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Premature Inchoation (5/8/99)
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It's out! Or, at least, it was out. We speak of Mac OS 8.6, that delectable system update commonly known as Veronica, done for a week but kept under wraps for an "opportune" unveiling moment. What moment could be more opportune than next week's Worldwide Developers Conference? So here we were, all ready to start downloading the free updater once it surfaced on Apple's servers on Monday, when suddenly MacCentral reported this afternoon that Mac OS 8.6 had unexpectedly dropped in unannounced-- it was available via anonymous download from Apple's FTP servers earlier today. Seems like some eager young server admin jumped the gun.
Alas, by the time we found out and tried the supplied URL, anonymous access had been removed-- apparently Apple noticed that people were downloading software that, for all extents and purposes, didn't actually exist yet and pulled the plug. Or was it just an overloaded server? Because when we tried again a few hours later, we got a little bit further; anonymous access was granted, but all that was in the Mac OS 8.6 folder was another folder called "Multiple Parts." And inside that? Nothing at all. So either Mac OS 8.6 is the tiniest system update ever to come out of Apple's labs ("Fully downloads in less than one second!"), or most of us really are going to have to wait until the software's big introduction on Monday before we actually get our grubby little mitts on it.
But that's okay with us-- we're always a little paranoid when it comes to installing system upgrades, anyway. Most of the time we'll even wait a few days and keep one eye tuned to MacFixit to see if there are any big issues that could cause us grief. So in the meantime, we'll just be backing up our whole system and checking our hard disks for lurking problems so we'll be ready to go once Mac OS 8.6 comes streaming across the 'net and onto our desktop. You may want to follow our lead, and also to read MacNN's Mac OS 8.6 notes about what's different and what conflicts have already been discovered. After all, it never pays to be careless about these things.
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SceneLink (1514)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/8/99 episode: May 8, 1999: Mac OS 8.6 surfaces briefly on Apple's servers-- and then vanishes mysteriously into the ether. Meanwhile, those of you who miss the EvangeList can take a look at some alternative mailing lists that hope to fill the void, and Be, the scrappy OS upstarts who were once expected to provide the framework for the next Mac OS, are hoping Wall Street gives them a hearty thumbs-up...
Other scenes from that episode: 1515: Rising From The Ashes (5/8/99) We admit it-- we miss the EvangeList. There was a real sense of community to be derived from being a member of an electronic mailing list consisting of tens of thousands of like-minded Mac fanatics. Sure, the EvangeList was probably best known for its ability to unleash the full torrent of hundreds of flaming e-missives upon any journalists who dared reveal their anti-Mac bias and ignorance, but there was a lot more posted than just calls to arms... 1516: Do Be Do Be Do (5/8/99) Remember back when Apple first started shopping around for outside operating system technology to replace the jumbled mess of unreleasable code known as Copland? Before Steve Jobs' NeXT was even a blip on Apple's radar screen, everyone thought the shoe-in would be Be...
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