This fundamental insecurity on Apple’s part launched a long, drawn-out, and ultimately mismanaged search to supplant the Classic Mac OS with a modern replacement. Apple’s life flashed before its eyes, and the once mighty computer company found itself forced to confront its own mortality-a mortality that would surely be tested if something didn’t change. Apple found itself in an especially vulnerable position as the once revolutionary Macintosh OS, first released in 1984 but only incrementally improved since then, suddenly looked very antiquated. But the launch of Microsoft’s Windows NT in 1993 and Windows 95 (the latter of which proved wildly popular) put Apple’s once-rightful claim of OS superiority on shaky ground. To that end, it’s hardly going out on a limb to suggest that Mac OS X wound up being a key driver in Apple’s comeback story.Īt the turn of the 1990s, Apple could confidently say it had the best desktop OS in the consumer PC marketplace. But new hardware only gets you so far when the software that runs on it is built upon an ancient and creaky foundation. True, it had the success of the iMac on its side. It’s easy to forget in an age dominated by iPhones, iPads, and other Apple successes, but the company saw some tough times more than a decade ago. Mac owners have been living with OS X for some time now, and Apple has come a long way from those dark days of the late 1990s when the company simply struggled for survival.

Priced at $30 for a CD distributed via Apple’s online store, the beta gave the general public their first taste of an operating system that would go on to win popular acclaim and attract scores of Windows users to the Macintosh. 13, 2000, Apple released its Mac OS X Public Beta, a limited-time trial run of the ultra-modern, groundbreaking operating system that would replace the old Mac OS.

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