Mac OS X v10.0
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Mac OS X version 10.0, code named Cheetah, released on March 24, 2001 for a price of 129.95 American dollars, was the first official release of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system. Mac OS X 10.0 superseded the Mac OS X Public Beta and preceded Mac OS X v10.1.
Mac OS X 10.0 was a radical departure from the previous "classic" Macintosh operating system. Mac OS X was Apple's answer to the long awaited call for a next generation Macintosh operating system. Mac OS X 10.0 introduced a brand new code base, completely separate from Mac OS 9's code base, and all other previous Apple operating systems. Mac OS X introduced a new Darwin Unix-like core, as well as introducing a totally new system of memory management. Mac OS X is widely regarded to be the best operating system Apple has ever produced; however, Mac OS X 10.0 was a rocky start to the Mac OS X line, plagued with missing features and performance issues -- although it was praised for being a good start to a brand new operating system in terms of completeness and overall operating system stability.
System Requirements
The System Requirements for Mac OS X 10.0 were not well received by the Macintosh community, as at the time the amount of RAM standard with Macintosh computers was 64 megabytes of RAM, while the Mac OS X 10.0 requirements called for 128 megabytes of RAM. As well, processor upgrade cards, which were quite popular for obsolete Power Mac G3 computers, were not supported (and never officially have been, but can be made to work through third-party utility programs).
- Supported Computers - Power Macintosh G3, G3 B&W, G4, G4 Cube, iMac, PowerBook G3, PowerBook G4, iBook
- RAM required - 128 megabytes of RAM recommended
- - 64MB minimum
Features
- Dock - the Dock was a brand new way of organizing your Mac OS X applications on a user interface, and a complete change from the classic method of Application launching in previous Apple Operating Systems.
- XNU kernel - the Unix-like kernel was a first for Macintosh operating systems, and was one of the largest changes from a technical stand point in Mac OS X.
- Terminal - the Terminal was a feature that allowed access to Mac OS X's under-workings, namely the Unix core.
- Mail (e-mail client)
- Address Book
- New word processor replacing SimpleText called TextEdit.
- Full preemptive multitasking support, a long awaited feature on the Mac.
- PDF Support (create PDFs from any application)
- Aqua Interface
- Built on Darwin, a Unix-like operating system
- OpenGL
- AppleScript
- Supports Carbon and Cocoa APIs
- Sherlock desktop and Internet search
- Protected memory - memory protection so that if an application crashed, the memory would not be corrupted.
Criticisms
While the first Mac OS X release was a great operating system in terms of its technical underpinnings, and in relation to its brand new code-base, Mac OS X 10.0 was heavily criticized. There were three main reasons for criticism:
- Interface Responsiveness - The brand-new Aqua interface was sluggish at best. It was heavily criticized for its slow application launch speed and user interface response speed. The interface response times compared to earlier Apple operating systems showed that Mac OS X still had a long way to go in terms of interface design.
- Stability - While 'theoretical' stability in Mac OS X was much better than stability in Mac OS 9, Mac OS X 10.0 was riddled with fatal bugs that caused kernel panics, especially in complex hardware setups.
- Missing Features and Hardware Compatibility Issues - Another reason for criticism were the missing features most especially DVD playback, as well as CD burning, both of which were still available in OS 9. There were also several issues in respect to missing printer drivers and other hardware drivers.
Supersession
The heavy criticism of Mac OS X 10.0 ultimately resulted in Apple offering a free upgrade to Mac OS X v10.1 to all Mac OS X 10.0 users.
Multilingual snags
With Mac OS X version 10.0.0 began a short era (that ended with Mac OS X version 10.2 Jaguar's release) where Apple offered two types of installation CDs: 1Z and 2Z CDs. The difference in the two lay in the extent of multilingual support.Input of simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and Korean were only included with the 2Z CDs. They also came with more languages (the full set of 15 languages), whereas the 1Z CDs came only with about eight languages and in version 10.0.x, could not actually display simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and Korean (except for the Chinese characters present in Japanese Kanji). A variant of 2Z CDs began when Mac OS X v10.0.3 was released to the Asian market. However, it could not be upgraded to version 10.0.4 of the operating system. The brief period of multilingual confusion ended with the release of Mac OS X v10.1, and came to a real end for good with Mac OS X v10.2. Currently, all Mac OS X installer CDs and preinstallations include the full set of 15 languages and full multilingual compatibility.
Version history
- Mac OS X v10.0 (build 4K78), released 24 March, 2001
- Mac OS X v10.0.1 (build 4L13), released 14 April, 2001
- Mac OS X v10.0.2 (build 4P12), released 1 May, 2001
- Mac OS X v10.0.3 (build 4P13), released 9 May, 2001
- * [Apple: 10.0.3 Update and Before You Install Information]
- Mac OS X v10.0.4 (build 4Q12), released 21 June, 2001
- * [Apple: 10.0.4 Update and Before You Install Information]
References
- John Siracusa [Mac OS X 10.0]. Retrieved October 30, 2005.
- John Siracusa [Mac OS X 10.1]. Retrieved October 30, 2005.
- John Siracusa [Mac OS X DP2: A Preview]. Retrieved October 30, 2005.
- University of Texas (2003). [Mac OS 10.0.x Puma]. Retrieved October 30, 2005.
External links
| History of the Apple Macintosh Operating Systems |
|---|
| Mac OS>Classic Mac OS (History): System 6 · System 7 · Mac OS 8 · Mac OS 9 |
| Mac OS X (History of Mac OS X>History): Public Beta · v10.0 · v10.1 · v10.2 · v10.3 · v10.4 · v10.5 |
| Mac OS X Server: Rhapsody (OS)>Rhapsody · Mac OS X Server 1.0 · Mac OS X Server |
| Other OS projects: A/UX · Taligent · Copland · Darwin (operating system)>Darwin |
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