Mac OS X 10.0

Mac OS X 10.0 (code named Cheetah) is the first major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It was released on March 24, 2001, for a price of $129 after a public beta.

Developed by: Apple Computer

General availability: March 24, 2001 (version 10.0 build 4K78)

Last release: June 22, 2001 (version 10.0.4 build 4S10)

Preceded by: Mac OS 9

Succeeded by: Mac OS X 10.1 (codename Puma)

Kernel type: Hybrid (XNU)

Support status: Historical and no longer supported

Mac OS X was Apple's successor to the classic Mac OS. It was derived from NeXTSTEP and FreeBSD, and featured a new user interface called Aqua, as well as improved stability and security due to its new Unix foundations. It introduced the Quartz graphics rendering engine for hardware-accelerated animations. Many technologies were ported from the classic Mac OS, including Sherlock and the QuickTime framework. The core components of Mac OS X were open sourced as Darwin.

Boxed releases of Mac OS X 10.0 also included a copy of Mac OS 9.1, which can be installed alongside Mac OS X 10.0, through the means of dual booting (which meant that reboots are required for switching between the two OSes). This was important for compatibility reasons; while many Mac OS 9 applications could be run under Mac OS X in the Classic environment, some, such as applications that directly accessed hardware, could only run under Mac OS 9.

Six months after its release, Mac OS X 10.0 was succeeded by Mac OS X 10.1, code named Puma.

Features

New and updated features

The features of the release include the Dock which was a new way of organizing one's Mac OS X applications on a user interface, and a change from the classic method of application launching in previous Mac OS systems.
It included Terminal, a terminal emulator that provides access to Mac OS X's Unix command-line interface; the classic Mac OS had previously had the distinction of being one of the few operating systems with no command line interface.
The new Mail email client included the ability to configure the software to receive all of a user's email accounts in one list, the ability to file emails into folders, the ability to search for emails, and the ability to automatically append signatures to outgoing emails.
The Address Book was a new application which had features including exporting and importing cards to and from vCard format, API to interface with other applications, change of address notifications, contact groups, auto-merge when importing vCards, customizable fields and categories, the automatic formatting of phone numbers.
TextEdit replaced the SimpleText application with new features.
PDF support was added; it allows the user to create PDFs from any application.
The OS introduced the new Aqua UI.
Several features of Mac OS 9 were ported to Mac OS X, including the Sherlock desktop and web search engine.

Removed features

File-sharing client — The system can only use TCP/IP, not AppleTalk, to connect to servers sharing the Apple Filing Protocol. It cannot use SMB to connect to Windows or Samba servers.
File-sharing server — As a server, the system can share files using only the Apple Filing Protocol (over TCP/IP), HTTP, SSH, and FTP.
Optical media — Neither DVD playback nor burning CDs or DVDs is supported. However, audio CD burning was added in the Mac OS X 10.0.2 update, roughly two months after initial release.

Architecture

Mac OS X is built on Darwin, a Unix-like operating system derived from FreeBSD. Darwin includes a new kernel, XNU, derived from Mach and BSD, as a replacement for the Mac OS nanokernel used in classic Mac OS.

Unlike Mac OS 9, Mac OS X has protected memory and preemptive multitasking. This means that if an application's memory becomes corrupted due to a bug, the application will crash without the entire system crashing and needing to be rebooted.

Mac OS X also had support for OpenGL, AppleScript, and the Carbon and Cocoa APIs.

Release History

Version	Build	Date	Darwin version
10.0	4K78	March 24, 2001	1.3
10.0.1	4L13	April 14, 2001	1.3.1
10.0.2	4P12	May 1, 2001
10.0.3	4P13	May 9, 2001
10.0.4	4Q12	June 21, 2001
	4R14	July 18, 2001
	4S10	August 20, 2001

User Interface

Mac OS X 10.0 screenshot — A screenshot of Mac OS X 10.0 showcasing the new Aqua user interface