We often here from people new to the Mac how impressed they are with macOS and how feature rich it is. But those of us that have been loyal to the Mac for a long time knows it didn’t start out that way. With this week’s release of macOS 10.15 Catalina, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back with a brief history of OS X with the major highlights of how it got to where it is today. Apple obviously packs a lot more into each version than what we listed here but these are some of the major highlights.
History of OS X
| Version Number | Version Name | Date Announced | Date Released | Price | Major Enhancements |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.0 | Cheetah | 1/5/2000 | 3/24/2001 | $129 | Aqua Interface Dock Terminal Address Book Text Edit |
| 10.1 | Puma | 7/18/2001 | 9/25/2001 | $129 | CD Burning Customizable Dock 3rd Party Peripheral Support |
| 10.2 | Jaguar | 7/17/2002 | 8/23/2002 | $129 | Finder with Built-In Search iChat Mail with Junk Filter |
| 10.3 | Panther | 6/23/2003 | 10/24/2003 | $129 | Expose Font Book iChat AV Safari Updated Finder |
| 10.4 | Tiger | 6/28/2004 | 4/29/2005 | $129 | Automator Dashboard iChat with multi-video and audio Safari RSS Spotlight VoiceOver |
| 10.5 | Leopard | 8/7/2006 | 10/26/2007 | $129 | 3D Dock with Stacks Boot Camp Cover Flow Quick Look Spaces Time Machine |
| 10.6 | Snow Leopard | 6/9/2009 | 8/28/2009 | $169 | 64-bit Grand Central Dispatch OpenCL |
| 10.7 | Lion | 10/20/2010 | 7/20/2011 | $29.99 - Download $69.99 - USB Flash Drive | Full Screen Apps Launchpad Mac App Store Mission Control Multi-Touch Resume and Auto Save |
| 10.8 | Mountain Lion | 2/16/2012 | 7/25/2012 | $19.99 | Airplay Dictation Facebook and Twitter Integration Game Center Gatekeeper iCloud Messages Notes Notification Center Reminders |
| 10.9 | Mavericks | 6/10/2013 | 10/22/2013 | Free | Finder Tabs iBooks iCloud Keychain Maps Multiple Display Support Tags |
| 10.10 | Yosemite | 6/2/2014 | 10/16/2014 | Free | Continuity iCloud Drive Handoff |
| 10.11 | El Capitan | 6/8/2015 | 9/30/2015 | Free | Muti-Touch Gesture Support Split View Spotlight Improvements |
| 10.12 | Sierra | 6/13/2016 | 9/20/2016 | Free | Now called macOS Siri on the Desktop Universal Clipboard Unlock with Apple Watch |
| 10.13 | High Sierra | 6/5/2017 | 9/25/2017 | Free | Apple File System HEVC Metal 2 Virtual Reality Support |
| 10.14 | Mojave | 6/4/2018 | 9/24/2018 | Free | Dark Mode Desktop Stacks Enhancements to Quick Look Redesigned Mac App Store |
| 10.15 | Catalina | 6/3/2019 | 10/7/2019 | Free | iTunes has been split into three separate apps. Updated Photos app Updated Reminders app Introduction of "Sidecar" |
How long have you been using a Mac and what were your favorite enhancements since the early days of OS X? Why not join the conversation and leave a comment below.
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This article was originally published as “The History of OS X” on June 6, 2018. The content has changed to reflect more up-to-date information and will no longer appear under the prior publication date.
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