OS X

Mac OS X (pronounced Mac OS 10) is the Operating System pre-installed on every Mac, which is the newer name of Mac OS. Most users leave it as it is, but there is alternatives such as Ubuntu, Windows and many more.

Mac OS X has been hacked to produce OSx86, which runs on PCs - but it is illegal in many countries.

Apple claim Mac OS X to be "the most advanced operating system," providing it in two versions, a desktop and a server release. Each release generally shows a new theme and many new features, as described bellow in the previous versions.

Previous Versions
Mac OS X has seen many versions of the operating system, each one getting better and better. For the older systems please see Mac OS and System.

Cheetah (10.0)
Cheetah is the first release of Mac OS X boasting tons of new features at the time, as it provided a brand new easy to use and nice to look at interface (compared with others at the same time). Under the hood Apple had made it a UNIX based system, meaning that applications could be easily ported over and ran with the security of UNIX as well.

Puma (10.1)
Puma is the second release of Mac OS X which is mainly a performance release, with better DVD support (playing and burning) and 3D support. Although still Mac OS X was apparently not ready to take over Mac OS 9 yet.

Jaguar (10.2)
Jaguar is the third major release, bringing a lot of changes including using the name Jaguar in all advertisements (it's code name) making it easier to follow up the versions. Jaguar brought up a load of new stuff such as CUPS (printing), Microsoft Network support, Bonjour, Address Book, a journaled file system and more speed improvements.

Panther (10.3)
Panther is the fourth major release, which makes some resemblance to the current version (Leopard). This version has many speed and performance improvements but it's mainly a service release with small changes like iChat now being able to handle audio and video chats. One of the major changes was that Internet Explorer was swapped for Apple's own Safari. For the UNIX end, X11 was now built into the system-core instead of being a optional download.

Tiger (10.4)
Tiger is the fifth major release, which has had the longest time as the current release (30 months). Major features include Spotlight, Dashboard, QuickTime 7 and a full dictionary was actually available to use system-wide.

Leopard (10.5)
Leopard is the sixth major release. This release made it look right and really professional with a lot of updates to the applications to make them more easier to use.

Snow Leopard (10.6)
Snow Leopard is currently available. According to Apple it is a service release only and brings tons and tons of performance updates as well as lower disk space requirements (recent Leopard updates show this too).