Which macOS version most impressed you when it was announced, or when it came out, or when you tried it?
(NB: it can be any version from 1984 to today)
(NB: it can be any version from 1984 to today)
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The macOS version that most impressed you
- Thread starter Jeeve Stubbs
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It would have been 10.2, the first OS X I ever used. Newer versions were incremental improvements from there, but 10.2 was leaps and bounds ahead of Windows XP.
10.1 probably had the most wow factor with the shift (for me) from OS 9. Snow Leopard was impressive for its radical performance improvement on my system at the time. I also really loved the design changes with Big Sur, which might be an unpopular opinion. Sequoia is probably my favourite of the more modern releases as it was very stable and refined.
Panther 10.3 and all its updates.
Extremely, extremely boring and snooze inducing. But, out of all the versions of OS on Mac I have personally encountered, it was the most STABLE version.
I produced newspaper ads, classifieds, legal sections, and did pagination and page layout in my job for several years using Panther. At one point the B tree on my hard drive went corrupt due to a bad ram stick. Until I was able to reinstall everything two weeks later, Panther was STILL solid. I got out two newspapers in that time.
I had to update at some point, but the litany of problems began with Tiger. I was sorry to see the stability of Panther go.
Extremely, extremely boring and snooze inducing. But, out of all the versions of OS on Mac I have personally encountered, it was the most STABLE version.
I produced newspaper ads, classifieds, legal sections, and did pagination and page layout in my job for several years using Panther. At one point the B tree on my hard drive went corrupt due to a bad ram stick. Until I was able to reinstall everything two weeks later, Panther was STILL solid. I got out two newspapers in that time.
I had to update at some point, but the litany of problems began with Tiger. I was sorry to see the stability of Panther go.
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I think of the Mac's OS history as having two epochs, Classic (1984-2001) and OS X (2001-Present). Each of these epochs have their own eras. For Classic you have pre-System 7, System 7, and Platinum (OS 8-9.2.2) eras. For the OS X epoch you have the Aqua era (10.0-10.4.11), Leopard Design Era (10.5 Leopard-10.9 Maverick), Yosemite Era (10.10 Yosemite-10.15 Catalina), Big Sur era (11-15), and now possibly the Liquid Glass Era (26-?).
Out of the Classic Epoch, I remember being impressed by System 8 with the new platinum interface. I really liked being able to copy files from one place to the other while doing other tasks in the Finder. One feature I made use of were the dock-able window drawers at the bottom of the screen. I remember it feeling more stable than System 7.5. The only disappointment I had at the time was not having the other themes that were promised in Copland, but I quickly found a way around that through Kaleidoscope.
Out of the OS X Epoch, I like using Leopard the most and I was really impressed with its feature set when it was introduced. I liked the unified look that seemed to hit the right balance between light and dark. I don't really miss the more modern dark mode from more recent mac OS versions when using Leopard. Spotlight is a major feature I can't live without on just about any of my macs. Also, I think Leopard has the best implementation of multiple desktops (Spaces) and quick window management (Expose). I never liked the combination of the two into Mission Control in later versions. I still use Leopard today to do work on my PPC macs when I don't absolutely require the modern web. The only thing I really miss in Leopard from later versions of macOS are tabbed Finder windows. Other than that, it's my favorite OS to use.
I will give an honorable mention to the Apple II Desktop project even though it's not a Mac. The amount of functionality packed into a desktop GUI for an ancient 8-bit computer is impressive. It even includes a pet cat you can interact with, and it even has a feature similar to spotlight in macOS. It feels very much like using a Mac pre-System 7. If you have an Apple IIe with a HD/SSD, a huge amount of RAM, and an accelerator card, I definitely recommend it.
Other honorable mentions are Snow Leopard, El Capitan, Tiger, OS 9, Mavericks, Jaguar.
Out of the Classic Epoch, I remember being impressed by System 8 with the new platinum interface. I really liked being able to copy files from one place to the other while doing other tasks in the Finder. One feature I made use of were the dock-able window drawers at the bottom of the screen. I remember it feeling more stable than System 7.5. The only disappointment I had at the time was not having the other themes that were promised in Copland, but I quickly found a way around that through Kaleidoscope.
Out of the OS X Epoch, I like using Leopard the most and I was really impressed with its feature set when it was introduced. I liked the unified look that seemed to hit the right balance between light and dark. I don't really miss the more modern dark mode from more recent mac OS versions when using Leopard. Spotlight is a major feature I can't live without on just about any of my macs. Also, I think Leopard has the best implementation of multiple desktops (Spaces) and quick window management (Expose). I never liked the combination of the two into Mission Control in later versions. I still use Leopard today to do work on my PPC macs when I don't absolutely require the modern web. The only thing I really miss in Leopard from later versions of macOS are tabbed Finder windows. Other than that, it's my favorite OS to use.
I will give an honorable mention to the Apple II Desktop project even though it's not a Mac. The amount of functionality packed into a desktop GUI for an ancient 8-bit computer is impressive. It even includes a pet cat you can interact with, and it even has a feature similar to spotlight in macOS. It feels very much like using a Mac pre-System 7. If you have an Apple IIe with a HD/SSD, a huge amount of RAM, and an accelerator card, I definitely recommend it.
Other honorable mentions are Snow Leopard, El Capitan, Tiger, OS 9, Mavericks, Jaguar.
Mac OS X Tiger
I can remember the weather and exact feeling outside on the Spring morning when I walked over to an Apple reseller in Gastown (Vancouver BC) to go buy my copy, and then come back and install it on my PowerBook G4 17".
Ahh ...
I get warm feelings just thinking about it.
What a great time in life.
I still have the Tiger install disc I bought that day!
I think Tiger maybe was also the last release to support the Classic environment?
I can remember the weather and exact feeling outside on the Spring morning when I walked over to an Apple reseller in Gastown (Vancouver BC) to go buy my copy, and then come back and install it on my PowerBook G4 17".
Ahh ...
I get warm feelings just thinking about it.
What a great time in life.
I still have the Tiger install disc I bought that day!
I think Tiger maybe was also the last release to support the Classic environment?
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Leopard was like that for me. I bought it in an Apple store on my trip to Boston. I remember getting in trouble with my girlfriend at the time as she thought it was too much money to spend on software. She's long gone, but I still have (and even recently used) my retail copy of Leopard.
P.S. Tiger was indeed the last to support Classic.
I can't answer this question.
I note the new things, decide if I like them or not, find workarounds if required and forget the name of the OS. What I did always remember is how much nicer it was working on my Mac at home, vs my Wintel machine at work (to be fair, the extensive amount of restrictions/firewalls on a military installation may have had a lot to do with it). With retirement, I'm now 100% Mac, but still can't differentiate/remember the different OSs. Just let me frost my Liquid Glass and I'll be happy.
I note the new things, decide if I like them or not, find workarounds if required and forget the name of the OS. What I did always remember is how much nicer it was working on my Mac at home, vs my Wintel machine at work (to be fair, the extensive amount of restrictions/firewalls on a military installation may have had a lot to do with it). With retirement, I'm now 100% Mac, but still can't differentiate/remember the different OSs. Just let me frost my Liquid Glass and I'll be happy.
Sequoia is pretty decent. I'll probably be sticking with that for quite a while as Tahoe killed AFP completely. Most people won't care about that, but I still need to connect to AFP shares on my PowerPC macs from my AS macs.
Definitely. For practical purposes, Classic and OS X are completely different operating systems, even if some aspects of OS X are similar to Classic (e.g., menu bar location, etc).
System 6. It was the first Mac OS I used, and the one I used the longest. After I moved on to System 7 for day to day use, I sometimes used a System 6 machine. I was always impressed by how fast it was. And it balanced speed nicely with ease of use. And the versions I used were rock solid reliable--at least for me. And all this could happen on the limited hardware of the late 1980s.