I have been going through my archives, and re-discovered the Cult of Mac’s article on Why It’s Taken 10 Years from Carbon to Snow Leopard.

Here’s my thoughts, and a link to the article…

First, the first release of Mac OS X, was actually Mac OS X Server 1.0, on October 27, 2000.  Each version of the OS has evolved from the previous version, making incremental (sometimes large incremental) improvements…

Why?  Why not take the Microsoft route, and spend a extra year or so, and make a revolutionary change?  For the same reason that Carbon was added into the plans of Mac OS X.

If Carbon, the programming API that allowed Classic Macintosh applications to run as native Mac OS X apps, had not been included in Mac OS X, it would of meant the death of Mac OS X.  The adoption rate would of been so low that the OS would probably have been stillborn.

Evolutionary, incremental change is not necessarily bad, it allows the users and programmers slowly start to utilize the new features at their own rate of comfort.  I expect with Snow Leopard, we will see some massive updates to applications, but only once the programmers have had time to digest what their options are.

via WWDC Flashback: Why It’s Taken 10 Years from Carbon to Snow Leopard | Cult of Mac.