Mac OS X “officially” turned nine this week. It was back on March 24, 2001 that Apple released Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) to the general public. Several months before that, Apple had released a very rough public beta of OS X, code-named Kodiak. Some would say the first official release of OS X was also basically a beta—but that’s another story. I remember the very first time I booted up in OS X. It was on an iMac G3 and I was at my grandmother’s farm. I ogled the shiny Aqua interface, clicked around, was confused by the Home folder—and then the entire system locked up and crashed.
But I was smitten. I could see the future in OS X. In an instant, OS 9 seemed like the relic of a former era—which it was, being based on the classic Mac OS going back to 1984. It took two years before OS X became a truly polished operating system with OS 10.2, and many people grumbled about the imminent death of OS 9. But Steve Jobs and Apple were right to bet on OS X as the future for Apple.
More than any other product, including the original iMac, the G4 processor, the iPod, even the iPhone, it is OS X that has fueled Apple’s amazing growth over the past decade. OS X powers all of Apple’s most popular, class-leading devices—the iPhone, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, the iMac, and the iPod touch. OS X is the brains of the Apple TV as well as the forthcoming iPad.
Showing true nerd colors, I’ve purchased and installed every boxed version of the Mac OS on the day of release (except Puma). I even remember the computers I installed it on. I bought Jaguar from Apple, but I purchased every other version of OS X from Small Dog Electronics. Of course.
10.1 Puma, September 25, 2001
10.2 Jaguar, August 24, 2002
10.3 Panther, October 24, 2003
10.4 Tiger, April 29, 2005
10.4 Intel Tiger, January 10, 2006
10.5 Leopard, October 26, 2007
10.6 Snow Leopard, August 28, 2009
Editor’s note: I was also smitten with OS X from the beginning. I never truly was a fan of pre-OS X operating systems. I mean, as much as we laughed at the shut down feature being under the Start menu in Windows, it was under the ‘Special’ menu in older Mac OSs… not much better. But I get that it was a big jump for folks who knew OS 9 and prior very well. Once I installed OS 10.0 on my iBook G3* (it was not pre-installed, but was included in the box), I never went back. I was lucky enough to not have too much on that machine in the beginning, so I could handle the bugginess that ensued. And just like Ed, I installed the new OS X releases from 10.2 Jaguar and on immediately. It’s been a great (almost) decade! -KH
*It’s still in use!