The Great Tiger Giveaway

The most significant Apple Operating System was included with Lisa because it was the first step where Apple showed that they were not going to follow the path of least resistance, but would build a better system even if it meant taking chances on something new and different and unproven. This set them on the path that eventually has led to OS X.

dleek, 25 Apr 05

To me every Mac OS I have used was significant so choosing one is very difficult.
System 6 is what introduced me to a computing world where you manipulated the machine in a way that “just made sense” using the “WIMP” (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) paradigm so that makes it particluarly significant to me.
System 7 was the OS that had to cope with the changeover from 68K to PowerPC which was incredibly important for Apple to get right and is significant for just how well it managed it (so well that you hardly noticed it had happened).
OS X is probably the *most* significant because it was the “big change” to a next generation OS that Apple really needed to make in order to have any chance of moving forward into the 21st century with a viable computing platform. Without X the Mac (no matter how loved) would have been trapped in a downward spiral of increasing irrelevance. X brought us, Unix developers and Open Source, forged links with Linux and made the Mac a viable platform for heavyweight maths and science tools.
For me OS X 10.2 was the most significant version of X to date because that was when X matured into a “proper OS” that professional users like me could shift to without any real problems. In my mind that probably makes it the most significant Mac OS ever.
OS X 10.2 was the OS that brought us all the benefits of Unix with enough of the comforts of our previous “Classic” existence to encourage people like me, who needed to be able to switch over and be up and running productively in a commercial environment within hours, that it could (and should) be done.
To me that is when the world changed. I always loved my Mac, 10.2 just showed us all a whole new way to love our Macs and I believe started the Mac on its path back to mainstream success. In many ways I believe that 10.2 is the OS that saved the Mac and so I think that makes it the most significant OS release ever.

“What was/is the most significant Apple operating system…”

Always the next one.

“.....and why?”

‘Cos Steve says so.

While in recent years, I would have to say that OSX was the biggest leap and most influential Apple OS, probably very soon to be outdone by themselves again.

However, as a budding musician and computer geek in 1978 (if memory serves), whatever version of OS that was on the Apple II+ had the most impact for me personally, for it was the only “desktop” consumer computer that could play music at the time.  Mind you, this music was pretty crude, but it worked!

From that point on, I knew Apple and I would have a bright future together.  Of course, my first “paid” gig for sound design was on a Mac Plus (or was it a 128k) at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz - This was really getting exciting!!!

My childhood plans for a “solid-state” system that could actually digitize someone’s entire music collection and let a handful of albums be downloaded into a portable “walkman” memory device looked like they were just on the horizon.  Oh, how I wish I had patented THAT idea!!!

“You are holding the future of the Macintosh in your hands.” The year 2000 marked Mac OS X’s first, public appearance in the form of a Public Beta. For $29.95, you get an unfinished, buggy version of Apple’s next generation operating system, in a folder (not a box), with the above greeting in its inside flap.

Fast forward to 2005, and we have since enriched our vocabulary with “ordinary” words as Graphite, Aqua, Quartz, Dock, Exposé, Rendezvous (which is now all Frenchy Bonjour), Dashboard, Spotlight, etc. Even Unix terms such as Kernel and Terminal have found their way into the average Mac user’s command line-phobic vocabulary.

Most significantly, Mac OS X’s Unix heritage have proven that Unix can be all of stable, secure, user-friendly and beautiful. A concept hardly in the minds of most Unix users in the past. The most significant Unix interface innovation that I can recall is virtual desktops. Showing off Exposé or Dashboard to a Unix user a decade ago and telling him it runs on Unix would probably blow his mind.

2005 heralded the Chinese Year of the Rooster. But as far as Mac users go, it’s the Year of the Tiger. We’ve gone through Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar (Jagwire), and Panther, and along the way, Mac OS X has given us iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iChat, iCal, iDVD, and all the other iApps as part of iLife or the recent iWork apps. We’ve never had this much fun in OS 9, but of course the times were different, and Mac OS X has kept us up with the times.

Mac OS X, encompassing all its feline lineage: past, Friday the 29th, and future, clearly is Apple’s most significant OS, and whets our appetite for more Apple innovations to come.

In my opinion Apple released their most important OS to date back in August of 2002.  It was at this time that Apple released what was their first true fully-functional version of OS X.  That release was version 10.2, or the Jaguar version, as it was more commonly known.

There are many reasons why I’ve chosen OS X, and that specific version in particular, to be the most important Macintosh operating system to date, but to sum them all up in a very overused former Apple marketing slogan—and a mantra recently assimilated into the Microsoft corporate culture—“It just works”.  Now, I know that other renditions of Macintosh’s venerable operating system probably had more influence—after all, without the early Macintosh computer, Windows could still be command line driven today—however, one could also argue that these OS’s were ahead of the game, merely ushering in the inevitable computing future.  But, ohhhh, OS X in all your beautiful glory and Unix underpinings, how great you are for both neophytes and hackers alike, not to mention all those business profressionals, scientists, engineers, ...

The real reason I name OS X the most important system that Apple has ever released is because they nailed everything for every user.  For business users (arguably the majority of computer users) you had all the office applications you needed, from MS Office to QuickBooks.  Not to mention it was finally easier to put a Mac up on a Windows-based network than it was to put a Windows machine on it.  For hackers and computer scientists, OS X had all the power of Unix as well as its Open Source compadres.  For scientists and academics OS X combined both of the aforementioned qualities to form a computer on which a researcher could do their research and actually write up the results on one PC.  For families you could now keep all your home movies, pictures, journals, everything in one place and it made it fun to do so.  The real power in OS X was that no longer would anyone need multiple computer—for the first time ever you could do everything on one machine. 

It was in August of 2002 when I realized this for myself.  For the first time ever I could get rid of my multiple operating systems.  No more Windows for Office and Linux for programming.  From that moment I was finally able to do everything in one place.  And not only did Apple finally make the one machine to do everything, but they made doing everything fun.  Everything I do on my Mac is entertaining, while everything I do on Windows is work—or at least that’s how it always feels. 

So, OS X gets my vote because it is the be all…end all, the alpha and the omega, its everything in one and its also fun to boot.  OS X has everything necessary to satisfy every computer user and it does so in a way that just makes you smile.

Short answer: uname -a

The best Apple OS is definitely Darwin - no matter what name or future name rides on it (ie. Mac OS X). Every bit of stability, pre-emptive scheduling, advanced memory management and even the responsiveness of the Graphical User Interface should be attributed to the Darwin kernel.

Why the Darwin kernel and not talk about the applications, graphics or features? Well that’s because anyone’s opinion on such “subjective” material could all be true. People can argue about features, applications and graphics till apples turn into oranges; and it’s only a matter of time when Linux and Windows catches up with the “nice interface” and “catchy features.”

As far as graphics and user friendliness is concerned, I feel that Apple was the best since day one - doesn’t matter whether it was an Apple II or Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X. Everyone else just copied.

Yes, sad but true - everyone else just copied.

So how do I judge the best OS then?
- Count the number of times Darwin OS crashes/panics vs. Windows and Linux Measure the system uptime.
- Measure responsiveness of “cool” graphics when heavy background processes are running
- Measure security of the OS.
- Look at code portability (for developers out there - POSIX compliancy)

I’d go on but it’s 2:49 AM.

So what’s my point? That when the kernel or OS is as rock solid as Darwin, people will love to develop applications on it. Apple’s graphics engine will run on it smoother and remains sleek. And well, the end user, remains satisfied always.

Like I said: uname -a