1. First price: Mac OS was introduced in 1984 as being integral to the original Apple Macintosh 128K personal computer, which had an initial selling price of 2,495 USD Features: The first Macintosh 128K machines came with a plastic Macintosh box that included: 'System Disk' floppy disk with System 1.0 (0.97) / Finder 1.0; 'A Guided Tour of.
  2. The game simulates NATO forces in Norway during the summer of 1985. The player may choose to play either the NATO or Russian forces, and can play in turns against another human component or against the computer.
YearEvent
1978In June 1978, Apple introduced Apple DOS 3.1, the first operating system for the Apple computers.
1984Apple introduced System 1 in 1984.
1985Apple introduced System 2 in 1985.
1986Apple introduced System 3 in 1986.
1987Apple introduced System 4 in 1987.
1988Apple introduced System 6 in 1988.
1991Apple introduced System 7 operating system on May 13, 1991.
1995Apple allowed other computer companies to clone its computer by announcing it licensed the Macintosh operating system rights to Radius on January 4.
1997Apple introduced macOS 8 in 1997.
1997Apple bought NeXT Software Inc. for $400 million and acquired Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder, as a consultant.
1999Apple introduced macOS 9 in 1999.
1999Apple released macOS X Server 1.0 on March 16, 1999.
2001Apple introduced macOS X 10.0, code-named Cheetah, and became available on March 24, 2001.
2001Apple introduced macOS X 10.1, code-named Puma, and became available on September 25, 2001.
2002Apple introduced macOS X 10.2, code-named Jaguar, and became available on August 23, 2002.
2003Apple introduced macOS X 10.3, code-named Panther, on October 25, 2003.
2004Apple introduced macOS X 10.4, code-named Tiger, at the WWDC on June 28, 2004.
2007Apple introduced macOS X 10.5, code-named Leopard, on October 26, 2007.
2008Apple introduced MobileMe at the WWDC on June 9, 2008.
2009Apple introduced macOS X 10.6, code-named Snow Leopard, at the WWDC on June 8, 2009.
2010Apple introduced macOS X 10.7, code-named Lion, at the 'Back to the Mac' event on October 20, 2010. The operating system was later released on July 20, 2011. New features included AirDrop, Gatekeeper, and many more.
2012Apple released macOS X 10.8, code-named Mountain Lion, on July 25, 2012.
2013Apple introduced macOS X 10.9, code-named Mavericks, at the WWDC on June 10, 2013.
2014Apple introduced macOS X 10.10, code-named Yosemite, at the WWDC on June 2, 2014. Yosemite was later released on October 16, 2014.
2014Apple introduced Force Touch, a haptic feedback system for macOS. Simultaneously, they launch a similar feedback system for iOS called 3D Touch.
2015Apple introduced macOS X 10.11, code-named El Capitan, at the WWDC on June 8, 2015.
2016Apple introduced macOS X 10.12, code-named Sierra, at the WWDC on June 13, 2016.
2017Apple introduced macOS X 10.13, code-named High Sierra, at the WWDC on June 5, 2017.
2018Apple introduced macOS X 10.14, code-named Mojave, at the WWDC on June 4, 2018.
2018Apple introduced Dark Mode in macOS X 10.14 (Mojave), a feature that turns the background to black and text to white. Dark Mode is easier on users' eyes at night, reducing eye strain.
2019Apple introduced macOS X 10.15, code-named Catalina, at the WWDC on June 3, 2019.

The Macintosh, or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers, manufactured by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced on January 24, 1984, by Steve Jobs and it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature two known, but still unpopular features—the mouse and the graphical user interface, rather than the command-line interface of its predecessors.

Production of the Mac is based on a vertical integration model in that Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system (called System Software, later renamed to Mac OS, see the lower image) that is pre-installed on all Mac computers. This is in contrast to most IBM PC compatibles, where multiple sellers create hardware intended to run another company’s operating software. Apple exclusively produces Mac hardware, choosing internal systems, designs, and prices. Apple also develops the operating system for the Mac. The modern Mac, like other personal computers, is capable of running alternative operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and, in the case of Intel-based Macs, Microsoft Windows. However, Apple does not license Mac OS X for use on non-Apple computers.

The Beginning of Macintosh Computers

The Macintosh project started in the late 1970s with Jef Raskin (1943–2005) (see the nearby image), an Apple employee, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. He wanted to name the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh, but the name had to be changed for legal reasons. In September 1979, Raskin was authorized by the management to start hiring for the project, and he began to look for an engineer who could put together a prototype. Bill Atkinson, a member of Apple’s Lisa team (which was developing a similar but higher-end computer), introduced him to Burrell Smith, a service technician who had been hired earlier that year. Over the years, Raskin assembled a large development team that designed and built the original Macintosh hardware and software; besides Raskin, Atkinson and Smith, the team included Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, George Crow, Bruce Horn, Jerry Manock, Susan Kare, Andy Hertzfeld, and Daniel Kottke.

Mac Os Catalina

She's tried Mac from 2002 and 2012 but what about its origins? Yep, lets go back to 1984 and test out Mac OS System 1. Its got icons, a menu bar and programs.

Original Macintosh Specifications

Norway 1985 Mac Os Update

The first Macintosh board, designed by Burrell Smith, had 64 kilobytes (KB) of RAM, used the Motorola 6809E microprocessor, and was capable of supporting a 256×256 pixel black-and-white bitmap display. Bud Tribble, a Macintosh programmer, was interested in running the Lisa’s graphical programs on the Macintosh, and asked Smith whether he could incorporate the Lisa’s Motorola 68000 microprocessor into the Mac while still keeping the production cost down. By December 1980, Smith had succeeded in designing a board that not only used the 68000, but bumped its speed from 5 to 8 megahertz (MHz); this board also had the capacity to support a 384×256 pixel display.

Smith’s design used fewer RAM chips than the Lisa, which made production of the board significantly more cost-efficient. The final Mac design was self-contained and had the complete QuickDraw picture language and interpreter in 64 Kb of ROM and 128 KB of RAM. Though there were no memory slots, its RAM was expandable to 512 KB by means of soldering sixteen chip sockets to accept 256 Kb RAM chips in place of the factory-installed chips. The final product’s screen was a 9-inch, 512×342 pixel monochrome display, exceeding the prototypes.

The Macintosh Catches Steve Jobs’ Attention

The design caught the attention of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Realizing that the Macintosh was more marketable than the Lisa, he began to focus his attention on the project. Raskin finally left the Macintosh project in 1981 over a personality conflict with Jobs, and the final Macintosh design is said to be closer to Jobs’ ideas than Raskin’s. After hearing of the pioneering GUI technology being developed at Xerox PARC, Jobs had negotiated a visit to see the Xerox Alto computer and Smalltalk development tools in exchange for Apple stock options. The Lisa and Macintosh user interfaces were partially influenced by technology seen at Xerox PARC and were combined with the Macintosh group’s own ideas.

The Macintosh 128k (see the lower image) was announced to the press in October 1983 and was introduced in January 1984. It came bundled with two applications designed to show off its interface: MacWrite and MacPaint. Although the Mac garnered an immediate, enthusiastic following, some labeled it a mere “toy.” Because the machine was entirely designed around the GUI, existing text-mode and command-driven applications had to be redesigned and the programming code rewritten; this was a time consuming task that many software developers chose not to undertake, and resulted in an initial lack of software for the new system. In April 1984 Microsoft’s MultiPlan migrated over from MS-DOS, followed by Microsoft Word in January 1985. In 1985, Lotus Software introduced Lotus Jazz after the success of Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC, although it was largely a flop. Apple introduced Macintosh Office the same year with the still-famous “lemmings” ad.

Norway 1985 mac os x

Apple Macintosh

Norway 1985 Mac OS

Marketing the first Macintosh

For a special post-election edition of Newsweek in November 1984, Apple spent more than $2.5 million to buy all 39 of the advertising pages in the issue. Apple also ran a “Test Drive a Macintosh” promotion, in which potential buyers with a credit card could take home a Macintosh for 24 hours and return it to a dealer afterwards. While 200000 people participated, dealers disliked the promotion, the supply of computers was insufficient for demand, and many were returned in such a bad shape that they could no longer be sold. This marketing campaign caused CEO John Sculley to raise the price from $1995 to $2495.

In 1985, the combination of the Mac, Apple’s LaserWriter printer, and Mac-specific software like Boston Software’s MacPublisher and Aldus PageMaker enabled users to design, preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics, it was an activity to become known as desktop publishing. Initially, desktop publishing was unique to the Macintosh, but eventually became available for IBM PC users as well. Later, applications such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator strengthened the Mac’s position as a graphics computer and helped to expand the emerging desktop publishing market.

The limitations of the first Mac soon became clear: it had very little memory, even compared with other personal computers in 1984, and could not be expanded easily; and it lacked a hard disk drive or the means to attach one easily. In October 1985, Apple increased the Mac’s memory to 512 KB, but it was inconvenient and difficult to expand the memory of a 128 KB Mac. In an attempt to improve connectivity, Apple released the Macintosh Plus on January 10, 1986 for $2600. It offered one megabyte of RAM, expandable to four, and a then-revolutionary SCSI parallel interface, allowing up to seven peripherals—such as hard drives and scanners—to be attached to the machine. Its floppy drive was increased to an 800 KB capacity. The Mac Plus was an immediate success and remained in production, unchanged, until October 15, 1990; on sale for just over four years and ten months, it was the longest-lived Macintosh in Apple’s history.

At its introduction, the Macintosh was targeted for two primary markets: knowledge-workers and students. Referring to the telephone as the first desktop appliance, Steve Jobs hoped that the Macintosh would become the second desktop appliance. As Bill Gates stated, To create a new standard takes something that’s not just a little bit different. It takes something that’s really new, and captures people’s imaginations. Macintosh meets that standard.

Through the second half of the 1980s, the company built market share only to see it dissipate in the 1990s as the personal computer market shifted towards IBM PC compatible machines running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows.

More on the complete history of Apple