Mac OS X
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Mac OS X is the name of the operating system, or OS, that runs on computers made by Apple Inc. These are called Macintosh computers, or Macs. Unlike most operating systems, Mac OS X officially runs only on Macs and not on other computers. However, unofficially it can run on computers that are not Macs.
Mac OS X, which is read aloud as "Mac Oh Ess Ten," first came out in 2001, and is completely different than the Mac OS that it replaced. Mac OS X is a UNIX OS that is based on NEXTSTEP, an older OS that Apple bought and turned into Mac OS X. Mac OS X and NEXTSTEP have a background in a kind of UNIX called BSD. The core of Mac OS X is an open source OS called Darwin, but Darwin cannot run Mac OS X software.
Mac OS X releases are named after kinds of cats and have a version number that starts with 10. The latest version of Mac OS X is called "Leopard" and is version 10.5. It was released on October 26, 2007. The next version is called "Snow Leopard" and will be version 10.6.
Mac OS X is not used as much as Windows, partly because it only runs on Apple computers. Many people who use Mac OS X like it because they say it has more features and is easier to use. Some people do not like Mac OS X because they say it needs a powerful computer to run well and they think it should run on any computer like Windows or Linux.
