MAC OS PPT

MAC OS X – March 24, 2001, was a banner day for Mac users. On that day, twenty years ago, Apple introduced
the next generation of the Mac Operating system – MAC OS X 10.0 “Cheetah”. The introduction was no small
matter, as it marked a change in how Macs work that remains up to this day with macOS 11 “Big Sur”.
Let’s take a look at the history of Mac Operating System from 1984 until now, starting with the “classic”
operating system introduced in 1984 and ending with Big Sur.

CLASSIC MAC OS - At the begin (1984), there was System 1. For those of us who were around at that time
the first Mac was released. System 1 was a revolutionary operating system. It was the first popular consumer
OS to use a graphical user interface.
Apple had released the LISA with a GUI in 1983, but it was ridiculously expensive ($9.995 equivalent to
almost $26.000 in 2020 dollars), slow, and used unreliable floppy disks coupled with 5 MB Hard Disk drive. In
the two years that the LISA was on the market, it sold only 10,000 units.

As crude as the system 1 desktop looks in the screenshot, it introduced many concepts that still exist in
macOS today. Overlapping, resizable windows; the FINDER, folders, a mouse-controlled pointer, the Trash can,
the top menu bar anchored by the Apple Icon.

SYSTEM 1-4
System 1 through System 4 (1987) offered a few enhancements along the way. For example, System 2 brought
multiple folders and screenshots (Command – Shift - 3), while SYSTEM 2.1 added support for the Apple Hard
Disk 20 (that’s 20MB, not Gb).
SYSTEM 3
System 3 brought 800K startup drives SCSI for connectivity to scanners, printers, and storage and AppleShare
(early networking and file sharing).
SCSI - Small Computer System Interface
SYSTEM 4
System 4.1 was notable in that it supported the Motorola 68020 CPU, expansion slots, and color display of the
Macintosh II. It is also supported ADB (Apple Desktop Bus), used for many years to connect keyboards, mice,
and other devices. ADB also worked with adapters to connect Macs to AppleTalk networks.
SYSTEM 5-6
Apple began charging for operating system upgrades with System 5. For $49, users got three manuals and four
diskettes. One of these diskettes, “Disk Utilities 1”, came with Disk First Aid and HD SC Setup. That bootable
diskette was a direct ancestor of the Disk utility we still use today.
SYSTEM 6 also brought support for Motorola 68020 CPU and the 1.44MB SuperDrive Floppy.
SYSTEM 7 / MAC OS 7.6
Of all of the original System releases, System 7 as being the most long-lived. It was a big improvement over
earlier versions, offering more stability, virtual memory support, cooperative multitasking through MultiFinder,
and the AppleScript scripting language.
About this time, apple started using PowerPC processors in the Mac line. With Mac OS 7.6, Apple
dropped the “System” designation as it was trying to drum up support for the mac operating system on third-
party Mac clones.
AppleScript is part of today’s Automator and offers a way to automate operating system and app functions.’
MAC OS 8
Shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple from his NeXT adventure. Apple released MAC OS 8. It was originally
supposed to be called MAC OS 7.7. Jobs had it renamed in order to take advantage of a legal loophole and stop
third-party licensing to clone manufacturers.
Probably the most significant change was to the Mac File system, as MAC OS 8 introduced HSF+, the
File System used in macOS up to version 13 “High Sierra” when APFS arrived.
HSF+ Hierarchical File System
APFS Apple File System
MAC OS 9
With Steve Jobs back in charge at Apple, the company began to work in earnest on a replacement for the dated
operating systems. Jobs had spearheaded the move to a UNIX-based OS called NeXTSTEP while at NeXT,
and when Apple purchased the company, it also brought over the basis for MAC OS X.
In 1999, Apple releases MAC OS 9 as the last classic Mac operating system. It improved on earlier
support for AirPort wireless networking, brought on-the-fly file encryption to the Mac, and had much better USB
drivers than earlier versions.
MAC OS 9’s lasting legacy was providing developers with the ability to adapt some features of MAC OS X before
its arrival. This made MAC OS X transition much easier, it included APIs for the file system and bundled the
Carbon library to allow apps to run natively on MAC OS X.