Apple calls OS X “The most advanced operating system in the world,” but really they could have called it the most beautiful and few people would have objected. OS X is full of little design touches that have redefined what people expect from a personal computer, and which complement the gorgeous Jonathan Ive-designed Macs that it runs on perfectly. In fact, you can’t (legally) install the operating system on anything but a Mac, so the two are forever entwined – and that gives Apple advantages that other computer manufacturers simply don’t have. With Apple’s latest MacBook Air, for example, you’ll find special keys on the keyboard that link specifically to new functions in OS X Lion, such as Mission Control.
It’s not a case of style over substance, either. OS X – Apple subtly dropped the "Mac" from its name in 2011, indicating that it’s destined for more than just computers – is all about functionality. “We wanted to make this the dream user interface for somebody who has never touched a computer before, and that’s really hard to do,” said ex-Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he introduced Mac OS X 10.0 to the adoring Apple faithful for the very first time at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, January 2000. Join us as we explore the world’s most beautiful operating system and find out how Apple created it.
From the outset Apple had one goal in mind when OS X was designed, and that was to make the next great personal computer operating system. The company wanted it to be the kind of operating system with which a beginner could feel intuitively at home, and a pro user could be taken to places they’d never thought they’d be. That’s a tall order, but eight major versions, millions of sales and a decade later, we think Apple did it.
OS X 10 was launched with a new interface called Aqua. It was named after water because one of the original designers said it looked so good that “when you saw it you wanted to lick it!” It was certainly revolutionary compared to what people had seen before.
The ideas behind OS X – in fact, the concept for windows, menus, pointers and so on themselves – go way back to 1979, when Steve Jobs was admitted to the research center Xerox PARC for a sneak peek at the world’s first ever GUI (Graphical User Interface), in exchange for some Apple stock options. Bear in mind that at the time all computers used text input – there were no windows, no colors and no mouse to move a cursor around with. What the young Mr. Jobs saw, in his own words, was “mind-blowing”; he realized instantly that this was the way that all computers would work one day. Inspired by that glimpse into the future he launched the Apple Lisa in 1983, which, while not the first commercial computer to feature a GUI, was certainly one of the earliest. In 1984 the Macintosh 128K was unveiled to the public, and the rest, as they say, is history.
OS X itself actually started life outside of Apple, as part of the NeXTSTEP project developed by Steve Jobs during his tenure at NeXT, the company he’d founded after being booted out of Apple in 1985. While still at the company, Jobs had tried to create a next-generation operating system, but had met with little success. When he was forced out by the Apple board he was free to try again, but this time without being weighed down by all the old problems he’d experienced while at Apple, a company that was suffering from a huge slump in sales at the time.
While the NeXT Computer was never a success, the operating system showed promise and Jobs was brought back into the Apple fold in 1996 when Apple acquired NeXT for $429 million. NeXTSTEP, now called OpenStep, came with him. In 2000 Apple, perhaps with nothing left to lose, decided to scrap the existing code base of its operating system, then called OS 9, and introduce a radical new operating system called OS X. OpenStep formed the basis of the OS X operating system we know and love today. The first version of OS X was codenamed Cheetah, and this tradition of naming each release after a big cat continued with 10.1 Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard and now 10.7 Lion.
In the late 80s Microsoft famously aped the look and feel of the Mac with Windows 3.1, and the two companies kept improving their operating systems in an effort to outdo each other. It was a battle that Microsoft was destined to win, but while Windows won the desktop battle largely through sheer force of numbers, it looks like Apple is going to win the tablet war. After all, OS X forms much of the basis of the iOS touch-screen operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPad, and when the dust finally settles it could well be that Apple will be the dominant force in this area for years and years to come.
An operating system is defined by the little things like buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes, pop-up lists, sliders, windows, scroll bars and transparency; but it’s not only about how things look, it’s also about how they behave. The Dock, for example, has been a defining feature of OS X since the beginning, but has improved in usability along the way; Finder became more visual with Cover Flow; Snow Leopard seamlessly integrated Time Machine; and Lion gave us full-screen apps.
Lion is the first version of OS X to feature exclusively on the Mac App Store (although a USB version has been released).
The watery feel of the Aqua interface that debuted in OS X 10.0 has certainly been through many changes over the last ten years. Cast your eyes over the screen shots on these pages and you’ll see how a more reserved grey, slate-like color scheme that reached its peak in Lion has gradually been replacing the colorful look of the original Aqua interface. This is fitting; when OS X was launched, the iMac range was full of color and transparency, and the colorful clamshell iBook (a precursor to today’s MacBook) was just around the corner. As Apple’s Mac design has become more streamlined and professional, so has OS X. Indeed, today’s OS X 10.7 Lion matches the look and feel of the unibody aluminum MacBook Pro down to the coloring – and rarely in the history of computing has there been such a winning combination of hardware and software.
cat341
May 01, 2012 at 1:13pm
Still a 10.6 user, started with OS X back in early 2003. I came from Windows 98 at home (and I believe OS 8 at work) and was blown away right out of the gate.
It will be interesting to see the Apple OS ecosystem evolves with iOS and whatever the desktop version of OS X becomes (if there is a "desktop" in the future!)
mac ppc g4 owner
May 01, 2012 at 9:24am
10.6 was the best for me, i use it on my schools iMacs all the time. its the perfect mix of tiger sidebar (I rely on that for everything) and modern looks. Besides that i use 10.2 and OS9 on occasion for fun.
iBookmaster
April 30, 2012 at 10:52am
I still like the Aqua interface better than 10.7 has now. The gray icons in the sidebar is blah as it gets. Also putting drives back at the top of the sidebar would be good too. Sometime change is not for the better. I have gotten some of the color icons back in my sidebar with an app called ColorfulSideBar but, still not like Aqua.
DJR12
May 01, 2012 at 10:27am
I second (or I guess third) that, iBookmaster. I'm hoping against hope that in Mountain Lion, Apple will address that sidebar issue in every app -- not just Finder, but iTunes and iPhoto as well. I'm a broken record on this point, but I feel that those sidebars were created by artists for artists -- who, at least in my experience, prefer the blandest backdrop possible to focus on their work. I get that, but the rest of us find color helpful in distinguishing icons. Apple has stated that this change is to help keep the focus where it belongs, on your content, but in the case of the Finder, at least, the sidebar and files ARE your content. You want to be able to distinguish them at a glance. Strangely, the "Go" menu in the Finder still uses color icons. I guess they're not a distraction there?
At the very least, why not make the color sidebars go in tandem with the "Blue" theme in the General System Preference pane, and those who don't want color can choose the "Gray" theme. I know Apple's often not big on options, but in this case, it makes sense to add them.
In short: bring back color sidebars in Mountain Lion!!
