Submitted by “OS X is full of little design touches that have redefined what people expect from a personal computer, and which complement Apple hardware. In fact, you can’t (legally) install the operating system on anything but a Mac, so the two are forever entwined – and that gives Apple advantages that other computer manufacturers simply don’t have. Join us as we explore the world’s most beautiful operating system and find out how Apple created it.” Slightly nauseating hyperbole aside (I find Mac OS X bland and grey thank you very much), it’s an interesting article.
“OS X is full of little design touches that have redefined what people expect from a personal computer”
No, it has not.
“… and which complement Apple hardware.”
Equally slow?
“In fact, you can’t (legally) install the operating system on anything but a Mac”
Yes you can.
“… so the two are forever entwined”
So, no they are not.
“… and that gives Apple advantages that other computer manufacturers simply don’t have.”
So, it doesn’t.
“Join us as we explore the world’s most beautiful operating system and find out how Apple created it.”
Except they didn’t.
I like OS X and it has many upsides, but this is just funny
Why the downvotes?
Agreed, they have a few neat ideas in there but it has not “redefined” anything. And it has a few rotten ones too – using Finder to navigate my drives makes me “cry evertim”.
It’s mostly generic PC hardware – they just support less devices, nothing “magical” and “amazing” about that.
Agreed. Apple might not “like it” but there are no laws in my country that forbid me from using a product I paid for.
I think it kind of does since no other large PC manufacturer bothered to create their own OS? It is a selling point after all.
Yep It’s a bad article unless you love Macs.
There seems to me like there are a heap of incorrect facts in there. I thought to myself “That can’t be right” a few times as I read through it.
The article is bad even if you “love” Macs. All the cool stuff is left out like yellow box (and red box speculation) and project marklar, etc… Also, the whole breakthrough w/ the classic environment (rhapsody required a reboot into OS 9) etc, etc, etc…
Why every single damn article about Os X is very much biased? And why all articles about Os X are nothing but commonplace and obvious? And no, I won’t waste my time reading another article about Apple and their marvelous OS.
Edited 2012-04-12 23:39 UTC
Thanks for taking your time to let us know how you don’t waste your time reading, I guess?
I was starting to wonder if there was anybody out there besides me who felt that OSX was just as overrated as iDevices are. Glad to see there are others who feel the same way as me
That being said, I don’t hate OSX. Just don’t think it is like the second coming, and don’t think it is that ‘pretty’ either.
I think the writers title “How Apple created OS X” for the article was a bit ambitious because it did really tell you at all how OS X was created but how the end product looked.
Maybe Gruber should have written it. But that article would probably be thicker than War and peace.
Then why did you submit it?
Apple: Hey, Steve, want to come back? We miss you.
Jobs: I want money. Buy my little company and I’ll combine MacOS with NeXTSTEP. Fuck BeOS.
Apple: OK.
Pretty much. I go back and forth on NextStep vs BeOS as how they were as proto OSX operating systems. For years, I’d come down on the BeOs side. But, looking back at it with some emotional distance, Next was already multi user, and had the solid BSD base. I’m not sure if the fact that NextStep had Jobs was seen as a plus or minus at the time.
I am a registered fanboi. But this article looks like it was written by a junior assistant in the Apple PR department. No, let me retract that, I don’t want to insult the junior assistants in the Apple PR department.
“little design touches that have redefined what people expect”. Seriously? GTFO.
“[OS X] gives Apple advantages that other computer manufacturers simply don’t have. With Apple’s latest MacBook Air, for example, you’ll find special keys on the keyboard that link specifically to new functions in OS X Lion, such as Mission Control”
Special keys to launch applications? No! Such innovation! Surely it takes the brilliant minds of Apple to figure this stuff out; such keys could not possibly have been on every garbage “multimedia keyboard” since 1997?
Talking about the _creation_ of this OS, I looked for “BSD”. Didn’t find. Second chance, looked for “Unix”. Didn’t find either. Won’t read.
Thank you mr professional, I mean sir, yes sir! It’s always good to know what an OS is defined by. But wait, there’s more:
Now we all know what an OS is. Have a nice weekend
Exactly, l3v1 !
No, these things have *nothing* to do with an Operating System. What is described is Window Managers, Desktop Environment, Compositing Manager etc. In other words: the graphical skins that are put *on top of* the operating system….
Finally, the author understands it…..or does he?
No he doesn’t! Again, all he describes is eye candy!
The article tells me nothing about how OSX, why and how it was made, what it’s relation with BSD is, how it performs and so on……
An operating system is defined by the little things like buttons, radio buttons, tickboxes (or in the American lingo, checkboxes), pop-up lists, sliders, windows, scroll bars and transparency; but it’s not only about how things look, it’s also about how they behave.
oh really!! they teach an Operating System in made up kernel, process, threads, synch primitives, device drivers, io subsystem et.al., so all I learned was trash, sigh!!
I think the author drank WAY too much of the Apple kool-aid.
This is a marketing fluff piece, not a technical overview of “HOW” Apple created OS X.
As was previously mentioned, where is the mention of BSD as the kernel? What programming languages were used? How did they decide the various GUI design elements?
Mach Kernel
“IN DEPTH Apple’s operating system ethos uncovered”
What an deep historical and technical article. One can only imagine how many milliseconds of research it took to uncover all that.
it’s too bad Jobs didn’t leave a final message telling his followers to join him on his aluminum unibody spaceship. 🙂
Bias aside, (’cause, let’s be honest it’s impossible to report on Apple with some sort of bias) I think it’s laudable for the publisher to give opportunities to young writers, say in the 3rd or 4th grade.
“And then, at the end, Steve Jobs travelled through time to the year 3010, where he fought the evil robot kings and saved the human race again.”
That is not the proper usage of qutation marks. If you are to quote i do find it rude to alter the meaning of it.
But i guess you are playing at the assumed superpowers of Brian Boitano in Southpark.
What would Brian Boitano do
If he was here right now,
He’d make a plan
And he’d follow through,
That’s what Brian Boitano’d do.
!%skipped irrelevant verse of the song here%!
When Brian Boitano was in the alps,
Fighting grizzly bears,
He used his magical fire breath,
And saved the maidens fair.
!%several verses skipped here%!
When Brian Boitano travelled through time
To the year 3010,
He fought the evil robot kings
and saved the human race again
And when Brian Boitano built the pyramids,
He beat up Kublai Kahn.
Cause Brian Boitano doesn’t take shit from an-y-body
!%ending of song removed so i would not be charged with copying too much of the song content by RIAA%!
Apple didn’t “fuck” BeOS. JLG wanted way too much for the company and it’s OS. People think of BeOS R5 is what Ppple passed up. They passed up a pre R1 BeOS which was miles short in networking and printing and would have taken a lot of effort to bring up to par, work Apple didn’t think it was worth it for the price JLG was asking.
With NeXT they got a modern and stable OS and they got Steve Jobs. And you couldn’t put a price tag on that.