Mac OS

Mac OS is Apple Computer's operating system for Apple Macintosh computers.
Mac OS was the first commercially successful operating system which used a
graphical user interface. The Macintosh team included Bill Atkinson and Jef
Raskin.

Mac OS can be considered two families of operating systems:

   * An older and now unsupported "classic" Mac OS (the system that shipped
     with the first Mac in 1984 and its descendants, culminating with Mac OS
     9)

   * The newer Mac OS X (pronunced oh-es-ten). Mac OS X incorporates
     elements of BSD Unix, OPENSTEP, and Mac OS 9. Its low-level UNIX-based
     foundation, Darwin, is open source.

Classic Mac OS

The "classic" Mac OS is characterized by its total lack of a command line;
it is a 100% graphical operating system. Heralded for its ease of use, it is
also criticized for its almost total lack of memory management, cooperative
multitasking, and susceptibility to extension conflicts. "Extensions" are
program modules that extend the operating system, providing additional
functionality (such as a networking) or support for a particular device.
Some extensions are prone not to work properly together, or only when loaded
in a particular order. Troubleshooting Mac OS extensions can be a
time-consuming process.

The MacOS also introduced a new type of filesystem, which contained two
different "forks" for a file. It was innovative at the time for separating
out parameters into the the resource fork, and raw data in the "data fork".
However, it became quite a challenge to interoperate with other operating
systems which did not recognize such a system.

The term "Mac OS" was not officially used until 1996 with the release of Mac
OS 7.6 - prior to that the Macintosh operating system software was simply
known as "The System", or by its version number, e.g. System 6 or System 7.
Another common term was "the Toolbox". Apple deliberately played down the
existence of the operating system in the early years of the Mac to help make
the machine appear more user-friendly and to distance it from other systems
such as MS-DOS, which were portrayed as arcane and technically challenging.
With Mac, you turned it on, it just worked.

By the late 1990s, it was clear the useful life of this 1980s-era technology
was coming to an end, with other more stable multitasking operating systems
being developed.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X remedied this situation, bringing Unix-style memory management and
preemptive multitasking. Improved memory management allowed more programs to
run at once and virtually eliminated the possibility of one program crashing
another. However, since this puts higher demands on system resources, Mac OS
X is only officially supported on G3 and newer processors. (It runs poorly
on many early G3 machines). Mac OS X has a compatibility layer for running
older Mac applications, but compatibility is not 100%.

There are a variety of views on how the Macintosh was developed, and where
the underlying ideas originated. While the connection between the Macintosh
and the Alto project at Xerox PARC has been established in the historical
record, the earlier contributions of Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad and Doug
Engelbart's On-Line System are no less significant. See History of the GUI,
and Apple v. Microsoft.

Mac OS Technologies

QuickDraw
     the imaging model which first provided mass-market WYSIWYG
Finder
     the interface for browsing the filesystem and launching applications
MultiFinder
     the first version to support simultaneously running multiple apps
Chooser
     tool for accessing network resources (e.g., enabling AppleTalk)
ColorSync
     technology for ensuring appropriate color matching
Mac OS memory management
     how the Mac managed RAM and virtual memory before the switch to UNIX
PowerPC emulation of Motorola 68000
     how the Mac handled the architectural transition from CISC to RISC (see
     Mac 68K emulator)
Desk Accessories - small "helper" apps that could be run concurrently with
any other app, prior to the advent of MultiFinder or System 7.

Software

This list includes software that runs on at least one version Mac OS without
use of emulation. 68k software runs on 68k Macs without emulation, so it is
listed.

Made by Apple

   * Address Book
   * AppleWorks
   * Backup
   * Chess
   * Darwin Mach-based core OS
   * Developer Tools
   * DVD Studio Pro
   * Final Cut Express
   * Final Cut Pro
   * HyperCard
   * iCal
   * iChat
   * iDVD
   * iLife
   * iMovie
   * iPhoto
   * iSync
   * iTunes
   * Keynote
   * MacDraw
   * MacPaint
   * MacWrite
   * Mail
   * Preview
   * QuickTime
   * QuickTime Streaming Server
   * Apple Remote Desktop
   * Safari web browser
   * Shake
   * Sherlock
   * SimpleText
   * Soundtrack
   * TeachText
   * TextEdit
   * WebObjects
   * X11

Made by other organizations and/or people

   * Logic (Emagic Gmbh, an Apple subsidiary)
   * FileMaker (FileMaker, Inc. , an Apple subsidiary)
   * Audacity
   * Stuffit Expander
   * LimeWire
   * MindWrite - Word processor, outliner, and sorter, no longer produced.
   * Taste - Word processor, no longer produced.
   * Watson - web services

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