I was looking through some boxes in my closet and came across this old Copland disk. Sparking my curiosity, I looked on my hard drive and found the video I made a few years ago of my attempt at installing this piece of software. I did not quite achieve success at getting it installed, but it did manage to party boot.

Here is a brief history of Copland and what Copland is. During the early 90’s, Apple knew their current operating system was aging and needed a replacement. They tried to develop a new operating system from the ground up. The code name of this project was Copland. As development moved on, it was clear that this project was not going to be suitable for a release so Apple started looking outside for an operating system. To make a long story short, they purchased a company called NeXT and their operating system and, more importantly, its CEO—Steve Jobs.

What really makes this disk interesting is its rarity. There are not many photos of the actual operating system running, nor photos of the disks or any type of media. So Enjoy these photos and this little video.

More information can be found on this wikipedia site.

Here is a quote from the “Read Me” file and a link to the PDF. Enjoy!

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Essential information about this release of Copland

Thank you for supporting Copland, the next major release of the Mac OS. Apple is very excited that developer seeding has begun and that you are able to join us on this historic journey. The Copland Developer Release: Tools Edition is the first of several planned developer releases, each of which has very specific goals and capabilities.

A little rough around the edges
We know that you have heard that Copland is all about blazing PowerPC performance, rock-solid stability, bullet-proof application compatibility, integrated cool technologies and enlightened ease-of-use. This first developer release is an important step towards reaching these goals and together we will make very quick progress in the coming weeks and months.

Tools, Tools and More Tools!
Macintosh developers need great tools before general application seeding can be successful. As a result, we are supplying this release in its current form to give developers of integrated development environments, compilers/linkers, debuggers, frameworks and interface editors, the time necessary to be prepared for future and more widespread seeds. Portions of the system are not finalized and as a result we can support only those elements that are critical for tools development. We feel that it is much better to seed early than to wait…

What do you expect me to do with this release?
It is important to make sure that your tool successfully generates or assists products running on Copland. If your tool produces PowerPC binaries, confirm that your code generation is compatible with Copland’s new runtime architecture. If your product includes a debugger, start adapting it for tasking and multiple address space operations. If you develop a framework or application shell, make sure it is not violating any basic compatibility guidelines. But most of all, please let us know where Copland must evolve to better support your specific requirements.

What don’t you expect me to do with this release?
Full scale application compatibility or performance is not a goal of this release. Many system facilities that your product may depend on are not yet feature complete or have not met final quality milestones. However, we have made significant progress towards our application compatibility goals and you may find that some applications will run unmodified offering limited functionality.

Where’s the one button installer?
Don’t even think about installing this release of Copland on your main system. In fact, we recommend that you dedicate an unused system or at least an unused hard disk for this release. Copland currently bootstraps itself from a System 7.5 base and as a result, special setup procedures that involve partitioning your hard disk must be followed very carefully. Also, there is a very specific system configuration that is required for this release as is detailed in the “Installing and Working with Copland” document found on the CD.

What’s Next?
We really hope to hear from you soon with bug reports, progress updates and suggestions for improving future developer releases. The following methods can be used to contact us regarding Copland. Contact DEVSUPPORT with the keyword SSW8 for programming support. Send suggestions to either the AppleLink address COPLAND or participate in our internet mail-list that you will receive email notice of shortly.

We can’t be successful without you. Thanks for your help and we look forward to hearing your feedback and working with you on this exciting journey. This CD promises to be a real collector’s item so guard it well.