149-429: MacOS , originally Mac OS X , previously shortened as OS X , 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,
298-571: A Java virtual machine . Rhapsody combines NeXT's OpenStep object-oriented framework, NeXT's other frameworks ( WebObjects , Enterprise Objects Framework ), and Apple's Mac OS technologies (including AppleScript , QuickTime Media Layer, ColorSync , Apple events ). Rhapsody uses the Unix File System (UFS) for hard disks, and Network File System on network drives. Pixels are drawn onscreen using Display PostScript instead of Mac OS's QuickDraw . Since Display PostScript relies on
447-428: A system call to perform a block I/O write operation, then the system call might execute the following instructions: While the writing takes place, the operating system will context switch to other processes as normal. When the device finishes writing, the device will interrupt the currently running process by asserting an interrupt request . The device will also place an integer onto the data bus. Upon accepting
596-703: 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
745-679: 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
894-630: A complete rewrite to run well on the system, which Jobs said could have taken as long as two years; instead, applications could run on Mac OS X with only "minor adjustments". Apple also ported existing classic Mac OS frameworks into Mac OS X and developed the cross-platform Carbon API for Mac OS 9 and X as the transition layer. Widely used Mac OS libraries like QuickTime and AppleScript were ported and published to developers. Carbon allows full compatibility and native functionality for both platforms, while enabling new features. Apple also announced that Adobe , Microsoft and Macromedia were on board with
1043-645: A computer even if they are not compatible with the base operating system. A library operating system (libOS) is one in which the services that a typical operating system provides, such as networking, are provided in the form of libraries and composed with a single application and configuration code to construct a unikernel : a specialized (only the absolute necessary pieces of code are extracted from libraries and bound together ), single address space , machine image that can be deployed to cloud or embedded environments. The operating system code and application code are not executed in separated protection domains (there
1192-585: A development of MULTICS for a single user. Because UNIX's source code was available, it became the basis of other, incompatible operating systems, of which the most successful were AT&T 's System V and the University of California 's Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). To increase compatibility, the IEEE released the POSIX standard for operating system application programming interfaces (APIs), which
1341-741: 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
1490-648: 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. Operating system An operating system ( OS ) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common services for computer programs . Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of
1639-484: A large legal settlement was paid. In the twenty-first century, Windows continues to be popular on personal computers but has less market share of servers. UNIX operating systems, especially Linux, are the most popular on enterprise systems and servers but are also used on mobile devices and many other computer systems. On mobile devices, Symbian OS was dominant at first, being usurped by BlackBerry OS (introduced 2002) and iOS for iPhones (from 2007). Later on,
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#17327732846911788-442: A library with no protection between applications, such as eCos . A hypervisor is an operating system that runs a virtual machine . The virtual machine is unaware that it is an application and operates as if it had its own hardware. Virtual machines can be paused, saved, and resumed, making them useful for operating systems research, development, and debugging. They also enhance portability by enabling applications to be run on
1937-447: A malformed machine instruction . However, the most common error conditions are division by zero and accessing an invalid memory address . Users can send messages to the kernel to modify the behavior of a currently running process. For example, in the command-line environment , pressing the interrupt character (usually Control-C ) might terminate the currently running process. To generate software interrupts for x86 CPUs,
2086-465: 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
2235-410: 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
2384-621: 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,
2533-455: A particular application's memory is stored, or even whether or not it has been allocated yet. In modern operating systems, memory which is accessed less frequently can be temporarily stored on a disk or other media to make that space available for use by other programs. This is called swapping , as an area of memory can be used by multiple programs, and what that memory area contains can be swapped or exchanged on demand. Virtual memory provides
2682-557: 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
2831-483: A preliminary version of Blue Box, the compatibility environment that would allow Rhapsody to run Mac OS apps. The full Blue Box would come in Rhapsody Unified, planned for mid-1998. Rhapsody's version numbers start at version 5.0, since was a rename of NeXT's OPENSTEP for Mach operating system, whose last version was OPENSTEP for Mach 4.2. Though Apple never released Rhapsody 5.2, some speculated that it
2980-503: A program does not interfere with memory already in use by another program. Since programs time share, each program must have independent access to memory. Cooperative memory management, used by many early operating systems, assumes that all programs make voluntary use of the kernel 's memory manager, and do not exceed their allocated memory. This system of memory management is almost never seen any more, since programs often contain bugs which can cause them to exceed their allocated memory. If
3129-408: A program fails, it may cause memory used by one or more other programs to be affected or overwritten. Malicious programs or viruses may purposefully alter another program's memory, or may affect the operation of the operating system itself. With cooperative memory management, it takes only one misbehaved program to crash the system. Memory protection enables the kernel to limit a process' access to
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#17327732846913278-440: A program tries to access memory that is not accessible memory, but nonetheless has been allocated to it, the kernel is interrupted (see § Memory management ) . This kind of interrupt is typically a page fault . When the kernel detects a page fault it generally adjusts the virtual memory range of the program which triggered it, granting it access to the memory requested. This gives the kernel discretionary power over where
3427-464: 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,
3576-470: A significant amount of CPU time. Direct memory access (DMA) is an architecture feature to allow devices to bypass the CPU and access main memory directly. (Separate from the architecture, a device may perform direct memory access to and from main memory either directly or via a bus.) When a computer user types a key on the keyboard, typically the character appears immediately on the screen. Likewise, when
3725-402: A specific moment in time. Hard real-time systems require exact timing and are common in manufacturing , avionics , military, and other similar uses. With soft real-time systems, the occasional missed event is acceptable; this category often includes audio or multimedia systems, as well as smartphones. In order for hard real-time systems be sufficiently exact in their timing, often they are just
3874-582: 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
4023-497: 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
4172-417: A user moves a mouse , the cursor immediately moves across the screen. Each keystroke and mouse movement generates an interrupt called Interrupt-driven I/O . An interrupt-driven I/O occurs when a process causes an interrupt for every character or word transmitted. Devices such as hard disk drives , solid-state drives , and magnetic tape drives can transfer data at a rate high enough that interrupting
4321-453: A variation of the classic reader/writer problem . The writer receives a pipe from the shell for its output to be sent to the reader's input stream. The command-line syntax is alpha | bravo . alpha will write to the pipe when its computation is ready and then sleep in the wait queue. bravo will then be moved to the ready queue and soon will read from its input stream. The kernel will generate software interrupts to coordinate
4470-497: 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 ,
4619-629: A whole new generation of compelling apps to take over in the long run" is a strategy that "has not so far worked in practice". Though developers were expecting Rhapsody DP3, Steve Jobs announced at the July 1998 MacWorld Expo NY that an improved version of Rhapsody would be publicly released as Mac OS X Server 1.0 , which would bundle WebObjects , the QuickTime Streaming Server , and an Apache web server. Apple forked Rhapsody into Darwin , an open source operating system that
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4768-621: A window. Rhapsody's Blue Box environment, available only on PowerPC due to paravirtualization , provides runtime compatibility with Mac OS 8 applications. All virtualized applications and their associated windows are encapsulated within a single Blue Box desktop window instead of being interspersed with native Yellow Box applications. Blue Box later became the Classic environment , which remained in Mac OS X until Mac OS X Tiger , with support for Classic dropped in Mac OS X Leopard . Yellow Box
4917-418: Is interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computer – from cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers . In the personal computer market, as of September 2024 , Microsoft Windows holds a dominant market share of around 73%. macOS by Apple Inc. is in second place (15%), Linux is in third place (5%), and ChromeOS
5066-562: Is remote direct memory access , which enables each CPU to access memory belonging to other CPUs. Multicomputer operating systems often support remote procedure calls where a CPU can call a procedure on another CPU, or distributed shared memory , in which the operating system uses virtualization to generate shared memory that does not physically exist. A distributed system is a group of distinct, networked computers—each of which might have their own operating system and file system. Unlike multicomputers, they may be dispersed anywhere in
5215-711: Is Rhapsody's development platform. It consists of much of the OpenStep framework, combined with a runtime, and a development environment. Since Yellow Box also had a Windows NT implementation, apps made for it could also run natively on Microsoft Windows , and would look like normal Windows applications. Yellow Box includes three major frameworks: Foundation , Application Kit , and Display PostScript. It also includes NeXTSTEP's Project Builder and Interface Builder development tools. Yellow Box has full support for preemptive multitasking , multithreading , and protected memory (which would have only been partially supported under
5364-451: 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
5513-484: Is a change away from the currently running process. Similarly, both hardware and software interrupts execute an interrupt service routine . Software interrupts may be normally occurring events. It is expected that a time slice will occur, so the kernel will have to perform a context switch . A computer program may set a timer to go off after a few seconds in case too much data causes an algorithm to take too long. Software interrupts may be error conditions, such as
5662-419: 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
5811-632: Is described in the §Pitch to developers section). Many NeXTSTEP innovations were foundational to Mac OS X, including the Cocoa framework, Interface Builder (which became part of Xcode ), and the Objective-C programming language. These technologies attracted many indie developers to the Mac , and are still in use today on the Mac; they were later used on the iPhone , the iPad , the Apple Watch , and
5960-422: Is difficult to define, but has been called "the layer of software that manages a computer's resources for its users and their applications ". Operating systems include the software that is always running, called a kernel —but can include other software as well. The two other types of programs that can run on a computer are system programs —which are associated with the operating system, but may not be part of
6109-896: Is in fourth place (2%). In the mobile sector (including smartphones and tablets ), as of September 2023 , Android's share is 68.92%, followed by Apple's iOS and iPadOS with 30.42%, and other operating systems with .66%. Linux distributions are dominant in the server and supercomputing sectors. Other specialized classes of operating systems (special-purpose operating systems), such as embedded and real-time systems, exist for many applications. Security-focused operating systems also exist. Some operating systems have low system requirements (e.g. light-weight Linux distribution ). Others may have higher system requirements. Some operating systems require installation or may come pre-installed with purchased computers ( OEM -installation), whereas others may run directly from media (i.e. live CD ) or flash memory (i.e. USB stick). An operating system
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6258-443: Is only a single application running, at least conceptually, so there is no need to prevent interference between applications) and OS services are accessed via simple library calls (potentially inlining them based on compiler thresholds), without the usual overhead of context switches , in a way similarly to embedded and real-time OSes. Note that this overhead is not negligible: to the direct cost of mode switching it's necessary to add
6407-499: Is supported by most UNIX systems. MINIX was a stripped-down version of UNIX, developed in 1987 for educational uses, that inspired the commercially available, free software Linux . Since 2008, MINIX is used in controllers of most Intel microchips , while Linux is widespread in data centers and Android smartphones. The invention of large scale integration enabled the production of personal computers (initially called microcomputers ) from around 1980. For around five years,
6556-463: Is that it'll be available for Mac and Intel computers. What if it's a huge hit? What if it's cheaper and less troublesome than Windows and NT? What if it dawns on software companies that they can write one Rhapsody program and sell it on both "Mac" and "Windows" machines? The experience of using a computer is determined mostly by its system software. In other words, Rhapsody will put Apple elegance on any personal computer, no matter who made it. Every PC in
6705-473: Is that they do not load user-installed software. Consequently, they do not need protection between different applications, enabling simpler designs. Very small operating systems might run in less than 10 kilobytes , and the smallest are for smart cards . Examples include Embedded Linux , QNX , VxWorks , and the extra-small systems RIOT and TinyOS . A real-time operating system is an operating system that guarantees to process events or data by or at
6854-535: Is the foundation for Apple's current commercial operating systems. Since Rhapsody could run on both PowerPC and Intel x86, some commentators speculated that Apple could be planning to switch the Macintosh from PowerPC to Intel processors. This switch occurred in 2005 , with Apple revealing that it had internally tested Intel builds of Mac OS X since the year 2000. In 2016, historian Hanson Hsu called Steve Jobs's vision for developers "prescient" (Jobs's vision
7003-435: Is the part of the operating system that provides protection between different applications and users. This protection is key to improving reliability by keeping errors isolated to one program, as well as security by limiting the power of malicious software and protecting private data, and ensuring that one program cannot monopolize the computer's resources. Most operating systems have two modes of operation: in user mode ,
7152-410: 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 ,
7301-602: The Apple TV . The PowerPC version of Rhapsody DR1 required 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended), and 1 GB of disk space, and only officially supported the Power Macintosh 9500 , 9600 , 8500 and 8600 . Apple initially planned to release a developer preview of Rhapsody in the third quarter of 1997. It would be followed in January 1998 by a consumer release codenamed Rhapsody Premier, containing
7450-696: 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
7599-563: The CIA . BYTE magazine described NeXTSTEP as "field-tested, time-proven code" in January 1998, ten years after the operating system's introduction. Apple's plan was to maintain compatibility with "most" existing Mac OS applications through Blue Box but require apps to be rewritten for Yellow Box to take advantage of Rhapsody's new features. Blue Box would run in a window, and support System 7 apps ( Motorola 68k and PowerPC), but would only be able to support apps that did not need to communicate with
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#17327732846917748-542: The CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) was the most popular operating system for microcomputers. Later, IBM bought the DOS (Disk Operating System) from Microsoft . After modifications requested by IBM, the resulting system was called MS-DOS (MicroSoft Disk Operating System) and was widely used on IBM microcomputers. Later versions increased their sophistication, in part by borrowing features from UNIX. Apple 's Macintosh
7897-572: 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
8046-504: The INT assembly language instruction is available. The syntax is INT X , where X is the offset number (in hexadecimal format) to the interrupt vector table . To generate software interrupts in Unix-like operating systems, the kill(pid,signum) system call will send a signal to another process. pid is the process identifier of the receiving process. signum is
8195-525: 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
8344-416: 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,
8493-748: 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
8642-537: The OPENSTEP operating system ported to Power Macintosh, merging the Copland -originated GUI of Mac OS 8 with that of OPENSTEP. Several existing classic Mac OS frameworks were ported, including QuickTime and AppleSearch . Rhapsody can run Mac OS 8 and its applications in a paravirtualization layer called Blue Box for backward compatibility during migration to Mac OS X. Rhapsody follows Apple's pattern through
8791-551: The PowerPC and Intel x86 architectures. The first developer release of Rhapsody was released on October 13, 1997 (for Power Macintosh) to 10,000 developers, who were given two CDs : the bootable Rhapsody installer, and another CD with sample source code (including a version of TextEdit in Java that calls Yellow Box APIs). Apple modified its implementation of Open Firmware to allow users to dual boot Rhapsody and Mac OS by holding down ⇪ Caps Lock . DR1 did not have Blue Box, and
8940-465: 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
9089-621: 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
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#17327732846919238-435: 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 ,
9387-420: The transistor in the mid-1950s, mainframes began to be built. These still needed professional operators who manually do what a modern operating system would do, such as scheduling programs to run, but mainframes still had rudimentary operating systems such as Fortran Monitor System (FMS) and IBSYS . In the 1960s, IBM introduced the first series of intercompatible computers ( System/360 ). All of them ran
9536-604: 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
9685-519: The 1990s of music-related codenames for operating system releases (see Rhapsody (music) ). Apple had canceled its previous next-generation operating system strategy of Copland (named for American composer, Aaron Copland ) and its pre-announced successor Gershwin (named for George Gershwin , composer of Rhapsody in Blue ). Other musical code names include Harmony ( Mac OS 7.6 ), Tempo ( Mac OS 8 ), Allegro ( Mac OS 8.5 ), and Sonata ( Mac OS 9 ). In
9834-557: 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
9983-462: 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
10132-543: The August 6, 1997 Macworld Expo Boston , Amelio tried to obtain a commitment from Microsoft to release Office for Rhapsody, but Bill Gates refused. Some small developers announced Rhapsody ports of their apps, including Stone Design's Create, Anderson Financial systems' PasteUp, Onyshuk & Associates' Glyphix, OpenBase, and Dantz Development's Retrospect . In February 1998, Macworld columnist David Pogue wrote: The intriguing thing about Apple's upcoming Rhapsody OS
10281-410: The CPU for every byte or word transferred, and having the CPU transfer the byte or word between the device and memory, would require too much CPU time. Data is, instead, transferred between the device and memory independently of the CPU by hardware such as a channel or a direct memory access controller; an interrupt is delivered only when all the data is transferred. If a computer program executes
10430-474: The CPU to re-enter supervisor mode , placing the kernel in charge. This is called a segmentation violation or Seg-V for short, and since it is both difficult to assign a meaningful result to such an operation, and because it is usually a sign of a misbehaving program, the kernel generally resorts to terminating the offending program, and reports the error. Windows versions 3.1 through ME had some level of memory protection, but programs could easily circumvent
10579-622: 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
10728-407: 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
10877-433: The Mac due to its shrinking market share, and that NeXTSTEP's lack of consumer applications, combined with the need to rewrite apps for Rhapsody, "[made] buying a Mac a relatively risky investment" compared to buying a Windows 95 or Windows NT computer. To assuage developers' concerns, Apple announced in May 1997 that it would add support for Yellow Box apps to Mac OS, to make the transition from Mac OS smoother. However,
11026-591: 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
11175-779: 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
11324-538: The application program, which then interacts with the user and with hardware devices. However, in some systems an application can request that the operating system execute another application within the same process, either as a subroutine or in a separate thread, e.g., the LINK and ATTACH facilities of OS/360 and successors . An interrupt (also known as an abort , exception , fault , signal , or trap ) provides an efficient way for most operating systems to react to
11473-539: 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
11622-420: 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
11771-519: The company, while Macintosh sales continued to decline. Apple's most promising next-generation operating system, Copland , was mismanaged and had to be abandoned in 1996. In response, Apple CEO Gil Amelio decided to acquire or license an already-built operating system from another company. Apple's executive team considered BeOS , NeXT's NeXTSTEP , Sun Microsystems' Solaris , and Windows NT, and eventually acquired NeXT in December 1996. Rhapsody
11920-453: The computer's memory. Various methods of memory protection exist, including memory segmentation and paging . All methods require some level of hardware support (such as the 80286 MMU), which does not exist in all computers. In both segmentation and paging, certain protected mode registers specify to the CPU what memory address it should allow a running program to access. Attempts to access other addresses trigger an interrupt, which causes
12069-481: 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 ,
12218-419: 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
12367-478: 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
12516-471: The details of how interrupt service routines behave vary from operating system to operating system. However, several interrupt functions are common. The architecture and operating system must: A software interrupt is a message to a process that an event has occurred. This contrasts with a hardware interrupt — which is a message to the central processing unit (CPU) that an event has occurred. Software interrupts are similar to hardware interrupts — there
12665-527: 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
12814-443: 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
12963-422: The environment. Interrupts cause the central processing unit (CPU) to have a control flow change away from the currently running program to an interrupt handler , also known as an interrupt service routine (ISR). An interrupt service routine may cause the central processing unit (CPU) to have a context switch . The details of how a computer processes an interrupt vary from architecture to architecture, and
13112-479: 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
13261-443: 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
13410-685: The first web browser , on NeXTSTEP, and Dell , which created its first eCommerce website using NeXT's WebObjects . Since Yellow Box was also available on Windows as a dynamic-link library (DLL), Yellow Box apps would be able to run on both Rhapsody and Windows through a recompile. Microsoft provided no equivalent that would enable Win32 apps to run on other platforms. Additionally, Rhapsody itself could be installed on either PowerPC Macintoshes or Intel x86 PCs, enlarging developers' potential customer base. Apple pitched Rhapsody to users by emphasizing its improved stability and responsiveness. For example, on classic Mac OS, incoming faxes could leave
13559-402: The first release of Blue Box. The overall developer reaction to DR1 was positive. BYTE magazine 's Tom Thompson described DR1 as a " Jekyll-and-Hyde mixture" of an "amazingly Mac-like" user interface and hard-to-use NeXTSTEP components, some of which could only be configured properly through the command line , but said it "did not crash once" during his testing. Rhapsody's user interface
13708-410: The hardware checks that the software is only executing legal instructions, whereas the kernel has unrestricted powers and is not subject to these checks. The kernel also manages memory for other processes and controls access to input/output devices. The operating system provides an interface between an application program and the computer hardware, so that an application program can interact with
13857-493: The hardware only by obeying rules and procedures programmed into the operating system. The operating system is also a set of services which simplify development and execution of application programs. Executing an application program typically involves the creation of a process by the operating system kernel , which assigns memory space and other resources, establishes a priority for the process in multi-tasking systems, loads program binary code into memory, and initiates execution of
14006-465: The hardware. Throughout Rhapsody's development, Apple would continue to release major upgrades to the classic Mac OS, which would remain supported for several years after Rhapsody's public release. Rhapsody runs on a modified Mach 2.5 kernel and 4.4BSD Unix environment. Atop that were the threaded, object-oriented Yellow Box libraries, the Blue Box compatibility layer for Mac OS applications, and
14155-409: 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
14304-418: The indirect pollution of important processor structures (like CPU caches , the instruction pipeline , and so on) which affects both user-mode and kernel-mode performance. The first computers in the late 1940s and 1950s were directly programmed either with plugboards or with machine code inputted on media such as punch cards , without programming languages or operating systems. After the introduction of
14453-404: The interrupt request, the operating system will: When the writing process has its time slice expired, the operating system will: With the program counter now reset, the interrupted process will resume its time slice. Among other things, a multiprogramming operating system kernel must be responsible for managing all system memory which is currently in use by the programs. This ensures that
14602-433: 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
14751-431: The kernel—and applications—all other software. There are three main purposes that an operating system fulfills: With multiprocessors multiple CPUs share memory. A multicomputer or cluster computer has multiple CPUs, each of which has its own memory . Multicomputers were developed because large multiprocessors are difficult to engineer and prohibitively expensive; they are universal in cloud computing because of
14900-456: The machine frozen until the fax completes; and if an app crashed, it could take down the whole system and require a reboot, potentially leading to data loss. Additionally, Rhapsody would inherit NeXTSTEP's local network sharing functionality, and make it easy to share data across apps. At Macworld SF 1997, Steve Jobs vaunted NeXTSTEP's maturity by pointing out that it had been adopted by many large organizations, including Wall Street banks and
15049-570: 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
15198-597: 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
15347-400: The memory allocated to a different one. Around the same time, teleprinters began to be used as terminals so multiple users could access the computer simultaneously. The operating system MULTICS was intended to allow hundreds of users to access a large computer. Despite its limited adoption, it can be considered the precursor to cloud computing . The UNIX operating system originated as
15496-797: 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
15645-423: The mid-1990s, Mac OS was falling behind Windows. In 1993, Microsoft had introduced the next-generation Windows NT , which was a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. At the time, Mac OS was still a single-user OS, and had gained a reputation for being unstable. Apple made several attempts to develop modern replacements for Mac OS, which all failed, harming public confidence in
15794-829: The most recent release of macOS is macOS 15 Sequoia , 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
15943-408: The need to use it. A general protection fault would be produced, indicating a segmentation violation had occurred; however, the system would often crash anyway. The use of virtual memory addressing (such as paging or segmentation) means that the kernel can choose what memory each program may use at any given time, allowing the operating system to use the same memory locations for multiple tasks. If
16092-729: The new strategy, and had committed to releasing their applications for Mac OS X. Programmer Dave Winer celebrated the new strategy. As part of the landmark Microsoft antitrust trial , Avie Tevanian argued that Rhapsody's failure was partly caused by Windows's dominance, which made new operating system platforms inherently uncompetitive; however, The Register 's John Lettice argued that "those [Yellow Box] APIs Apple couldn't get developers to support [...] are of course APIs that NeXT couldn't get developers to support". Lettice described Rhapsody as inherently flawed, stating that: "The theory of this school of OS development [that] says you allow users to run their existing apps while making it possible for
16241-408: The open-source Android operating system (introduced 2008), with a Linux kernel and a C library ( Bionic ) partially based on BSD code, became most popular. The components of an operating system are designed to ensure that various parts of a computer function cohesively. With the de facto obsoletion of DOS , all user software must interact with the operating system to access hardware. The kernel
16390-475: 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
16539-421: The piping. Signals may be classified into 7 categories. The categories are: Input/output (I/O) devices are slower than the CPU. Therefore, it would slow down the computer if the CPU had to wait for each I/O to finish. Instead, a computer may implement interrupts for I/O completion, avoiding the need for polling or busy waiting. Some computers require an interrupt for each character or word, costing
16688-540: The platform they prefer (which would have resulted in Dell having to pay royalties to Apple for every computer it sells), as opposed to Dell's preference that the choice of OS be a factory option. In mid-1997, after Amelio was ousted as Apple's CEO and Jobs informally replaced him, the company grew quieter on Rhapsody, leading to speculation over its fate. At the October 1997 Seybold publishing conference, Jobs announced that
16837-608: 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)
16986-548: The previous Copland project). Third-party apps would need to be rewritten for Yellow Box to take advantage of Rhapsody's new features. In May 1997, Amelio announced that Yellow Box would be renamed Concert . Yellow Box was later used as the foundation for Mac OS X's Cocoa framework. Rhapsody's Java virtual machine is derived from Sun's JDK 1.1.3, which was modified so that Java apps could call Yellow Box APIs . Rhapsody DR1 included Sun's Java compiler and libraries. Apple issued two developer releases of Rhapsody for both
17135-642: 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
17284-515: The programmer or the user with the perception that there is a much larger amount of RAM in the computer than is really there. Rhapsody (operating system) Rhapsody is an operating system that was developed by Apple Computer after its purchase of NeXT in the late 1990s. It is the fifth major release of the Mach-based operating system that was developed at NeXT in the late 1980s, previously called OPENSTEP and NEXTSTEP . Rhapsody
17433-469: 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
17582-621: The same PostScript language that is used to communicate with printers, no conversion process is required when printing, and printed documents are more faithful to how they look onscreen. Rhapsody supports app development in three programming languages: Objective-C, Java, and C++. Rhapsody uses Carnegie Mellon University's Mach 2.5 kernel, which was modified to add support for the Network File System, SCSI disks, and removable devices like CD-ROMs and Jaz drives . This kernel lacks symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support, which
17731-468: 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
17880-537: The same month, Apple announced in an SEC filing that contrary to its previous earnings guidance , it would fail to return to profitability by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 1997 (ending in September), and that it expected Macintosh net sales to continue to decline. In Q4 FY1997, quarterly Macintosh sales declined from 932,000 to 625,000 year-over-year , and Apple had an operating loss of $ 24 million (though it still had $ 1.45 billion in cash). Shortly before
18029-418: The same operating system— OS/360 —which consisted of millions of lines of assembly language that had thousands of bugs . The OS/360 also was the first popular operating system to support multiprogramming , such that the CPU could be put to use on one job while another was waiting on input/output (I/O). Holding multiple jobs in memory necessitated memory partitioning and safeguards against one job accessing
18178-558: 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
18327-400: The signal number (in mnemonic format) to be sent. (The abrasive name of kill was chosen because early implementations only terminated the process.) In Unix-like operating systems, signals inform processes of the occurrence of asynchronous events. To communicate asynchronously, interrupts are required. One reason a process needs to asynchronously communicate to another process solves
18476-400: The size of the machine needed. The different CPUs often need to send and receive messages to each other; to ensure good performance, the operating systems for these machines need to minimize this copying of packets . Newer systems are often multiqueue —separating groups of users into separate queues —to reduce the need for packet copying and support more concurrent users. Another technique
18625-422: 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
18774-442: The system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time , mass storage , peripherals, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation , the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or
18923-424: The time, fewer than 25% of Americans used computers, and many thought the computing industry was "just waiting to take off"; most existing applications were office tools, and "the software for the vast majority of people [had] yet to be written". Jobs gave the examples of Lighthouse Design , which had created an entire office suite for NeXTSTEP with only 18 employees, Tim Berners-Lee, who had created WorldWideWeb ,
19072-487: The transition would be more "gradual" than previously announced by Amelio, and would follow a "dual-OS" strategy, with Rhapsody oriented towards servers, followed by a consumer released several years later, imitating Microsoft's Windows NT strategy. At WWDC 1998 held in May, Apple stated that "not a single" major third-party developer had committed to rewriting their apps for Rhapsody. Apple instead unveiled their Mac OS X strategy: classic Mac OS applications would not need
19221-470: 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
19370-504: The world will become, in effect, a Mac. On the other hand, a Rhapsody triumph would mean nobody'd have to buy computers from Apple anymore. Has Apple thought this thing through? In a meeting with Michael Dell , owner of PC maker Dell , Steve Jobs demonstrated Rhapsody on Intel x86, and offered to license the operating system to Dell for distribution on its PCs. The deal failed, however, when Jobs insisted that all of its computers ship with both Mac OS and Windows so that consumers could choose
19519-473: The world. Middleware , an additional software layer between the operating system and applications, is often used to improve consistency. Although it functions similarly to an operating system, it is not a true operating system. Embedded operating systems are designed to be used in embedded computer systems , whether they are internet of things objects or not connected to a network. Embedded systems include many household appliances. The distinguishing factor
19668-400: 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
19817-496: 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
19966-635: Was added, inheriting column view. Developers were "impressed" and "enthusiastic" about Apple's plans, but, with Copland in mind, many were skeptical of Apple's ability to deliver on these plans, and the Macintosh's declining sales raised doubts about Apple's odds of survival. As a result, "many" developers were unwilling to commit to rewriting their apps for Rhapsody, which posed a chicken-and-egg problem , since Rhapsody would not be commercially successful without apps rewritten to take advantage of its new features. Technology columnist Walt Mossberg observed that many third-party developers were already abandoning
20115-549: Was announced by Gil Amelio at the January 7, 1997 Macworld Expo SF , and first demonstrated at the May 1997 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). At Macworld SF 1997, Steve Jobs said that Mac OS and its Macintosh Toolbox placed developers on the "fifth floor", Windows NT on the "seventh floor", while Rhapsody's OpenStep libraries would let developers start on the "twentieth floor". Jobs argued that this would make it faster to implement existing apps, and would allow even small developer teams to create innovative apps. At
20264-523: 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
20413-399: 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
20562-507: Was considered preliminary, with the developer previews focusing on the system's underlying architecture. Its user interface was a blend of the OPENSTEP UI and Mac OS 8's Platinum UI , with the latter originating with the cancelled Copland prototype. Developer Release 1 (DR1) does not have Mac OS's Finder , and has OPENSTEP 's Workspace Manager, Shelf , and column view . The Shelf was eliminated in favor of OPENSTEP's Dock ; and Finder
20711-399: 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
20860-467: 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),
21009-411: 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
21158-616: Was missing many promised Mac OS technologies like QuickTime, AppleScript, and AppleTalk ; its main purpose was to give developers a shipping version of Yellow Box so they could start rewriting their apps for it. DR1 has OPENSTEP's Workspace Manager instead of the Mac OS Finder . Within the following weeks, Apple also released the Windows version of the Yellow Box runtime, as well as DR1 of Rhapsody for PC Compatibles (Intel), and
21307-491: 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
21456-464: Was planned to be added in a later release of Rhapsody that would use a Mach 3.0 kernel. Mach had been created at CMU by Avie Tevanian , who was in charge of Rhapsody's development as Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, a role he previously held at NeXT. In a WWDC 1997 presentation, Jeff Robbin said Rhapsody was based on Mach 2.6. Blue Box is a non-reentrant virtualization layer that allows Rhapsody to run classic Mac OS apps. It
21605-509: Was released after Rhapsody DR1, in the form of an application called MacOS.app that loaded a Macintosh ROM file stored on disk. Blue Box did not support Mac OS applications that needed hardware access or that relied on non-public Mac OS APIs. Blue Box beta 1.0 only worked in full screen, requiring users to press ⌘ Cmd + ↵ Enter to exit the environment, and it implements networking through Open Transport , instead of Rhapsody's BSD sockets . Later versions of Blue Box could run Mac OS in
21754-528: Was targeted to developers for a transition period between the Classic Mac OS and Mac OS X . Rhapsody represented a new and exploratory strategy for Apple, more than an operating system, and runs on x86 -based PCs and on Power Macintosh . Rhapsody's OPENSTEP based Yellow Box API frameworks were ported to Windows NT for creating cross-platform applications. Eventually, the non-Apple platforms were discontinued, and later versions consist primarily of
21903-627: 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
22052-406: Was the first popular computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI proved much more user friendly than the text-only command-line interface earlier operating systems had used. Following the success of Macintosh, MS-DOS was updated with a GUI overlay called Windows . Windows later was rewritten as a stand-alone operating system, borrowing so many features from another ( VAX VMS ) that
22201-510: 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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