OS X

OS X (pronounced /oʊˌɛsˈtɛn/, oh-ess-TEN; originally Mac OS X) is a series of Unix-based graphical interface operating systems (OS) developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is designed to run on Macintosh computers, having been pre-installed on all Macs since 2002. OS X is the fourth most popular general purpose OS; within the market of desktop, laptop and home computers, and by web usage, OS X is the second most widely used desktop OS after Windows.

OS X was the successor to Mac OS 9, released in 1999, the final release of the "classic" Mac OS, which had been Apple's primary operating system since 1984. The first version released was Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999; a desktop version, Mac OS X v10.0 "Cheetah" followed on March 24, 2001. All consumer releases of OS X up to 2013 were named after big cats; for example, OS X v10.8 was referred to as "Mountain Lion". However, with the announcement of OS X Mavericks in June 2013, this was dropped in favor of Californian landmarks.

OS X, whose X is the Roman numeral for 10 and is a prominent part of its brand identity, is built on technologies developed at NeXT between the second half of the 1980s and Apple's purchase of the company in late 1996. The 'X' is also used to emphasize the relatedness between OS X and UNIX. UNIX 03 certification has been achieved for versions 10.5 for Intel CPUs, and versions 10.6 through 10.11.iOS, the mobile OS for the iPhone, iPod Touch,iPad, and the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TV, shares the Unix-based core and many frameworks with OS X. An unnamed variant of v10.4 powers the first generation Apple TV. Apple also formerly issued a separate line of editions for server use.

Mac OS X 10.1

Mac OS X version 10.1, code named Puma, is the second major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X 10.0 and preceded Mac OS X 10.2. Version 10.1 was released on September 25, 2001 as a free update for Mac OS X 10.0 users. The operating system was handed out for no charge by Apple employees after Steve Jobs' keynote speech at the Seybold publishing conference in San Francisco. It was subsequently distributed to Mac users on October 25, 2001 at Apple Stores and other retail stores that carried Apple products. The operating system was better received than Mac OS X 10.0, although critics claimed that the operating system was still lacking some features and was plagued with bugs.

System requirements

Supported computers:

RAM:

Hard Drive Space:

Features

Apple introduced many features that were missing from the previous version, as well as improving overall system performance.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.

Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase from Apple's website and its retail stores at the price of US$29 for a single-user license. As a result of the low price, initial sales of Snow Leopard were significantly higher than that of its predecessors. The release of Snow Leopard came nearly two years after the introduction of Mac OS X Leopard, the second longest time span between successive Mac OS X releases (the time span between Tiger and Leopard was the longest).

Unlike those of previous versions of Mac OS X, the goals of Snow Leopard were improved performance, greater efficiency and the reduction of its overall memory footprint. Addition of new end-user features was not a primary consideration: its name signified its goal to be a refinement of the previous OS X version, Leopard. Much of the software in Mac OS X was extensively rewritten for this release in order to take advantage fully of modern Macintosh hardware. New programming frameworks, such as OpenCL, were created, allowing software developers to use graphics cards in their applications. This is also the first Mac OS release since System 7.1.1 that does not support Macs using PowerPC processors, as Apple now intends to focus on its current line of Intel-based products. As support for Rosetta was dropped in OS X Lion, Snow Leopard is the last version of Mac OS X that is able to run PowerPC-only applications.

OS X Yosemite

OS X Yosemite (/joʊˈsɛmᵻtiː/ yoh-SEM-it-ee) (version 10.10) is the eleventh major release of OS X, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.

OS X Yosemite was announced and released to developers on June 2, 2014 at WWDC 2014 and released to public beta testers on July 24, 2014. Yosemite was released to consumers on October 16, 2014. Following the California landmark-based naming scheme introduced with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite is named after the national park.

System requirements

All Macintosh products capable of running OS X Mountain Lion (v10.8.x) are able to run Yosemite as they have the same requirements. However, in order to take full advantage of the Handoff feature, additional minimum system requirements include a Mac with Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth 4.0). As with Mavericks and Mountain Lion, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of available storage, and OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later are required.

These are the models that are compatible with OS X Yosemite (with exceptions):