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                                              MacOS X 10.1
                                  Thanks to Jason for the screen shots!

                  MacOS 9 was built on the foundation of the original MacOS released in
                  1984. MacOS X, however,  is a new operating system that is built on
                  the foundation of BSD Unix and incorporates some NeXT technology.
                  This change was made to eliminate many technical limitations of older
                  MacOS and in the process much of the user interface was revamped as
                  well.

                                Click on the images for larger versions.
                                             [osxloginsmall]

                  This screen shot shows the login screen. It displays a graphical list
                  of users that can login on this system. (Interestingly Windows XP
                  does something similar)

                  Being based on BSD Unix, MacOS X inherits many useful unix features
                  such as real security and user accounts.

                  This means that, for example, you can create a special account for
                  someone else to play games and don't have to worry about them
                  deleting system files, accessing your personal files, or changing
                  system setting.

                  This can be somewhat confusing to users who are used to having
                  complete control over their systems in earlier versions of MacOS. To
# GUIs            do things like install software you must be logged in as the
# Site News       Administrator. While this can be annoying it prevents users from
                  accidentally messing up their system or from malicious programs or
# Xerox           viruses that could otherwise infect the system. There is also a
# Visi On         hidden "root" account that has slightly more privileges than the
# GEM             Administrator,  but this is rarely needed.
# Deskmate
# GEOS                                    [osxdocoptionssmall]
# Desqview/X      The Dock holds icons for commonly used applications. Moving the mouse
# AmigaOS         over the icon displays the name of the icon.
# RISC OS
# BeOS                                       [osxminimized]
# QNX
# OS/2            The dock also holds icons for minimized windows. Instead of using an
# Apple           application icon, the icon is a thumbnail picture of the application
# Linux/Unix      window. The ability to minimize windows is new to MacOS X. The lack
# Windows         of this ability in previous versions stems from maintaining
# Win Shells      compatibility with the original Mac OS.
# Misc GUIs
                                              [osxbuttons]
# GUI Timeline
# GUI Sites       Each window has Close, Minimize and Maximize button on it. The "X",
[spacer]          "-", and "+" symbols only appear when the mouse moves over these
                  buttons. This behavior is to help reduce the appearance of desktop
                  clutter.

                                            [osxfolderssmall]

                  Finder windows can open in one of three different views. The standard
                  icon view, a detailed list view, or "column view". By default the new
                  finder browses in a single window, but can optionally browse in
                  multiple windows. A nice feature of this Finder is that unlike
                  certain other "modern" desktop / file managers, it is not a web
                  browser.

                  The column view is new to MacOS X and inherited from the NeXT user
                  interface. In column view, starting at the "computer level" each
                  subsequent folder is shown in a new column. The last column becomes a
                  preview window if a previewable file is selected.

                  One of the big changes in the MacOS X user interface (code named
                  Aqua) is the amount of "eye candy" used. "Eye candy" refers to
                  gradients, background patterns, animation, and transparency that
                  cause users to go "oooohhhh" and "ahhhhh" while providing no
                  technical function. However the average user seems to like "eye
                  candy" so including it helps boost sales.

                  In the above image you can see an example of transparency in the
                  title bars of the overlapping windows. Unfortunately animations
                  aren't quite as easy to show in plain screen shots.
                   

                   
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