Mac OS X Jaguar (version 10.2) is the third major release of

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

, Apple's desktop and server

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

. It superseded Mac OS X 10.1 and preceded

Mac OS X Panther Mac OS X Panther (version 10.3) is the fourth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X Jaguar and preceded Mac OS X Tiger. It was released on October 24, 2003. System requirements Panther's s ...

. The operating system was released on August 23, 2002 either for single-computer installations, and in a "family pack," which allowed five installations on separate computers in one household. Jaguar was the first Mac OS X release to publicly use its

code name A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...

in marketing and advertisements.

System requirements

Mac OS X Jaguar required a PowerPC G3 or G4

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...

and 128 MB of RAM. Special builds were released for the first PowerPC G5 systems released by Apple.

New and changed features

Jaguar introduced many new features to Mac OS X, which are still supported to this day, including

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...

support in

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is a ...

Address Book An address book or a name and address book is a book, or a database used for storing entries called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields (for example: first name, last name, company name, address An addres ...

, and Inkwell for handwriting recognition. It also included the first release of Apple's

Zeroconf Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require ma ...

implementation, Rendezvous (later renamed to Bonjour), which allows devices on the same network to automatically discover each other and offer available services, such as

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...

, shared scanners, and printers, to the user. Mac OS X Jaguar Server 10.2.2 added journaling to

HFS Plus HFS Plus or HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Extended) is a journaling file system developed by Apple Inc. It replaced the Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS ...

, the native Macintosh file system, to add increased reliability and data recovery features. This was later added to the standard Mac OS X in version 10.3 Panther. Jaguar saw the debut of

Quartz Extreme Quartz Compositor is the display server (and at the same time the compositing window manager) in macOS. It is responsible for presenting and maintaining rasterized, rendered graphics from the rest of the Core Graphics framework and other rend ...

, a technology used to composite graphics directly on the

video card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer mo ...

, without the use of software to composite windows. The technology allotted the task of drawing the 3D surface of windows to the video card, rather than to the CPU, to increase interface responsiveness and performance.

Universal Access Apple Universal Access is a component of the macOS operating system that provides computing abilities to people with visual impairment, hearing impairment, or physical disability. Components Universal Access is a preference pane of the Syst ...

was added to allow the Macintosh to be usable by disabled computer users. The user interface of Jaguar was also amended to add search features to the

Finder Finder may refer to: * Finder (surname) * Finder (software), part of the Apple Macintosh operating system * ''Finder'' (comics), a comic book series by Carla Speed McNeil * ''Finder'' (novel), a 1994 novel by Emma Bull * Finder Wyvernspur, a fi ...

using the updated Sherlock 3. Internally, Jaguar also added the

Common Unix Printing System CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular computer printer, printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a Server (computi ...

(also known as CUPS), a modular printing system for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

, and improved support for Microsoft Windows networks using the open-source

Samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

as a server for the SMB remote file access protocol and a FreeBSD-derived

virtual file system A virtual file system (VFS) or virtual filesystem switch is an abstract layer on top of a more concrete file system. The purpose of a VFS is to allow client applications to access different types of concrete file systems in a uniform way. A VFS ...

module as a client for SMB. The famous

Happy Mac The classic Macintosh startup sequence includes hardware tests which may trigger the startup chime, Happy Mac, Sad Mac, and Chimes of Death. On Macs running macOS Big Sur or later the startup sound is enabled by default, but can be disabled by ...

that had greeted Mac users for almost 18 years during the Macintosh startup sequence was replaced with a large grey Apple logo with the introduction of Mac OS X Jaguar.

Marketing

Unlike Mac OS X 10.1, Jaguar was a paid upgrade, costing $129. In October 2002, Apple offered free copies of Jaguar to all U.S K-12 teachers as part of the "X For Teachers" program. Teachers who wanted to get a copy simply had to fill out a form and a packet containing Mac OS X installation discs and manuals was shipped to the school where they worked. Jaguar marked the first Mac OS X release which publicly used its code name as both a marketing ploy and as an official reference to the operating system. To that effect, Apple replaced the packaging for Mac OS X with a new

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

-themed box, with

computer-generated Computer-generated usually refers to a sound or visual that has been created in whole or in part with the aid of computer software or computer hardware. Computer-generated may refer to: * Computer animation * Computer art * Computer graphics * C ...

jaguar fur designed by animation studio

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

. Starting with Jaguar, Mac OS X releases were given a

feline Feline may refer to: Zoology * Loosely, Felidae, a member of the cat family, which includes the subfamilies Pantherinae and Felinae (conventionally designated a felid) ** Following the taxonomic convention, Felinae, the subfamily of Felidae that ...

-related marketing name upon announcement until the introduction of

OS X Mavericks OS X Mavericks (version 10.9) is the 10th major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mavericks was announced on June 10, 2013, at WWDC 2013, and was released on October 22, 2013, ...

in June 2013, at which point releases began to be named after locations in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, where Apple is headquartered. Mac OS X (rebranded as OS X in 2012 and later macOS in 2016) releases are now also referred to by their marketing name, in addition to version numbers.

Release history

Mac OS X 10.2.7 (codenames Blackrider, Smeagol) was only available to the new

Power Mac G5 The Power Mac G5 is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 2003 to 2006 as part of the Power Mac series. When introduced, it was the most powerful computer in Apple's Macintosh lineup, and ...

s and aluminum

PowerBook G4 The PowerBook G4 is a series of notebook computers manufactured, marketed, and sold by Apple Computer between 2001 and 2006 as part of its PowerBook line of notebooks. The PowerBook G4 runs on the RISC-based PowerPC G4 processor, designed by th ...

s released before

. Officially, it was never released to the general public. Mac OS X 10.2.8 is the last version of Mac OS X officially supported on the " Beige G3" desktop, minitower, and all-in-one systems as well as the

PowerBook G3 The PowerBook G3 is a series of laptop Macintosh personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1997 to 2001. It was the first laptop to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC740/750) series of microprocessors, and was marketed as ...

Series (1998) also known as Wallstreet/PDQ; though later releases can be run on such Macs with the help of unofficial, unlicensed, and unsupported third-party tools such as

XPostFacto {{Rewrite, date=June 2022 XPostFacto is an open source utility that enables the installation of PowerPC versions of Mac OS X up to Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger), and Darwin on some PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh systems that are not officially supported f ...

Timeline

References

External links

Mac OS X v10.2 review
at

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sc ...

* from apple.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Os X V10.2 2 PowerPC operating systems 2002 software Computer-related introductions in 2002