An abbreviation of the popular Macintosh computers manufactured and sold by Apple Corporation. These computers contain what is called the Macintosh Operating System that will only run software written for that processor. A decade of the revolution in GUI and hypermedia Mac computing is celebrated in a book by Levy (1994) that is given an extensive review in Time Magazine , January 31, 1994, pp. 93-94. Although software can be added so that Mac computers will run (in emulation form) many DOS and Windows programs (slowly), the PC computers cannot as a rule run Mac programs. Differences between Mac and PC operating systems have led to constant frustrations for authors since there is no single standard for authoring materials that can be used across the computer market. This is especially frustrating for authors of CD-ROM learning and entertainment materials. Mac computers took an early lead in graphics computing and menu-driven operating systems emulated later in Windows and OS/2 operating systems. A drawback for hypermedia developers, however, has been market share. Apple Corporation has less than 5% of the worldwide desktop computer market and has lost much of its competitive lead in graphics and hypermedia computing. In 1994, Apple's disturbing declines in market share, even after PowerMacs were introduced, led Apple Corporation to the first-time licensing of its operating system to other hardware manufacturers, notably IBM which will undertake a new joint venture to produce a new computer running forthcoming versions of the Mac operating system. Analysts, however, are skeptical that Apple's licensing agreements may be too little too late to stop the market share momentum of Windows 95 and Windows 2000. Apple also has videotape rendering workstations known as AV or Mac Video Computers. Video options from Apple Corporation are reviewed in Birkmaier (1993) , Torres (1993) , and Tuckerman (1993) . Apple's hopes are riding heavily upon the evolution of a new operating system called Rhapsody that is a revolutinary operating system based upon NEXTStep technology. (See also AIF , QuickTime , Dry camera , Bus , Amiga , Mozart , Copeland , Gershwin , SGI , SUN , PC , PowerPC , GUI , NEXTStep , Operating system , , and Apple AV )
Apple Corporation's operating system for its Mac OS X servers is called "Darwin." Apple announced that it will make the Darwin source code available to developers. It is a variant of UNIX.