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Has it really been that long? March 24, 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of Mac OS X. For those of us who were there to witness its launch, it’s surprising to think that the majority of current Apple users never used the “classic” Mac OS that powered the Mac from 1994 to 2001 (and beyond – some people still use it).
Former Apple executive Scott Forstall did a rare cheep to commemorate the occasion, remembering when Steve Jobs cut an X into a wall to declare the name.
Happy 20th Birthday Mac OS X! I still remember when we named you. In a small room on IL1. When Steve cut a big X on the wall and smiled. Look how far you’ve come from a young cheetah.
– Scott Forstall (@forstall) March 24, 2021
When Mac OS X (now simply called macOS) debuted in 2001, it felt like something from the future, with its icons and photorealistic animations. Stephen Hackett maintains a gallery of Mac OS X 10.0 screenshots, and it’s surprising how well it holds up two decades later.
Mac OS X introduced concepts that were later foreign to Mac users, such as Dock and Terminal. As someone who lived through the transition, Mac OS X was a huge step forward. It not only made the classic Mac OS feel dated, but Microsoft’s competitor’s Windows XP too, which wouldn’t even ship until August of that year.
But the initial release of Mac OS X 10.0 was basically a paid beta. (It wouldn’t be until 10.9 Mavericks that it became free.) Many features were missing from the classic Mac OS, application compatibility was poor outside of Classic mode, and while the operating system felt like something from the future, it also seemed to be looking forward to future hardware. The performance was terrible. Adam Engst documented those early rough edges in “Mac OS X: The Future is Here – Coming Soon!” (March 26, 2001), saying:
The reason for Apple’s silent launch is simple: In my opinion, Mac OS X does not offer most people enough advantages over Mac OS 9. One fact is indisputable: Mac OS X currently cannot do everything that is possible with today’s hardware and software. . Several high-profile Apple features are missing, such as DVD playback and DVD and CD-R burning. The hardware is also problematic, although Mac OS X is compatible with some peripherals and expansion cards, the use of other pieces of hardware may require the user to restart Mac OS 9.1. (Hint: on Macs from the beige Power Mac G3, hold down the Option key on restart to receive a selection of operating systems to use on the next startup.) And of course, while many applications work fine in Mac OS X’s Classic mode, few applications have been “charred” so that they can run natively under Mac OS X. Fortunately, the ones that are already charred include iTunes. Apple, iMovie 2, and a preview of AppleWorks 6.1, all of which are downloadable.
Mac OS X 10.1 followed in October 2001 with performance enhancements, CD burning, and interface enhancements (see “Mac OS X 10.1: Key Features,” October 1, 2001). That was my first version of Mac OS X, which I installed on a PowerBook G3 (Lombard).
If you’re interested in taking a walk through memories, Jason Snell has a compilation of his coverage of Mac OS X over the years, and John Siracusa maintains links to all of his voluminous reviews of Ars Technica Mac OS X, from 10.0 to 10.10 Yosemite.
Mac OS X may have gotten off to a rocky start, but it created the foundation for not just the future of the Mac, but the iPhone, iPad, and even the Apple Watch as well. It’s arguably one of the biggest software releases ever, but it almost didn’t happen.
A desperate gambit
At Macworld, Jason Snell has done an outstanding job documenting the birth of Mac OS X. The original Mac OS was pioneered in 1984, but it quickly aged. In the 1990s, it was clear that Mac OS needed a complete overhaul, but the Apple of that time was a disaster. The most famous attempt was the codename Copland, and you can get an idea on Paul’s Crap YouTube channel.
Apple finally realized that the best way forward was to buy a new operating system. The choice was between two companies headed by former Apple executives: Steve Jobs’s NeXT and Jean-Louis Gassée’s Be. Everyone knows how that turned out.
NeXTSTEP provided more than just the Mac OS X Unix foundation, including key interface elements like the Dock, applications like TextEdit, and the use of Objective-C to build applications (which is now being largely superseded by Swift). Longtime Mac developer James Thomson coded the Dock and tweeted about his nervousness when he saw Jobs’s demo for the first time.
It’s really a weird experience to see Steve introduce the Dock for the first time again, as it was my code that was running here. To say that he was terrified for the entire length of this segment is an understatement. I don’t think I’ve seen this since. Https://t.co/ru7dVnkGV9
– James Thomson (@jamesthomson) March 24, 2021
Apple’s 1997 purchase of NeXT caused quite a stir. Geoff Duncan documented it for us in “What System Comes Next?” (January 6, 1997). A few months later, Adam Engst offered an analysis of the NeXT purchase and the decisions of then CEO Gil Amelio in “Apple’s Decisions” (March 31, 1997):
One theme among the emails I received about recent Apple changes is the perception that former NeXT employees are now making Apple’s decisions. One person even commented that it felt like NeXT bought Apple, not the other way around. To some extent, these perceptions are accurate; after all, Avie Tevanian and Jon Rubinstein, two ex-NeXT people, are in charge of the hardware and operating system divisions.
That turned out to be really insightful, as it’s now a well-documented story that NeXT took over from within. As Adam commented at the time, “What else could Gil have done?” Gil Amelio is often cited as Apple’s worst CEO, but at the very least, he made the right decision by buying NeXT and bringing Steve Jobs back, even if he didn’t realize he was putting his own head on the chopping block doing so. . .
But there were doubts about whether Apple would still be Apple after being consumed from within by NeXT:
In essence, the NeXT acquisition is having a significant impact on Apple’s culture. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can make for an occasionally bitter transition. The question is whether the attitudes and beliefs that made the Macintosh special can survive in the new atmosphere.
Apple veteran Imram Chaudhri, who is credited with much of the iPhone interface, among many other accomplishments, tweeted a funny anecdote about his first interactions with Jobs and how a second-hand NeXT cube helped him win many discussions with the stubborn CEO by allowing him to demonstrate the many flaws of the operating system.
In 1995, while interning at Apple, I bought a NeXT cube for $ 150 at Stanford Surplus.
while designing mac os X with steve, he liked to tell us how the NeXT was better
so i started bringing my cube to win arguments showing her things weren’t as good as i remembered
– Imran (@imranchaudhri) March 25, 2021
Beyond X
Mac OS X was the official name of the operating system until Apple removed the “Mac” part in the middle of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion’s reign (we refused to change mid-cycle, waiting until 10.8 Mountain Lion instead). A few years later, Apple dropped the X and recast the name again with macOS 10.12 Sierra. Now, with macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple has finally gone from version number 10 and has finally given macOS updates sensitive version numbers (see “How to decode Apple version and build numbers,” July 8, 2020).
Names aside, Mac OS X’s NeXT-derived core remains, even through architectural transitions from PowerPC to Intel and now from Intel to Apple. And while some applications from the early days are no more, many of the original Mac OS X applications remain, such as the underrated and surprisingly powerful preview.
The original Mac OS had an official 17-year run, and the descendants of Mac OS X 10.0 are still going strong 20 years after its introduction, with no end in sight. What was once a desperate attempt by a flawed CEO to save a dying company has turned into a $ 2 trillion ecosystem.
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