Every 12 to 24 months, Apple changes the world when it releases the latest version of its operating system, Mac OS X (pronounced “Mac OS Ten”). Mac OS X is the successor to the classic Mac OS that was originally released in 1984 along with the original Macintosh. Mac OS X was built off of the NeXT technology that Apple purchased in 1997. The classic Mac OS had begun to show its age in the late 1990s as Microsoft’s Windows operating system enjoyed features such as multiuser support, multitasking, and memory protection. NeXT’s NeXTStep OS gave Apple a starting point for building a next-generation OS that would last them another 10 years.