Developer: Apple Inc

OS Family: Mac - Unix

Release Date: 20 September 2016 (v10.12 - macOS Sierra)

Platforms: x86-64, Arm64

Editions: macOS Sierra (v10.12), macOS High Sierra (v10.13), macOS Mojave (v10.14), macOS Catalina (v10.15), macOS Big Sur (v11), macOS Monterey (v12), macOS Ventura (v13), macOS Sonoma (v14)​

macOS, originally Mac OS X, previously shortened as OS X, is an operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since

2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and laptop computers, it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows and ahead of all Linux distributions, including ChromeOS.

In 2016, with the release of macOS 10.12 Sierra, the name was changed from OS X to macOS, in order to align it with the

branding of Apple's other primary operating systems, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. macOS Sierra added Siri, iCloud Drive, picture-in-picture support, a Night Shift mode that switches the display to warmer colors at night, and two Continuity features: Universal Clipboard, which syncs a user's clipboard across their Apple devices, and Auto Unlock, which can unlock a user's Mac with their Apple Watch. macOS Sierra also adds support for the Apple File System (APFS), Apple's successor to the dated HFS+ file system. macOS 10.13 High Sierra, released in 2017, included performance improvements, Metal 2 and HEVC support, and made

APFS the default file system for SSD boot drives. Its successor, macOS 10.14 Mojave, was released in 2018, adding a dark mode option and a dynamic wallpaper setting. It was succeeded by macOS 10.15 Catalina in 2019, which replaces iTunes with separate apps for different types of media, and introduces the Catalyst system for porting iOS apps. In 2020, Apple previewed macOS 11 Big Sur at the WWDC 2020. This was the first increment in the primary version number of macOS since the release of Mac OS X Public Beta in 2000; updates to macOS 11 were given 11.x numbers, matching the version numbering scheme used by Apple's other operating systems. Big Sur brought major changes to the UI and was the first version to run on the Arm instruction set. The new numbering system was continued in 2021 with macOS 12 Monterey, 2022 with macOS 13 Ventura, and 2023 with macOS 14 Sonoma.

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macOS versions:

• v10.12 Sierra: released to end users on Tuesday, September 20, 2016

• v10.13 High Sierra: released to end users on Monday, September 25, 2017

• v10.14 Mojave: released to end users on Monday, September 24, 2018

• v10.15 Catalina: released to end users on Monday, October 7, 2019

• v11 Big Sur: released to end users on Thursday, November 12, 2020

• v12 Monterey: released to end users on Monday, October 25, 2021

• v13 Ventura: released to end users on Monday, October 24, 2022

• v14 Sonoma: released to end users on Tuesday, September 26, 2023