Explain why there are so many Mac OS X's?

What changes in the different versions? Does software work with one version but not another version? How often does a new OS come out and what is the point of having so many of them?

I thought there was only version 1,2,3,4 ...... X (10) and next should be 11.

Do you have to pay for the individual versions in between?

 

You can find an overview of each version and release date here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X#Versions

Generally, what changes are new features and enhancements, etc. Some upgrades are more notable than others. The version coming up is sort of unknown, as Apple has yet to release all the details of the new features.

The point of releasing new versions is generally to continue to improve the OS, add new functionality, etc. It isn't really any different than Windows, just that Apple has generally released significant updates on a more regular basis (i.e. they don't take so long to go from XP to Vista, for example).

Some software does depend on more recent versions of OS X (i.e. a lot of software will require OS X 10.2 or 10.3 or above, because those OS's introduced some important core functionality that depends on them; and some software specifically requires 10.4 or above).

The reason the release versions are named like they are (10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc.) is pretty much to be able to preserve the "Mac OS X" name. If they had named Mac OS X 10.1 "Mac OS 11" instead, it would have sort of ruined the "OS X" branding.

Yes, you have to pay for each major OS release if you want it. The price is usually $129 (or $69 educational pricing). Some people choose to not upgrade if they don't specifically need the new features/capabilities. And since there's usually an 18-month gap between OS releases, some people just end up getting the latest OS release when they buy a new Mac (kind of like people getting Vista when they go ahead and buy a new OS).

OS X 10.4 came out in April 2005, so OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will be more than 2 years later if it does end up coming out around May or June, which seems most likely (Apple has said "Spring 2007" as the release date).

-Zadillo

EDIT: I might have misunderstood your question "Do you have to pay for the individual versions in between?". If you meant just the minor updates throughout the product lifecycle (i.e. 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3, etc.), no, those updates are free. Those updates normally comprise bug fixes, security updates, etc.

 

That was very informative. Thanks zadillo. I was reading another thread and was worried I'd have to buy each version such as the 10.4.2 .3 .4 etc and they seemed to come out really fast and was afraid of things not being compatible. That has eased my fears.

 

If you look at the progression of the Mac OS pretty much all System 1 to System 9 is the same OS since they use a similar kernal, but just had added features, refinements, and visual overhauls. In later years, Apple took to spreading out the version numbers for added effect and to exploit legal loopwholes since OS 8 was actually OS 7.7 and OS 9 was actually OS 8.7. It's just that with OS X, Apple has done the opposite and compressed them all making it more representative of their lineage.

On the Windows front 95/98/ME are always lumped together and NT/2000/XP/Vista are of the same family. XP actually took a similar approach to OS X since it was actually version 5.1 stemming from Windows 2000 which was 5.0, but Microsoft just doesn't emphesize the technical number.

 

Just to add to that, aside from "legal loopholes", the other big reason for Apple's renaming their OS releases into "Mac OS 8" and "Mac OS 9" was to try and sort of hide the internal problems they were facing coming out with a next generation version of Mac OS (the actual OS's that would have been Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, codenamed Copland and Gershwin, were fraught with problems, and eventually led to Apple finally going ahead and acquiring NeXT rather than continuing to try and develop a successor Mac OS themselves). But while all that was going on, the hope was that releasing products called "Mac OS 8" and "Mac OS 9" would buy them some time, which it did (and those releases did have some nice improvements, etc.).

 

Personally, I look at the new OSs release every so often more like "Service Packs" in Windows terms. They don't drastically change the OS like ME to XP, but they add a lot of nice features (such as features added by XP SP2 like firewall, enhanced networking, etc). You have to pay for them, which seems bad, but considering that they are so cheap when compared to Windows prices, you'll spend about the same amount of money in the same timeframe between Windows releases. In the meantime, you get a much more up-to-date system. But that's just my opinion.

 

I can see that, although some of the OS releases have been more significant than others, in terms of what they entail.... and in their own way, 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4 all did offer some fairly significant improvements and new functionality that I think go beyond service packs, etc. (i.e. 10.4 introduced the new Spotlight search technology, the dashboard and automator, as well as some significant improvements to the backend technology).

The jury's still out on whether Leopard will feel like a major OS revision or more like a service pack though, since Apple has yet to unveil all the details about it.

-Zadillo

 

How much does a upgrade cost? What will I have to pay for leopard?
Another question I have is what if you skip one? Can you upgrade from 10.2 to 10.4? If you did that would you get all the benefits of 10.3 during the upgrade as well?

 

There isn't specific upgrade pricing, so each version costs usually around $129 (or $69 academic pricing).

It's fine to skip one, and it isn't that uncommon. Each version comprises all the previous version's features, so someone with 10.2 who buys 10.4 or 10.5 would get the functionality of 10.3 as well.

-Zadillo

 

Ok so that way having to upgrade isn't so mandatory such as with windows vista going from windows xp etc. I think that is a pretty good idea and it still allows for compatible programs to work for people who upgrade and those that don't.

 

Yeah, pretty much. Although there are exceptions to this. In particular, if a piece of software is written that depends on the functionality introduced in a certain OS release, it will require the user has that version. Usually these are frameworks, etc. that are introduced.

A pretty good example of this would be "Core Image":

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/coreimage/

This was introduced in Mac OS X 10.4, and basically makes it easy for OS X applications to access all sorts of advanced graphical effects, etc. (OS X 10.5 is going to extend this further with something called Core Animation).

So, if you want to run an application that uses this Core Image framework, it will normally require that you have OS X 10.4.

That's just an example though.

-Zadillo

 

Leopard looks like a very significant release. Rumors are that it will be required for a lot of new software. I think it will be a worthwhile upgrade. As for Windows versions vs. OS X versions, part of the reason they don't seem big upgrades to many users, is the interface. OS X's interface is fairly consistant throughout the version. However, every Windows version, especially since 98, comes with some rather significant interface changes. MS changes the look often.

 

That is a good point - although OS X has at least had some UI refinements since Mac OS X 10.0 (easier to see by comparing the screenshots at http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots ). The biggest notable change has probably been the replacement of the original "striped" look of OS X.

There's a lot of speculation that 10.5 could see a major UI overhaul - a lot of this is based around the fact that in all of the developer builds released so far, the Finder itself has yet to be updated or changed at all (i.e. the Finder currently shipping in Leopard dev builds is the Tiger finder; not even minor updates, etc.). Aside from that, a lot of people feel a UI overhaul is necessary, as one of the issues with OS X currently is a problem of UI inconsinstency. One reason that UNO has become so popular:

http://gui.interacto.net/

-Zadillo