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Apple Mac OS X Turns 10: A Look Back

s Mac OS X celebrated its tenth birthday today - the day after the company's chief Mac engineer . It's been an eventful 10 years, so let's take a look back at the evolution of Mac OS X.

Mac OS X made its formal debut on March 24, 2001 and has gone through almost a dozen codenames, from Cheetah to the upcoming Lion. Initially, those names were only used internally, but as they gained in popularity, Apple started using them in its marketing materials, beginning with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar in 2002.

Mac OS X, however, dates back to 1994 with Apple's Copland project. That was eventually ditched for 1997'safter Apple's acquisition of Steve Jobs's NeXT Software in late 1996. Rhapsody evolved into Mac OS X Server 1.0 (Hera) by 1999, and reached the public beta stage (Kodiak) by September 30, 2000. Six months later, it was ready for the public.

Mac OS X: CheetahIn a 2001 , Jobs said Mac OS X was "the most important software from Apple since the original Macintosh operating system in 1984 that revolutionized the entire industry." At launch, there were 350 applications for Mac OS X, including iMovie 2, iTunes, and a preview of AppleWorks 6.1, the company's productivity software. Apple touted the operating system's new Aqua interface, which included the introduction of the Mac dock. It was $129, and ran on the iMac, iBook, Power Macintosh G3, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube and any PowerBook introduced after May 1998.

In our review , PCMag said OS X is a great leap forward. "Since its humble beginning in 1994 under the name Copland, OS X has endured a variety of dead-ends and name changes before finally making it to the market. The result, however, is a UNIX-based OS that, in time, should bring Mac users tremendous gains in stability and performance," PCMag said.

The OS lacked some printer support and made it difficult to use old applications, but overall, PCMag found it to be "a reliable, high-performance system that excels in graphics capabilities and looks good, to boot."

Mac OS X 10.1: PumaAppleMac OS X 10.1 during a July 2001 Macworld keynote, andit on September 25. Apple promised enhanced performance, a refined Aqua user interface, and upgraded support for digital media and devices like DVDs, MP3 CDs, MP3 players, printers, digital cameras, and DV camcorders. It also cost $129, with an upgrade option available for free until October 31 and$19.95 thereafter."Mac OS X v10.1 is a stunning upgrade—and only six months after releasing Mac OS X," Jobs said at the time.

In , we fnd that OS X 10.1 "deserves praise, but many of these enhancements should have been there from the beginning." The main reason for the upgrade, we found, was the performance boost. "It's remarkably faster than the sluggish version 10.0," PCMag wrote.

Mac OS X 10.2: JaguarThis upgrade, the first one that used the cat-related codenames in marketing materials, debuted in August 2002. Apple "unleashed" Jaguar at Apple retail stores at 10:20pm on August 23 with a variety of Jaguar-related kick-off events. It incorporated more than 150 new features and apps, including iChat, junk mail filtering, and Rendezvous networking technology. The company offered a five-user family pack for $199 in addition to the regularly priced $129 OS.

Apple later announced that Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar sold 100,000 copies in its first weekend, with more than 50,000 people visiting Apple's 35 stores during the kick-off events.

"Apple is clearly serious about enticing Windows PC users to switch," . "This release has far more essential improvements for professionals working in multiplatform environments than for home users."

Mac OS X 10.3: PantherAfter unleashing Jaguar, Apple followed up more than a year later with "Night of the Panther" on October 24, 2003. Version 10.3 also included more than 150 new features, including a new Finder with one-click access to files and folders, the Exposé window-viewing feature, and iChat AV video conferencing. The company also released Mac OS X Server 10.3 at the same time; $499 for 10 clients and $999 for unlimited.

Again, speed was a "big reason to upgrade to 10.3," . Exposé also provided "an ideal solution for those who find it a hassle to switch between open applications." In this release, Apple also added more Windows compatibility like Active Directory support and allowing Apple's Mail and Address Book utilities to work with Microsoft Exchange Servers.

"Suffice it to say that with the speed and usability enhancements, the $129 (direct) price is more than justified," PCMag concluded.

Mac OS X 10.4: TigerApple's Tiger update didn't drop until April 2005, bringing more than 200 features like the Spotlight search function and Dashboard, which included access to a "dazzling new class of applications called widgets."

"Our competitors will be trying to copy Tiger's more than 200 new features and innovations for years to come," Apple's Phil Schillerat the time.

"This upgrade will be known for the speed it brings to daily tasks, as well as for the usefulness and creative design of its many improvements (Apple lists over 200 of them)," . "While a few standout additions are grabbing the headlines, it's the systemwide improvements that will thrill the Mac faithful."

"Once you taste the power of Spotlight, you'll wonder how you ever lived without competent, easy-to-use desktop search," PCMag continued. "And since having the latest build of the OS is usually a requirement for running any other subsequent product upgrades (the next version of iLife or iWork, for example), you'll want to grab this Tiger by the tail."

Mac OS X 10.5: LeopardLeopard made its debut in October 2007 with a revamped desktop that included the Stacks file search option, a redesigned Finder, Quick Look, and Time Machine backup.

"Despite minor problems, it's by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers, with dozens of new features that have real practical value—like truly automated backups, document and spreadsheet preview images in folders, and notes and to-do lists integrated into the mail program," .

For the average user, "Leopard is the most polished and easiest to use OS I've tested," PCMag said.

Still, "its pervasive eye-candy starts out looking dazzling but soon becomes distracting," making the customization options necessary.

Mac OS X 10.6: Snow LeopardSnow Leopard debuted in August 2009, and Apple said it refined 90 percent of the 1,000 projects that make up OS X. It was half the size of previous releases, freeing up 7GB of drive space. It included support for 64-bit processors, while remaining compatible with 32-bit apps.

that Snow Leopard was "the brainiest, brawniest, and most beautiful consumer-oriented OS available anywhere—and it ships with the best built-in applications and utilities you can find."

Mac SO X 10.7: LionThe next generation of OS X is , but Apple has provided a few sneak peeks at Lion. As PCMag software analyst Michael Muchmore found out last month, Lion borrows a lot from iOS, but that's because iOS started out as a whittled down version of Mac OS X, so the tides have turned.

Upcoming features include AirDrop, a wireless file-sharing utility; a redesigned Mail app; Resume, which presents the OS and apps in the exact state at shutdown; Versions, which allows app developers to implement a feature that saves multiple snapshots of any document being worked on; and AutoSave, which does what its name suggests, saving documents automatically.

Interface tools include LaunchPad (which is like bringing the iPhone or iPad screen to the Mac), Mission Control, which replaces Spaces and Expose, and multitouch support.

For more, seeand the slideshow below.