With more than 72 million users—consumers, scientists, animators, developers, and system administrators—OS X is the most widely used UNIX® desktop operating system. In addition, OS X is the only UNIX environment that natively runs Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, and thousands of other consumer applications—all side by side with traditional command-line UNIX applications. Tight integration with hardware— from the sleek MacBook Air to the powerful Mac Pro—makes OS X the platform of choice for an emerging generation of power users.
This document explores the powerful industry standards and breakthrough innovations in the core technologies that power Apple’s industry-leading user experiences. We walk you through the entire software stack, from firmware and kernel to iCloud and devel¬oper tools, to help you understand the many things OS X does for you every time you use your Mac.