7.7 designation originally planned for it. Apple’s current
naming scheme calls for changing the first digit of the version number when
major architectural or user-experience changes are made (see
http://www.macweek.com/mw_1035/news_system754.html).
He said Apple’s market research indicated that users did not strongly
associate the Mac OS 8 name with Copland and felt the name was appropriate
for the Tempo release.
“This wouldn’t even be a big issue if the Copland project wasn’t going to
be 8,” Gable said.
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