What is Mac OS 7.6 Beta (7.6a3c4, 7.6b3, 7.6b4, 7.6b5, 7.6b6, 7.6d5c2, 7.6f3, 7.6f3c1, 7.6.1a9)?

Harmony is the next reference release of the Mac OS, slated for release in January 1997.

It will support all Mac OS computers which are 32-bit clean and have a 68030 processor or "better" as originally shipped. Harmony does not support machines which meet these criteria as a result of hardware or software upgrades.

[The SE/30, IIx, and IIcx are the 030 models which are not supported.]

Harmony will also not install over System 6. Harmony's version number will be 7.6. 

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Rather than extract the relevant bits as this was an alpha, I have pasted the Harmony a3 (7.6a3c4) Seed Notes below. 

 

Harmony a3 Developer Seed Release Notes
=======================================

    Harmony Seed Release Notes Errata
    ---------------------------------

    Previous notes used the words 'bi-annual', which in some
    areas means "once every two years". Our system software
    Reference Releases will occur twice a year. We apologize
    for any confusion this may have caused.

    These notes no longer make use of the code name
    "Bonjour".

    Harmony a3 Fundamentals
    -----------------------

    a3 is projected to become b1. The next seed you are
    likely to receive is likely to be numbered b2.

    IMPORTANT: Harmony has been and continues to be on a
    VERY tight schedule. We have a very firm GM (final) date
    in mid-December so that we can meet the January product
    availability date which was publicly announced at
    Macworld Boston. Thus, it is imperative that you verify
    compatibility with all your products as soon as possible
    so that critical problems can be addressed.

    Harmony Fundamentals
    --------------------

    Harmony is the next reference release of the Mac OS,
    slated for release in January 1997. It will support all
    Mac OS computers which are 32-bit clean and have a 68030
    processor or "better" as originally shipped. Harmony
    does not support machines which meet these criteria as a
    result of hardware or software upgrades. [The SE/30,
    IIx, and IIcx are the 030 models which are not
    supported.] Harmony will also not install over System 6.
    Harmony's version number will be 7.6.

    IMPORTANT: It is possible there are significant bugs in
    this build of Harmony. DO NOT risk critical data by
    exposing it to this build of Harmony. DO NOT install
    this build of Harmony on a machine which is critical to
    your business.

    Harmony is part of Apple's new system software strategy
    of twice-yearly reference releases. Harmony is the first
    of these releases; the second is scheduled for July
    1997. Since it is not possible to produce a system
    software reference release in six months, we will be
    developing subsequent reference releases in parallel,
    and you will eventually receive seeds of adjacent
    reference releases in alternating weeks. This will be
    the normal procedure in the future.

    Install Mac™ OS
    ---------------

    "Install Mac™ OS" is a new installer technology which
    will evolve over the next year into a safer, saner, "one
    button" system software installation engine. Be sure to
    use "Install Mac™ OS" and provide us with feedback on
    it. Please do not bypass "Install Mac™ OS" without
    having tried it. We have accepted (and acted on) all
    possible feedback on the Harmony release, but feedback
    is still needed (in addition to bug reports) for future
    releases.

    Distribution
    ------------

    Harmony is being seeded in roughly megabyte-sized
    segments via two new dedicated FTP servers in Cupertino,
    California, USA. These servers will be used to seed core
    system software releases only. Connectivity is now
    provided by Apple's primary corporate internet feed. We
    plan to make mirrors of these servers available in
    Europe and Asia in the not-too-distant future.

    We hope the steps we have taken will improve your
    ability to obtain these system software seeds in a
    timely fashion, but we still value your input on how to
    improve our delivery mechanisms.

    Contact Information
    -------------------

    Bug reports and technical questions should be sent to
    .

Improvements and Other Positive Changes
=======================================

    New Disk Tools floppies that provide better repair
    support. One disk for all supported machines. Boot from
    “Emergency Disk 1” and try the buttons. Boot from
    “Emergency Disk 2” for Finder. Human Interface is
    near-final.

    Installer: Semi-final human interface. "Customize" button
    included. Elegant recovery from failed installation;
    allowance for stop and restart where left off. Cyberdog
    Installer for PowerPC or 68K. Single Read Me.

    All strings shown during the startup process on the Mac
    OS splash screens are PICTs instead of STR resources.
    The Extensions Disabled and Macsbug Installed messages
    now appear on the start up screen before the progress
    bar shows up.

    DMF Floppy Support added: The SWIM2 and SWIM3 Sony
    (floppy) drivers have been updated to be able to
    correctly read from DMF floppies on some models.
    Excluded models: IIfx; Quadra 900, 950, 660av, 840av;
    PowerBook 190, 5300, 1400.

    Extension Mgr Guide Additions 1.0 makes its debut. Guide
    Assistance for EM 4 should be available now.

    Extensions Manager sets: this build introduces the
    official 7.6 read only default sets.

    Finder 7.5.6b1: raised the size of the Finder heap from
    185k to 225k.  This should reduce the occurance of the
    Finder running out of memory even though you have plenty
    of RAM to spare.

    Mac OS Easy Open 1.1.3a3: internal strings now all refer
    to Mac OS Easy Open.

    Movie Player 2.5: added to this build.  It will show up
    in Apple Extras.

    PB 1400 Guide Additions now appears on PowerBook 1400.

    Startup Disk 7.5.3a3: now shows custom drive icons.

Bug Fixes
=========

    Apple Telecom 3.0.3 replaces 3.0.

    AppleScripts: removed Turn Sound Off and Turn Sound On
    since they do not play nice with Monitors & Sound.

    Color SW 1500 and 2500: version 2.2.1 replaces 2.2

    ColorSync 2.1.1 replaces ColorSync 2.1

    Ethernet (Built-in) 1.0.4 replaces 1.0.3

    Map control panel: Munich longitude was off by one
    minute (caused by round off when converting from radians
    to degrees).

    PC Exchange 2.1.1 replaces 2.1.

    Screen control panel 1.0.8 replaces 1.0.7: fixes a
    problem where if you used a mouse click to wake up the
    CPU all future mouse clicks would be ignored. Compatible
    with Performa 6400.

    Button Manager: removed ADBReInit call made by button
    manager. This shaves two seconds off the typical boot.
    The ADBReInit was there to load the keyboard resources
    for the Apple Adjustable keyboard - we now load it
    explicitly (like every other ADB device). Fixed a
    problem introduced by 7.5.5 where rapidly pressing on
    the front buttons of a 5x00 could hang the machine.

    CFM: new version which treats the System Folder as one
    entity when searching for libraries.  The previous
    search would use an older version of a library in the
    extensions folder even if a newer version existed in the
    system file.  We ran into this when ThreadsLib 2.1 was
    in the Extensions file and would override ThreadsLib
    2.1.1 in the System file (7.5.3).

    CFM-68K: added new RSEG loader.

    High Level Event Manager was leaking a PPC parameter
    block under some circumstances. No longer.

    PBDTGetComment and PBDTSetComment avoid crashing on some
    foreign volumes.

    RealFont no longer crashes on some machines under some
    circumstances when asked to evaluate new font and size
    of a multi-byte font.

    The ‘nreg’ Gestalt selector is now undefined if
    NameRegistryLib cannot be found. (This is the correct
    behavior -- it used to return something invalid.)

    Fixed a long standing nanokernel/interrupt problem on
    PowerMacs.

    Fixed the problem in the native SCSI Manager where
    Performa 6400 would sometimes hang if a CD was in the
    drive at startup.

    PictWhap (cross-hair screen-dump FKEY 4) was ignoring a
    file manager error if there was not enough space to
    create the PICT.  The offending call now checks for
    errors and deletes the file if necessary (instead of
    creating a bogus PICT file).

    PowerMgrLib bug fixed which was preventing Battery
    Module in Control Strip Does from working on PB 5300.

    The DAV driver now arbitrates and manages shared
    resources in a more robust fashion, fixing several sound
    problems.

    ThreadsLib: changed version number to 2.1.3 (it was
    incorrectly set to 2.1.1)

    Video Mirroring: fixed a problem introduced by Master
    Interface integration.  The wrong data structures were
    used in several instances.

    VM: new default behavior. If turned on without a total
    RAM setting it will default to physical + 1 or 16 MB
    logical, whichever is greater.

    Fixed Window Manager so that menu bar is always as wide
    as the main monitor.

    PC Compatibilty 1.5 has been removed since 1.5.5 will be
    released very near the Harmony intro time.

    QuickDraw GX 1.1.5 replaces 1.1.3. (See sub-head below.)

    Cyberdog 1.2 replaces 1.1.

    Installer: DataViz and Live Objects installers work. AOL
    has been removed from "Install Mac™ OS". "Dirty"
    installs should work.

QuickDraw GX 1.1.5
==================

    ColorSync is no longer installed.

    SimpleText 1.3.1 is installed and installer script no
    longer forces you to replace a newer version of
    SimpleText with the one that comes with GX.

    PowerTalk advertisement removed from installer script

    PAP fixes from LW 8 (PCI/PAP/timing related problem that
    can cause print jobs to hang/crash) rolled into GX
    extension.

    PostScript query fixes from GX Spooler patch ("GX 1.1.3
    Spooler Patch 1.0.2") rolled into GX extension.

Known Problems
==============

    CFM-68K's A5 handling is not perfect.

    Some installers still interrupt the flow of automatic
    installation.

    New Disk Tools disks: There will be extra disk swaps.
    Icons and pictures are not finalized.

    Specific bug fixes in QuickDraw™ GX 1.1.4dx are not
    present in QuickDraw™ GX 1.1.5. Users of QuickDraw™ GX
    1.1.4dx may wish to continue using that version if they
    are dependent on those bug fixes. The 1.1.4dx extension
    can be installed on top of 1.1.5. Future versions of
    QuickDraw™ GX will include these bug fixes.

 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- END -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Download Mac OS 7.6 Beta (7.6a3c4, 7.6b3, 7.6b4, 7.6b5, 7.6b6, 7.6d5c2, 7.6f3, 7.6f3c1, 7.6.1a9) for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.6 up to Mac OS 7.6

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver