Released in September 2024, macOS 15 Sequoia was the fifth version of macOS to run on Apple silicon Macs and Intel machines, and the first release to feature Apple Intelligence, albeit not at launch.
Outside of the AI features, Sequoia was a fairly quiet release, with the main additions the Passwords and iPhone Mirroring apps, and some fun new wallpapers that continue to blend the desktop background with screensaver features. The venerable Chess app was also updated in this release.
Released in September 2023, macOS 14 Sonoma was the fourth version of macOS to run on Apple silicon Macs and Intel machines, dropping support for all 2017 Intel machines except for the one-off iMac Pro.
In conjunction with iOS and iPadOS 17, this release had a big focus on widgets, which now run on the Desktop, free from the cramped space of Notification Center. Messages, Notes, Reminders and other system apps were updated across the ecosystem. Safari gained the ability to save websites as stand-alone apps. Apple focused on gaming for macOS Sonoma, launching tools for developers to port their titles to Apple silicon, and even including a Game Mode, which automatically gives games top priority on the CPU and GPU.
My name is Stephen Hackett. I live in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. My wife and I have three kids and a cat named Albert Queso.
I’ve been publishing here since 2008. The sidebar says that it’s “a blog about things that light up and make noise.” I tend to write about computer history, modern technology, the space industry, and more.
In 2014, Myke Hurley and I co-founded the Relay podcast network. We have shows with topics ranging from Apple and Google to pens and feelings. We get to work with the best people in the business.
Released in October 2022, macOS 13 Ventura was the third version of macOS to run on Apple silicon Macs and Intel machines. For this release, Mac models released in 2016 were dropped from support.
Ventura — like many modern macOS releases — gained features at the same time as its mobile cousins, including new iMessage features such as editing and recalling messages, an updated Mail app with support for snoozing and sending emails later, passkey support in the updated Safari and support for shared iCloud photo libraries.
macOS Big Sur helped usher in the Apple silicon era, and with it, a new design of macOS. For 2021, Monterey has a less ambitious set of tasks, but it does continue Apple’s efforts to better tie the Mac and its mobile device cousins closer together with features like SharePlay and Universal Control.
…neither of which shipped with the operating system at launch.
Launching alongside the first M1 Pro and M1 Max notebooks, Monterey does unravel the mystery of Big Sur’s taller menu bar and the inclusion of Control Center to keep clutter to a minimum — Apple was laying the groundwork for the first Mac displays with notches. The notebook used for these screenshots was an M1 MacBook Air with no notch, so the effects of this change aren’t present in the images below.
Big Sur’s announcement brought a lot of change to the Mac operating system. As if ushering in a new UI wasn’t enough, it’s also the transition OS for Apple Silicon Macs, which can run iOS and iPadOS apps natively atop Big Sur.
Oh, and the version number is officially 11 which is a lot of fun.
But about that UI … as you can see, it’s a big change. Menu bar items have more space, and Control Center has come to the Mac for the first time. Alerts are now centered (with centered text) above their corresponding windows, and the relationship between sidebars and titlebars has changed drastically. Both Light and Dark mode have been retained, but Apple has added an Accent Color setting that allows each app to use its own color to bring more personality to individual programs, which is a nice touch. This means the highlight color can remain blue, but buttons in Notes will be yellow and controls in Music and Calendar will be red.
macOS Catalina — released in October 2019 — marked some major changes to the operating system. Not a single 32-bit app ran on Catalina, as Apple has made everything 64-bit in the OS and its frameworks. It’s the end of the road of older Mac applications, including every one using the Carbon APIs.
macOS 10.15 is also the first to support Catalyst, which allows developers to port their iPad apps to the Mac. Also new is SwiftUI, which is Apple’s long-term play to let developers write one app to run across all of Apple’s software platforms.
On August 11, 2014, we announced Relay with this letter:
Relay FM is our new home on the Internet, and where you can find all of our podcasts. The shows you have known and loved for years are being rebooted as part of the new network. Everything we have done so far in our podcasting careers has led us here, and we’re pouring all of our love, knowledge and attention into this thing.
The most notable change that macOS Mojave brought was the inclusion of a system-wide Dark Mode and the addition of several new accent colors. This marks the most customization possible within the Aqua interface since the beginning.
Beyond the new coat of paint, Mojave is the first release to support running modified iOS applications. The system comes bundled with four such programs: Home, News, Stocks and Voice Memos. With Mojave, Apple has overhauled the Mac App Store, no doubt in preparation of the wave of iOS apps the following year.
Pitched as a “Snow Leopard” release for 2017, High Sierra focused on performance and polish. It brought support for the HEVC and HEIF media formats, better tracking prevention in Safari and Messages in the Cloud.
Under the hood, 10.13 brought some big changes, however. SSD-equipped Macs were automatically moved to the APFS file system. It also shipped with Metal 2 for gaming and machine learning applications. eGPU support came to Macs with Thunderbolt 3 ports.
In 2016, with 10.12 Sierra, Apple retired the name “Mac OS X” and replaced with “macOS” to better fit in with the company’s other platforms: iOS, watchOS and tvOS. While not as grand as the old “Mac OS” name from the pre-OS X days, I don’t mind it one bit.
As far as features, Sierra’s headlines were all about Siri. The virtual assistant can do the same sorts of tasks as always, but the Mac version can also be used to search for files and adjust system settings. Results can be turned into Today widgets or dragged into other applications if Siri returns images or other files.
Released in September 2015, El Capitan was pitched as a performance and stability update to Yosemite. As such, many of the features were behind the scenes, such as System Integrity Protection, better PDF rendering and support for Metal. Split screen apps were possible for the first time, and were managed within Mission Control. Notes received a major overhaul, matching most of the features found in the iOS 9 version of the app.