Today marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of Mac OS X

On March 24, 2001, a Saturday, Apple began allowing customers to purchase Mac OS X, the successor to the classic Mac OS. The first version of Mac OS X, “Cheetah”, was famous for its “Aqua” interface with a water bubble style design for everything from windows to buttons.

Today, March 24, 2021, marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Mac OS X, and Apple’s Mac software has undergone many changes over the past two decades, but it’s with Mac OS X that ‘Apple has taken one of the first steps in transforming a failed business into one of the most successful companies in the world. Mac OS X preceded the launch of the first iPod and announced what was in store under Jobs’ direction.

Mac OS X was presented during the Apple keynote in January 2000 at the Macworld Expo. At the time, Steve Jobs said that Mac OS X “would delight consumers with its simplicity and amaze professionals with its power”. He also said it was Apple’s “most important software” since the 1984 Macintosh operating system.

The Aqua interface introduced the now well-known Dock for easy access to apps and documents, as well as Apple’s revamped Finder for managing files. And, of course, Aqua was best known for its iconic look, which included scroll bars and translucent buttons.

Other features include advanced power management to allow iBooks and PowerBooks to wake up instantly, dynamic memory management, and Apple’s Quartz 2D graphics engine for “stunning graphics” and support. larger fonts. It came with QuickTime 5, iMovie 2, iTunes, and AppleWorks (Apple’s productivity software at the time).

The new software, which was based on Apple’s “Darwin” operating system kernel, supported many existing Mac OS applications, but developers were required to “tune” their applications. before putting it on sale.

At launch, Mac OS X was priced at $ 129, and its launch was at a time when Apple was still charging Mac users for upgrades. Mac updates have gotten cheaper over the years, and Apple finally stopped charging for them in 2013.

Mac OS X’s beginnings were far from perfect, and it presented major stability issues that Apple needed to address. Apple followed up with Mac OS X 10.1 “Puma” six months later, and since then has continued to iterate on that original 2001 release.

Mac OS X became OS X in 2012 with the release of Mountain Lion, an operating system that introduced a more minimal design that moved away from the skeuomorphic designs that Apple had used under the leadership of Scott Forstall. OS X Mountain Lion accompanied iOS 7, which is known to be one of the biggest design revisions to the iPhone operating system.

Apple introduced another major name redesign in 2013 with the launch of OS X Mavericks, the first version of Mac OS X not named after a fat cat. Apple used beasts from Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) to 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

The last big change came in 2016 when Apple ditched the X and introduced macOS 10.12 Sierra, with the name macOS supposed to better match iOS. We’ve had multiple versions of macOS, culminating in the current version of the software, macOS Big Sur.

macOS Big Sur has brought Apple’s biggest design update to macOS since the Mac OS X days, reshaping everything from the curvature of window corners to colors and dock icon designs. Apple designed it to feel both fresh and familiar, with less intrusive menu bars, a more translucent dock, a uniform circle shape for app icons, and completely redesigned system sounds.

The update also revamped the action center to add control center quick access switches, along with important Safari updates, messages, photos, maps, and more, with details available. in our summary. Later this year, we expect to see macOS 12, and while it probably isn’t the design overhaul that Big Sur was, Apple likely has some useful new features in store.