THE EVOLUTION OF MAC OS X
Mr Gerald Wilson, AMS, BAE Systems

Abstract: Many computer users have little experience of Apple computers and the Mac OS. Traditionally, Macintosh computers have been considered a closed architecture. With Mac OS X, Apple have changed all that. Apple's Mac OS X is the first consumer-oriented OS to be based on BSD UNIX, and its successful launch and adoption is causing a surge of interest in BSD, and in the use of open-source operating systems for desktop computing.

This talk presents the history of the evolution of Apple and the Mac OS, to show how Apple arrived at Mac OS X, how Mac OS X provides support both for traditional Mac applications and for UNIX and Java applications, and explains how open - building on its BSD base - the Mac platform has now become.

The talk is followed by a practical demonstration of a system running Mac OS X, showing how it handles UNIX, Java and X applications, and how it can be used for software development.

Speaker:

Gerald Wilson works for AMS, a joint venture company of BAE SYSTEMS. He has many years experience of software development and systems engineeering in industry, and currently works on evaluating new commercial technologies for future business use.

This seminar was held at the Department of Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London on 21 May 2002.