OS X Mountain Lion

OS X Mountain Lion

Version of the macOS operating system
Screenshot of OS X Mountain Lion
Developer	Apple Inc.
OS family	Macintosh Unix[1]
Source model	Closed, with open source components
General availability	July 25, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-07-25)
Latest release	10.8.5 (Build 12F2560) / August 13, 2015; 8 years ago (2015-08-13)
Update method	Mac App Store
Platforms	x86-64
Kernel type	Hybrid (XNU)
License	Apple Public Source License (APSL) and Apple end-user license agreement (EULA)
Preceded by	OS X Lion
Succeeded by	OS X Mavericks
Official website	Apple - OS X Mountain Lion - Move your Mac even further ahead. at the Wayback Machine (archived 2012-12-31)
Tagline	With all-new features inspired by the iPad, the Mac just keeps getting better and better.
Support status
Obsolete, unsupported as of about November 19, 2015. iTunes is no longer supported as of August 2016.[2]
Articles in the series
Game Center Gatekeeper Messages Reminders Notification Center

OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8) is the ninth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mountain Lion was released on July 25, 2012,^[3] for purchase and download through the Mac App Store, as part of a switch to releasing OS X versions online and every year, rather than every two years. Named to signify its status as a refinement of the previous OS X version, Lion, Apple's stated aims in developing Mountain Lion were to allow users to more easily manage and synchronise content between multiple Apple devices and to make the operating system more familiar.

The operating system gained the new malware-blocking system Gatekeeper and integration with Apple's online Game Center and iCloud services, while the Safari web browser was updated to version 6. As on iOS, Notes and Reminders became full applications, separate from Mail and Calendar, while the iChat application was replaced with a version of iOS's Messages. Mountain Lion also added a version of iOS's Notification Center, which groups updates from different applications in one place. Integrated links allowing the user to rapidly transfer content to Twitter were present in the operating system from launch. Facebook integration was also planned but unfinished at launch date. It was released as a downloadable update later.

OS X Mountain Lion received positive reviews, with critics praising Notification Center, Messages, and speed improvements over OS X Lion, while criticizing iCloud for unreliability and Game Center for lack of games. Mountain Lion sold three million units in the first four days, and has sold 28 million units as of June 10, 2013, making it Apple's most popular OS X release. Mountain Lion was the last paid upgrade for an OS X major release, with OS X Mavericks and later being free. Apple later allowed free downloads of the OS, especially for customers of older and no longer officially supported Macintosh computers, starting on June 30, 2021.^[4] The same practice was also applied to its predecessor, OS X Lion.