By Kasper Jade

Published: 02:00 PM EST (11:00 AM PST)

Sources close to Apple's Mac OS 9 development team recently presented AppleInsider with information that suggested Apple, at the hands of CEO, Steve Jobs, made an extra effort to keep Mac OS 9.1 a less significant operating system update than it could have been.

Mac OS 9.1, which went by the code-name Fortissimo, quietly made its official appearance during this months Macworld expo, and was not widely touted like previous Mac OS system updates. Some sources attribute this action to preventing any overshadowing of Apple's upcoming Mac OS X release.

Meanwhile, other sources claim that certain technologies were withheld from the release to be packaged in a later update that will compliment the official release of Mac OS X and act as a paid upgrade to consumers whose machines do not support the company's next-generation operating system.

For starters, the Mac OS 9 development team has had a functional Network control panel operational for several months now, but the component was pulled from the Fortissimo release in its early developmental stages without comment. Likewise, the word on the street is that Open Transport 3.0 was also far enough in its developmental stages to be included as part of the release, but was not. Open Transport 3.0 is rumored to feature a number of enhancements such as support for multi-homing.

Additionally, it has been said that Jobs ordered advancements to Mac OS 9's Memory Manager be remove in early development stages. The small team of developers had apparently implemented code they'd written to give protected memory spaces for
applications on 9.1, sources said.

The good news is that the company most likely has the technologies on hold for a Mac OS 9.5 release, and did not discard them simply to flex Mac OS X's muscle. Further updates on the future of Apple's Mac OS 9.0 operating system will be forthcoming when information becomes available.