by , 2:35 PM EDT, May 21st, 2001
In an announcement many anticipated for MACWORLD NY in July, Apple will begin shipping Mac OS X pre-installed on new computers starting today. The initial plan was to offer the OS to early adopters in March and throw the official "coming out" party at MWNY. The early success of OS X, however, has led to Apple accelerating the pre-installation date. According to Apple:
Apple to Pre-Install Mac OS X Ahead of Schedule
WWDC 2001, SAN JOSE, California—May 21, 2001—Apple® today announced that it will begin pre-installing Mac® OS X alongside Mac OS 9 on all new Macs® shipping from its factories beginning today, two months ahead of schedule.
“The reception of Mac OS X has been so positive that we’ve decided to pre-install it alongside Mac OS 9 on all Macs beginning today—two months ahead of schedule,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “This will give all our customers access to the world’s most advanced operating system and ensure a ready and lucrative market for Mac OS X applications.”
Beginning today, all new Macs coming from Apple’s factories will include both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.1 pre-installed. The systems are set to default boot into Mac OS 9.1, but using Apple’s Dual Boot technology users can easily change the default boot to Mac OS X, and just as easily revert back to Mac OS 9.1 if they choose. During the transition, customers buying new Macs that do not yet have Mac OS X pre-installed will receive a free copy of Mac OS X.
Mac OS X began shipping on March 24, 2001, and has been improved on a regular basis using Apple’s Internet-based Software Update technology. With these updates, Mac OS X v10.0.3 features numerous improvements including the ability to burn custom audio CD’s with iTunes, Apple’s amazing “jukebox” application.
Apple has also introduced Mac OS X in eight additional languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. This release of Mac OS X also supports English, Japanese, German and French.
Mac OS X is built upon the stable, open source, UNIX-based foundation called Darwin, which features true memory protection, preemptive multi-tasking and symmetric multiprocessing when running on a dual processor Power Mac™ G4. Mac OS X includes Apple’s new Quartz™ 2D graphics engine based on the Internet-standard Portable Document Format (PDF) for stunning graphics and broad font support; OpenGL for spectacular 3D graphics and gaming; and QuickTime® 5 for streaming audio and video. Mac OS X also features an entirely new user interface called Aqua™. Aqua combines superior ease-of-use with amazing new functionality such as the Dock, a breakthrough for organizing documents and document windows.
To help customers migrate to Mac OS X, Apple iServices offers several new services, including a comprehensive set of Mac OS X training and certification offerings for Mac OS X system administrators.
Availability & Requirements
Mac OS X will be available on all iMac™, iBook™, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube and PowerBook® G4 configurations purchased on May 21, 2001 or later from the online Apple Store® (www.apple.com), at Apple’s retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers. In many channels the Mac OS X Up-to-Date program will provide the software instantly at the time of purchase.
You can find more information about Mac OS X at the Apple Web site.
There is no doubt about it, from any perspective, that this is officially a very, very good thing.