Operating system for Apple computers
Operating system
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 .
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 releases from Mac OS X Leopard onward (except for OS X Lion ) are UNIX 03 certified.[ 6] [ 7] The derivatives of macOS are Apple's other operating systems: iOS , iPadOS , watchOS , tvOS , and audioOS .
A prominent part of macOS's original brand identity 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 .[ 8] 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, iOS , watchOS , and tvOS .[ 9] After sixteen distinct versions of macOS 10, macOS Big Sur was presented as version 11 in 2020, and every subsequent version has also incremented the major version number, similarly to classic Mac OS and iOS.
macOS has supported three major processor architectures, beginning with PowerPC -based Macs in 1999. In 2006, Apple transitioned to the Intel architecture with a line of Macs using Intel Core processors . In 2020, Apple began the Apple silicon transition , using self-designed, 64-bit Arm -based Apple M series processors on the latest Macintosh computers.[ 10] As of 2024[update] , the most recent release of macOS is macOS 15 Sequoia .
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^ Clover, Juli (September 16, 2024). "Apple Launches macOS Sequoia With iPhone Mirroring, Passwords App, Window Tiling Updates and More" . MacRumors . Retrieved September 16, 2024 .
^ "Apple Seeds Fourth Developer Betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 With Apple Intelligence" . MacRumors . September 17, 2024. Retrieved September 17, 2024 .
^ "macOS Feature Availability" . System Language . Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2024 .
^ * "Mac OS X Version 10.6 on Intel-based Macintosh computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
"Apple technology brief on UNIX" (PDF) . Apple . Archived (PDF) from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2008 .
"Mac OS X Version 10.8 on Intel-based Macintosh computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
"OS X Version 10.9 on Intel-based Macintosh computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
"OS X version 10.10 Yosemite on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
"OS X version 10.11 El Capitan on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2015 .
"macOS version 10.12 Sierra on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016 .
"macOS version 10.13 High Sierra on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
"macOS version 10.14 Mojave on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2018 .
"macOS version 10.15 Catalina on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2018 .
"macOS version 11.0 Big Sur on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2020 .
"macOS version 11.0 Big Sur on Apple silicon-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2020 .
"macOS version 12.0 Monterey on Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021.
"macOS version 12.0 Monterey on Apple silicon-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021.
"macOS version 13.0 Ventura on Apple Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022.
"macOS version 13.0 Ventura on Apple silicon-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022.
"macOS version 14.0 Sonoma on Apple Intel-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on October 15, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023 .
"macOS version 14.0 Sonoma on Apple silicon-based Mac computers" . The Open Group. Archived from the original on October 15, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023 .
^ "Re: was OS X version 10.7 Lion UNIX 03 certified?" . austin-group-l (Mailing list). Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2021 .
^ Ha, Anthony (June 10, 2013). "Apple Has A New, California-Based Naming Scheme For OS X, Starting With OS X Mavericks" . TechCrunch . Archived from the original on July 9, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2013 .
^ Mastroianni, Brian (June 13, 2016). "Apple unveils iOS 10, macOS, and more at WWDC 2016" . CBS News . Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023 . Perhaps one of the announcements that stood out the most was a slight name change. The desktop operating system Mac OS X will now be called macOS to better match with the way the company's other operating systems are named.
^ Evans, Jonny (June 22, 2020). "WWDC 2020: Yes, Apple is dumping Intel, gently" . Computerworld . Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023 .