Version 10.2 Jaguar
Mac OS X version 10.2 Jaguar is the third major release of Mac OS X,Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It was initially available on August 23, 2002 either for single-computer installations, and in a “family pack”, which allowed five installations on separate computers in one household. The operating system was generally well received by most Mac users as a large step forward in the areas of stability, general speed enhancements, compatibility with other flavours of Unix and the lineup of both graphical and terminal applications available; however, many critics, such as Amazon.com users, still claimed that significant user interface speed issues existed and that the operating system was still a big step back from Mac OS 9. Jaguar was the first Mac OS X released to public use, its code name in marketing and advertisements, a practice that has continued in subsequent releases of the operating system.
Version 10.3 Panther
Mac OS X v10.3 Panther was released on October 24, 2003. In addition to providing much improved performance, it also incorporated the most extensive update to the user interface yet. Panther probably included more new features as Jaguar had the year before, including an updated Finder, incorporating a brushed-metal interface, Fast user switching, Exposé (Window manager), FileVault,Safari, iChat AV (which added videoconferencing features to iChat), improved Portable Document Format (PDF) rendering and much greater Microsoft Windows interoperability. Support for some early G3 computers such as “beige” Power Macs and “WallStreet” PowerBooks was discontinued.
Version 10.4 Tiger
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005 for $129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther. Some of the new features included a fast searching system called Spotlight, a new version of the Safari web browser, Dashboard, a new ‘Unified’ theme, and improved support for 64-bit addressing on Power Mac G5s. Tiger shocked executives at Microsoft by offering a number of features, such as fast file searching and improved graphics processing, which Microsoft had spent several years struggling to add to Windows with acceptable performance level.
Tiger was included in all new Macs, and was also available as an upgrade for existing Mac OS X users, or users of supported pre-Mac OS X systems. The server edition, Mac OS X Server 10.4, was also available for some Macintosh product lines. Six weeks after its official release, Apple had delivered 2 million copies of Tiger, representing 16% of all Mac OS X users. Apple claimed that Tiger was the most successful Apple OS release in the company’s history. At the WWDC on June 11, 2007, Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, announced that out of the 22 million Mac OS X users, more than 67% were using Tiger.
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