rhapsody was the code name given to apple computer's next-generation operating system during the period of its development between apple's purchase of next in late 1996 and the announcement of mac os x (now called "macos") in 1998. at first more than an operating system, rhapsody represented a new strategy for apple, who intended the operating system to run on x86-based pcs and dec alpha workstations as well as on powerpc-based macintosh hardware. in addition, the underlying api frameworks would be ported to run natively on microsoft windows nt. eventually, the non-apple platforms were dropped, and later versions consisted primarily of the openstep operating system ported to the power macintosh, along with a new gui to make it appear more mac-like. several existing "classic" mac os technologies were also ported to rhapsody, including quicktime and applesearch. rhapsody could also run mac os 8 in a "blue box" emulation layer.