Apple’s Mac OS X operating system turned a lucky 7 years old yesterday, March 24. It was exactly 7 years ago that Apple released the first in the series of their flagship Mac OS X operating system, and since then it has become a rather strong competitor to Microsoft Windows in the consumer world.
While Mac OS X has been around for 7 years it was just on January 10th, 2006 that Apple released the update to Tiger which provided support for the Intel-based computers that they started to roll out. Then it was just a few months later that the first Beta of Boot Camp rolled out, which for the first time allowed Macs to natively run Windows. Ever since that time I would say that Apple’s computers have received a lot more attention, and have found their way into a lot more homes.
Seeing that Apple has had 6 different versions of Mac OS X since the original release it comes out to an average of almost one new release every year. Well, kind of. Below I have the release schedule for the Mac OS X line of operating systems. In parenthesis after each release date is the duration of time that passed since the previous Mac OS X release:
- March 21, 2001 – Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah
- September 25, 2001 (6 months later) – Mac OS X 10.1 Puma
- August 23, 2002 (10 months later) – Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
- October 24, 2003 (14 months later) – Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
- April 29, 2005 (18 months later) – Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
- October 26, 2007 (29 months later) – Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
As you can tell there is a growing trend of postponed OS X releases, and staying on this track would put the next release about 3 years from now. Maybe Apple will get things back in order for more a little more frequent releases, but I think this goes to show that Microsoft isn’t the only one having troubles at getting their operating system out on a timely schedule.
What I would like to applaud Apple for is offering their operating system at a flat $129 over the years. Not only has the price remained the same across the different versions of Mac OS X, but they’ve also strayed from having multiple editions every time there is a new release. Microsoft has progressively gotten worse with the number of editions of Windows for each subsequent release, and it causes a lot of confusion with the consumer.
So here’s to wishing the Mac OS X many more successful years! They are pushing Microsoft to get creative with Windows, and I can’t wait to see what Apple is going to pull out of their hat next.
[via TUAW]
I think as the OS has matured the need to release major updates on the quick pace they did at first was not nearly as necessary. The first 10.0 definitely had lots of quirks ans was quickly replaced. But of course things like the iPhone really did take a lot of development time from OS X. I for one think OS X is the closest we will ever see of Linux style OS for the masses. May they continue on for many years, the competition is great for all of us in the long run. My only real hope for Apple and OS X is that they can get Steve Jobs to not make so many promises ahead of time so users feel a bit let down when it’s finally released like the did with 10.5. While it is a fine update many attacked them for what they perceived were promises that were no kept.
I’m ready for OS 11. I think Apple is milking the brand name OS X now though, like Intel did with Pentium. If it wasn’t for the big shiny X we’d probably be on OS 12 by now. I sure don’t remember any previous major version of Mac OS lasting seven years.
Happy Birthday Mac OS X, so when is Mac OS XI coming out?
I think that’s a big problem for software companies, and even Microsoft did it with Vista. We were supposed to have things like a new filesystem and whatnot, but that never happened. They probably have to make these promises as a way to show that they are innovative, and they figure they’ll deal with the consequences later on if they can’t deliver.
I’m not that concerned with a number, because at this point if we were on 12 or 16 it wouldn’t really differ from what we have today.
Sometimes I wish I owned a Mac
One major flaw in this article: do not applaud them for releasing Service Packs, rebranded, and then charging users the “flat fee.” I seriously am not flaming Mac OS X here, just saying that the updates should have been free, or totaled up to $129. That is one thing Microsoft still does right; just look at new things added with Windows XP Service Pack 2 without the fee.
Same here. I’ve been doing a lot of development work lately and it’s very much possible that I’ll be getting a Mac in the next few weeks or months.
XP SP2 was out of the ordinary though, and Microsoft even said themselves that with Vista SP1 they were “going back to what service packs were before XP SP2. A standard service pack is about improving the experience, but not about adding new features or breaking applications.” [[winsupersite.com]]