This move resulted in a large lack of recently released major games on the operating system. Newer versions of the operating system still makes use of OpenGL 4.1 from 2010 and with the release of macOS 10.14 in 2018 Apple officially deprecated support for the standard in favor of their own Metal API. The family of operating systems are one of few platforms to have survived moves to new processor architectures, with a move from Motorola's 68k to IBM's PowerPC in the mid 1990s, followed by a move to Intel in the mid 2000s, and a move to ARM during the early 2020s. Apple additionally had another graphical driven system prior to the Macintosh called the LISA again also not compatible.

These systems were not compatible with the Macintosh and should not be mistaken with it. Prior to its release, Apple had three series of command-line driven terminal computers known as the Apple I, Apple II and Apple III. The original Macintosh was released in January 1984, and was one of the first systems to pioneer the graphical user interface (GUI). The series was rebranded from Mac OS X to OS X in 2012 and to its modern name macOS in 2016.

This series of the operating system is also the basis for iOS as well as its other siblings in Apple's product lineup. Instead of being based on the Classic Mac OS, the series traces its roots back to NeXTSTEP which itself is derived from UNIX.

The modern macOS (previously Mac OS X and later OS X) series that consists of operating systems released between 2001 and today, starting with the release of Mac OS X 10.0 and continuing with a new 10.

The Classic Mac OS ( System Software) series that consists of operating systems released between 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9.

The family is separated into two distinct series: Although there are certain 'regular' PCs that can run the operating system (know as 'Hackintoshing') it is highly controversial due to violating Apple's end-user license agreement and being notoriously inconsistent in its results. MacOS is a family of operating systems developed by Apple and exclusively available to Apple's own family of personal computers known as Macintosh (or Mac for short).

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