[freaktornado]

Yesterday I watched Phil Schiller from Apple download and install OpenGL and a USB driver on OS9 without retsarting the computer.

Does OS9 allow extensions to be installed and used without restarting? Or are they moving everything to libraries?

Can you use different extension sets with different users? It looked as if the Finder restarted with the new user in yesterday's demo, but the OS didn't reboot.

[Medazinol]

USB drivers don't neccessarily require a reboot. That's the whole idea of USB.
OpenGL are nothing but libraries that get called when an application needs them, much like the GameSproket stuff.

As for OS 9 Apple has written a couple of programs called "Panels" and "Login" that load BEFORE the Finder if multiuser settings are turned on. This way the OS can load the front end instead of the Finder all the time.

Remember, the Finder is nothing but a program the OS loads by default when it finishes booting. You *can* quit the Finder but not good unless you're running something else so the computer can go to it.

Hope this explains things a bit.

[strobe]

Technically you shouldn't have to reboot when installing shared libraries. In practice sometimes the system requires them to be loaded at boot time. One example of this was Win95 required more reboots, but Win98 allowed more dynamic loading of such drivers
BTW, get Intel to release their indeo codecs as shared libs! Releasing them as INITs serves no purpose but to annoy me

[strepidus]

strobe,
although getting info on Indeo Video extensions identifies they as system extensions, Conflict Catcher says that they take up no memory on boot and are actually "components" instead of "system extensions." As an aside, in OS 9, Applescript is now a component instead of a system extension. Other examples of components include Macintalk Pro and ISO 9660 File Access.

Anyone know the difference between components and shared libraries?