System Requirements: PowerPC processor, 24 MB of RAM installed; 32 MB is recommended, and 190 to 250 MB of hard disk space
Distribution Media: CD-ROM
Apple Order Number: n/a
Versions: 8.6
History: Released May 10, 1999 Mac OS 8.6 introduced the concept of a nanokernel to the Mac OS which allowed for multi-tasking and multi-processors. This nanokernel added a pre-emptive scheduler to Mac OS, but this is only allowed certain applications to run pre-emptively, all other applications that were not specifically developed to be pre-emptive were run in the blue task, a single pre-emptive task itself. This free update for Mac users running 8.5 and 8.5.1 was faster and much more stable than either versions of 8.5.x, and is by some considered the most stable Classic OS. It was the first client OS to support AFP over IP in addition to standard AppleTalk (this gave users the ability to access an iDisk even though it was unsupported by Apple). It was also the first MacOS to have the OS version displayed as part of the startup screen. Many hardware upgrades require a minimum of MacOS 8.6.
History Source: Wikipedia
History Source Address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_8
