Apple Mac OS 8.6 Released in 1999 by Apple Computers For PPC Macintosh Computers Apple Mac OS 8 was another major overhaul of the OS from the earlier Mac OS 7. It added a new Platinum visual theme, a multi threaded Finder, better virtual memory, and many customization options. 8.5 and later require a PPC CPU. It was followed up by Mac OS 9. Running MacOS 8.6 requires a supported Power PC based Macintosh (see the Apple compatibility matrix). Emulation notes: To run MacOS 8.6 on newer hardware, we recommend the SheepShaver emulator, which emulates a PowerPC Macintosh.