osx

A 64 bit Operating System created by Apple Computer Inc. to accompany their computers. OS X runs on the Mach 3.0 microkernel. It also features FreeBSD services (daemons), tight hardware integration, and SMP-safe drivers. The most notable features in Apple OS X are Spotlight, Dashboard, and Exposé. Spotlight is an advanced intra-computer metadata search engine, which allows a user to search any file on the computers hard drive with no noticeable delay. It also searches words within documents, PDF files, and has many downloadable plugins that make third party programs compatible with spotlight. Dashboard features "widgets", or layer based mini-applications built on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript platforms. Activating the dashboard is as simple as pressing F12. Exposé is a way of managing one's desktop inside OS X. Exposé is activated by pressing either F9, F10, or F11. When F9 is pressed, all open windows instantly scale down into a tile pattern in order for the user to see all of them, allowing the user to pick the window he or she wants to switch to. When F10 is pressed, all open windows in the application that the user is using will scale down in order for he or she to pick the one that they want within that application. When F11 is pressed, all open windows scatter to the edge of the screen, revealing the desktop. The current version of OS X available is 10.4, codenamed Tiger. The next version of OS X, 10.5, is scheduled to come out in early 2007, possibly competing with the up and coming Windows Vista.