Os X 10 Views

• Software

This article will cover Mac OS X 10.0, but it will build on everything that was discussed in the earlier articles. If you haven't already read them (or similar articles elsewhere), you may have some difficulty following along. The list of earlier OS X articles appears below in reverse-chronological order. The most relevant are the two most recent: the Public Beta article and the relevant section of my recent MacWorld San Francisco coverage.

Mac OS X, whose X is the Roman numeral for 10 and is a prominent part of its brand identity, is a Unix-based graphical operating system,[7] built on technologies developed at NeXT between the second half of the 1980s and Apple's purchase of the company in late 1996. From its sixth release, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard and onward, every release of Mac OS X gained UNIX 03 certification while running on Intel processors.[3][4]

The first version released was Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and a desktop-oriented version, Mac OS X v10.0 Cheetah followed on March 24, 2001. Releases of Mac OS X are named after big cats: for example, Mac OS X v10.6 is usually referred to by Apple and users as Snow Leopard . The server edition, Mac OS X Server, is architecturally identical to its desktop counterpart, and includes tools to facilitate management of workgroups of Mac OS X machines, and to provide access to network services. These tools include a mail transfer agent, an LDAP server, a domain name server, and others. It is pre-loaded on Apple's Xserve server hardware, but can be run on almost all of Apple's current selling computer models.[8]

Mac OS X Server 1.x, was incompatible with software designed for the original Mac OS and had no support for Apple's own IEEE 1394 interface (FireWire). Mac OS X 10.x included more backward compatibility and functionality by including the Carbon API as well as FireWire support. As the operating system evolved, it moved away from the legacy Mac OS to an emphasis on new digital lifestyle applications such as the iLife suite, enhanced business applications (iWork), and integrated home entertainment (the Front Row media center).[17] Each version also included modifications to the general interface, such as the brushed metal appearance added in version 10.3, the non-pinstriped titlebar appearance in version 10.4, and in 10.5 the removal of the previous brushed metal styles in favor of the Unified gradient window style.[18][19]