Apple's big blues

Apple once joined forces with IBM to create a new operating system that could easily have destroyed the Mac. David Crookes explains what happened

- David Crookes

In the late 1980s, Apple embarked on one of its most ambitious software projects: the creation of a nextgeneration operating system, codenamed Pink. Presented on a pink index card (hence the name), it was the brainchild of a small group of Apple engineers who believed the Mac needed memory protection to safeguard users' work in the event of a system crash. This innovation also helped to pave the way for an alliance with IBM that had the potential to revolutionise computing forever.

Around 1988, the Mac was experiencing a period of flux. Launched in January 1984, it had initially achieved success but most of the computer's original team members, including Steve Jobs, had dispersed and cracks were beginning to appear. While improvements had been made to the Mac line-up, such as the introduction of colour graphics in the Macintosh II in 1987, it became clear that a new operating system was necessary to replace Macintosh System Software sooner rather than later.

"The classic Mac OS was increasingly difficult to work with," said Mark Davis, who would become the manager and architect for the proposed operating system's international frameworks.

"The original Mac had such constraints of speed and size that the OS was written all by hand in assembly, and the structure was very difficult to maintain and extend." Initially, only five people worked on Pink - the so-called Gang of Five who had proposed it. Project leader Erich Ringewald was joined by David Goldsmith, Bayles Holt, Gene Pope and Gerard Schutten. This small team had also presented two additional sets of goals for consideration, each represented on a different coloured index card. Red proposed an operating system with far more advanced features such as speech recognition, while Blue concentrated on shortterm achievements that could be integrated into the Mac.