Macintosh System 6

This article is a work in progress. …well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editors’ notes.

Macintosh System 6
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Character Information
Common Names	Macintosh System 6
Other Names	Mac OS6, System 6.0.x
Faction	House of Mac
Lineage	Classic Mac
Rival(s)	ANTI and WDEF (arch-nemeses), A/UX and GS/OS (friendly rivalries)
Appearance
Height	185 cm (6'1")
Hair Color	blue-grey
Eye Color	silver (right), red (left)
Design
First Appearance	2006
Technical Information
System Personified	System Software 6 (System 6.0.x, Finder 6.1)
Developer(s)	Apple Inc.
Debut	30 Apr 1988* (System 6.0)
Latest release	6.0.8L (Feb 1992)

Technical details

Macintosh System 6 was released in April 1988, and was the first Classic Mac OS version to have the System Software package, System file, and Finder version numbers closely match up. System 6 added support for the 68030-based Macs, was the first Mac OS version to include a built-in program to record macros to automate keyboard and mouse commands, called MacroMaker, and had enhanced sound capabilities.

System 6.0 was very unstable, and had several compatibility problems. 6.0.1 fixed most of them, but 6.0.2 was the first stable version, and many Mac users still waited before switching over from System Software 5 (System 4.2 or 4.3). Despite starting with a bad reputation, System 6 later became well-regarded and gained a following as one of the best OSes to use for some early Macs due to its speed, and stability of later releases, particularly of 6.0.7 and 6.0.8.

*This release date is an estimate. The month and year are listed as April 1988 in many sources, and files within System 6.0 show a date of April 30, 1988, though according to Macintosh magazines, System 6.0 was released around June.

Character details

Macintosh System 6-tan is represented as a very tall woman appearing to be in her early to mid-twenties with medium-length dark grayish-blue hair. She is a cyborg and has super strength, representing the leap in stability from 6.0.1 to 6.0.2 onwards, as well as being one of the references to System 6.0.8's codename of "Terminator". Her right eye is silver and her left eye is red; both of her eyes used to be silver, but one was replaced with cybernetics when she became a cyborg. Her nickname of Antares and, and frequent usage of the phrase "big deal" are references to two other codenames.

She wears a light blue minidress with long black boots, a biker jacket with a white belt, and dark sunglasses. Her belt has the rainbow Apple logo on it referencing the look of the Apple menu when System 6 is used on a color Mac. Her jacket has a Happy Mac patch on the front, and a "6.0.x" pin on the lapel. The trim of her dress and boots have black and white polka dot patterns in reference to System 6 being the last Mac OS version to have extensive use of polka dot patterns in the GUI, and how System 6 can support color, but most of the user interface remained in black and white.

She can often be serious, by instilling a lot of order at the Mac House, but can also be boisterious and enjoy friendly competitions with others. She can be kind and loyal, but has a strong competitive streak, and can sometimes get carried away and get aggressive. Her hobbies include writing, creating HyperCard stacks, and building machines.

Family and relationships

A/UX

A/UX-tan one of System 6-tan's best friends, and her former mentor, although both of them helped each other improve. A/UX-tan was tasked to work with her since their debuts, but they quickly had a friendship because they could sympathize with the other's bad reputation, and wanted to work together to help both of them improve. System 6-tan as System 6.0 was very unstable and had compatability problems, and A/UX-tan as A/UX 1.0 did not have a complete GUI and could not run most Macintosh programs. They maintain a friendly rivalry, and like to challenge each other when they meet up again.

System 3.4

System 3.4-tan is System 6-tan's twin sister, owing to both of their OSes having the same Finder version. They never had a rivalry, and were never meant to compete because of System 3.4-tan's specific role as a file server OS.

System 4 and 5

She gets along with them very well now, and she appreciates System 5-tan's sense of humor, though they did not always get along. System 5-tan disliked System 6-tan for either being her successor, or for causing System 5-tan to be skipped over, but was happy that System 6-tan was initially unstable and had a bad reputation. This is owing to many Mac users still using System 4.1 or 4.2 even when 6.0.2 fixed all of the bugs that 6.0 and 6.0.1 had.

By the later part of 1989, they got along. System 4-tan and System 5-tan were remorseful over wanting System 6-tan to fail earlier when she nearly died. They accepted that she gained a lot of popularity, and she assured them that they were not being left behind, nor forgotten.

System 7

System 6-tan and System 7-tan were highly ambivalent towards each other for several years, sometimes working alongside each other and getting along without any problems, but having a strong rivalry at other times. When System 7-tan debuted, System 6-tan showed some goodwill towards her, but her patience towards System 7-tan was soon challenged over compatibility issues.

While trying to accept that System 7-tan is her successor gracefully, she was still compelled to compete against her. This was due to the popularity that System 6 maintained due to its lower requirements, working with certain programs that System 7 cannot, and how some early System 7-compatible Macs not running System 7 very well that some users have gotten System 6.0.7 or 6.0.8 to run on unsupported Macs.

Abilities

She has super speed, and the ability to control machines that she built by using a tape recorder, in reference to the MacroMaker program. She gained super strength when she became a cyborg, and became skilled at melee combat after a lot of training. In her normal mode, she cannot multitask. She can multitask by switching to her MultiFinder mode, but this sacrifices speed, and also risks instability due to the limitations with cooperative multitasking.

History and background

System 6-tan made her debut in the spring of 1988, and the first impressions of her were that she had some interesting capabilities, but that she was very unstable and weak. She quickly gained a bad reputation for her instability and compatibility problems, that System 4-tan and System 5-tan maintained more of a following. She was still tasked with working with A/UX-tan, who also had problems of her own causing her to be unpopular, and helped each other improve.

As System 6.0.1, she was a lot more stable, but not all of her instabilities were fixed, but her health continued to decline. She became a cyborg in late 1988 to save her life and improve her stability further, but it did not immediately improve her reputation. She feared that she would be replaced by System 7 before she had the chance to improve her reputation, in reference to reviews as early as January 1989 stating that System 7 was expected to be released within a few months (MacWorld January 1989 issue, p.211). A/UX-tan did not want to give up on her, and trained her on how to fight and to how to control the powers she acquired.

Later in 1989, she was able to improve her reputation and gain a significant following. Just as System 4-tan and System 5-tan fought against Scores-tan and nVIR-tan in 1988, System 6-tan had mortal enemies of her own who were virus-tans, and fought against them in 1989. Her first fight was against ANTI-tan in early 1989, and during this fight, System 6-tan made her vow to defend the Mac House from threats.

She remained successful and influential through the early 1990's, and despite her rivalry with System 7-tan, they were able to work together, using their different strengths and capabilities for the Mac House.