Version of the macOS operating system | |
Developer | Apple Inc. |
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OS family | |
Source model | Closed, with open source components |
General availability | July 20, 2011 [2] |
Latest release | 10.7.5 (Build 11G63) / October 4, 2012 [3] |
Update method | Apple Software Update |
Platforms | x86-64 |
Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
License | Apple Public Source License (APSL) and Apple end-user license agreement (EULA) |
Preceded by | Mac OS X Snow Leopard |
Succeeded by | OS X Mountain Lion |
Official website | Apple - OS X Lion - The world's most advanced OS. at the Wayback Machine (archived June 9, 2012) |
Tagline | The world's most advanced desktop operating system advances even further. |
Support status | |
Historical, unsupported as of about October 2014. [4] iTunes is no longer supported as of September 2015. |
Part of a series on |
macOS |
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OS X Lion, [5] [6] also known as Mac OS X Lion, [2] (version 10.7) is the eighth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers.
A preview of OS X 10.7 Lion was publicly shown at the "Back to the Mac" Apple Special Event on October 20, 2010. It brought many developments made in Apple's iOS, such as an easily navigable display of installed applications, to the Mac, and includes support for the Mac App Store, as introduced in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard version 10.6.6. [7] [8] On February 24, 2011, the first developer's preview of Lion (11A390) was released to subscribers to the Apple Developer program. [9] Other developer previews were subsequently released, with Lion Preview 4 (11A480b) being released at WWDC 2011. [10]
Lion was released to manufacturing on July 1, 2011, [11] followed by its final release via the Mac App Store on July 20, 2011. Apple reported over one million Lion sales on the first day of its release. [12] As of October 2011 [update] , OS X Lion had sold over six million copies worldwide. [13] Mac OS X 10.7.1 was the last version of Mac OS X released under CEO Steve Jobs. 10.7.2 and later were released under CEO Tim Cook. 10.7.5 added Gatekeeper. [14]
Lion is the first version of macOS that did not support 32-bit processors and is also the final release whose development was overseen by Bertrand Serlet, considered to be the "founding father of Mac OS X". [15]
Although originally paid, Apple later allowed free downloads of the OS, especially for customers of older and no longer officially supported Mac computers, starting on June 30, 2021. [16] [17] The same practice was applied to its successor, OS X Mountain Lion.
On June 6, 2011, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, it was announced that the official release for Lion would be in July 2011. The specific release date of July 20 was not confirmed until the day before, July 19, by Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, as part of Apple's 2011 third-quarter earnings announcement. [18]
Apple did not initially announce any physical media distribution for Lion, such as a set of CD-ROMs or a DVD-ROM as used for past releases. Instead, the operating system was said to be available exclusively as a download from the Mac App Store for US$29.99. [19] [20] The only prior version of OS X that supports the Mac App Store is Snow Leopard, which implied that any machines that support Lion currently running Tiger or Leopard would first have to be upgraded to Snow Leopard, as opposed to allowing a direct upgrade to Lion.
Apple later announced two alternative distribution mechanisms for the benefit of users without broadband Internet access: in-store downloads at retail Apple Stores, and a USB flash drive containing the OS, priced at US$69, available through the online Apple Store beginning in August. [2] On August 4, 2011, Apple started to take orders for OS X Lion's USB installation flash drives for $69.99. [21]
The Server portion of Lion is available as a separate download from the Mac App Store for US$49.99, which is in addition to the purchase price of Lion itself. [22]
In July 2012, Lion was removed from the Mac App Store and retail Apple stores following the release of OS X Mountain Lion. [23] Following the removal of Lion from the Mac App Store, customers could still purchase Lion by phone at the reduced price of $20. [24] In October 2013, Lion was returned to the Apple Store website concurrently with Mountain Lion following the release of OS X Mavericks for the convenience of users who cannot run Mavericks on older Mac models. [25]
The first developer preview of Lion added TRIM support for Solid-state drives (SSD) shipped with Macs, which is also included in the latest version of Snow Leopard (10.6.8) shipping with MacBook Pros before July 20, 2011. Other SSDs have built-in TRIM-like optimization, while yet others require OS patching. [26]
Some new features were announced at the "Back to the Mac" keynote in October 2010, and the Apple website was updated in February 2011 with more details. Other features were announced at the WWDC 2011 keynote or on Apple's OS X Lion Web site after the keynote. Apple stated that there were over 250 new or changed features in Lion, including:
The complete list was on Apple's website but has since been taken down; it can now be found on the Internet Archive. [71] The developer release notes may also be of interest. [72]
Reception for OS X Lion at launch was mixed; complaints include the fact that the normal "save" workflow had been disrupted by the Autosave/Revert workflow. [94] Other highly criticized decisions include the change to "natural scrolling", [95] hiding of the scroll bar, [96] the omission of the iSync program necessary to synchronize a Mac with non-Apple mobile devices, [97] as well as abandoned functionality in Exposé [98] and Spaces. [99]
However, in an extensive review of the operating system, Ars Technica recommended Lion. [74] They noted that it feels like it is the start of a new line of operating systems that will continue to be influenced by Apple's iOS platform. [74] The review also compared the introduction of Lion, along with its new conventions that change traditional ways of computing, with the original Mac OS X and when it replaced the classic Mac OS. [74] Macworld stated that Lion was a "radical revision", praising the changes made to the operating system to be more user friendly to new Mac users who are familiar with the iOS interface, while criticizing the limited utility of the interface. Ultimately, the magazine considered Lion an operating system worth getting, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. [100] guardian.co.uk called Lion a substantial improvement from its predecessors and considered it a "steal" given its price. [101]
On the other hand, Gizmodo stated that the new interface "feels like a failure" and concluded by saying that "it doesn't feel like a must-have upgrade". [102] Ted Landau of MacObserver also had serious criticism of Lion, reversing his earlier praise of Autosave and writing, "Auto Save takes irritatingly long when working with large documents. Still others lament the loss of the Save As… command, noting that the new Duplicate option is not as convenient to use. The consensus is that none of this would matter much — if you could disable Auto Save. If you like how it works, leave things as is. Otherwise, get rid of it. But Lion offers no way to turn Auto Save off. This is the heart of the "my way or the highway" complaint. A posting sums it up: "The new features are intrusive, non-respectful of the users' choices, and cannot be changed." [94]
Due to Lion's enhanced security features, including application sandboxing, Dino Dai Zovi characterized Lion's security as "a significant improvement". He also said, "I generally tell Mac users that if they care about security, they should upgrade to Lion sooner rather than later, and the same goes for Windows users, too." [103]
The 10.7.3 update was released with bugs, so Apple removed the standard download from their server and instead recommended that users download the Client Combo update instead, which can fully update a 10.7 system to 10.7.3. [104]
Version | Build [110] | Date | Darwin version | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
10.7 | 11A511 | July 20, 2011 | 11.0 | Original release on the Mac App Store |
11A511s | August 16, 2011 | Original retail USB Thumb Drive release [111] | ||
11A2061 [112] | July 20, 2011 | 11.0.2 | For the Mid-2011 Mac Mini (11A2061) and Mid-2011 MacBook Air (11A2063). Available on Lion Internet Recovery [113] (⌘ Cmd+⌥ Opt+R upon reboot on Mid-2011 or later Macs) | |
11A2063 | ||||
10.7.1 | 11B26 | August 16, 2011 | 11.1.0 | General operating system fixes [114] |
11B2118 | For the Mid-2011 Mac mini and Mid-2011 MacBook Air. Same as general 10.7.1, plus fixes for the MacBook Air display and power, and a fix for the Mac mini SD card slot. [115] | |||
10.7.2 | 11C74 | October 12, 2011 | 11.2 | Appends MobileMe with iCloud. [116] Various operating system fixes, minor user interface tweaks, Safari 5.1.1, and the ability to boot into Lion Recovery from a Time Machine disk. [117] |
10.7.3 | 11D50 | February 1, 2012 | 11.3 | General operating system fixes, Safari 5.1.3, adds Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian language support. [118] Also, new High-DPI cursors were added in the asset files, rumored to be for the rumored upcoming Retina display. [119] [120] |
10.7.4 | 11E53 | May 9, 2012 | 11.4 | General operating system fixes, improved SMB file copying reliability, Safari 5.1.6. [121] |
10.7.5 | 11G56 | September 19, 2012 | 11.4.2 | General operating system fixes, Safari 5.1.7, adds Gatekeeper. [122] |
11G63 | October 4, 2012 | 11.4.2 xnu-1699.32.7~1 |
Timeline of Mac operating systems |
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macOS, originally Mac OS X, previously shortened as OS X, is an operating system developed and marketed by Apple since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and laptop computers, it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows and ahead of all Linux distributions, including ChromeOS.
Mac OS X Server is a series of discontinued Unix-like server operating systems developed by Apple Inc. based on macOS. It provided server functionality and system administration tools, and tools to manage both macOS-based computers and iOS-based devices, network services such as a mail transfer agent, AFP and SMB servers, an LDAP server, and a domain name server, as well as server applications including a Web server, database, and calendar server.
The history of macOS, Apple's current Mac operating system formerly named Mac OS X until 2011 and then OS X until 2016, began with the company's project to replace its "classic" Mac OS. That system, up to and including its final release Mac OS 9, was a direct descendant of the operating system Apple had used in its Mac computers since their introduction in 1984. However, the current macOS is a UNIX operating system built on technology that had been developed at NeXT from the 1980s until Apple purchased the company in early 1997.
Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 16, released on September 16, 2024, and is available free of charge via the Mac App Store and the Apple Developer website. Registered developers can also download preview releases and prior versions of the suite through the Apple Developer website. Xcode includes command-line tools that enable UNIX-style development via the Terminal app in macOS. They can also be downloaded and installed without the GUI.
Pages is a word processor developed by Apple Inc. It is part of the iWork productivity suite and runs on the macOS, iPadOS, and iOS operating systems. It is also available on iCloud on the web. The first version of Pages was released in February 2005. Pages is marketed by Apple as an easy-to-use application that allows users to quickly create documents on their devices. Many Apple-designed templates comprising different themes are included with Pages.
Aperture is a discontinued professional image organizer and editor developed by Apple between 2005 and 2015 for the Mac, as a professional alternative to iPhoto.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the seventh major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.
iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple exclusively for its smartphones. It was unveiled in January 2007 for the first-generation iPhone, which launched in June 2007. Major versions of iOS are released annually; the current stable version, iOS 18, was released to the public on September 16, 2024.
The Mac App Store is a digital distribution platform for macOS apps, often referred to as Mac apps, created and maintained by Apple Inc. The platform was announced on October 20, 2010, at Apple's "Back to the Mac" event. Apple began accepting app submissions from registered developers on November 3, 2010, in preparation for its launch.
OS X Mountain Lion is the ninth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mountain Lion was released on July 25, 2012, for purchase and download through the Mac App Store, as part of a switch to releasing OS X versions online and every year, rather than every two years. Named to signify its status as a refinement of the previous OS X version, Lion, Apple's stated aims in developing Mountain Lion were to allow users to more easily manage and synchronise content between multiple Apple devices and to make the operating system more familiar.
Messages is a text messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for its macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS operating systems.
Gatekeeper is a security feature of the macOS operating system by Apple. It enforces code signing and verifies downloaded applications before allowing them to run, thereby reducing the likelihood of inadvertently executing malware. Gatekeeper builds upon File Quarantine, which was introduced in Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) and expanded in Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The feature originated in version 10.7.3 of Mac OS X Lion as the command-line utility spctl. A graphical user interface was originally added in OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) but was backported to Lion with the 10.7.5 update.
Notes is a notetaking app developed by Apple Inc. It is provided on the company's iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and macOS operating systems, the latter starting with OS X Mountain Lion. It functions as a service for making short text notes, which can be synchronized between devices using Apple's iCloud service. The application uses a similar interface on iOS and macOS, with a non-textured paper background for notes and light yellow icons, suggesting pencil or crayon. Until 2013, both applications used a strongly skeuomorphic interface, with a lined, textured paper design; the Mountain Lion version placed this inside a leather folder. This design was replaced in OS X Mavericks and iOS 7.
OS X Mavericks is the 10th major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mavericks was announced on June 10, 2013, at WWDC 2013, and was released on October 22, 2013, worldwide.
OS X Yosemite is the eleventh major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.
tvOS is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second generation, the software is based on the iOS operating system and has many similar frameworks, technologies, and concepts.
macOS Sierra is the thirteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. The name "macOS" stems from the intention to unify the operating system's name with that of iOS, watchOS and tvOS. Sierra is named after the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California and Nevada. Specifically, Lone Pine Peak is the location for macOS Sierra's default wallpaper. Its major new features concern Continuity, iCloud, and windowing, as well as support for Apple Pay and Siri.
macOS Mojave is the fifteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. Mojave was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, and was released to the public on September 24, 2018. The operating system's name refers to the Mojave Desert, and is part of a series of California-themed names that began with OS X Mavericks. It succeeded macOS High Sierra and was followed by macOS Catalina. macOS Mojave is the last version of macOS that features the iTunes and Dashboard apps.
macOS Catalina is the sixteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and released to the public on October 7, 2019. Catalina is the first version of macOS to support only 64-bit applications and the first to include Activation Lock. It is also the last version of macOS to have the major version number of 10; its successor, Big Sur, released on November 12, 2020, is version 11. In order to increase web compatibility, Safari, Chromium and Firefox have frozen the OS in the user agent running in subsequent releases of macOS at 10.15.7 Catalina.