Copland

This article is about the Copland Project at Apple Computer. For the American composer see Aaron Copland.

The Copland Project was an effort by Apple Computer to create an updated version of their MacOS operating system. Begun in 1994, it was abandoned in August of 1996.

After System 7.5, Apple Computer realised that it needed a whole new operating system for itself in order to compete with Microsoft. Apple had encountered many problems during this stage.

During this period, Apple released respectively a few different plans for users to choose, i.e. the Pink Project and the Copland Project. These were all intended to construct a brand new operating system, using emulation to supply compatibility with old software and a new object-oriented construction environment. Apple actually got as far as to publicly showcase the new Copland system, but the operating system never became a commercial product. The reason was that the pace of progress was slow and there were still lots of technical problems to be solved - Apple discovered that without external help, it could not quickly develop an OS that could compete with Microsoft. After suffering huge losses in the first half of the year, Apple canceled the Copland project.

Without an in-house operating system, Apple needed a new strategy to advance the Macintosh platform. Already falling behind Windows 95, Apple considered buying NeXT (founded by Steve Jobs after he was kicked out from his work as CEO of Apple by John Sculley) or Be (founded by ex-Apple technician Jean-Louis Gassée). Gil Amelio, CEO of Apple at the time, balked at Gassée's asking price, and came to the conclusion that NeXT not only had the needed software and technologies, but also provided an opportunity for Apple's soul - Steve Jobs - to return. Amelio bought NeXT for USD427 million in December of 1996.

The NeXT development team immediately began work on the Rhapsody project, which would eventually become Mac OS X. In July of 1997, Amelio was forced to resign, and soon thereafter, Jobs was appointed "interim CEO." Jobs took drastic steps to restore the company to profitability. He terminated Mac OS licensing for clones, and canceled a number of development projects, including OpenDoc, HyperCard, QuickDraw 3D, and the famous Newton MessagePad.


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