macOS

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<div style="font: bold 2em/1.2 -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'SF Pro Display', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: var(--wiki-color);">macOS</div>
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| colspan="2" style="padding: 0;" | ![[macos.webp]]
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! class="ios-lab" | Developer
| class="ios-val" | [[Apple]]
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! class="ios-lab" | Based on
| class="ios-val" | [[Unix-like|Unix]] (certified); [[Darwin (operating system)|Darwin]] — Mach, BSD
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! class="ios-lab" | Written in
| class="ios-val" | C, C++, Swift, Objective-C, assembly
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! class="ios-lab" | Source model
| class="ios-val" | Closed, with open-source components
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! class="ios-lab" | Initial release
| class="ios-val" | March 24, 2001 ([[Mac OS X 10.0]])
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! class="ios-lab" | Latest release
| class="ios-val" | [[macOS Tahoe]] 26.6
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! class="ios-lab" | Beta release
| class="ios-val" | [[macOS 27]] 27.0 Developer Beta
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! class="ios-lab" | Platforms
| class="ios-val" | Arm64 (Apple silicon) · x86-64 (through [[macOS Tahoe|Tahoe]])
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! class="ios-lab" | Kernel
| class="ios-val" | Hybrid ([[XNU]])
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| colspan="2" style="background-color: #333; padding: 8px;" | [https://www.apple.com/macos/ <span style="color: #fff;">Official site for macOS</span>]
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{{macOS Version Navbox}}

{{Current operating systems by Apple Navbox}}

'''macOS''' is [[Apple]]'s desktop operating system for the [[Mac]] line of computers — the oldest platform in the company's current family and the foundation the rest descend from: [[iOS]] began as a stripped-down Mac OS X, and their shared [[Darwin (operating system)|Darwin]] core still binds all six Apple platforms. Launched in 2001 as Mac OS X, renamed OS X in 2012 and macOS in 2016, it is a certified Unix system wrapping the [[XNU]] hybrid kernel in Apple's Aqua-descended interface.

Its quarter-century spans three processor architectures (PowerPC, Intel from 2006, Apple silicon from 2020 — Intel support ending with [[macOS Tahoe]]), three names, and two great design resets ([[OS X Yosemite|Yosemite]]'s flattening, [[macOS Big Sur|Big Sur]]'s depth) leading to today's Liquid Glass. Distribution moved from $129 boxed CDs to free annual downloads with [[OS X Mavericks|Mavericks]] in 2013 — a cadence and price the industry then adopted.

= History =

The 2001–2011 "Mac OS X" era built the platform: [[Mac OS X 10.0|Cheetah]]'s rough debut, [[Mac OS X Jaguar|Jaguar]] and [[Mac OS X Panther|Panther]]'s rescue, [[Mac OS X Tiger|Tiger]]'s Spotlight and Intel transition, [[Mac OS X Leopard|Leopard]]'s Time Machine, [[Mac OS X Snow Leopard|Snow Leopard]]'s beloved refinement, and [[Mac OS X Lion|Lion]]'s iPad-inspired turn. The brief "OS X" era ([[OS X Mountain Lion|Mountain Lion]] through [[OS X El Capitan|El Capitan]]) made releases annual and free and imported iOS features wholesale. The "macOS" era ([[macOS Sierra|Sierra]] onward) brought Siri, [[macOS Mojave|Mojave]]'s Dark Mode, [[macOS Catalina|Catalina]]'s 32-bit cutoff, [[macOS Big Sur|Big Sur]]'s Apple-silicon dawn, the Continuity crescendo of [[macOS Monterey|Monterey]]–[[macOS Sequoia|Sequoia]] (Universal Control, Continuity Camera, iPhone Mirroring), and [[macOS Tahoe|Tahoe]]'s Liquid Glass under the year-aligned "26" numbering. [[macOS 27]], in beta, is the first Apple-silicon-only release.

= Architecture =

macOS layers Apple's frameworks — AppKit and increasingly the iOS-shared SwiftUI, Metal graphics, Core-family services — over Darwin's certified-Unix base. Security hardened progressively: Gatekeeper and notarization for software distribution, System Integrity Protection, the sealed read-only system volume, and platform-wide encryption. Rosetta translation layers carried both architecture migrations; Universal binaries spanned them.

= See also =

* [[Mac]] — the hardware line
* [[iOS]] · [[iPadOS]] — the platforms it seeded

{{Operating systems by Apple Navbox}}