Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Apple’s macOS reaches a historic milestone in its life span

By
Apple

Happy anniversary Mac OS X! It’s not quite an annual anniversary, but Thursday, May 24, is a big milestone for Apple’s desktop operating system. Mac OS X — which Apple has since rebranded to just MacOS — has been in service for as long as the classic Mac operating system was until Apple retired it.

Apple released its Mac OS X 10.0 operating system on March 24, 2001, which means that the OS has been in service for 17 years and 29 days, or the exact same number of days that the original classic Mac operating system on the Macintosh, which launched on January 24, 1984 and was kept in service until Mac OS X replaced it in 2001.

Recommended Videos

“Today the Mac’s second operating system era, powered by Mac OS X (now MacOS) has been in existence as long as the first era was,” Six Colors wrote of the news, noting a few caveats that may affect the timing. “There was a Mac OS X public beta. The funeral for Mac OS 9 wasn’t held until 2002. Classic Mode continued to function within Mac OS X until it was removed in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.”

Related

The MacOS operating system was created when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to Apple. After Jobs left Apple, he founded a new company called Next, and when he returned, Apple bought Next and merged Next’s software into Apple’s operating system development efforts, resulting in MacOS. Today, the roots of Next’s software code could be found across Apple’s various operating systems, like iOS, tvOS, and watchOS, powering smartphones and tablets, televisions, and smartwatches, respectively.

This new milestone arrives ahead of Apple’s planned developer conference in June. The company is expected to unveil updates to its software platforms, and it’s widely anticipated that Apple will announce its next version of MacOS and iOS on stage at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. Though those updates won’t mark a monumental transition — like the switch from the classic Mac operating system to Mac OS X — there have been rumors that Apple could be exploring new processors to power its Macs.

Apple is not one to shy away from embracing new technologies. In 2005, Apple embraced Intel and used the company’s x86 processor — Intel’s seventh-generation processors power Apple’s latest computing products today — in a dramatic switch away from the PowerPC architecture made by Intel rivals IBM and Motorola. After Apple launched the iPhone, it made its own A-series processors based on designs from ARM Holdings, and the iPhone X’s A11 Bionic chip outperformed Intel’s laptop processors in synthetic benchmark tests. Those rumors fueled further speculations that Apple could explore options to replace Intel as its silicon supplier in laptops, and Apple could move to a custom ARM-based processor in its MacBook.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Chuong Nguyen
Chuong Nguyen
Computing Writer
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
How macOS Sonoma could fix widgets — or make them even worse
Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air on a desk, with macOS Sonoma running on its display.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this year, Apple revealed that interactive widgets would be coming to macOS Sonoma. That probably sounds like a tiny new feature, and sure, it’s not as earth-shattering as the Vision Pro announcement. But it could turn out to be one of the most divisive new features in the Mac operating system.

In macOS Sonoma, you’ll be able to plant widgets on your desktop instead of hiding them in the Notification Center. Many widgets will be interactive, letting you tick off to-do list items without opening the widget’s app, for example. And you’ll be able to run iOS widgets right on your desktop, even if that app isn’t installed on your Mac. It’s a pretty comprehensive overhaul. Depending on how well these interactive widgets work, though, we could be left with a bunch of annoying distractions or a set of super-helpful timesavers. The way Apple handles them is going to be vital.
We've been here before

Read more
Apple just gave Mac gamers a big reason to be excited
Craig Ferguson introducing Mac Gaming at WWDC.

When Apple announced it would revolutionize the world of Mac gaming at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, many people were skeptical. But the latest update to the company’s Game Porting Toolkit has made some important changes to how games run on the Mac -- and the results are impressive.

The toolkit allows developers to move their Windows games across to macOS Sonoma. Games makers can test out how well their products run on Apple’s hardware and find out what they need to do to make the jump, something that Apple says ends up “significantly reducing the total development time.”

Read more
Intel chips held back the 15-inch MacBook Air, Apple says
Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air placed on a desk.

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air is a surprisingly good laptop, and its positive reception might make you wonder why Apple didn’t launch it sooner. Well, we just got the answer from Apple itself, and it turns out the fault apparently lies with Intel.

That interesting tidbit was revealed by Laura Metz, Director of Product Marketing at Apple, and Thomas Tan from Apple’s enterprise product marketing team. Speaking to Inc, the pair explained that Apple silicon was the driving force in creating the 15-inch MacBook Air.

Read more