MacOS

macOS
macOS Sonoma, the latest release of macOS
DeveloperApple
Written in
OS family
Working stateCurrent
Source modelProprietary (with open source components)
Initial releaseMarch 24, 2001 (2001-03-24)
Latest release14.4.1[3] Edit this on Wikidata (25 March 2024 (25 March 2024))
Available in47 languages[4]
List of languages
  • Bahasa Melayu - Malay
  • Català - Catalan
  • Čeština - Czech
  • Dansk - Danish
  • Deutsch - German
  • English (Australia) - English (Australia)
  • English (Canada) - English (Canada)
  • English (India) - English (India)
  • English (Ireland) - English (Ireland)
  • English (New Zealand) - English (New Zealand)
  • English (Singapore) - English (Singapore)
  • English (South Africa) - English (South Africa)
  • English (United Kingdom) - English (United Kingdom)
  • English (United States) - English (United States)
  • Español (España) - Spanish (Spain)
  • Español (Estados Unidos) - Spanish (United States)
  • Español (Latinoamérica) - Spanish (Latin America)
  • Español (México) - Spanish (Mexico)
  • Français (Canada) - French (Canada)
  • Français (France) - French (France)
  • Hrvatski - Croatian
  • Indonesia - Indonesian
  • Italiano - Italian
  • Magyar - Hungarian
  • Nederlands - Dutch
  • Norsk bokmål - Norwegian Bokmål
  • Polski - Polish
  • Português (Brasil) - Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Português (Portugal) - Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Română - Romanian
  • Slovenčina - Slovak
  • Suomi - Finnish
  • Svenska - Swedish
  • Tiếng Việt - Vietnamese
  • Türkçe - Turkish
  • Ελληνικά - Greek
  • Русский - Russian
  • Українська - Ukrainian
  • עברית - Hebrew
  • العربية - Arabic
  • हिन्दी - Hindi
  • ไทย - Thai
  • 한국어 - Korean
  • 日本語 - Japanese
  • 简体中文 - Simplified Chinese
  • 繁體中文(台灣) - Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
  • 繁體中文(香港) - Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong)
Platforms
Kernel typeHybrid (XNU)
Default
user interface
Aqua (graphical)
LicenseCommercial software, proprietary software
Preceded byClassic Mac OS, NeXTSTEP
Official websiteapple.com/macos Edit this at Wikidata
Support status
Supported

macOS (/ˌmækˈɛs/ MAK-oh-ESS[5]), 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 2023, the most recent release of macOS is macOS 14 Sonoma.

  1. ^ "What Is the I/O Kit?". IOKit Fundamentals. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2018. Apple considered several programming languages for the I/O Kit and chose a restricted subset of C++.
  2. ^ "What's New in Swift". Apple Developer (Video). June 14, 2016. At 2:40. Archived from the original on August 4, 2016. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  3. ^ "macOS 14.4.1 (23E224) - Releases - Apple Developer".
  4. ^ "macOS Feature Availability". System Language. Retrieved March 25, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Apple Events – WWDC Keynote June 2016. Event occurs at 36:28. Archived from the original on September 11, 2017. YouTube mirror. Archived October 28, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Youtube video archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine
  6. ^
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Mastroianni, Brian (June 13, 2016). "Apple unveils iOS 10, macOS, and more at WWDC 2016". CBS News. 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.
  10. ^ Evans, Jonny (June 22, 2020). "WWDC 2020: Yes, Apple is dumping Intel, gently". Computerworld.

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