Mac OS X Turns Ten Years Old

[ten-oak-druid]

Even though OS X got better with each version, I immediately noticed better performance with my Pismo G3 400MHz machine when I installed the original OS X. I remember thinking it was great how fast the system booted up. I never looked back except to run a few apps in classic the first few years.

I've always found it strange that the version numbers are so redundant. OS X 10.5.5 for example. I just use the roman numeral and drop the second 10. I would write OS X.5.5 for example.

 

[Swift]

Oh, yeah, "Back to the Mac"

It's the slogan for OS X Lion. Right.

Now, maybe they could get "Back to My Mac" working as a celebration...

 

[arkmannj]

While I am glad you're 10 years old OS X, I'm also a bit sad that you abandoned your big brother OS 9 at that truck stop bathroom out in Kansas. No need to be too sad though, I'm sure he's up there in that big computer lab in the sky looking down with that big happy face he always had.

This would NEVER Happen. but wouldn't it be an awesome treat if Apple added an emulator to Lion that could run (and was pre loaded with) each major version of Apple OS's from the Apple I on. ! (and heck while we're dreaming, how about all the Next Step OS versions too)

It's in no way practical, but I'd truly geek out over it !

 

[montycat]

This would NEVER Happen. but wouldn't it be an awesome treat if Apple added in an emulator that could run (and was pre loaded with) each major version of Apple OS's from the Apple I on. ! (and heck while we're dreaming, how about all the Next Step OS versions too)

It's in no way practical, but I'd truly geek out over it !

Agreed! I was playing around with OS 9 the other night and it was fun and nostalgic

 

[Gatesbasher]

I've always found it strange that the version numbers are so redundant. OS X 10.5.5 for example. I just use the roman numeral and drop the second 10. I would write OS X.5.5 for example.

They had to do that. OS X was already registered as a trademark, but thanks to the downfall of the educational system, we've got how many generations of people who don't know a Roman numeral from a Roman candle, and too many of them were reading it "Oh Ess Eks".

 

[Thunderbird]

Happy 10th Anniversary to Mac OS X !

Please feel free to post more screen shots of early OS X. It's interesting to see the changes and evolution.

 

[3N16MA]

Happy Birthday (yes I'm saying that to an OS). Wish I would have been part of OS X a lot earlier but I spent years, yes years contemplating which Mac to get and playing the waiting game.

 

[Eidorian]

Downhill since Tiger.

 

[macMan228]

Wow!

Recently switched to OS X in 2008. the real pulling for me was probably the easiness and the speed of the system as a whole
oh yeah, vista sucked.

 

[dscuber9000]

Downhill since Tiger.

Says a Windows user.

 

[Schmye Bubbula]

Ten years, and TheWormyFruit™ still hasn't FTFF!

Don't be ridiculous.

Ridiculous? I defy you to name one thing that Apple has fixed in the single-worst, most user-hostile app ever written for the Mac!

 

[Eidorian]

Says a Windows user.

Your response makes it rather obvious how much thought and research you put into it.

Better luck next time.

 

[MartiNZ]

Recently switched to OS X in 2008. the real pulling for me was probably the easiness and the speed of the system as a whole
oh yeah, vista sucked.

The only problem with these comments is that vista did not suck. Running it on boot camp was a great experience and almost had me switching to it full-time. Running windows 7 on boot camp HAS done that for me at least at work, although I still prefer some of what vista had to offer.

The dock could never dream of being what the superbar is though, and that's almost enough.

 

[Fraaaa]

Your response makes it rather obvious how much thought and research you put into it.

Better luck next time.

Windows has been downhill since DOS. /jk

But I thank Windows XP to make me switch to the Mac.

 

[beejam]

Now I feel really old with all this OS X ten celebrations! Doesn't help that I started with System 6.....

 

[pianojoe]

Is there an emulator, so I can run the Original Public Beta on my 11" MBA?

 

[MagicBoy]

Windows has been downhill since DOS.

Pardon? Want to try that again?

 

[Gatesbasher]

Pardon? Want to try that again?

I can't speak for him, but DOS was tolerable. No iteration of Windows has been. That's probably what he meant.

 

[MagicBoy]

It's drifting off topic. I'm not going to turn a "Happy Birthday OS X" thread into a the time honoured "Windows sucks" debate. If anyone wants to discuss it then I suggest they create a new thread called "Windows vs Mac part 677249 (cont)"

 

[Slix]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

True.

I'd like to see more screenshots from earlier OS X too. I would boot one up if I had extra old computers laying around right now.

 

[macduke]

If there ever was a piece of software to love, this is it.

2001 was the year I built my first PC. I saved up my pennies as a bagged at the local grocery store and ordered my parts online from Tiger Direct. Wow, the times have certainly changed for me!

I could never go back. Nothing looks or runs as smooth as my ThunderBook! I just wish that I had been on board with OS X in 2001.

So only 6 more years until the 10th anniversary of iOS! Then I can brag about how I was there on day 1. June 29th, 2007, 6pm.

 

[PowerGamerX]

Happy birthday OS X.

Although, OS X was never really that good until 10.3. 10.4 was pretty good too. Leopard and Snow Leopard are fantastic though.

 

[Starflyer]

Found it.

 

[linux2mac]

As a switcher in 2008, I feel I have to give a big thanks to Microsoft and Windows Vista - after all, if Vista hadn't been so terrible, I might not have switched

+1

Same here. Went to Linux then to Mac.

 

[Lynxpoint]

Happy Birthday.

It is so true how OS X was a major turning point for Apple. One of the things that I always thought set Apple apart was their willingness to drastically alter course when needed. I remember the System 7, 8, 9 days well. I liked working on Macs, but at the time Windows NT was a more robust beast. When a suitcase can crash your machine, you know something is wrong. So along came OS X, and it surpassed MS for many years. For MS today, I can not comment. For from 10.4 on I abandoned all MS gear, and I still refuse to work with it. Thats not because XP was bad. It was quite strong. But where MS failed was in the shell - the user experience ( I ran custom shells on XP). And where Apple excelled was in this area. The stability of UNIX with a good user interface (not perfect, no RDF here) made digital work good.

I wonder what the future will bring. I hope for some real evolution in computing. iOS has given us some of that. I just hope that our 'trucks' don't get treated like real trucks, with little change over the years because they do their utilitarian tasks just fine.