Geekbench is a proprietary and freemium cross-platform utility for benchmarking the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) of computers, laptops, tablets, and phones.
80-428: Geekbench began as a benchmark for Mac OS X and Windows, and is now a cross-platform benchmark that supports macOS , Windows , Linux , Android and iOS . In version 4, Geekbench started measuring GPU performance in areas such as image processing and computer vision . In version 5, Geekbench dropped support for IA-32 . In version 6, the current version, Geekbench includes CPU and GPU compute benchmarks. It uses
160-705: A 'no new features' release. Since its release, several OS X or macOS releases (namely OS X Mountain Lion , OS X El Capitan , macOS High Sierra , and macOS Monterey ) follow this pattern, with a name derived from its predecessor, similar to the ' tick–tock model ' used by Intel. In two succeeding versions, Lion and Mountain Lion , Apple moved some applications to a highly skeuomorphic style of design inspired by contemporary versions of iOS while simplifying some elements by making controls such as scroll bars fade out when not in use. This direction was, like brushed metal interfaces, unpopular with some users, although it continued
240-473: A POSIX compatibility layer and are not otherwise inherently Unix systems. Many ancient UNIX systems no longer meet this definition. Broadly, any Unix-like system that behaves in a manner roughly consistent with the UNIX specification, including having a " program which manages your login and command line sessions "; more specifically, this can refer to systems such as Linux or Minix that behave similarly to
320-470: A UNIX system but have no genetic or trademark connection to the AT&T code base. Most free/open-source implementations of the UNIX design, whether genetic UNIX or not, fall into the restricted definition of this third category due to the expense of obtaining Open Group certification, which costs thousands of dollars. Around 2001 Linux was given the opportunity to get a certification including free help from
400-683: A business that attempted to profit from selling macOS on non-Apple certified hardware, was sued by Apple in 2008. In April 2002, eWeek announced a rumor that Apple had a version of Mac OS X code-named Marklar , which ran on Intel x86 processors. The idea behind Marklar was to keep Mac OS X running on an alternative platform should Apple become dissatisfied with the progress of the PowerPC platform. These rumors subsided until late in May 2005, when various media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal and CNET , announced that Apple would unveil Marklar in
480-747: A disadvantage due to blocking the Mac App Store's use for professional applications that require elevated privileges. Applications without any code signature cannot be run by default except from a computer's administrator account. Apple produces macOS applications. Some are included with macOS and some sold separately. This includes iWork , Final Cut Pro , Logic Pro , iLife , and the database application FileMaker . Numerous other developers also offer software for macOS . In 2018, Apple introduced an application layer, codenamed Marzipan, to port iOS apps to macOS. macOS Mojave included ports of four first-party iOS apps including Home and News , and it
560-483: A file searching technology which has been integrated into the Finder since version 10.4 , allows rapid real-time searches of data files; mail messages; photos; and other information based on item properties (metadata) or content. macOS makes use of a Dock , which holds file and folder shortcuts as well as minimized windows. Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix ) operating system
640-596: A historical connection to the AT&T codebase. Most commercial UNIX systems fall into this category. So do the BSD systems, which are descendants of work done at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some of these systems have no original AT&T code but can still trace their ancestry to AT&T designs. These systems—largely commercial in nature—have been determined by
720-873: A misuse of their trademark. Their guidelines require "UNIX" to be presented in uppercase or otherwise distinguished from the surrounding text, strongly encourage using it as a branding adjective for a generic word such as "system", and discourage its use in hyphenated phrases. Other parties frequently treat "Unix" as a genericized trademark . Some add a wildcard character to the name to make an abbreviation like "Un*x" or "*nix", since Unix-like systems often have Unix-like names such as AIX , A/UX , HP-UX , IRIX , Linux , Minix , Ultrix , Xenix , and XNU . These patterns do not literally match many system names, but are still generally recognized to refer to any UNIX system, descendant, or work-alike, even those with completely dissimilar names such as Darwin / macOS , illumos / Solaris or FreeBSD . In 2007, Wayne R. Gray sued to dispute
800-467: A new recompiled version of OS X along with Rosetta , a binary translation layer which enables software compiled for PowerPC Mac OS X to run on Intel Mac OS X machines. The system was included with Mac OS X versions up to version 10.6.8. Apple dropped support for Classic mode on the new Intel Macs. Third party emulation software such as Mini vMac , Basilisk II and SheepShaver provided support for some early versions of Mac OS. A new version of Xcode and
880-412: A number of features, such as fast file searching and improved graphics processing, that Microsoft had spent several years struggling to add to Windows Vista with acceptable performance. As the operating system evolved, it moved away from the classic Mac OS , with applications being added and removed. Considering music to be a key market, Apple developed the iPod music player and music software for
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#1732801041668960-621: A number of pre-G3 Power Macintosh systems that can be made to run up to and including Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, all G3-based Macs which can run up to and including Tiger, and sub-867 MHz G4 Macs can run Leopard by removing the restriction from the installation DVD or entering a command in the Mac's Open Firmware interface to tell the Leopard Installer that it has a clock rate of 867 MHz or greater. Except for features requiring specific hardware such as graphics acceleration or DVD writing,
1040-558: A performance penalty when run on Intel Macs through Rosetta. Moreover, some PowerPC software, such as kernel extensions and System Preferences plugins, are not supported on Intel Macs at all. Plugins for Safari need to be compiled for the same platform as Safari, so when Safari is running on Intel, it requires plug-ins that have been compiled as Intel-only or universal binaries, so PowerPC-only plug-ins will not work. While Intel Macs can run PowerPC, Intel, and universal binaries, PowerPC Macs support only universal and PowerPC builds. Support for
1120-399: A scoring system that separates single-core and multi-core performance, and workloads designed to simulate real-world scenarios. The software benchmark is available for macOS , Windows , Linux , Android and iOS . Free users are required to upload test results online in order to run the benchmark. In 2013, the usefulness of the scores from earlier versions of Geekbench (up to version 3)
1200-464: A sense of depth. New interface elements were integrated, including sheets ( dialog boxes attached to specific windows) and drawers, which would slide out and provide options. The use of soft edges, translucent colors, and pinstripes, similar to the hardware design of the first iMacs , brought more texture and color to the user interface when compared to what Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X Server 1.0 's " Platinum " appearance had offered. According to Siracusa,
1280-586: A system that would be adopted by Apple's primary market of home users and creative professionals. The project was first codenamed " Rhapsody " before officially being named Mac OS X. The letter "X" in Mac OS X's name refers to the number 10, a Roman numeral , and Apple has stated that it should be pronounced "ten" in this context. However, it is also commonly pronounced like the letter "X". The iPhone X , iPhone XR and iPhone XS all later followed this convention. Previous Macintosh operating systems (versions of
1360-498: A trend of greater animation and variety in the interface previously seen in design aspects such as the Time Machine backup utility, which presented past file versions against a swirling nebula, and the glossy translucent dock of Leopard and Snow Leopard . In addition, with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion , Apple ceased to release separate server versions of Mac OS X, selling server tools as a separate downloadable application through
1440-500: A variety of professional video and image formats and includes an extensive pre-installed font library, featuring many prominent brand-name designs. The Finder is a file browser allowing quick access to all areas of the computer, which has been modified throughout subsequent releases of macOS. Quick Look has been part of the Finder since version 10.5 . It allows for dynamic previews of files, including videos and multi-page documents without opening any other applications. Spotlight ,
1520-486: A variety of proprietary systems were developed based on it, including AIX , HP-UX , IRIX , SunOS , Tru64 , Ultrix , and Xenix . These largely displaced the proprietary clones. Growing incompatibility among these systems led to the creation of interoperability standards, including POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification . Various free, low-cost, and unrestricted substitutes for UNIX emerged in
1600-454: Is a POSIX -compliant operating system built on top of the XNU kernel , (which incorporated large parts of FreeBSD kernel ) and FreeBSD userland for the standard Unix facilities available from the command line interface . Apple has released this family of software as a free and open source operating system named Darwin . On top of Darwin, Apple layered a number of components, including
1680-420: Is also the final release with PowerPC Mac support. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was the first version of Mac OS X to be built exclusively for Intel Macs, and the final release with 32-bit Intel Mac support. The name was intended to signal its status as an iteration of Leopard, focusing on technical and performance improvements rather than user-facing features; indeed it was explicitly branded to developers as being
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#17328010416681760-408: Is an operating system developed and marketed by Apple since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers . Within the market of desktop and laptop computers, it is the second most widely used desktop OS , after Microsoft Windows and ahead of all Linux distributions, including ChromeOS and SteamOS . As of 2024 , the most recent release of macOS is macOS 15 Sequoia ,
1840-550: Is made up of many small, interchangeable components that can be added or removed as needed. This makes it easy to customize the operating system to suit the needs of different users or environments. The Open Group owns the UNIX trademark and administers the Single UNIX Specification, with the "UNIX" name being used as a certification mark . They do not approve of the construction "Unix-like", and consider it
1920-405: Is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification . A Unix-like application is one that behaves like the corresponding Unix command or shell . Although there are general philosophies for Unix design, there is no technical standard defining the term, and opinions can differ about
2000-418: Is their ability to support multiple users and processes simultaneously. This allows users to run multiple programs at the same time and to share resources such as memory and disk space. This is in contrast to many older operating systems, which were designed to only support a single user or process at a time. Another important feature of Unix-like systems is their modularity . This means that the operating system
2080-414: Is therefore unsupported by Apple technical support, warranties etc.), but communities that cater to personal users, who do not install for resale and profit, have generally been ignored by Apple. These self-made computers allow more flexibility and customization of hardware, but at a cost of leaving the user more responsible for their own machine, such as on matter of data integrity or security. Psystar ,
2160-697: The Aqua interface and the Finder , to complete the GUI -based operating system which is macOS. With its original introduction as Mac OS X, the system brought a number of new capabilities to provide a more stable and reliable platform than its predecessor, the classic Mac OS . For example, pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection improved the system's ability to run multiple applications simultaneously without them interrupting or corrupting each other. Many aspects of macOS's architecture are derived from OPENSTEP , which
2240-573: The Classic Environment with performance limitations; this feature was removed from 10.5 onwards and all Macs using Intel processors. Because macOS is POSIX compliant, many software packages written for the other Unix-like systems including Linux can be recompiled to run on it, including many scientific and technical programs. Third-party projects such as Homebrew , Fink , MacPorts and pkgsrc provide pre-compiled or pre-formatted packages. Apple and others have provided versions of
2320-525: The Mac App Store , a marketplace of software maintained by Apple through a process requiring the company's approval. Apps installed through the Mac App Store run within a sandbox , restricting their ability to exchange information with other applications or modify the core operating system and its features. This has been cited as an advantage, by allowing users to install apps with confidence that they should not be able to damage their system, but also as
2400-419: The Mac App Store . Newer versions of Mac OS X also included modifications to the general interface, moving away from the striped gloss and transparency of the initial versions. Some applications began to use a brushed metal appearance, or non-pinstriped title bar appearance in version 10.4. In Leopard, Apple announced a unification of the interface, with a standardized gray-gradient window style. In 2006,
2480-800: The Mac transition to Intel processors , it was modified so that developers could build their applications as a universal binary , which provides compatibility with both the Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macintosh lines. First and third-party applications can be controlled programmatically using the AppleScript framework, retained from the classic Mac OS , or using the newer Automator application that offers pre-written tasks that do not require programming knowledge. Apple offered two main APIs to develop software natively for macOS: Cocoa and Carbon . Cocoa
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2560-530: The Open Group to meet the Single UNIX Specification and are allowed to carry the UNIX name. Most such systems are commercial derivatives of the System V code base in one form or another, although Apple macOS 10.5 and later is a BSD variant that has been certified, and EulerOS and Inspur K-UX are Linux distributions that have been certified. A few other systems (such as IBM z/OS) earned the trademark through
2640-467: The Taligent , Copland and Gershwin projects, but all were eventually abandoned. This led Apple to acquire NeXT in 1997, allowing NeXTSTEP, later called OPENSTEP , to serve as the basis for Apple's next generation operating system. This purchase also led to Steve Jobs returning to Apple as an interim, and then the permanent CEO, shepherding the transformation of the programmer-friendly OPENSTEP into
2720-625: The X Window System graphical interface which can allow these applications to run with an approximation of the macOS look-and-feel. The current Apple-endorsed method is the open-source XQuartz project; earlier versions could use the X11 application provided by Apple, or before that the XDarwin project. Applications can be distributed to Macs and installed by the user from any source and by any method such as downloading (with or without code signing , available via an Apple developer account) or through
2800-437: The classic Mac OS ) were named using Arabic numerals , as with Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 . Until macOS 11 Big Sur , all versions of the operating system were given version numbers of the form 10. x , with this going from 10.0 up until 10.15; starting with macOS 11 Big Sur , Apple switched to numbering major releases with numbers that increase by 1 with every major release. The first version of Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server 1.0 ,
2880-664: The "NS" prefix is ubiquitous in the framework, standing variously for N eXT S TEP or N eXT/ S un . The official OPENSTEP API, published in September 1994, was the first to split the API between Foundation and ApplicationKit and the first to use the "NS" prefix. Traditionally, Cocoa programs have been mostly written in Objective-C , with Java as an alternative. However, on July 11, 2005, Apple announced that "features added to Cocoa in Mac OS X versions later than 10.4 will not be added to
2960-514: The 1980s and 1990s, including 4.4BSD , Linux , and Minix . Some of these have in turn been the basis for commercial "Unix-like" systems, such as BSD/OS and macOS . Several versions of (Mac) OS X/macOS running on Intel-based Mac computers have been certified under the Single UNIX Specification . The BSD variants are descendants of UNIX developed by the University of California at Berkeley, with UNIX source code from Bell Labs . However,
3040-560: The 2010s. Rumors intensified in 2020, when numerous reports announced that the company would announce its shift to its custom processors at WWDC. Apple officially announced its shift to processors designed in-house on June 22, 2020, at WWDC 2020, with the transition planned to last for approximately two years. The first release of macOS to support ARM was macOS Big Sur . Big Sur and later versions support Universal 2 binaries , which are applications consisting of both Intel ( x86-64 ) and Apple silicon ( AArch64 ) binaries; when launched, only
3120-777: The 21st major version of macOS. Mac OS X succeeded classic Mac OS , the primary Macintosh operating system from 1984 to 2001. Its underlying architecture came from NeXT 's NeXTSTEP , as a result of Apple's acquisition of NeXT , which also brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. The first desktop version, Mac OS X 10.0 , was released on March 24, 2001. All macOS releases are UNIX 03 certified. The derivatives of macOS are Apple's other operating systems: iOS , iPadOS , watchOS , tvOS , and audioOS . macOS has supported three major processor architectures: originally PowerPC -based Macs in 1999; Intel Core-based Macs from 2006 ; and self-designed 64-bit Arm Apple M series Macs since 2020 . A prominent part of macOS's original brand identity
3200-463: The Aqua appearance. To some extent, Apple has used the successful transition to this new design as leverage, at various times threatening legal action against people who make or distribute software with an interface the company says is derived from its copyrighted design. Apple has continued to change aspects of the macOS appearance and design, particularly with tweaks to the appearance of windows and
3280-542: The BSD code base has evolved since then, replacing all the AT&T code. Since the BSD variants are not certified as compliant with the Single UNIX Specification, they are referred to as "UNIX-like" rather than "UNIX". Dennis Ritchie , one of the original creators of Unix, expressed his opinion that Unix-like systems such as Linux are de facto Unix systems. Eric S. Raymond and Rob Landley have suggested that there are three kinds of Unix-like systems: Those systems with
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3360-674: The Cocoa-Java programming interface." macOS also used to support the Java Platform as a "preferred software package"—in practice this means that applications written in Java fit as neatly into the operating system as possible while still being cross-platform compatible, and that graphical user interfaces written in Swing look almost exactly like native Cocoa interfaces. Since 2014, Apple has promoted its new programming language Swift as
3440-408: The Mac App Store. A review described the trend in the server products as becoming "cheaper and simpler... shifting its focus from large businesses to small ones." In 2012, with the release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion , the name of the system was officially shortened from Mac OS X to OS X, after the previous version shortened the system name in a similar fashion a year prior. That year, Apple removed
3520-592: The Mac, including iTunes and GarageBand . Targeting the consumer and media markets, Apple emphasized its new "digital lifestyle" applications such as the iLife suite, integrated home entertainment through the Front Row media center and the Safari web browser. With the increasing popularity of the internet, Apple offered additional online services, including the .Mac, MobileMe and most recently iCloud products. It later began selling third-party applications through
3600-782: The PowerPC platform was dropped following the transition. In 2009, Apple announced at WWDC that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard would drop support for PowerPC processors and be Intel-only. Rosetta continued to be offered as an optional download or installation choice in Snow Leopard before it was discontinued with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. In addition, new versions of Mac OS X first- and third-party software increasingly required Intel processors, including new versions of iLife, iWork, Aperture and Logic Pro. Rumors of Apple shifting Macs from Intel to in-house ARM processors used by iOS devices began circulating as early as 2011, and ebbed and flowed throughout
3680-540: The appropriate binary is run. Additionally, Intel binaries can be run on Apple silicon-based Macs using the Rosetta 2 binary translation software. The transition was completed at WWDC 2023 with the announce of the Apple silicon Mac Pro , ending the transition in 3 years, slightly behind schedule. The change in processor architecture allows Macs with ARM processors to be able to run iOS and iPadOS apps natively. One of
3760-423: The coming months. On June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs announced in his keynote address at WWDC that Apple would be making the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors over the following two years, and that Mac OS X would support both platforms during the transition. Jobs also confirmed rumors that Apple had versions of Mac OS X running on Intel processors for most of its developmental life. Intel-based Macs would run
3840-483: The cost of updates from Snow Leopard onwards, before removing upgrade fees altogether in OS X Mavericks . Some journalists and third-party software developers have suggested that this decision, while allowing more rapid feature release, meant less opportunity to focus on stability, with no version of OS X recommendable for users requiring stability and performance above new features. Apple's 2015 update, OS X 10.11 El Capitan ,
3920-421: The default file system is HFS+ , which it inherited from the classic Mac OS. Operating system designer Linus Torvalds had criticized HFS+, saying it is "probably the worst file system ever", whose design is "actively corrupting user data". He criticized the case insensitivity of file names, a design made worse when Apple extended the file system to support Unicode . The Darwin subsystem in macOS manages
4000-481: The default file system for SSD boot drives. Its successor, macOS 10.14 Mojave , was released in 2018, adding a dark mode option and a dynamic wallpaper setting . It was succeeded by macOS 10.15 Catalina in 2019, which replaces iTunes with separate apps for different types of media, and introduces the Catalyst system for porting iOS apps. In 2020, Apple announced macOS 11 Big Sur at that year's WWDC. This
4080-536: The degree to which a particular operating system or application is Unix-like. Some well-known examples of Unix-like operating systems include Linux and BSD . These systems are often used on servers as well as on personal computers and other devices. Many popular applications, such as the Apache web server and the Bash shell, are also designed to be used on Unix-like systems. One of the key features of Unix-like systems
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#17328010416684160-530: The display to warmer colors at night, and two Continuity features: Universal Clipboard, which syncs a user's clipboard across their Apple devices, and Auto Unlock, which can unlock a user's Mac with their Apple Watch. macOS Sierra also adds support for the Apple File System (APFS), Apple's successor to the dated HFS+ file system. macOS 10.13 High Sierra , released in 2017, included performance improvements, Metal 2 and HEVC support, and made APFS
4240-448: The early releases in retrospect as "dog-slow, feature poor" and Aqua as "unbearably slow and a huge resource hog". Apple rapidly developed several new releases of Mac OS X. Siracusa's review of version 10.3, Panther , noted "It's strange to have gone from years of uncertainty and vaporware to a steady annual supply of major new operating system releases." Version 10.4, Tiger , reportedly shocked executives at Microsoft by offering
4320-480: The file system, which includes the Unix permissions layer. In 2003 and 2005, two Macworld editors expressed criticism of the permission scheme; Ted Landau called misconfigured permissions "the most common frustration" in macOS, while Rob Griffiths suggested that some users may even have to reset permissions every day, a process which can take up to 15 minutes. More recently, another Macworld editor, Dan Frakes, called
4400-444: The first Intel Macs were released with a specialized version of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger . A key development for the system was the announcement and release of the iPhone from 2007 onwards. While Apple's previous iPod media players used a minimal operating system, the iPhone used an operating system based on Mac OS X, which would later be called " iPhone OS " and then iOS . The simultaneous release of two operating systems based on
4480-410: The head of OS X development, Scott Forstall , and design was changed towards a more minimal direction. Apple's new user interface design, using deep color saturation, text-only buttons and a minimal, 'flat' interface, was debuted with iOS 7 in 2013. With OS X engineers reportedly working on iOS 7, the version released in 2013, OS X 10.9 Mavericks , was something of a transitional release, with some of
4560-488: The introduction of Aqua and its departure from the then conventional look "hit like a ton of bricks." Bruce Tognazzini (who founded the original Apple Human Interface Group) said that the Aqua interface in Mac OS X 10.0 represented a step backwards in usability compared with the original Mac OS interface. Third-party developers started producing skins for customizable applications and other operating systems which mimicked
4640-572: The major differences between the classic Mac OS and the current macOS was the addition of Aqua , a graphical user interface with water-like elements, in the first major release of Mac OS X. Every window element, text, graphic, or widget is drawn on-screen using spatial anti-aliasing technology. ColorSync , a technology introduced many years before, was improved and built into the core drawing engine, to provide color matching for printing and multimedia professionals. Also, drop shadows were added around windows and isolated text elements to provide
4720-597: The major version number, similarly to classic Mac OS and iOS, but is still named after places within California. The heritage of what would become macOS had originated at NeXT , a company founded by Steve Jobs following his departure from Apple in 1985. There, the Unix-like NeXTSTEP operating system was developed, before being launched in 1989. The kernel of NeXTSTEP is based upon the Mach kernel , which
4800-801: The menu bar. Since 2012, Apple has sold almost all of its Mac models with high-resolution Retina displays , and macOS and its APIs have extensive support for resolution-independent development on supporting high-resolution displays. Reviewers have described Apple's support for the technology as superior to that on Windows. The human interface guidelines published by Apple for macOS are followed by many applications, giving them consistent user interface and keyboard shortcuts. In addition, new services for applications are included, which include spelling and grammar checkers, special characters palette, color picker, font chooser and dictionary; these global features are present in every Cocoa application, adding consistency. The graphics system OpenGL composites windows onto
4880-476: The operating system offers the same functionality on all supported hardware. As most Mac hardware components, or components similar to those, since the Intel transition are available for purchase, some technology-capable groups have developed software to install macOS on non-Apple computers. These are referred to as Hackintoshes , a portmanteau of the words "hack" and "Macintosh". This violates Apple's EULA (and
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#17328010416684960-610: The preferred language for software development on Apple platforms. Apple's original plan with macOS was to require all developers to rewrite their software into the Cocoa APIs. This caused much outcry among existing Mac developers, who threatened to abandon the platform rather than invest in a costly rewrite, and the idea was shelved. To permit a smooth transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, the Carbon Application Programming Interface (API)
5040-646: The procedure of repairing permissions vastly overused. He argues that macOS typically handles permissions properly without user interference, and resetting permissions should only be tried when problems emerge. The architecture of macOS incorporates a layered design: the layered frameworks aid rapid development of applications by providing existing code for common tasks. Apple provides its own software development tools, most prominently an integrated development environment called Xcode . Xcode provides interfaces to compilers that support several programming languages including C , C++ , Objective-C , and Swift . For
5120-473: The release of Leopard onwards and announced that Carbon applications would not run at 64-bit. A number of macOS applications continued to use Carbon for some time afterwards, especially ones with heritage dating back to the classic Mac OS and for which updates would be difficult, uneconomic or not necessary. This included Microsoft Office up to Office 2016 , and Photoshop up to CS5. Early versions of macOS could also run some classic Mac OS applications through
5200-471: The same frameworks placed tension on Apple, which cited the iPhone as forcing it to delay Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard . However, after Apple opened the iPhone to third-party developers its commercial success drew attention to Mac OS X, with many iPhone software developers showing interest in Mac development. In 2007, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was the sole release with universal binary components, allowing installation on both Intel Macs and select PowerPC Macs. It
5280-560: The screen to allow hardware-accelerated drawing. This technology, introduced in version 10.2, is called Quartz Extreme , a component of Quartz . Quartz's internal imaging model correlates well with the Portable Document Format (PDF) imaging model, making it easy to output PDF to multiple devices. As a side result, PDF viewing and creating PDF documents from any application are built-in features. Reflecting its popularity with design users, macOS also has system support for
5360-425: The skeuomorphic design removed, while most of the general interface of Mavericks remained unchanged. The next version, OS X 10.10 Yosemite , adopted a design similar to iOS 7 but with greater complexity suitable for an interface controlled with a mouse. From 2012 onwards, the system has shifted to an annual release schedule similar to that of iOS and Mac OS X releases prior to 10.4 Tiger . It also steadily cut
5440-508: The status of UNIX as a trademark, but lost his case, and lost again on appeal, with the court upholding the trademark and its ownership. "Unix-like" systems started to appear in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many proprietary versions, such as Idris (1978), UNOS (1982), Coherent (1983), and UniFlex (1985), aimed to provide businesses with the functionality available to academic users of UNIX. When AT&T allowed relatively inexpensive commercial binary sublicensing of UNIX in 1979,
5520-472: The underlying command-line compilers supported building universal binaries that would run on either architecture. PowerPC-only software is supported with Apple's official binary translation software, Rosetta , though applications eventually had to be rewritten to run properly on the newer versions released for Intel processors. Apple initially encouraged developers to produce universal binaries with support for both PowerPC and Intel. PowerPC binaries suffer
5600-401: Was a descendant of APIs inherited from OPENSTEP with no ancestry from the classic Mac OS , while Carbon was an adaptation of classic Mac OS APIs, allowing Mac software to be minimally rewritten to run natively on Mac OS X. The Cocoa API was created as the result of a 1993 collaboration between NeXT Computer and Sun Microsystems . This heritage is highly visible for Cocoa developers, since
5680-496: Was a transitional product, featuring an interface resembling the classic Mac OS , though it was not compatible with software designed for the older system. Consumer releases of Mac OS X included more backward compatibility . Mac OS applications could be rewritten to run natively via the Carbon API ; many could also be run directly through the Classic Environment with a reduction in performance. The consumer version of Mac OS X
5760-527: Was announced that the API would be available for third-party developers to use from 2019. With macOS Catalina in 2019, the application layer was made available to third-party developers as Mac Catalyst . List of macOS versions, the supported systems on which they run, and their RAM requirements Tools such as XPostFacto and patches applied to the installation media have been developed by third parties to enable installation of newer versions of macOS on systems not officially supported by Apple. This includes
5840-402: Was announced to focus specifically on stability and performance improvements. In 2016, with the release of macOS 10.12 Sierra , the name was changed from OS X to macOS with the purpose of aligning it with the branding of Apple's other primary operating systems: iOS , watchOS , and tvOS . macOS Sierra added Siri , iCloud Drive , picture-in-picture support, a Night Shift mode that switches
5920-401: Was created. Applications written with Carbon were initially able to run natively on both classic Mac OS and Mac OS X, although this ability was later dropped as Mac OS X developed. Carbon was not included in the first product sold as Mac OS X: the little-used original release of Mac OS X Server 1.0 , which also did not include the Aqua interface. Apple limited further development of Carbon from
6000-468: Was designed to be portable, to ease the transition from one platform to another. For example, NeXTSTEP was ported from the original 68k -based NeXT workstations to x86 and other architectures before NeXT was purchased by Apple, and OPENSTEP was later ported to the PowerPC architecture as part of the Rhapsody project . Prior to macOS High Sierra, and on drives other than solid state drives (SSDs),
6080-460: Was heavily disputed by Linus Torvalds in an online forum. Linus' concerns that Geekbench combined disparate benchmarks into a single score were addressed in Geekbench 4 by splitting integer, floating point, and crypto into sub-scores. Linus regarded the changes as improvements in an informal review. MacOS macOS , originally Mac OS X , previously shortened as OS X ,
6160-413: Was launched in 2001 with Mac OS X 10.0 . Reviews were variable, with extensive praise for its sophisticated, glossy Aqua interface , but criticizing it for sluggish performance. With Apple's popularity at a low, the maker of FrameMaker , Adobe Inc. , declined to develop new versions of it for Mac OS X. Ars Technica columnist John Siracusa, who reviewed every major OS X release up to 10.10, described
6240-493: Was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University , with additional kernel layers and low-level user space code derived from parts of FreeBSD and other BSD operating systems. Its graphical user interface was built on top of an object-oriented GUI toolkit using the Objective-C programming language. Throughout the 1990s, Apple had tried to create a "next-generation" OS to succeed its classic Mac OS through
6320-628: Was the first increment in the primary version number of macOS since the release of Mac OS X Public Beta in 2000; updates to macOS 11 were given 11.x numbers, matching the version numbering scheme used by Apple's other operating systems. Big Sur brought major changes to the user interface and was the first version to run on Apple Silicon , based on the ARM architecture. The numbering system started with Big Sur continued in 2021 with macOS 12 Monterey , 2022 with macOS 13 Ventura , 2023 with macOS 14 Sonoma , and 2024 with macOS 15 Sequoia . At macOS's core
6400-512: Was the use of Roman numeral X, pronounced "ten", as well as code naming each release after species of big cats , and later, places within California . Apple shortened the name to "OS X" in 2011 and then changed it to "macOS" in 2016 to align with the branding of Apple's other operating systems. After sixteen distinct versions of macOS 10, macOS Big Sur was presented as version 11 in 2020, and every subsequent version has also incremented
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