By Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica – December 27, 2012 at 09:00PM
It may not feel that way, but we Mac users have now had quite a long run with OS X. We’re coming up on 12 years since the first public release of the operating system (and even longer if you consider the betas and developer previews), and we’ve seen OS X go through plenty of changes during that time. Indeed, even Mac veterans may—with the passing of the years—have forgotten just how shaky some of those early OS versions could be.
Don’t remember what OS X used to look like back when dinosaurs used to roam the planet and Apple’s OS ran only on PowerPC processors? We’ve mined more than a decade of our own OS X reviews—studiously authored by John Siracusa—for screenshots and other OS X-related memories that trace the development of Apple’s desktop OS through the 2000s. If you’re interested in seeing how various UI elements have evolved over the years, strap yourself in for this safari showcasing OS X’s big cats…
Mac OS X 10.0: Cheetah
OS X was officially released to the public in 2001 after a rollercoaster series of developer previews, some of which barely resembled the final product. Because it was brand new to most users coming over from Mac OS 9, the new OS featured a number of “shocking” interface elements, such as the new file browser:
Read 54 remaining paragraphs | Comments