Don't miss an insight. Subscribe to Techopedia for free.

Subscribe
Advertisements

Macintosh Operating System

What Does Macintosh Operating System Mean?

The Macintosh Operating System (Mac OS) is an operating system (OS) designed by Apple Inc. to be installed and operated on the Apple Macintosh series of computers. Introduced in 1984, it is a graphical user interface (GUI) based OS that has since been released as multiple different versions.

Advertisements

Initially, Mac OS was known as System Software.

Techopedia Explains Macintosh Operating System

Mac OS is considered the pioneer of GUI based operating systems, as it was launched when MS-DOS was the industry standard. Mac OS is a completely capable OS that provides functionality and services similar to Windows or Linux OS. Some of the code base and features of Lisa OS have been incorporated in Mac OS.

Mac OS is designed to operate on Apple manufactured PCs and by default, does not support x86 architecture.

As of 2012, Mac OS released several versions, including Macintosh 128k, Mac OS 7, Mac OS X and Mac Mountain Lion.

Advertisements

Related Terms