Stunningly compact, the Power Mac (not Macintosh) G4 Cube came as a surprise, despite numerable contradictory rumors. Just 7.7″ square and a bit under 10″ tall – about the same height at the 2013 Mac Pro, but with a larger footprint – the Cube does everything the iMac DV does (except contain a monitor) – but with the same 450 MHz G4 processor as the Sawtooth Power Macintosh G4.

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Like the iMac, the Cube is a quiet fanless machine cooled by convection. The hard drive, ports, and AirPort antenna are all built into the Cube, but the power supply and twin Harman Kardon spherical speakers are external. The Cube supports both digital and VGA displays using the same ATI video subsystem as the Power Mac – and it’s on a 2x AGP slot, making it possible for serious gamers to replace the video card with something even better.

h=1Apple G4 Cube w/mac Mini Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz processor Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. /h(If I'm not suppose to post this link, please let me know or delete it.). At US$29.99, it allowed adventurous Mac users to sample Apple's new operating system and provide feedback for the actual release. The initial version of Mac OS X, 10.0 'Cheetah', was released on March 24, 2001. Older Mac OS applications could still run under early Mac OS X versions, using an environment called 'Classic'.

Best of all, the Cube shipped with Apple’s incredible optical mouse, where the entire mouse acts as a button, and the 108-key keyboard, eliminating the need to immediately buy a better mouse and keyboard (which many iMac and G4 owners had been doing).

All the ports are on the bottom of the computer, although the DVD drive is unique in loading from the top.

In the final analysis, the Cube may have been the most computing power available in such a small amount of space at the time – and various 1 GHz and faster single- and dual-processor upgrades offer far more power than the original G4. Apple wouldn’t provide a desktop with as small a footprint and G4 power until it introduced the Mac mini in 2005.

Approximately 150,000 Cubes were sold before Apple decided to “suspend production of the Power Mac G4 Cube indefinitely” in July 2001, just a year after it had been introduced. Apple VP Phil Schiller stated: “Cube owners love their Cubes, but most customers decided to buy our powerful Power Mac G4 minitowers instead.”

We consider the Cube a Limited Mac.

You should have the most recent firmware installed in your Power Mac G4. The newest version for the Power Mac G4 Cube is Power Mac G4 Cube Firmware Update 4.1.9, which is only for the Cube. To install this firmware update, you must boot into Mac OS 9.1-9.2.2 from a writable partition

• Got a G3, G4, or G5 Power Mac? Join our G-List Group.
• Our Mac OS 9 Group is for those using Mac OS 9, either natively or in Classic Mode.
• Our Puma Group is for those using Mac OS X 10.1.
• Our Jaguar Group is for those using Mac OS X 10.2.
• Our Panther Group is for those using Mac OS X 10.3.
• Our Tiger Group is for those using Mac OS X 10.4.

Details

• Introduced 2000.07.19 at US$1,799 (450 MHz) and US$2,299 (500 MHz); began shipping 2000.08.12; discontinued 2001.07.03
• Model identifier: PowerMac5,1
• Model no.: M7886
• Part no.: M7642 (450 MHz DVD), M7642 (500 MHz DVD)

Mac OS

• Requires Mac OS 9.0.4 through OS X 10.4 Tiger; 10.5 Leopard is not officially supported but will run. CD-RW version requires Mac OS 9.1 or later.
• Latest Firmware: Power Mac G4 Cube Firmware Update 4.1.9 (bad link)

Core System

• CPU: single 450/500 MHz PPC 7400 (a.k.a. G4), in mid-April 2001 Apple switched the 500 MHz Cube to the cooler running 7410
• L2 cache: 1 MB 2:1 backside cache
• Bus: 100 MHz
• Performance:
  • Geekbench 2 (Leopard): 257 (450 MHz)
  • Geekbench 2 (Tiger): 282 (450 MHz), 325 (500 MHz)
  • Speedmark: 139
• RAM: 64 MB standard, expandable to 1.5 GB using PC100 SDRAM (3.3V,unbuffered, 64-bit, 168-pin, 100 MHz) in 3 DIMM slots

Video

• Video: ATI Rage 128 Pro in AGP 2x slot (was Rage 128 prior to December 1999); supports resolutions to 1920 x 1200 with 32-bit support, VGA and ADC connectors, and digital video output
• VRAM: 16 MB
• Video, optional: ATI Radeon with 32 MB of VRAM; Nvidia GeForce2 MX with 32 MB VRAM

Drives

• Hard drive: 20 GB 5400 rpm Ultra ATA/66 with 30, 40, and 60 GB options. Maximum IDE drive size is 128 GB without third-party support. See How big a hard drive can I put in my iMac, eMac, or Power Mac? for your options.
• DVD-ROM standard, CD-RW became available on 2001.02.22

Expansion

• no PCI slots
• internal v.90 56k modem
• two 400 Mbps FireWire ports (one internal)
• two 12 Mbps USB ports for keyboard, mouse, and peripherals
• 10/100Base-T ethernet
• antenna and connector for AirPort card

Physical

• size (HxWxD): 9.8″ x 7.7″ x 7.7″
• Weight: 14.0 lb. (6.6 kg)
• PRAM battery: 3.6V half-AA
• upgrade path: processor upgrades

Accelerators & Upgrades

• 4x SuperDrive DVD±RW upgrade, MCE Technologies. $329 if replacing CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or CD-RW drive; $279 if replacing Combo drive or SuperDrive. 4x2x8x DVD, 24x24x24x CD. 2x DVD-RAM. 2 MB buffer.
• 4x Combo drive upgrade, MCE Technologies, $249. 2x DVD, 24x10x24x CD. 2 MB buffer.
• for CPU upgrades, see our Guide to Power Mac G4 Upgrades

Online Resources

• Best Power Mac G4 Deals.
• Best Classic Mac OS Deals. Best online prices for System 6, 7.1, 7.5.x, Mac OS 7.6, 8.0, 8.1, 8.5, 9.0, 9.2.2, and other versions.
• Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 Deals. Best online prices for Mac OS X 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3.
• Best Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Deals. Best online prices for Mac OS X 10.4.
• Best Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Deals. Best online prices for Mac OS X 10.5.
• The Five Weirdest Macs of All Time, Benj Edwards, Macworld, 2012.10.12. Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian iMacs. Twentieth Anniversary Mac. Power Mac G4 Cube. Macintosh XL. Power Mac G3 All-in-One.
• Unsupported Leopard installation, Dan Knight, 2007.10.31. How to install Mac OS X 10.5 on unsupported hardware – plus field reports.
• Faking out the Leopard installer with Open Firmware, Dylan McDermond, Unsupported Leopard, 2007.12.06. You don’t have to hack the installer to make the Mac OS X 10.5 installer run on sub-867 MHz G4 Macs by using this simple Open Firmware trick.
• What’s the Best Version of OS X for My Mac?, Ian R Campbell, The Sensible Mac, 2008.02.28. Which version of Mac OS X is best for your hardware depends on several factors.
• Low End Mac’s Compleat Guide to Mac OS 9, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2008.05.12. Mac OS 9 remains fast and stable, but Classic software hasn’t kept up with the changing internet. Which Macs support OS 9, where to buy it, and how to update to 9.2.2.
• Know Your Mac’s Upgrade Options, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation, 2008.08.26. Any Mac can be upgraded, but it’s a question of what can be upgraded – RAM, hard drive, video, CPU – and how far it can be upgraded.
• WiFi Adapters for Desktop Macs Running Mac OS 9, MetaPhyzx, Mac Daniel, 2009.02.10. USB, ethernet, PCI, and other wireless hardware compatible with the Classic Mac OS.
• Re-imagining the Mac Cube for the Intel Era, Dan Bashur, Apple, Tech, and Gaming, 2009.10.07. The Power Mac G4 Cube was one of Apple’s most beautiful computers. Here’s how Apple could resurrect the concept – and succeed this time.
• The Future of Up-to-Date Browsers for PowerPC Macs, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2009.08.31. With Intel-only “Snow Leopard” shipping, software support for PPC Macs will continue its decline. Also, a look at SeaMonkey 2 and Camino 1.6.9.
• Optimized Software Builds Bring Out the Best in Your Mac, Dan Knight, Low End Mac’s Online Tech Journal, 2009.06.30. Applications compiled for your Mac’s CPU can load more quickly and run faster than ones compiled for universal use.
• Tips for Installing or Reinstalling Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Adam Rosen, Adam’s Apple, 2009.06.10. Mac OS X 10.4 uses less memory than Leopard, supports Classic Mode on PowerPC Macs, and, unlike Leopard, is supported on G3 Macs.
• Is Leopard Slower than Tiger on G4 Macs?, Simon Royal, Tech Spectrum, 2009.04.17. Truth be told, when you have 1 GB of RAM, Leopard benchmarks an insigificant 4% slower than Tiger.
• The 25 most important Macs, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 2009.02.17. The 25 most significant Macs in the first 25 years of the platform, continued.
• The ‘Better Safe Than Sorry’ Guide to Installing Mac OS X Updates, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2008.12.16. Most users encounter no problems using Software Update, but some preflight work and using the Combo updater means far less chance of trouble.
• Why You Should Partition Your Mac’s Hard Drive, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 2008.12.11. “At the very least, it makes sense to have a second partition with a bootable version of the Mac OS, so if you have problems with your work partition, you can boot from the ’emergency’ partition to run Disk Utility and other diagnostics.”
• Every working computer is useful to someone, Allison Payne, The Budget Mac, 2008.11.19. Whether it’s a PowerBook 1400, G3 iMac, or Power Mac G4, it could be all the computer someone needs.
• The future of PowerPC Macs and software as ‘Snow Leopard’ approaches, Simon Royal, Tech Spectrum, 2008.11.13. Apple phased out Classic Mode and G3 support with ‘Leopard’ last year, and next year’s OS X 10.6 won’t support any PowerPC Macs. Will other developers abandon PowerPC as well?
• Attractive and ugly Macs, discontinued MacBook Pro value, and writing with TextEdit, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2008.10.30. Readers weigh in on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Macintosh design over the past 24 years.
• How to clone Mac OS X to a new hard drive, Simon Royal, Tech Spectrum, 2008.10.07. Whether you want to put a bigger, faster drive in your Mac or clone OS X for use in another Mac, here’s the simple process.
• The Compressed Air Keyboard Repair, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2008.07.24. If your keyboard isn’t working as well as it once did, blasting under the keys with compressed air may be the cure.
• Turn your old Mac into a web server with Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, Jason Packer, Macs in the Enterprise, 2008.07.09. Step-by-step instructions for installing and configuring Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP on an older Mac.
• Turn your old Mac into a website server with free open source software, Jason Packer, Macs in the Enterprise, 2008.07.02. By installing Linux without a GUI, your old Mac can dedicate all of its resources to running Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
• 10 cult Macs adored by collectors, Tamara Keel, Digital Fossils, 2008.05.13. Macs are not only noted for their longevity, but also by the passion which collectors have for some of the most interesting models ever made.
• Leopard on a Cube, G4 CPU swap limitations, Power Mac G5 a good choice?, and more, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2008.03.06. Also looking for a scanner that works with Panther and the hsitory of expansion slots in low-cost Macs.
• Penryn advantages, Leopard on a G4 Cube, scanner advice, upgrading Sawtooth, and more, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2008.03.05. Also why no LED backlight on the new MacBook, Final Cut mostly works with integrated graphics, and Diablo II problems under Leopard.
• Is the MacBook Air Another Cube?, Daniel Eran Dilger, Roughly Drafted, 2008.01.30. “In the past decade, the closest Apple has come to releasing a form over function flop was the 2000 Power Mac G4 Cube, an elegantly designed PC in a Kleenex-shaped lucite box.”
• Leopard problems with GeForce graphics, on eMacs and Power Macs, and more, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2007.11.14. More success running Mac OS X 10.5 on iMacs, eMacs, Power Macs, and PowerBooks. Also failures with a Cube and a Blue and White G3 with a G4 upgrade.
• Beyond Google, 10 years on the G3, the Cube is not a Road Apple, and more, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 2007.11.13. Also the 64-bit advantage of Core 2, OS 9 on a USB flash drive, sound problems since switching to Leopard, and 7200 rpm in an eMac.
• Leopard faster than Tiger on Intel, slower on PowerPC, and possible below 867 MHz, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 2007.10.29. Early benchmarks indicate Mac OS X 10.5 is 10-15% slower than 10.4 on PowerPC, while 64-bit Leopard on Intel Core 2 hardware is over 5% faster. Also Sawtooth and Cube success stories.
• FastMac 8x SuperDrive and BurnAgain DVD: Fast and easy multisession disc burning, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2007.10.08. FastMac’s 8x SuperDrive upgrade is remarkably fast compared with older PowerBook burners, and BurnAgain DVD makes it easy to append files to a previously burned CD or DVD.
• APG Card Compatibility, The Mac Elite, 2007.08.09. Guide to which ATI and nVidia AGP video cards are compatible with which AGP Power Macs.
• Make AGP 8x video cards work in G4 Power Macs, The Mac Elite, 2007.08.19. Instructions for disabling pins 3 and 11 so Mac compatible AGP 8x video cards will work in most G4 Power Macs.
• Unmatched Classic Mac OS apps, TiBook reliability, Matias Tactile Pro 2.0 disappoints, and more, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2007.06.18. Also Netscape 7 and 9, MacBook causing problems with iMac’s display, and graphics cards for a Power Mac G4 and an ADC display.
• Format Any Drive for Older Macs with Patched Apple Tools, Tyler Sable, Classic Restorations, 2007.04.25. Apple HD SC Setup and Drive Setup only work with Apple branded hard drives – until you apply the patches linked to this article.
• The Cube: Out of the Mountain Too Early, Thom Holwerda, OSNews, 2007.03.29. “It is surprising to see how well this aging beast actually runs Tiger, probably largely due to the cache size of the processor (1 MB of L2 cache).”
• Installing OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ on DVD-challenged Macs using FireWire Target Disk Mode, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2006.07.10. Mac OS X ships on a single install DVD, which Apple will exchange for CDs at $10. But if you have access to a DVD-equipped Mac and a FireWire cable, you’re good to go.
• Making the move from Jaguar (OS X 10.2) to Panther (10.3), Ted Hodges, Vintage Mac Living, 2006.04.11. One advantage of Apple’s “no upgrades” policy for OS X – someone can give you their old copy after upgrading without worrying about violating their license.
• FastMac’s $190 8x dual-layer SuperDrive for PowerBooks and dual USB iBooks, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2006.01.30. For US$190-250 you can replace the CD-ROM, CD-RW, Combo, or slow old SuperDrive in most PowerBooks, white iBooks, slot-loading iMacs, and Cubes with a faster, dual-layer drive.
• Web browser tips for the classic Mac OS, Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence, 2006.01.03. Tips on getting the most out of WaMCom, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, iCab, Opera, and WannaBe using the classic Mac OS.
• The best browsers for PowerPC Macs and the classic Mac OS, Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence, 2005.12.16. Two browsers stand out from the pack: iCab 3 is modern and remains under development, and WaMCom brings Mozilla to older Macs.
• How big a hard drive can I put in my iMac, eMac, or Power Mac?, Dan Knight, Mac Daniel, 2005.10.24. A lot of older Macs don’t know how to deal with drives over 128 GB in size. We look at three options.
• Hands-on review – PowerLogix PowerCube, Macs Only!, 2003.11.25. Larger aluminum replacement case for Cube’s acrylic enclosure permits larger video cards, faster CPU upgrades, better heat management.
• Apple Cube: Alive and Selling, Leander Kahney, Wired, 2003.07.28. “…there’s a thriving trade in aftermarket upgrades, and dedicated owners are going to extreme lengths to keep their much-loved machines current.”
• Review: 1.2 GHz PowerForce G4 Series 100, Bill Fox, Macs Only!, 2003.02.10. Very, very fast. Only drawback: Cube won’t wake from sleep with upgrade installed.
• Review: 800 MHz PowerForce G4 Series 100 in a Cube, Bill Fox, Macs Only!, 2002.10.16. “The Cube with the 800 MHz PowerForce G4 Series 100 upgrade averaged 80 percent faster than with the original stock 450 MHz CPU.”
• CubeOwner.com, “a heaven for Cube owners.”
• New G4 Cubes powered by PPC 7410?, The Cube-Zone, 2001.04.19. Field reports indicate latest Cubes use cooler running processor.
• Review: G4 Cube & Cinema Display, John Siracusa, Art Technica, 10/26/00. Perhaps the longest Cube review yet, and worth every page. Reviewer understands the Cube’s market.
• The Cube: Looks Aren’t Everything, BusinessWeek. “All of the Cube’s beauty doesn’t change the fact that it is overpriced and under-featured, with no clear target audience.”
• How to rescue the Cube, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 10/5/00. The Cube is cool and costly. Here’s how Apple can address the price issue.
• I come not to bury the G4 Cube but to praise it, Jim, MacSpeedZone. “…in the interest of balanced reporting and fairness I’ve got to let you know that my Cube is nothing short of magnificent.”
• Blame the Cube?, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 10/2/00. Apple stock tanked on Friday. People quickly pointed fingers at the Cube. But should we really blame the computer?
• Power Mac G4 Cube: Insane first, András Puiz, Applelust, 8/15/00. “Insane” as in “insanely great.” A very good read.
• The Cube: Just what we ordered?, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 8/11/00. A look at the limitations of the Power Mac G4 Cube.
• Apple specs online: Power Mac G4 Cube

Short link: http://goo.gl/vKgHyg

searchwords: powermacg4cube, g4cube

Two decades ago this week, the first version of Mac OS X hit shelves. We're not talking figuratively. The software was sold direct to consumers on disk, with a suggested retail price of $129 (roughly $190 today, adjusted for inflation).

Back in 2001, Mac OS X 10.00 Cheetah was a rough-around-the-edges break from the ageing Classic Mac OS, which had much of its origins in the original Macintosh’s System 1 software. In the years since, the platform has undergone two architecture shifts (PowerPC to Intel, and now Arm) and matured to the point where it commands nearly 10 per cent of desktop market share globally.

Getting there, however, wasn’t easy.

From big problems to big cats

The story of Mac OS X didn’t start in 2001, but rather in 1985, when Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple following a failed boardroom coup, and multiple product flops. The Apple Lisa project was a dismal failure, selling just 10,000 units. The Macintosh, although infinitely more successful by comparison, failed to slow the ascent of IBM in the PC market, and didn’t meet the company’s lofty sales goals.

Although Jobs was no longer part of Apple, he remained involved in the computer industry, later founding NeXT Inc, which aimed to build workstation-class machines for the higher education market. Its first computer, revealed in 1988, was a powerful (albeit excruciatingly expensive) cube of black aluminium based on a 25MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU, with 8MB RAM and an optional 330MB or 660MB hard disk. It came with a bespoke UNIX-based operating system called NeXTSTEP that was founded on the Mach and BSD kernels, with object oriented programming principles throughout.

It was revolutionary, but that wasn’t enough to overcome its steep $6,500 ($14,500 in today’s money) asking price. Universities didn’t bite – although the hardware was used to develop the first web browser and server, as well as id Software’s Doom and Quake. By 1993, NeXT had left the hardware business to focus on porting NeXTSTEP to IBM-compatible PC, as well as PA-RISC, SPARC, and the Motorola 68k architectures.

Apple had its own problems, too. The Macintosh was stagnating. Windows 95 – which combined the previously separate DOS and Windows software – proved to be a roaring success, helping Microsoft expand its market share. When it arrived in 1995, Windows 95 was highly usable for first-time computer owners, and had features Mac OS 7 simply lacked, like preemptive multitasking. Separately, a disastrous decision by then-CEO Michael Spindler to license Mac OS 7 to third-party manufacturers resulted in the company’s high-margin hardware sales shrinking further.

The Next Step

By 1997, Apple was mere weeks away from bankruptcy. As a Hail Mary, CEO Gil Amelio (who replaced Spindler in 1996) acquired NeXT, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded from a Los Altos garage. While Jobs (who would assume the top role the following year) would ultimately nurse the company back to health, Apple was most interested in the NeXTSTEP operating system.

The Fat iPhone, 11 years on: The iPad's over a decade old and we're still not sure what it's for

You see, Mac OS was, at the time, stagnant. Whereas Windows had made leaps and bounds in terms of things like peripheral support and the internet, Apple had yet to implement basic system-level features like pre-emptive multitasking, multithreading, and protected memory. During the Amelio years, Apple had attempted to create a new operating system on a clean-sheet kernel called Nukernel, but it died in the fiery pits of development hell.

With Jobs at the helm, work started on a new operating system based on NeXTSTEP. The old Mac OS 9 nanokernel was replaced with Darwin, itself a direct descendant of the NeXTSTEP kernel. Other NeXT features - like the use of object-oriented programming, the Objective-C language, and the Dock - also made an appearance. It was a clean break with the past, with a brand new interface dubbed Aqua, and APIs that would allow developers to port their existing software.

The full release version of Mac OS X 10.0's UI (click to enlarge)

This, ultimately, became Mac OS X 10.00 Cheetah. And while its legacy continues to this day, the initial launch was somewhat underwhelming. It lacked feature parity with Mac OS 9, with DVD playback and CD burning unavailable at launch. Despite the release of a public beta, many developers (including Microsoft and Adobe) hadn’t updated their software to use the Aqua APIs. And it was dog slow, particularly when running applications using the backwards-compatible Classic APIs.

Worse, while many had hoped the Unix foundations and protected memory of Mac OS X would improve stability when compared to its predecessors, the software was rife with fatal bugs, which frequently presented themselves when using external peripherals.

The road since travelled

Teething problems with Mac OS X Cheetah didn’t stop Apple’s upward trajectory, and many of these issues were resolved in later releases. The next release, Mac OS X 10.1 Puma focused on performance improvements and improving feature parity with the Classic Mac OS, and was offered as a free update to existing users.

The next major update came in 2002. Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar fixed the long-standing issues with printer support through the release of CUPS – the Common Unix Printing System – which was subsequently open-sourced and is now widely used across the Linux sphere. By that point, Apple was so confident in Mac OS X, Jobs performed a mock funeral for the Classic Mac OS X on stage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

At the time, Mac OS X was exclusively available for the PowerPC platform. By the decade’s halfway point, it was struggling to compete with chips from Intel in key metrics like power consumption. IBM, which built PowerPC chips on behalf of Apple, was manufacturing on larger nodes than those used by Intel, which was already transitioning to 65nm. Whereas it once enjoyed a competitive edge in processing power, Apple was faced with the prospect of losing that advantage.

And so, in 2005, Apple announced the transition to Intel, starting with Mac OS X 10.4.4 Tiger. This had been on the cards for some time. For each version of Mac OS X released, Apple had secretly created an x86 port, so there wasn’t much re-architecting required internally.

Apple had flirted with a move to Intel in the past. Rhapsody OS, which later became Mac OS X Server 1.0, was released for both PowerPC and x86, with versions for IBM RISC System/6000 and DEC Alpha architectures considered. Additionally, the foundational basis of Mac OS X, NeXTSTEP, was also available for Intel processors. This preparation and experience allowed Apple to recognise the writing on the wall and pivot.

As transitions go, the shift to Intel was as painless as could be, especially compared to the jarring leap from Mac OS Classic to Mac OS X. Legacy apps were able to run via the Rosetta compatibility mode (which was later discontinued in 2012). Developers could target both PowerPC and Intel platforms with universal binaries. And Apple offered developers a rental “transition kit” ahead of the public launch, giving them a head start.

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In retrospect, this experience informed Apple’s next platform shift, with the company moving from Intel to its own Arm-based Apple Silicon processors in 2020. It has used the same playbook, down to the developer tools and pre-release transition hardware.

Plus ça change

In the two decades since the launch of Mac OS X, a few things have changed. Objective-C is declining in popularity, with Apple’s syntactically nicer Swift programming language gathering pace. The name changed a few times too, with Apple re-branding the system OS X in 2012, and finally macOS with the launch of version 10.12 Sierra. We’ve seen the launch of the Metal graphics API, which provided better rendering performance for games and other visually-intensive apps, as well as the inclusion of iOS and iPadOS features, like Siri.

Apple: We'll tailor Swift to be a fast new programming language

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But the foundations first introduced in 2001 are still there, from the UNIX underpinnings to the NeXTSTEP Dock. While Windows has undergone multiple UI changes, macOS has largely remained mutually intelligible with its predecessors. As a collector of retro Apple kit (your correspondent has around 30 machines, ranging from a Mac OS 7-era Performa, to various post-Jobs PowerBooks and iBooks), it’s amazing to see how little has changed. I can use an iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.3 Jaguar and feel just at home as I would with a latest generation M1 MacBook Air.

And that is the story of Mac OS X. It didn't seem like it would make it, but getting the fundamentals right – dare we say it even more than the cult of Steve Jobs – matters. ®

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