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Old System 7.0.x Software topic... revisited.

adespoton

adespoton

6502
I'm diving back into untangling the sordid history of Apple OS versioning. Currently, I'm looking at System 7.0.x. We've all always said "System 7.0 never went above System 7.0.1. Well, except for System 7.0.1P." And yet, I have in my possession, off of official Apple media, System 7.0.1.1 International with Tune-Up 1.1.1, and System 7.0.4-SV.

So since there's a 7.0.4, it stands to reason that somewhere, there's a 7.0.3 and 7.0.2. Even if they were never released to the market, there must be someone out there who remembers prepping those versions for release and why it never happened, when 7.0.4 got out the door (in January 1993 no less, long after 7.1 had already gone GM). Were 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 slated for language releases that got scrapped in favour of 7.1?
 
It's important to remember that Apple's versioning choices don't always make sense, and I think System 7 is clearly a case of that. Things got especially confusing once they hit 7.5 and beyond, so I won't even cover that in this post to avoid further confusion.

I found a few forum posts on the Internet mentioning 7.0.2 but I think they are typos. I can't find a 7.0.2 release anywhere, and there's no mention of one in TidBITS archive either.

I think it went like this:

7.0
7.0.1
Tune-Up
Tune-Up 1.1

The Tune-Ups were not actual system software updates, I believe they were extensions to add or fix things that way.

7.1
7.1.1 (System 7 Pro)
7.1.2 (for Power Macintosh)

Hardware System Updates 1.0 (?)
Hardware System Updates 2.0 (?)
System Update 2.0.1
System Update 3.0 - https://tidbits.com/1994/05/16/system-update-3-0/

There were also some variants for Performa models, but I can't remember if that was only once 7.5 came round.
 
zefrenchtoon said:
The LC / Performa 630 was released with 7.1.2P and it was not a PPC. :)
I think that 7.1.2 brings IDE support (and some software bonus maybe)
Click to expand...
The 7.1.2 Was introduced with first Power Macs and Power PC upgrade cards. At the same time it was available for Quadra/LC 630, LC 580 computers that were introduced at the same time.

712.PNG

Performa.PNG
 
I don't know versioning history so I may be wrong but with regarding to no 7.02 or 7.03 it might be either a private internal number that was never to be released or was buggered in some way toward the end that on fixing it up the next number was automatically chosen on public release instead (then again there is no 7.5.4 'officially' aka nearly all of us pretty much only knew either 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 that is)
 
chelseayr said:
then again there is no 7.5.4 'officially' aka nearly all of us pretty much only knew either 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 that is
Click to expand...
System 7.5.4 was pulled due to a mistake at Apple, in which some components were not included in the installer.

zefrenchtoon said:
The LC / Performa 630 was released with 7.1.2P and it was not a PPC. :)
I think that 7.1.2 brings IDE support (and some software bonus maybe)
Click to expand...
Yep, I could've made that clearer. But the reason 7.1.2 was done in the first place was to introduce PPC support I believe.
 
I'll work my way back down the comments in responses :)

7.1.2 was created to introduce the PPC line; separately, 7.1.2P was released -- and oddly, it wasn't just released for Performas -- it was released for the Quadra/LC 630 series as well. The documentation seems mixed on this; sometimes it says that 7.1.2P was for Performas and 7.1.2 was for PPC and for Quadras -- but the actual build/restore images and DevCDs all had the Quadras getting 7.1.2P.

Mac OS 7.5.4 was released to GM, but there was a problem in Apple's own automation pipeline that resulted in some of the localized GM releases missing parts of the software. As a result, the German 7.5.4 was actually pressed to CD and distributed, and the US 7.5.4 went up on Apple's FTP site for a few hours (I remember receiving an announcement email at around noon, grabbed my copy just before 1, and they'd pulled it by 2 PM).

7.5.5 was because they didn't want to replicate the fiasco of 7.5 Update 3.0, 7.5.3, 7.5.3r2, 7.5.3r2.1 and two 7.5.3r2.2 versions. Easier to just call 7.5.4 a bust and re-version to 7.5.5 once the automation was fixed.

Anyway, back to my original question, which is specifically about the 7.0.x series. @chelseayr is likely correct, and Apple was using the numbers internally as placeholders (I suspect for international versions that ran out of time) and they never got released. The known releases were:
7.0 GM
7.0.1
7.0.1.1-Z (International)
7.0.1P (for Performa 200)
7.0.4-SV (Swedish localization)

On top of that, after 7.0.1P but before 7.0.4 went out, we had System 7 Tune-Up, System 7 Tune-Up 1.1 and System 7 Tune-Up 1.1.1 (with Tuna Helper) all of which could patch any OS in the 7.0.x series, adding patches via extensions instead of just updating the OS and cranking the number. All three versions of Tune-Up added a bullet after the version number to indicate they'd been applied.

So specifically, I'm looking for anyone who has actual information on what went on with 7.0.2 and 7.0.3; all I've got right now is the above running theory that these numbers were reserved for localizations and were overtaken by System 7.1 (which, considering the release date of 7.0.4, makes sense -- the only reason 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 would have been released is if the 7.1 localization team was significantly delayed, like what happened with the Swedish team).

Even when System 7 Tune-Up 1.1 was released, people were throwing around 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 as versions, but they usually meant 7.0.1 with one of the Tune-Up extensions installed, and it doesn't show up anywhere in Apple's own documentation or official versionings.

Then again, we already know that Apple wasn't above making things up as they went along, giving us the System Software 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 OS naming convention years after the fact as a way to group combinations of system software back before they started tracking full software distributions. But someone who worked at Apple must know what really happened with 7.0.x.
 
To capture this somewhere... I had had reports of a System 7.1.3, deployed for PowerBook 500 series. After digging into it, it's deploying 7.1.1 with Finder 7.1.3, same as regular System 7 Pro. Finder versions are another thing that often gets people confused when they're out of sync with the System version. Interestingly, the System 7.1.1/Finder7.1.3 for PowerBook 500 series also comes with a Control Panel called Software Highlights / PowerBook Extras 1.0.5 version 2.5P. Other than the version info and the icon, the Control Panel is indistinguishable from the Launcher Control Panel that came with Performas at the same time.

So anyone following those threads on the Internet mentioning the existence of a System 7.1.3... there definitely isn't/wasn't one. It's just the normal System 7 Pro with Finder 7.1.3.
 
I do not think your lost versions are any significant in any essential way and are just localization corrections. Most localized versions were firstly done in beta versions not in final versions and there is nothing significant between 7.0, 7.0.1 and 7.1 in general. The localized (International) versions used Keyboard layout, data and time and numbers control panels.

Sys 7.0 - April 91 - Supported Mac II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, IIsi and LC, Classic, Plus.
Sys 7.0.1 - Sept 91 - added Powerbook and Quadra support.
Sys Tune-up 1.1.1 - dated April 92, corrected memory, network and printing.
Quadra 950 - May 92 - Comes with 7.0.1 system software
Sys 7.1 - Aug 92 - new font folder feature and more macs support, etc.
-----------------------------
Later Quadra=Performa=LC
Performa.PNG
-----------------------------
 
Last edited:
Ok, I have found the 7.1.1. International system. So somebody can look into resources and see what is actually a diference ... at first only Sept /Dec dates. The Finder is also 7.1.1 and Dec date and some printing files included in Print disk all other disks items are all the same.

sys711.PNG
 
slomacuser said:
Ok, I have found the 7.1.1. International system. So somebody can look into resources and see what is actually a diference ... at first only Sept /Dec dates. The Finder is also 7.1.1 and Dec date and some printing files included in Print disk all other disks items are all the same.

View attachment 83625
Click to expand...
Havent noticed before but system 7.0.1.1 is not international version. Z against SS? What is SS sign for?
 
Interesting; I'd never paid attention to the copyright line on the SS-7.0.1.1 version before... SS1-7.0.1.1.4, (c) Apple Computer, Inc. 1983-1992. And yet the modification date for the System file with a copyright of 1992 is Dec 3, 1991.

Oddly, the Disk Utilities copy of the System file has a modification date of Jan 24, 1992; the rest of the strings are the same. File size is 849K, likely because it only contains the bare minimum required to boot the utilities/installer.

The Finder is System Software SS-7.0.1.1, with version info of SS1-7.0.1, (c) Apple Computer, Inc. 1983-1991, and it's got the creation and modification dates of Dec 3, 1991.
 
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