In 1996, Apple purchased NeXT, the company Steve Jobs built after he had left Apple. The latter helped standardize the naming of Apple’s operating systems - macOS, iOS, tvOS, iPadOS, etc.

Finally, Apple shifted to “macOS” with the release of macOS High Sierra in 2016. In the next four years, the OS X names were used. Mac OS X was the official naming through version 10.7, from 2001 to 2011. In fact, three terms were used at different times with reference to Apple’s operating system: Mac OS X, OS X, and macOS. No, they are essentially the same thing - just named differently. Is there any difference between Mac OS X and macOS? In this article, we guide you through the evolution of Apple’s operating system, from the first public release in 2001 to the latest macOS Monterey announced at WWDC 2021 on June 7. As Apple grew and strengthened the ecosystem through the years, macOS operating system version history evolved too. MacOS is the operating system designed to run on Apple laptops and desktop computers.

Tackle your tasks with Setapp app suite solutions.