

Only certain versions of Mac OS 9 can run under the Classic system layer, and the layer itself was dropped after Mac OS X Tiger. The Classic Mac OS can run standalone, and under Mac OS X using the Classic system layer. Support for PowerPC in Mac OS X was dropped in 2009.Īt WWDC 2020, Apple declared that they would switch over to the Apple Silicon SoC in future Mac computers. In 2006, Apple switched to Intel-based x86 processors in Macs. In response, Apple bought NeXT and used NeXTSTEP as a base to develop Mac OS X.

Classic Mac OS was based on a simple kernel design, which eventually became too limited and crash-prone for applications. PowerPC would be used until the classic Mac OS's discontinuation in 2002. The 68k architecture was used from 1984 to 1991, after which Apple transitioned to PowerPC. The classic Mac OS was originally written for the Motorola 68k architecture.

It first became publicly available in 1984 with the release of the Macintosh 128k. macOS is the second-most commonly used operating system after Microsoft Windows. MacOS is a series of operating systems developed by Apple for their Macintosh platform. Closed source (with open source components)
