From Mac OS to Mac OS X

Before starting the discussion of technical issues related to using the Mac OS, it is worth devoting a short chapter to the evolution of this operating system, as its presentation marked a historic day for what concerns the world of computers and technology in general.

As you all know Mac OS is sviluppatto by Apple Computer and was born in 1984 when it was presented to the world the first Macintosh. As we said was an historic day because the operating system that ran the entire operation of the Macintosh was the first to implement a 'user interface as an intermediary between the machine and the user.

The introduction of this new interface is revolutionary because, until then, it was possible to work on computers solely using a kind of terminal commands that writing stating that the person could interpret elaborated. The fact of presenting a graphical operating system and easy to use approached, in fact, the computer to a wide audience.

Is available on YouTube, the video's original presentation of the first Macintosh with a young Steve Jobs:

And 'possible to divide the life of the Apple operating system marked in two phases: a first phase from 1984 to 2001 in which it is called Mac OS Classic and a second phase, from 2001 to the present day, where we discuss Mac OS X.

As mentioned above Classic Mac OS was the first version developed and released to the general public of an operating system can handle the mouse movement. This phrase, uttered in 2011, he smiles, but the adoption of the mouse, as a means of communication between the user and the computer, came only in 1984 with the presentation of your Macintosh. And Mac OS Classic was able to interpret and process data in three-inch diskettes and a half, another small revolution.

After about a decade, the technological process in the production of hardware components had evolved rapidly and in 1994 Apple introduced the Power Macintosh which represented an evolution of the computer launched ten years earlier. For this new device, the Classic Mac OS was adapted and expanded to accommodate the new features offered by the computer. The new version of the operating system has proved satisfactory in terms of usage by you (further simplifications were made in the graphical interface to make it even easier to use) both in terms of performance.

After some time, however, Apple felt the need to renew the now dated Classic Mac OS. Were therefore initiated several development processes that actually prefiggevono is intended to completely rewrite a new operating system and make it more powerful hardware for continuous development. These new projects could not give birth to a new operating system and were quickly abandoned.

After this real failure, Apple realized that developing a new operating system from scratch FOSE competitive market in a short time, in fact was an impossible task and then realized that the only way forward was to purchase a system third-party operating already working and widely tested.

Many projects were carefully analyzed and finally the Apple chose to rely on the OpenStep operating system from Next founded by Steve Jobs himself, who in the meantime had left the house in Cupertino after he was expelled by the Board of Directors. In fact, the Next was completely absorbed by Apple, and OpenStep operating system (which was based on the UNIX model) was merged with the graphical interface of the old operating system from Apple, so the light was Mac OS X, that is, the current system operating computers from Apple.

Over the years they have been released several major releases of Mac OS X through which the operating system has been further improved and refined. The latest release - the moment this guide is written - is that Lion was launched a few weeks ago.

Despite the exit of Lion, this guide has been developed based on the previous release - Snow Leopard - which today is still that maggiornemnte widespread both at home and business.

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