Basics of Mac Operating System

Basics of Mac Operating System

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. (formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc.) for their Macintosh line of computer systems. With its own Macintosh hardware, Mac OS has a special role in the world of desktop systems. The first version "System 1" was designed as a single user operating system. With no command line interface, the GUI is user friendly and does not need the right mouse button for user interaction.

Early versions of the Mac OS were compatible only with Motorola 68000-based Macintoshes. But with the introduction of computers with PowerPC hardware, the OS was ported to support this architecture as well. The earlier versions of Macintosh operating system initially consisted of two pieces of software, called "System" and "Finder", each with its own version number.
Before the introduction of the later PowerPC G3-based systems, significant parts of the system were stored in physical ROM on the motherboard to avoid using up the limited storage of floppy disks on system support, since the early Macs had no hard disk. It also supported completely graphical OS interface at the lowest level without the need for a text-only console or command-line mode.
Mac OS can be broadly divided into two families:
• The Mac OS Classic family based on Apple's own code.
• The Mac OS X operating system, developed from Mac OS Classic family, and UNIX-based NeXTSTEP.
The "classic" Mac OS was a completely graphical operating system and was very easy to use but was criticized for its very limited memory management, lack of protected memory, and susceptibility to conflicts among operating system "extensions" that provide additional functionality (such as networking) or support for a particular device.
Mac OS X is the latest of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS line of operating systems. It is the successor to Mac OS 9 and the "classic" Mac OS. Based on the NeXTSTEP operating system and the Mach kernel, it is a UNIX operating system. There have been six significant releases of the client version, the most recent being Mac OS X 10.6, known as Snow Leopard. Mac OS X has also had server version, called Mac OS X Server which can be run in a virtual machine using emulation software such as Parallels Desktop.
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