macOS
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macOS
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| Developer | Apple |
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| Based on | Unix (certified); Darwin — Mach, BSD |
| Written in | C, C++, Swift, Objective-C, assembly |
| Source model | Closed, with open-source components |
| Initial release | March 24, 2001 (Mac OS X 10.0) |
| Latest release | macOS Tahoe 26.6 |
| Beta release | macOS 27 27.0 Developer Beta |
| Platforms | Arm64 (Apple silicon) · x86-64 (through Tahoe) |
| Kernel | Hybrid (XNU) |
| Official site for macOS | |
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macOS
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| iOS · iPadOS · macOS · watchOS · tvOS(audioOS) · visionOS |
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 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 (Yosemite's flattening, Big Sur's depth) leading to today's Liquid Glass. Distribution moved from $129 boxed CDs to free annual downloads with Mavericks in 2013 — a cadence and price the industry then adopted.
1 History✎
The 2001–2011 "Mac OS X" era built the platform: Cheetah's rough debut, Jaguar and Panther's rescue, Tiger's Spotlight and Intel transition, Leopard's Time Machine, Snow Leopard's beloved refinement, and Lion's iPad-inspired turn. The brief "OS X" era (Mountain Lion through El Capitan) made releases annual and free and imported iOS features wholesale. The "macOS" era (Sierra onward) brought Siri, Mojave's Dark Mode, Catalina's 32-bit cutoff, Big Sur's Apple-silicon dawn, the Continuity crescendo of Monterey–Sequoia (Universal Control, Continuity Camera, iPhone Mirroring), and Tahoe's Liquid Glass under the year-aligned "26" numbering. macOS 27, in beta, is the first Apple-silicon-only release.
2 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.
3 See also✎
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