Developer | Apple Inc. |
---|---|
Written in | C,C++,Objective-C,assembly language |
OS family | Unix-like,[1][2]FreeBSD,[3]BSD[4] |
Working state | Current |
Source model | currentlyopen source withproprietary components,[citation needed] previouslyopen source |
Initial release | November 15, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-11-15) |
Latest release | 24.0.0 / September 16, 2024; 6 months ago (2024-09-16) |
Repository | github |
Platforms |
|
Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
Influenced by | NeXTSTEP,FreeBSD,BSD |
Default user interface | Command-line interface (Unix shell) |
License | MostlyApple Public Source License (APSL), with closed-source drivers[5] |
Official website | opensource |
Darwin is the coreUnix-likeoperating system ofmacOS,iOS,watchOS,tvOS,iPadOS,audioOS,visionOS, andbridgeOS. It previously existed as an independentopen-source operating system, first released byApple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code derived fromNeXTSTEP,FreeBSD,[3] otherBSD operating systems,[6]Mach, and otherfree software projects' code, as well as code developed by Apple. Darwin's unofficial mascot is Hexley the Platypus.[7]
Darwin is mostlyPOSIX-compatible, but has never, by itself, been certified as compatible with any version of POSIX. Starting withLeopard, macOS has been certified as compatible with theSingle UNIX Specification version 3 (SUSv3).[8][9][10]
The heritage of Darwin began with Unix derivatives supplemented by aspects ofNeXT'sNeXTSTEP operating system (later, since version 4.0, known as OPENSTEP), first released in 1989. After Apple bought NeXT in 1996, it announced it would base its next operating system on OPENSTEP. This was developed intoRhapsody in 1997,Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999,Mac OS X Public Beta in 2000, andMac OS X 10.0 in 2001.
In 1999, Apple announced it would release the source code for the Mach 2.5 microkernel,BSD Unix 4.4 OS, and theApache Web server components of Mac OS X Server.[11] At the time, interimCEOSteve Jobs alluded toBritishnaturalistCharles Darwin by announcing "because it's about evolution".[12] In 2000, the core operating system components of Mac OS X were released asopen-source software under theApple Public Source License (APSL) as Darwin; the higher-level components, such as theCocoa andCarbon frameworks, remainedclosed-source.
Up to Darwin 8.0.1, released in April 2005, Apple released a binary installer (as anISO image) after each major Mac OS X release that allowed one to install Darwin onPowerPC andIntel x86 systems as a standalone operating system.[13] Minor updates were released as packages that were installed separately. Darwin is now only available as source code. As of January 2023, Apple no longer mentions Darwin by name on itsOpen Source website and only publishesan incomplete collection of open-source projects relating to macOS and iOS.
The kernel of Darwin isXNU, ahybrid kernel which uses OSFMK 7.3[14] (Open Software FoundationMach Kernel) from theOSF, various elements ofFreeBSD (including the process model,network stack, andvirtual file system),[15] and an object-orienteddevice driverAPI calledI/O Kit.[16] The hybrid kernel design provides the flexibility of amicrokernel[17][failed verification –see discussion] and the performance of amonolithic kernel.[18]
The last bootable full release of Darwin supported 32-bit and 64-bit Apple PowerPC systems and 32-bit Intel PCs.[19]
Darwin currently includes support for the64-bitx86-64 variant of theIntel x86processors used in Intel-basedMacs and the 64-bitARM processors used in theiPhone 5S and later, the6th generation iPod Touch, the5th generation iPad and later, theiPad Air family, theiPad Mini 2 and later, theiPad Pro family, the fourth generation and laterApple TVs, theHomePod family, andMacs withApple silicon such as the 2020Apple M1 Macs, as well as the Raspberry Pi 3B.[20][21] An open-source port of theXNU kernel exists that supports Darwin on Intel andAMD x86 platforms not officially supported by Apple, though it does not appear to have been updated since 2009.[22] An open-source port of theXNU kernel also exists for ARM platforms, though it has not been updated since 2016.[23] Older versions supported some or all of 32-bitPowerPC, 64-bit PowerPC, 32-bit x86, and 32-bit ARM.
It supports thePOSIX API by way of itsBSD lineage (largelyFreeBSDuserland), so a large number of programs written for various otherUNIX-like systems can becompiled on Darwin with no changes to thesource code.
Darwin does not include many of the defining elements of macOS, such as theCarbon andCocoa APIs or theQuartz Compositor andAqua user interface, and thus cannot run Mac applications. It does, however, support a number of lesser-known features of macOS, such as mDNSResponder, which is themulticastDNS responder and a core component of theBonjour networking technology, andlaunchd, an advancedservice managementframework.
In July 2003, Apple released Darwin under version 2.0 of theApple Public Source License (APSL), which theFree Software Foundation (FSF) classifies as afree software license incompatible with theGNU General Public License.[24] Previous versions were released under an earlier version of the APSL license, which did not meet the FSF definition of free software, although it did meet the requirements of theOpen Source Definition.[25]
The following is a table of major Darwin releases with their dates of release and their derivative operating system releases.[26] Note that the corresponding releases may have been released on a different date.
Version | Date | Corresponding releases | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
0.1 | March 16, 1999 | Mac OS X Server 1.0 releases |
|
0.2 | April 14, 1999 | Mac OS X Server 1.0.1 | |
0.3 | August 5, 1999 | Based on Rhapsody 5.5
| |
1.0 | April 12, 2000 | Developer preview 3
| |
1.1 | April 5, 2000 | Developer preview 4 | |
1.2.1 | November 15, 2000 | Mac OS X Public Beta (code-named "Kodiak") | |
1.3.1 | April 13, 2001 | Mac OS X v10.0 (code-named "Cheetah") |
|
1.4.1 | October 2, 2001 | Mac OS X v10.1 (code-named "Puma") | |
5.1 | November 12, 2001 | Mac OS X v10.1.1
| |
5.5 | June 5, 2002 | Mac OS X v10.1.5 | |
6.0.1 | September 23, 2002 | Mac OS X v10.2 (code-named "Jaguar") |
|
6.8 | October 3, 2003 | Mac OS X v10.2.8 | |
7.0 | October 24, 2003 | Mac OS X Panther | Mac OS X v10.3.0
|
7.9 | April 15, 2005 | Mac OS X v10.3.9 | |
8.0 | April 29, 2005 |
| Mac OS X v10.4.0
|
8.11 | November 14, 2007 | Mac OS X v10.4.11 |
The jump in version numbers from Darwin 1.4.1 to 5.1 with the release of Mac OS X v10.1.1 was designed to tie Darwin to the Mac OS X version and build numbering system, which in turn is inherited from NeXTSTEP. In the build numbering system of macOS, every version has a unique beginning build number, which identifies what whole version of macOS it is part of. Mac OS X v10.0 had build numbers starting with 4, 10.1 had build numbers starting with 5, and so forth (earlier build numbers represented developer releases).[31]
Version | Date | Corresponding releases | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
9.0 | October 26, 2007 | Mac OS X v10.5.0
| |
9.8 | August 5, 2009 | Mac OS X v.10.5.8 |
Version | Date | Corresponding releases | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
10.0 | August 28, 2009 | Mac OS X v10.6.0
| |
10.8 | June 23, 2011 | Mac OS X v10.6.8 | |
11.0.0 | July 20, 2011 | Mac OS X v10.7.0
| |
11.4.2 | October 4, 2012 | Mac OS X v10.7.5 (supplemental) |
Version | Date | Corresponding releases | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
12.0.0 | February 16, 2012 | OS X Mountain Lion | OS X v10.8.0
|
12.6.0 | January 27, 2015 | OS X v10.8.5 (with Security Update 2015-001) | |
13.0.0 | June 11, 2013 | OS X v10.9.0
| |
13.4.0 | September 17, 2014 | OS X v10.9.5 | |
14.0.0 | September 18, 2014 | OS X v10.10.0 | |
14.5.0 | August 13, 2015 | OS X v10.10.5 | |
15.0.0 | September 16, 2015 | OS X v10.11.0 and iOS 9.0
| |
15.6.0 | July 18, 2016 | OS X v10.11.6 and iOS 9.3.3 |
Version | Date | Corresponding releases | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
16.0.0 | September 13, 2016 | macOS v10.12.0 and iOS 10.0.1(initial release version)
| |
16.5.0 | March 27, 2017 | macOS v10.12.4 and iOS 10.3 | |
16.6.0 | July 19, 2017 | macOS v10.12.6 and iOS 10.3.3 | |
17.0.0 | September 19, 2017 |
| |
17.5.0 | March 29, 2018 | macOS 10.13.4
| |
17.6.0 | June 1, 2018 | macOS v10.13.5 | |
17.7.0 | July 9, 2018 | macOS v10.13.6 and iOS 11.4.1 | |
18.0.0 | September 24, 2018 | ||
18.2.0 | October 30, 2018 | macOS v10.14.1 and iOS 12.1
| |
19.0.0 | September 19, 2019 | ||
19.2.0 | December 10, 2019 | macOS 10.15.2 and iOS 13.3 | |
19.3.0 | January 28, 2020 | macOS 10.15.3 and iOS 13.3.1
| |
19.4.0 | March 24, 2020 | ||
19.5.0 | April 30, 2020 | macOS 10.15.5 and iOS 13.5 | |
19.6.0 | June 1, 2020 | macOS 10.15.6 beta 2 and iOS 13.6.0 beta 2 |
Version | Date | Corresponding releases | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
20.0.0 | June 22, 2020 | macOS 11.0 beta 1 and iOS 14.0 beta 1 | |
20.1.0 | September 3, 2020 | macOS 11.0 and iOS 14.0 | |
20.2.0 | November 12, 2020 | macOS 11.1 and iOS 14.3 | |
20.3.0 | February 1, 2021 | macOS 11.2, iOS 14.4, iPadOS 14.4, watchOS 7.3 and tvOS 14.4. | |
20.4.0 | April 20, 2021 | macOS 11.3, iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, watchOS 7.4 and tvOS 14.5. | |
20.5.0 | May 24, 2021 | macOS 11.4 and iOS 14.6 | |
20.6.0 | June 2, 2021 | macOS 11.5 beta 2 and iOS 14.7 beta 2 | |
21.0.0 | June 7, 2021 | macOS 12.0 beta 1 and iOS 15.0 beta 1 | |
21.0.1 | October 25, 2021 | macOS 12.0 | |
21.1.0 | October 25, 2021 | macOS 12.0.1 and iOS 15.0 | |
21.2.0 | December 7, 2021 | macOS 12.1 and iOS 15.2 | |
21.3.0 | January 26, 2022 | macOS 12.2 and iOS 15.3 | |
21.4.0 | March 14, 2022 | macOS 12.3 and iOS 15.4 | |
21.5.0 | June 24, 2022 | macOS 12.4 and iOS 15.5 | |
21.6.0 | July 20, 2022 | macOS 12.5 and iOS 15.6 | |
22.0 | June 6, 2022 | macOS 13.0 beta 1, iOS 16.0, watchOS 9.0 and tvOS 16.0 | |
22.1.0 | October 24, 2022 | macOS 13.0, iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, watchOS 9.1 and tvOS 16.1 | |
22.2.0 | December 13, 2022 | macOS 13.1, iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, watchOS 9.2 and tvOS 16.2 | |
22.3.0 | January 23, 2023 | macOS 13.2, iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, watchOS 9.3 and tvOS 16.3 | |
22.4.0 | March 27, 2023 | macOS 13.3, iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4 and tvOS 16.4 | |
22.5.0 | May 18, 2023 | macOS 13.4, iOS 16.5, iPadOS 16.5, watchOS 9.5 and tvOS 16.5 | |
22.6.0 | July 24, 2023 | macOS 13.5, iOS 16.6, iPadOS 16.6, watchOS 9.6 and tvOS 16.6 | |
23.0.0 | September 18, 2023 | macOS 14.0, iOS 17.0, iPadOS 17.0, watchOS 10.0 and tvOS 17.0 | |
23.1.0 | October 25, 2023 | macOS 14.1, iOS 17.1, iPadOS 17.1, watchOS 10.1 and tvOS 17.1 | |
23.2.0 | November 15, 2023 | macOS 14.2, iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2 | |
23.3.0 | January 22, 2024 | macOS 14.3, iOS 17.3, iPadOS 17.3, watchOS 10.3 and tvOS 17.3 | |
23.4.0 | March 5, 2024 | macOS 14.4, iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, watchOS 10.4 and tvOS 17.4 | |
23.5.0 | May 13, 2024 | macOS 14.5, iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, watchOS 10.5 and tvOS 17.5 | |
24.0.0 | September 16, 2024 | macOS 15.0, iOS 18.0, iPadOS 18.0, watchOS 11.0, and tvOS 18.0 |
Note: the tables above contain the release dates of the corresponding OS releases. Build dates for Darwin versions are not publicly available; the commands below only give the build date for the XNU kernel.
The commanduname -r inTerminal will show the Darwin version number ("20.3.0"), and the commanduname -v will show theXNU build version string, which includes the Darwin version number.The commandsw_vers will show the corresponding ProductName ("macOS"), the ProductVersion number ("11.2.3") and the BuildVersion string ("20D91").
Due to the free software nature of Darwin, there have been projects that aim to modify or enhance the operating system.
OpenDarwin was a community-led operating system based on the Darwin system. It was founded in April 2002 byApple Inc. andInternet Systems Consortium. Its goal was to increase collaboration between Apple developers and thefree software community. Apple benefited from the project because improvements to OpenDarwin would be incorporated into Darwin releases; and the free/open-source community benefited from being given complete control over its own operating system, which could then be used in free software distributions such as GNU-Darwin.[39]
On July 25, 2006, the OpenDarwin team announced that the project was shutting down, as they felt OpenDarwin had "become a mere hosting facility for Mac OS X related projects", and that the efforts to create a standalone Darwin operating system had failed.[40] They also state: "Availability of sources, interaction with Apple representatives, difficulty building and tracking sources, and a lack of interest from the community have all contributed to this."[41] The last stable release was version 7.2.1, released on July 16, 2004.[42]
PureDarwin is a project to create a bootable operating system image from Apple's released source code for Darwin.[43] Since the halt of OpenDarwin and the release of bootable images since Darwin 8.x, it has been increasingly difficult to create a full operating system as many components became closed source. In 2015 the project created a preview release based on Darwin 9 with an X11 GUI,[44] followed by a command-line only 17.4 Beta based on Darwin 17.[45]
Leopard is now an Open Brand UNIX 03 Registered Product, conforming to the SUSv3 and POSIX 1003.1 specifications for the C API, Shell Utilities, and Threads.
Quad Core 1.2GHz Broadcom BCM2837