| Mac OS X 10.0 | |
|---|---|
| Version of themacOS operating system | |
 | |
 Screenshot of Mac OS X 10.0 | |
| Developer | Apple Computer |
| OS family | |
| Source model | Closed, withopen source components |
| General availability | March 24, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-03-24)[1] |
| Latest release | 10.0.4 / June 22, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-06-22)[2] |
| Supported platforms | PowerPC |
| Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
| Default user interface | Aqua |
| License | Apple Public Source License (APSL) and Appleend-user license agreement (EULA) |
| Preceded by | |
| Succeeded by | Mac OS X 10.1 |
| Official website | Apple - Mac OS X at theWayback Machine (archived June 29, 2001) |
| Tagline | The future is here. The power of UNIX with the simplicity and elegance of Macintosh. |
| Support status | |
| Historical, unsupported as of November 13, 2006[citation needed] | |
Mac OS X 10.0 (code namedCheetah) is the first major release ofmacOS,Apple's desktop and serveroperating system. It was released on March 24, 2001, for a price of $129 after apublic beta.
Mac OS X was Apple's successor to theclassic Mac OS. It was derived fromNeXTSTEP andFreeBSD, and featured a new user interface calledAqua, as well as improved stability and security due to its newUnix foundations. It introduced theQuartz graphics rendering engine forhardware-accelerated animations. Many technologies were ported from the classic Mac OS, includingSherlock and theQuickTime framework. The core components of Mac OS X wereopen sourced asDarwin.
Boxed releases of Mac OS X 10.0 also included a copy ofMac OS 9.1,[3] which can be installed alongside Mac OS X 10.0, through the means ofdual 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 theClassic environment, some, such as applications that directly accessed hardware, could only run under Mac OS 9.[3]
Six months after its release, Mac OS X 10.0 was succeeded byMac OS X 10.1, code named Puma.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: For inspiration, seeWindows XP#Development. Briefly mention the backstory (searching for a replacement for the classic Mac OS), but otherwise mainly focus on details specific to Mac OS X 10.0's development (from Singh 2004 and other sources). You can help byadding to it.(January 2023) |
Two decades after its release,Bertrand Serlet, manager of OS X Platform Technology at Apple when the early releases of Mac OS X were being developed, admitted that this version of Mac OS X had a lot of performance issues, as the OS was very slow, and expensive, so that many customers would not buy it, and be disappointed. There was six months without any new features, which was spent on performance increases, culminating in 10.1.[4][5]
Mac OS X is built onDarwin, aUnix-like operating system derived fromFreeBSD. Darwin includes a new kernel,XNU, derived fromMach and BSD, as a replacement for theMac OS nanokernel used in classic Mac OS.
UnlikeMac OS 9, Mac OS X hasprotected memory andpreemptive 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 forOpenGL,AppleScript, and theCarbon andCocoaAPIs.[11]
Mac OS X 10.0 began a short era (that ended withMac OS X 10.2 Jaguar's release) where Apple offered two types of installation CDs:1Z and2Z CDs. The difference in the two lay in the extent of multilingual support.
Input method editors ofSimplified Chinese,Traditional Chinese, andKorean were only included with the 2Z CDs. They also came with more languages (the full set of 15 languages), whereas the 1Z CDs came only with about eight languages and could not actually display simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and/or Korean (except for the Chinese characters present in JapaneseKanji). A variant of 2Z CDs were introduced when Mac OS X v10.0.3 was released to theAsian market (this variant could not be upgraded to version 10.0.4). The brief period of multilingual confusion ended with the release of v10.2.[citation needed] Currently, all Mac OS X installer CDs and preinstallations include the full set of 15 languages and full multilingual compatibility.
Mac OS X 10.0 was not externally marketed with its codename, a practice which began withMac OS X Jaguar.
On March 21, 2001, three days before the official launch of the operating system, Apple made a newsroom press release, in which the company stated that Mac OS X 10.0 was "the world's most advanced operating system," because of the integration of UNIX within the operating system, combined with Mac OS X's large amount of applications that were designed for it, and its ease of use.[12]
On March 23, 2001, the night before the launch day, Apple hosted a launch party in a Micro Anvika store located atTottenham Court Road, London.[13] Attendees were provided with live music, along with food andalcoholic beverages. The first 50 Mac OS X 10.0 customers of the participating stores in theUK, including the store hosting the launch party, would receive a freeApple Pro Mouse, while the next 100 customers would be given a commemorative Mac OS XT-shirt. These participating stores also provided demonstrations and offers forMac products.[14]Similarly, anApple Authorized Service Provider (known back then as an Apple Specialist), inCupertino, California, held a launch party at midnight. The first 100 Mac OS X 10.0 customers would receive a free commemorative Mac OS XT-shirt.[15] On the day, the store was completely packed with customers and fans of Apple products.Steve Wozniak, one of the co-founders ofApple, also attended the launch party.[16]
In theUS, multiple Apple authorized resellers also held events on March 24–25, 2001, to coincide with Mac OS X's launch. For instance, Washington Apple Pi, a Mac user group, hosted a installation party where volunteers would install the new operating system for anybody who had purchased the operating system and brought their computer.[17][18][19]
A store located inMinneapolis reported that over 60% of their available Mac OS X stock was sold on launch day. Many users of PCs also reported that they would be buying a new Mac so that they could use the new operating system.[20]
On April 3, 2001, Apple launched a bi-weekly email newsletter service named Mac OS X Product News that showcased the latest software for Mac OS X. The first issue of the newsletter included information about new versions ofiTunes andiMovie that were compatible with the new operating system, along with details about printer drivers.[21]
Three months after the operating system had released in May, Mac OS X 10.0 was featured inWorldwide Developers Conference in 2001. It showed computerprogrammers how the operating system worked, and expanded on why developers should "bet the future on X." They also announced a new version of the operating system,Mac OS X Server, which would serve as a "industrial-strength" machine that could hostweb servers and video services.[22]
| This sectionneeds expansion with: Further research on market share differences between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X 10.0 should be done. You can help byadding to it.(July 2025) |
With the release of Mac OS X 10.0, it saw mixed reception. Users praised the new Aqua interface and the straightforward installation of the operating system.[23] However, users criticized the operating system for being slower than Mac OS 9, even on the same hardware.[24] There were very few programs that had already been officially ported to Mac OS X 10.0 at launch, and older programs had to run in the Classic environment, a compatibility layer for Mac OS 9. In addition, the initial release did not have the ability to burn, or play CDs or DVDs, and printer driver support was limited.[25] The driver support issues were later addressed in a software update.[26]
Due to the problems that existed in Mac OS X 10.0, many Mac OS 9 users chose to not upgrade to the new version of the operating system. It was reported that 100,000 copies of the Mac OS X 10.0 public beta were sold, and more than 75,000 feedback entries were submitted.[27] No official adoption numbers were stated by Apple until 8 months after the release ofMac OS X 10.1, where they stated that they had shipped over 3 million Macs with Mac OS X preinstalled.[28]
| Version | Build | Date | Darwin version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.0 | 4K78 | March 24, 2001 | 1.3 | Original retail CD-ROM release |
| 10.0.1 | 4L13 | April 14, 2001 | 1.3.1 | Apple: Mac OS X 10.0: Software Update 1.3.1, 10.0.1 Update, and Epson Printer Driver Update Provide Feature Enhancement, Address Issues |
| 10.0.2 | 4P12 | May 1, 2001 | ||
| 10.0.3 | 4P13 | May 9, 2001 | Update and Before You Install Information | |
| 10.0.4 | 4Q12 | June 21, 2001 | Apple: 10.0.4 Update and Before You Install Information | |
| 4R14[29] | July 18, 2001 | For Quicksilver Power Mac G4 | ||
| 4S10 | August 20, 2001[30] | For Quicksilver Power Mac G4 (Dual 800 MHz) |
| Preceded by | Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) 2001 | Succeeded by |
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