Happy Birthday Mac OS X

phillyclaude writes "Thanks to Wikipedia's Anniversaries page, I just realized Mac OS X turns three today! How could I forget such an important birthday?" Mac OS X 10.0 was released on March 24, 2001.

Comments

Shouldn't that be .3 today

[BoomerSooner]

Since it is 10.3?

Birthday Present

[k_killmore]

Now all Apple needs to do is deliver those 3 ghz G5s today and it will really be a day to remember. ;)

Re:Birthday Present

[System.out.println()]

Better yet: deliver them for free :D

I want one....

Re:Birthday Present

[Tumbleweed]

You'll be seeing 2.5gHz G5s first (perhaps next week, according to the rumour sites). The 3gHz machines aren't expected until end of summer, or thereabouts.

I'd be _very_ interested in playing with a generic PPC970FX board (www.970eval.com) with Linux, though, if it became affordable.

I'm _really_ hoping the new machines at end of summer come with PCI-E, so we can all get on with the task of migration at the same time as major processor upgrades.

Re:Birthday Present

[Selecter]

I read the article on those 970eval boards: you can get 2 G5 Powermacs for the price of one board. Slap Yellow Dog on em and you are done. Why do you want the board? Why would you not be just as "tied in" to that board as you would a Mac? I'm not sure what your reasoning is about, but I love my G5 and OS X. I obviously dont get the Linux stuff.

I think the 3ghz models will have PCI Express support. Steve loves to be first with the wiz bang gizmos and he wont use AGP if he can avoid it. That unit will be my next purchase from Apple to go with my 1.8 Dual. :D

Re:Birthday Present

[BrookHarty]

I picked up a Dual 1.42ghz mac last year, and the thing is fast. I normally run a few shells in iterm, and mozilla/imap, and fink for my unix applications, and some media players. It's a great box to use as a desktop. I also like the look of the older G4 cases.

But if the 1.42ghz system is fast and smooth, a 3ghz must compile applications under fink in seconds. I bought a few games for mac to test it out, Ghost Recon, RTCW, plays smoothly. The system is stable, and I hardly ever get the little beachball busy cursor.

While I dont care for the mac way of user input and keyboard commands, I have found work arounds. I just wish I could use the more standard methods of GUI usage. I found some apps to make it more like other OS's. And I'm happy my Intellimouse and MS natural keyboard works on it, and drivers are downloadable from microsoft's site, if you want the extended features.

Also, while its mostly BSD underneath, and if you are a BSD user, you can figure most stuff out, HFS/HFS+ and the GUI takes a little getting used too. Getting proper termcap files are a little bit of a hassle, and a decent VGA fixed width type font (mac's are not fixed font oriented), but all in all, its a great OS.

I couldn't switch full time to OSX, because I play CS. But as a normal desktop, I use it all the time. Most of my applications run under screen on a linux box, so I just need a good term program.

Re:Birthday Present

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, there were some things in your comment that made me wonder if you have any idea what you're talking about. No offense.

I just wish I could use the more standard methods of GUI usage.

What? Seeing how the Mac has been around longer than any other presently extant user interface, I'd say the Mac way is the standard way!

a decent VGA fixed width type font (mac's are not fixed font oriented)

Courier, Monaco, and Andale Mono are all installed on your machine by default. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them. In fact, Courier 14 with antialiasing is far easier to read on-screen than any other font. (VGA? What?)

Re:Birthday Present

[geoffspear]

While your low slashdot user id# impresses me oh-so-much, Oh Great One, I'm neither young nor inexperienced, and if you'd been using X11 since before Linux, KDE, and Gnome existed, like me, you'd know that "the whole world" doesn't do things the same. The former Windows users creating GUIs for former Windows users for the Intel boxes they bought with Windows on them rip off Windows to make their new GUIs more familiar. Traditional X11 window managers had less in common with Windows than the Mac does.

thanks for helping with the math.

[dotgod]

Mac OS X 10.0 was released on March 24, 2001.

Thanks, Pudge...I wasn't sure if 2004 - 3 was the proper operation for determining the original year based on an anniversary.

Re:thanks for helping with the math.

[MoneyT]

Well you know, it's hard to do subtraction with a one button calculator

>NOT A TROLL I OWN A MAC

Expose

[tblease]

Ah, the birthday of OS X. Here's to wishing that Windows had something similar to OS X Panther's Expose!

Re:Expose

[thirteenVA]

Here's to hoping that when they do, apple has created something even better...

:)

Re:Expose

[prinko]

they do have something, while not quite as pretty (and nowhere near as smooth...) http://www.onlinetoolsteam.com/WindowsExposer/ yeah, its just so it looks like the mac...kinda like those dock clones out there...

Re:Expose

[redJag]

Hard to say that they "have" it when it's a third-party download you're referring to. I like the name, too; very original.

Happy OS X user

[GreatDrok]

OS X is the first OS that came with a computer I bought in the last 20 years that has actually stayed on the machine rather than either with BSD or Linux. OK, I confess I have a Windows XP/Linux dual boot machine, but I use XP only for games and some casual web browsing with Firefox, no e-mail, no work. That machine defaults to Fedora 1 but my Mac defaults to OS X and that is fine by me. Terrific. Panther is a vast improvement over the previous versions, and they were hugely better than Windows XP.

It will be interesting to see where we stand with OS X 10.6 when Longhorn finally releases. Most interesting is the fact that MS makes a big song and dance about OSS destroying the software industry whereas Apple has built a very nice symbiotic relationship with OSS. Proves the lie. In reality what threatens MS is serious competition that can't just be bought out.

Re:Happy OS X user

[MBCook]

10.6? I seriously doubt that people will be running 10.6 when Longhorn comes out. It will be more like 10.2834 (*rimshot*).

Seriously though, by the time Longhorn is supposed to come out (2 or 3 years, assuming no more delays) OS X will be 5 ot 6 (or more) years old. I would think by then it would get bumped to XI.

Re:Happy OS X user

[mrgeometry]

I would think by then it would get bumped to XI.


There's been a lot of talk to the effect that Apple is not likely to abandon the catchy-sounding "OS X" name. ("O S X I" doesn't sound as cool as "O S X"....) So will they call it "OS X Eleven" or "OS X Two point Oh" or what? Who knows?! As much as the OS might deserve a full new version number, the marketing aspect of it definitely pulls in the direction of keeping "OS X" as long as possible.

zach

Re:Happy OS X user

[Anonymous Coward]

It's gonna be "Mac OS X 11.0."

The name of the operating system is "Mac OS X," and it's pronounced "Mac Oh Ess Ten." The version number is not part of the name. The version number, presently, is 10.3.3. In a few months it'll be 10.4, and in a few years it'll be 11.0. But they're not gonna change the name of the OS when that happens.

Re:Happy OS X user

[tantalus]

There's been a lot of talk to the effect that Apple is not likely to abandon the catchy-sounding "OS X" name. ("O S X I" doesn't sound as cool as "O S X"....)


On the contrary, "O S X I", obviously pronounced "Oh, Sexy" sounds very cool indeed.

Another Mac birthday!

[rhpenguin]

One year ago today was the day I "switched" and picked up my brand spankin new iBook :) Wierd... Don't you think?

Switching views

[OmniVector]

It's pretty amazing how polar opposite many slashdotter's views about Apple have changed since the release of OS X. The science and *nix community has really embraced this newcommer to the *nix world.

Who else here used to hate macs until OS X, and now uses it as their primary machine? I'm sure I'm not alone.

Re:Switching views

[Dstreelm]

yes, i never used a mac before osx, i bought my powerbook over a year ana a half ago, and i have absolutley no regrets. i was a hardcore windows user and now i just laugh at my friends whose computers crash, my roomate just virus checked his system and he found over 2000 viruses, i have none. that being said, i would rather that alot of windows xp users not 'switch' because i like being the outnumbered and decenting. i know my system is betterand i could care less about most windows users. however i would like to see apple continue to grow and gain more acceptance

Re:Switching views

[MBCook]

Well, I didn't LIKE Macs (in a way) untill OS X.

I basically used Macs (mostly my good old LC II) untill about the time the Pentium came out and that's about when I got my first PC (a 386 clone) and I've been a PC person every since.

Now I had USED Macs during that time, I just didn't own one. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Macs (their design elegance, I though the interface was quite nice, etc) but I wouldn't have bought one (except as a second/spare/extra/toy comptuer) because of the OS. OS 8/9 wasn't BAD, but it wasn't as modern as Windows 9x or what I could do on Linux. I wouldn't have wanted to use it for a main computer. Add to that the speed difference that started to appear and that I played lots of games and that I liked to build computers and a Mac just wasn't an option.

But the OS (my biggest problem) because OS X which I have to admit I drool over. If I could buy it to put on my PCs (even if it cost $350 or so) I'd do it. It's got the Unix core (which thanks to Linux I've come to LOVE) but the great modern no fuss desktop. I don't play that many computer games any more (and those that I do then to be things that will get ported to the Mac anyways, even if I have to wait 6 months). I have moved to using a laptop almost exclusively (so building is out of the question, not to mention that I just don't have too much time to do that with my main computer, only "extra" computers). And now with computers getting so much faster than what I need most of the time (a G4 would be more than enough for me most of the time, but I drool over that G5). I've basically made up my mind that my next computer will be a Mac (probably laptop. I can't wait for iBook G5s. I'm not hurting so I can survive).

In summary I didn't "hate" Macs, but I wouldn't have bought one. They were outdated and dying for me compared to the "Wintel" side of things. But now Macs are back (with a VENGENCE). OS X fixed my biggest problem with Macs (the rest I could have survived). And not only did it FIX the problem, it added a Unix core that I envy. And while most things on Windows "Just Work" pretty well, these days when I don't have much free time to screw around with computer issues the "it nearly ALWAYS Just Works" of a Mac is majorly appealing too. Fixing my own computer problems (you know, the oddities of Windows and installing hardware/etc) is no longer challenging or entertaining in ANY way, it's just an annoyance. Years ago there was often something I would LEARN by going through all that stuff (even if I shouldn't have had to), but now it's just a pain.

Hold on little iBook G5... I'll be comming for you!

Re:Switching views

[DavidLeblond]

I use to despise Macs (rightly so.) I didn't even give them much thought when OS X came out.

But after upgrading to XP I started looking more and more at apple.com, and when XP went belly up on me last November I bought an iBook.

Never looked back.

Re:Switching views

[daviddennis]

I was a Windows loather who used mainly SGI and Linux, but when I decided to get into video in a big way in 1998, I decided to get a Mac because I was told the experience would be seamless.

It was, by 1998 standards, anyway, and I really liked the overall design of the system. But I still used the Unix machine for emacs and programming.

When the public beta came out, I put it on my dual processor G4 and switched almost entirely to the Mac immediately. I've been really happy with it ever since, so now I have a G5 at home, a G4 tower at work and a G4 PowerBook for the road.

Great systems, all of them. I couldn't be happier.

D

Re:Switching views

[kalidasa]

Always wanted a NeXT. Couldn't afford them, then they disappeared into Apple. I started shopping for a Mac on March 24, 2001 and ordered my iBook the day the white iBooks came out.

Re:Switching views

[Van Halen]

OS 8/9 wasn't BAD, but it wasn't as modern as Windows 9x or what I could do on Linux. I wouldn't have wanted to use it for a main computer.

I've always felt exactly the same way about System 7 through OS 9. I had used it a fair amount in college, and never really disliked it. Nice interface, but not nearly enough power to get at the internals for me to use it as my main machine. I was a Linux person (and later FreeBSD) and you could pry that from my cold, dead fingers.

Still, I bought a PowerMac 7600 running 7.5 back in 1996. It served one specific purpose (and still does today, running OS 8.6) as the centerpiece of my home recording studio, running Digital Performer. It was always my music machine and nothing else. Everything else was done on my Unix PC. Actually starting in 2000, I began dabbling in movie editing, using this little program from Apple called iMovie. So then the Mac had exactly two functions.

I had been lusting after OS X since I first starting reading about it, with the Developer Previews. Of course, my little Mac wasn't going to run it well enough to bother, but I wanted it. Finally in 2002, we decided that we wanted to make a video of our upcoming wedding, but we wanted to do it cheap. Of course this was the perfect opportunity to sneak in my desire to try OS X, especially since I'd already become proficient with iMovie. So we got a new Power Mac G4 and a DV camera (the wedding DVD turned out great).

Now the G4 is my primary machine. Terminal is still my most used app, but the rest of it is so much nicer than anything else. The FreeBSD PC sits headless in the corner as the household firewall/router/server. It's setup nicely and I don't want to tinker with it anymore for day to day stuff (that was fun in college, but not so much anymore). We bought an iBook for the wife about a year and a half ago, and we'll never go back. Interestingly, I still keep the 7600 around for music stuff. I had planned to upgrade my Digital Performer for OS X and move all the music stuff to the G4, but the 7600 works so well that I never bothered. It worked great for writing some music for the wedding, and I actually mixed the sound for the wedding video on it because iMovie doesn't give as much control. Perfect!

And then there's work. It's a Windows world. Everyone has a PC, and Mac/Apple are practically dirty words. We use Unix workstations in my group, mostly Sun and SGI. But those are getting to be pretty overpriced in the workstation market for the performance you get. We needed some Unix laptops that could still run Microsoft Office, so I managed to justify a couple of PowerBooks. Then we needed a file server with a couple terabytes that could serve our Unix machines and PCs. Hmm, Power Mac G5 + Xserve RAID. Management wanted to know why we weren't going with a Windows server. Aside from the lower cost vs. comparable Dell or IBM solutions, I think the lack of viruses was a big selling point. Serves NFS automounts, SMB, integrates with NIS, printers, web server, runs our scientific codes faster than any big iron workstation we have. I'd like to see a Windows machine do all of that as well!

So uh, happy birthday, Mac OS X. I know my computing life is much easier and enjoyable because of it. Though now it's kind of frustrating to use anything else. :) With OS X I get to have my cake (gui interface, expose) and eat it too (command line)!

Re:Switching views

[zero_offset]

Ah yes, the "grammar is a straitjacket" argument.

Assuming you manage to graduate despite the onus of that half-literate gibberish you're spewing, you're going to make a fantastic impression on your clients some day. Poor spelling and grammar is simply a sign of laziness, particularly at the university level.

Correct spelling and grammar is an important part of "experessing" yourself well. Don't assume you're so brilliant that the rest of us have any interest in slogging through the steaming mess you've written just to glean the dubious benefits of your self-proclaimed eloquence.

Spelling and grammar are part and parcel of the content of a post. Consequently, it is reasonable to take someone to task for a failing which should have been corrected around age ten. It is also reasonable to suspect that an intellect lacking in the comparatively simple skills of spelling and grammar may prove equally lacking in the ability to produce useful or interesting insights -- let alone the ability to relate those insights to others saddled with the considerable disadvantage of such grossly incompetent communication skills.

Rather than fly into some sort of barely-comprehensible rage, consider what I've written, read and learn from it, and please do not return until you can spell at least as well as a young child.

It's a shame, too. I did find your original post interesting. I considered responding to it. But it was such a disgusting example of near-illiteracy, I decided I preferred to avoid engaging you in conversation. In a way, I was embarassed on your behalf.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing. You're going to need it.

Re:Switching views

[brasten]

I actually just recently switched to a PowerBook after posting a question about them on Ask Slashdot. The slashdotters responses helped convince me it was worth the investment, and it absolutely has been. While the pure performance of the machine hasn't been what I would hope for in a $3000 notebook, it has been far from bad, and everything ELSE about the machine (size, look and feel, and the best OS I've seen, ever...) had made it MORE than worth it.

While I try not to get caught up in all the "PowerBook G5 next week!" rumors, they certainly have to be released sometime this year, and I will definitely be first in line when they are announced.

Mac OS X Release History

[Goo.cc]

I have a page that lists all revision of Mac OS X (client) since the public beta. I created it because I periodically save screenshots and I couldn't always remember which OS revision the screenshot was created with.

Anyway, you can access it at http://www.goo.cc/macosx.html

Powerbook rumors?

[mildness]

Any guesses as to when the next PB will be out and what it might include?

Suffering severe OS X lust I am days, nay hours, away from my first Mac in 10 or so years.

Cheers,

Bill

Re:Powerbook rumors?

[ratlater]

MacRumors Buyers Guide is a good place to look for a general idea. They should be releasing a revision with faster processors and a few minor improvements in the next month or two.

-matt

They do

[filmsmith]

WinExpose

I haven't tried it nor do I know anyone who as but... well... there it is.

fs

Re:They do

[undef24]

I bought it and its slow. The next week I bought a powerbook.

Re:They do

[Trillan]

It was spammed to me. In addition to my usual sending of spam complaints to hosts, I sent a copy off to Apple Legal.

Shortly thereafter, the product name was changed.

Shortly thereafter, the company web site was dead.

I believe they're out of business completely now. Thank God. Fucking spammers deserve all that, plus a few smacks to the head with a baseball bat.

PCI-E != PCI-X

[Tumbleweed]

Nope. PCI-X is a much older technology, and very different from the new serial connector technology called PCI Express (abbreviated PCI-E). Macs _have_ had 64-bit 66mHz PCI for quite some time, though that's still nowhere near as sophisticated as PCI-E.

PCI-Express, however, will be replacing both AGP _and_ PCI slots, so all your peripherals will be using the same technology, albeit in different form factors (16x connector for AGP replacement, 1x or 4x connectors for most everything else). I believe it's 250MB/s (each direction?) per 'x' of connector length in PCI-E, so this will be a substantial improvement in bandwidth on PCI-E systems.

Re:PCI-E != PCI-X

[PygmySurfer]

PCI-X is NOT 66 MHz PCI.

"The PCI-X protocol supports high-performance PCI devices, increasing speeds from 33MHz to 133MHz and throughput from 266 Mbps to 2GBps."

It may not be PCI-E, but it's definitely not plain old 66 MHz PCI.

I've been with Apple for a while.

[alchemist68]

I've been with Apple for a while now. My first Apple computer was an Apple IIgs when I was in high school. My second Apple computer was a PowerBook 520c. My third and current Apple computer is a Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White), originally had a Motorola 400MHz G3, but upgraded to an IBM 500MHz G3 thanks to Other World Computing and the good folks at IBM. The one thing I've liked about Apple is that it consistently produces good products. Looking at the commercialization of the Windows Desktop (Icons, Icons EVERYWHERE), I admire Apple simplicity and elegance in design. Everything about Apple about coupling simplicity, elegance, and functionality. Their computers, in my experience, are also very reliable. All of my Apple computers still work. Mac OS X is quite impressive, and fast, and for my current web surfing, document writing, CD copying (for my car) and CD ripping (for my car), the 500MHz G3 is plenty fast for my needs, though I REALLY want a Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5. My G3 is now 5 years old, still runs Apple's latest and greatest operating system, and it gets FASTER with every release. The Borg cannot make those claims.

present

[witort]

I just wish I didn't have to buy it a $129 present every year...

Re:present

[oacis]

Surprisingly,

I don't mind upgrading the Mac OS X operating system every year, simply because they really do add features that are worthwhile to the new build, not just adding a new look and feel (a la windows). When was the last time that you actually upgraded to a new windows version and it was actually faster? (Generally to upgrade to a new windows system, you really needed to buy a new computer).

You are looking at $AU 455 for an upgrade to the Windows professional, and even then you don't get everything that you do on a Mac (webserver, database, development tools). So $US 129 is cheap.

The first Mac I bought had 10.2 (in my mind previous Mac OS's were fantastic looking, but behind the times in terms of functionality - think memory management for one) and I love it! It is the only time that I have even considered the Mac OS as a serious purchaser. Not a problem spending on the upgrade - I cannot live without expose!

I use windows at work, and there are some things which it does do better, but I am happier with the Mac at home.

Too bad...

[PrintError]

Too bad, because I heard Apple's going out of business.

Again...

Re:Familial birthdays

[Senjaz]

NeXTSTEP 0.8 was released on 12th October 1988. Version 1.0 was released 18 September 1989.

The first version to be labeled Mac OS X was Mac OS X Server 1.0 which was release on 16th March 1999.

Aqua first appeared in DP3: 14th February 2000 and there it was first recognisable at a glance as the same OS that we use today.

So Mac OS X could also be 4, 5, 14 or 15 years old depending on how you want to look at it.

Been on Mac a loooong time

[TomorrowPlusX]

I just want to put my 2c out and say I've been working on macs since... maybe 1989 -- that was when I was in high school and first learned pascal and c programming on an ancient ( at the time even ) Mac Classic, with about 492 (?) k of ram.

I remember writing a Tron game with friends in my highschool cs class where, since the mac didn't have the CPU to do collision detection via line-to-line intersections in real time and not enough memory to make a bitfield for testing, we ended up using the screen memory itself for collision detection. The game rocked, actually.

Since I'm a professional graphic designer by day, I've *always* been on mac, except for a short detour from 2001 to 2003 when my boss insisted I work on a PC... Thank god I got out of that one.

I have to say, nonetheless, that while the migration to OS X was painful, ultimately, it's been good.

Happy birthday! And many more beleaguered years!

office depot customers bought 3 days early!

[gsfprez]

If you recall - office depot (or was it staples?) accidentally put Mac OS X 10.0 on the shelves the day it arrived in their stores - about 3 days before hand IIRC. This was the hot news on the Mac OS X websites the day this all happened.. i think smog levels went up around all the Office Depots the second the news hit.

Man...it HAS been a long time - i forget all the details - except for the one where my wife asked "Wait, did you just buy it twice? I thought you had ordered it from Apple thru your friend there?"

me: "But dude, i got it NOW!!!! Long before everyone else!!!"

Ah... i miss those days.... no sleep prior to a major OS release to be first in line at Frys....

man, i'm old now. i don't do fun things like that any more.

3 years and still no:

[valkraider]

Three years, and still no major children's games. Well, there are a couple - Finding Nemo and The Learning Tree ones... But most of the "major" titles - (which means the ones that feature the characters the pre-schoolers are addicted to) - are all still OS9, even though they were released more than a year or two after OSX.

It is frustrating at the least - to keep Classic on a computer so my daughter can play "Blues Clues"... or "Dora the Explorer"...

But in every other aspect - OSX rocks - it got me to switch to a Mac. And then to buy three more of them. And then buy a couple iPods, an iSight, and a bit of software... I would say OSX has been successful, at least in *my* household. All my x86/Windows machines have since been given to Goodwill...

Keep the Faith

[NaughtyNimitz]

I am an Apple user since 1983, and even through the dark days (20 mac types in one year; corroded Copland, rushed Rapsody, ...) i kept the faith that one day Apple was going to make the a new statement telling the world it is again a player on the OS market.
And that day was when MacOS X was released.

Praise all people involved! From the iCEO to the employer that wraps the box.

I Made "The Switch"

[bigfinger]

I Switched when I walked into the Apple Store @ Valley Fair Mall Last Fall. The New AI Powerbooks had just came out. "WHOA!" is all I could say. So I walked out with my first laptop, my first Mac, and my new Love The Powerbook G4 15" Firewire 800 with a combo drive running OS X.2 at the time. The date was Nov. 2nd of 2003. Not long after I bought her an X.3 upgrade on launch night. Although we have had our differances (White Spots, and Fadding Back Light), I still love my Powerbook. I wouldnt traid her for any Wintel box ever. So let me take time to wish a very happy belated birthday to OS X, and say thank you for making my Powerbook ROCK!

More like 2 or 2.5 yrs, not three.

[Zathras26]

OS X 10.0 may have been released on that date, but I wouldn't call that the "real" OS X... most people, including myself, considered that version more of a beta than a final release, even though Apple had already released an official "beta" some months before that. IMO, OS X didn't become a "real" OS until version 10.1.

Solution

[AvantLegion]

There's this really cool new kid's game.