A Technical History of Apple's Operating Systems - Mac OS X Internals

60 Chapter 1 A Technical History of Apple’s Operating Systems
• Support for larger disk drives
• AppleShare client features
Figure 1–17 shows a screenshot of System 6.
FIGURE 1–17 Macintosh System 6
An important improvement came when Apple incorporated cooperative multi-
tasking through the MultiFinder. Initially included as a separate piece of software
along with the original Finder, MultiFinder soon became mandatory. It allowed the
user to have several programs open simultaneously and to assign specific amounts
of RAM to these programs. Usability improvements included providing a progress
bar with cancel button for “copy file” and “erase disk” operations. Until this point,
the Finder did not use color even on color capable systems. This was remedied with
the introduction of Color QuickDraw.