Today marks 20 years since Mac OS X was first launched

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-like design for everything from windows to buttons.

Today, March 24, 2021, marks twenty years since Mac OS X went on sale, and Apple’s Mac software has seen many changes over the past two decades, but it was with Mac OS X that Apple took one of the first steps toward transforming a company on the brink of failure into one of the world’s most successful companies. Mac OS X preceded the launch of the first iPod and announced what was to come under Jobs’s leadership.

Mac OS X was introduced during Apple’s keynote address at Macworld Expo in January 2000. Steve Jobs said at the time that Mac OS X “would delight consumers with its simplicity and astonish professionals with its power.” He also said it was Apple’s “main software” since the original 1984 Macintosh operating system.

The Aqua interface introduced the now familiar Dock for easy access to applications and documents, plus it included Apple’s revamped Finder for file management. And of course, Aqua was best known for its iconic look, with translucent scroll bars and buttons.

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

The new software, which was built on Apple’s “Darwin” operating system core, had support for many existing Mac OS apps, but developers had to “fine-tune” their apps, so Apple eventually rolled it out over a beta period of 12 months. before putting it up for sale.

At launch, Mac OS X was priced at $ 129, and the launch took place at a time when Apple was still charging Mac users for upgrades. Mac updates became less expensive over the years, and Apple eventually stopped charging for them in 2013.

Mac OS X’s debut was far from perfect, and it had some major stability issues that Apple needed to fix. Apple followed it up with Mac OS X 10.1 “Puma” just six months later, and it has continued to repeat that original 2001 release ever since.

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

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

The last major change came in 2016 when Apple dropped the X and introduced macOS 10.12 Sierra, with the macOS name intended to better match iOS. We’ve had several versions of macOS, the highlight of which is the current release version of the software, macOS Big Sur.

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

The update has also revamped Notification Center to add quick access to Control Center toggles, plus it has major updates to Safari, Messages, Photos, Maps, and more, with details available in our collection. We expect to see macOS 12 later this year, and while it probably won’t be the design overhaul that was Big Sur, Apple probably has some useful new features in store.