1. Note: The headings on this list indicate the Macintosh System bundle names; the bullet points indicate the version of the System File included in that bundle. This is to make it clearer for people searching for specific bundle versions as opposed to System File versions. Finder File versions are not indicated. 1 Classic Mac OS 1.1 Macintosh System Software (0 - 0.3) 1.1.1 System File 1 1.1.2.
2. This was Apple’s attempt to get people interested in their products in 2010. They promised an intuitive operating system that people will use in any situation. Apple delivered its promise with the features that Lion brought. This is the best operating system if you look to use your MacBook for multitasking while working.
3. In other words, if you buy the latest new Mac from Apple, you can't install 10.5 or 10.4 or whatever. So, you need to buy an old Mac too, not just an old OS. The breakdown of the OS ratio really depends on the software. For example, the veritable Omnigroup publishes this version breakdown of the hits of their software update server.

Mac OS 7 was a major change from the earlier System Software, introducing integrated multitasking, a revamped desktop, networking, and transitioning the name from 'Macintosh System Software' To 'MacOS'. It was followed by by MacOS 8.x. Descenders.

Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and is available in two editions: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a server version, Mac OS X Server.It retailed for $129 for the desktop version and $499.

Running Mac OS 7.x requires a Motorola 68000 based Macintosh, a supported model of Power PC based Macintosh (7.1 or later) or one of the following emulators:

Mini vMac - Runs MacOS 1.1-7.5.5, emulates a black and white Motorola 68K based Mac Plus

Basilisk II - Runs MacOS 7.x-8.1, emulates later color Motorola 68k based Macs.

Catalina cache cleaner 15 04. SheepShaver - Runs MacOS 7.5.2-9.0.4, emulates a Power PC based Macintosh.

Screenshots

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Release notes

An interim catchup release in the wake of Windows 95, bundling some extra desk accessories, more hardware support, and new APIs such as the modernized Open Transport.

Installation instructions

Note: Some of these CD images are actually hard disk volumes. You can mount those in an emulator, or some older CD burning programs know how to write them as a CD/ISO.

7.5.5 is the last supported version on Mac Plus, XL, Mac II, IIx, LC, IIcx, and SE/30, or anything with less than 68030 and 32-bit clean ROM.

The Mac is dead…long live the Mac!

Last week marked two major shifts in Apple’s personal computing platform: the introduction of Macs built around Apple’s own custom silicon, and the launch of Big Sur, the latest update to the venerable macOS operating system.

And of course, while we want to enjoy the here and now of these latest changes—and, probably, carp a little bit about the things that we don’t like—it’s also worth it to look at the path forward from here: the reverse trail of breadcrumbs laid out and leading, not back to where we came from, but on to the future.

Take the A14 to the M1

Apple’s claims about the performance of its debut Mac processor, the M1, have been met with equal parts amazement and skepticism. As is hardly surprising for a company as versed in marketing as Apple, the graphs and figures promised blockbuster improvements on not only the company’s earlier Macs, but also curves that outstrip much of the PC market. (After all, why make the change if it’s not significant?)

Those claims will be put to the test soon enough, and though I’m relatively confident that Apple isn’t going to brag about improvements that it can’t back up, there will certainly be places where the new Macs do better than others.

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That said, even early numbers have pointed to these being jaw-dropping speed increases, of the kind that only come along once in a while. And it’s worth thinking about where the Mac goes from here: as my colleague Jason Snell pointed out, this is just the first chip in a whole family, and Apple’s only targeted its lower-end consumer Macs so far.

One advantage to those of us in the prognostication business is that the Mac’s roadmap is a little more predictable now. We’ve seen the kinds of improvements the company makes year after year to the iPhone and the iPad, the constant iteration of its processors, the gains it makes year over year in performance, graphics, machine learning, and so on. The Mac has hopped on that same treadmill, no longer bound to a third party’s schedule, and with results like those, there’s a reason it’s never getting off.

Go Big Sur or go home

In the nineteen years since Apple launched Mac OS X—more than half the platform’s life. now—the company has issued more than a dozen major software releases. Sometimes they’ve been hugely significant, other times they’ve felt more modest. But, in many ways, Big Sur seems like the most important update since that initial Aqua interface arrived to replace the classic Mac OS.

Design is a big part of that, because it’s something that Apple spends a lot of time on. There have been refinements of the macOS interface over the last two decades years, but it’s often felt more gradual. This time around, Apple seems determined to make everything old new again—perhaps indiscriminately, at times.

But this too is patently Apple. The company has always enforced a top-down approach to the look, feel, and behavior of its operating system, and its users, for the most part, trust the company to make good decisions. Sometimes missteps happen, and they get reeled back, and that too is likely to happen with Big Sur, though don’t expect the big changes to get reversed: this is Apple charting the course for its personal computing operating system for the foreseeable future. No, the Mac and iOS are still not destined to become one and the same, but the company is clearly looking to make them feel even more strongly related than they already do: not just from the same clan, but from the same immediate family.

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Theseus statement

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At this point, the Mac is like the fabled ship of Theseus. Slowly upgraded over the last 36 years, seeing replacements in processor architectures, underlying software, and pretty much every other component, it’s somehow both instantly recognizable as the same device that appeared on a stage with Steve Jobs in 1984…and yet also completely different.

And that speaks to a larger point of the Mac: it’s not just a product, it’s an ideal. In the same way that every new iPhone seems like it gets closer to some platonic concept of “the smartphone,” the progression of the Mac shows it approaching that fundamental core of what personal computing means. It might seem like the company should have made even more progress as the Mac nears the 40-year mark, but this curve is asymptotic, and I doubt that anyone at the company will ever conclude that the current version is perfect and can never be improved.

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This is just what Phil Schiller meant when he said, more than half a decade ago now, that “The Mac keeps going forever.” Come whatever processor architecture, whichever form factors, and any software underpinning that may, the Mac’s work is never done, its watch never ended. The Mac you knew may be gone, but there’s always another just like it around the corner.