DARWIN
MACOS
NEXTSTEP
APPLE

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Mac OS 9

Mac OS is an in-house development from the company Apple and not usably on x86 processors. By Macintosh hardware of its own Mac OS takes a special role under desktop systems and is used because of his simple operation and software support preferentially not only in the professional computer aided design. Office applications and 3D games are also available. The classic Desktop by Mac OS has been designed as a single user system. This operating system does not contain any CLI (Command Line Interface) and works with cooperative multi-tasking.

Mac OS X

Different technologies like the Mach Kernel, NEXTSTEP and tools from NetBSD and FreeBSD found influence in Mac OS X to merge the previous Apple technology with UNIX features. The operating system core Darwin is open source and can be used also on x86 computers standalone. Mac OS X works with preemptive multi-tasking and brings the classic GUI from Mac OS 9 and the new variant Aqua.

Considerable performance and comfort improvements were carried out in version Mac OS X 10.1. The surface reacts quicker at user interaction, the system start was accelerated and the OpenGL performance increased noticeable.

Mac OS X 10.3 has now a GUI in metallic scheme and the optimized Finder. The use and access in heterogeneous networks was further simplified. Files can be provided with etiquettes, the compression format ZIP is now directly supported. 12 million MacOS X user were counted in October 2004.

According to Apple Mac OS X 10.4 brings more than 200 new features. Features are the fast, system-wide and index-based search function named Spotlight, the Dashboard for easy access to small programms (Widgets), the Automator for the simplified composition of Applescripts for the automation of tasks. The Web browser Safari in version 2.0 now contained RSS support, the QuickTime software was updated to version 7 with support for the H.264 video codec. Further novelty is the delivery at a DVD medium, an installation of CD-ROM is no longer possible.

Apple released the successor MacOS X 10.5, Leopard at the 26.10.2007. With more than 300 innovations MacOS offers the user an enhanced user interface with virtual desktops, a fast file preview and Dock with 3D effect. The Finder was revised, the expansion "Boot Camp" for the installation of Windows on Intel-Macs is an official component now. As a file system ZFS is optionally available. For the surfing on the Internet the Apple Safari 3 Web browser is included. Backups can be made, managed and restored in a simple way with "Time Machine". Time Machine makes every hour the day automatically a file backup and every day a snapshot for the duration of a complete month. Lost files are recovered easily over the display of a dynamic time line of those snapshot. The security of the operating system and applications is improved by 11 enhancements. This are beside others the application-based firewall, signed applications, the use of ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) and Sandboxing for applications.
Open Group certified MacOS X 10.5 according to the standard UNIX 03 in November 2007. MacOS X is the first free BSD derivative with such certificate to bear the name UNIX officially. The certification guarantees the use of UNIX standard implementations to porting UNIX applications easily.
The first update with bug fixes was released with Mac OS X 10.5.1 by Apple on November 15th, 2007. It contains general bug fixes for the operating system to improve stability, better compatibility and safety. Mac OS X 10.5.2 cames with 125 bug fixes and smaller optimizations on January 24th, 2008.

- 64-bit processing
- supports max. 32 CPUs
- needs a PowerPC G3/G4/G5
- POSIX compatible
- HFS+ file system

Field of Application
- digital photography
- 2-D and 3-D animations
- video processing, streaming
- audio processing
- platform for DTP, web design, office applications

Structure Information
- supports QuickTime/VR
- monolithic Kernel
- Read/Write FAT, FAT32, ISO9660, UDF
- finished TCP/IP Stack
- graphical user interaction with the finder
- graphical representation by Quickdraw
- central password administration (Keychain)

Characteristics
- easy to use user interface
- genuine plug&play, no manual adjust of resources like IRQs
- easy uninstall, programs and files are located in a same directory

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