November 17, 1995: Apple releases the first beta version of its new operating system Mac OS Copland for around 50 developers. Less a Mac OS update than an entirely new operating system, it offers next-generation features designed to help Apple take on the then-mighty Windows 95.

Unfortunately, Copland OS will never be released to the public.

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Mac OS Copland and Apple’s existential crisis in the 90s

Copland OS was essentially an existential nightmare at Apple. In his great book Apple ConfidentialAuthor Owen Linzmayer titles his chapter on the project “The Copland Crisis” for good reason.

For years, Apple users and employees have claimed (correctly) that Macs offer a far superior user experience than the one that PC owners “enjoy.” As word spread Windows 95Apple knew it had to fundamentally rethink its operating system Stay one step ahead of Microsoft’s advances.

The Mac operating system didn’t just have to stay ahead. With Macs costing significantly more than PCs and their market share shrinking, Cupertino really needed to push things forward.

With Mac OS Copland, Apple tried to stay one step ahead of Windows 95

Apple announced Mac OS Copland in March 1994. Named after an American composer Aaron Coplandit was supposed to be a complete rethink of Mac OS, years before Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs Did this with the UNIX based one OS X.

Copland OS included many features that will be familiar to Mac users today. These included, among other things: Headlight-like “Live Search” in the toolbar and more comprehensive multitasking. It was even possible for different users to log in, each with different desktops and permissions. While this is commonplace today, it was unheard of back then.

In keeping with this adaptation, Copland was also “themable.” Users could choose the look they liked best. Options included a futuristic, dark mode-style look and a brighter, more kid-friendly theme. Visual flourishes have been expanded to a user interface that utilizes 3D shading and color in a way completely new to Macs.

Similar to the functionality of today’s dock, or Windows taskbarMac OS Copland made it possible to minimize windows by dragging them to the bottom of the screen, where they became tabs. Another big change: Apple designed Copland to run natively PowerPC processorswhich the company used in 1994. (Older programs ran on an emulator.)

So what went wrong with Mac OS Copland?

Apple never released Mac OS Copland. After the beta release in November 1995, the company continued to push back the full release schedule. Originally scheduled for 1996, it was postponed to 1997. Copland OS’s budget continued to grow full blown feature creep The more Apple delayed it, the more the company felt the need to promise new features to justify the delay.

In 1996, 500 engineers worked on Mac OS Copland with a huge budget of $250 million per year. Do you know the expression “too big to fail”? Copland was too big to succeed.

When Apple announced a staggering $740 million loss this year, CEO Gil Amelio took the stage at the Worldwide Developers Conference and said Copland would be delivered as a series of upgrades rather than a unified single release. A few months later, Apple effectively canceled the project.

Copland’s failure leads Apple to success

Mac OS Copland’s greatest legacy today is that it pushed Apple to rethink its operating system strategy. That ultimately led to Apple buying NeXT – and this deal brought Steve Jobs back to the company he was a co-founder.

Like so much of what Apple did in the 1990s, Mac OS Copland was an extremely promising technology that never lived up to its potential. However, while most of these products were at least released, Copland didn’t make it to market until around 1980 1 endless loop in a very limited, severely stunted beta version.

Do you remember news about Mac OS Copland? Were you an Apple user at this point? Leave your comments below.

Sources: Apple Confidential And Low end Mac