Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) is the eighth release of macOS, shipped on July 20, 2011 — the "Back to the Mac" release that imported the iPad's ideas into the desktop, and the first distributed primarily as a Mac App Store download. Launchpad laid apps in an iOS-style grid, apps went full-screen, multi-touch gestures spread across the interface, and scrolling reversed to "natural" content-follows-fingers direction — the single most argued-about checkbox of the era.

Underneath: automatic document saving with Versions, app Resume across restarts, AirDrop's debut, and the end of Rosetta — PowerPC applications stopped launching, closing the transition Tiger had opened.

Launchpad; full-screen apps; Mission Control (merging Exposé, Spaces, and Dashboard); natural scrolling; Auto Save and Versions; Resume; AirDrop; FileVault 2 full-disk encryption; and Mail's conversation redesign. The scrollbar itself faded to overlay.

Lion set the Mac's course for the iOS era — cloud distribution, app sandboxing beginnings, touch-derived interaction — and its controversies (scrolling, skeuomorphic Address Book leather) marked the friction of the merge. Digital-only distribution ended the boxed-OS era for Apple permanently.