John Siracusa

These days, it's easy to take Mac OS X for granted. Sure, we all love our Macs and the applications we use. But what has the operating system done for us lately? Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was released a year and a half ago, but most of its changes were under the hood. The last release to include significant user interface enhancements was Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which is now more than three years old.

If Mac OS X has seemed neglected lately, it probably has a lot to do with iOS hogging all of Apple's attention. Since Leopard's release, iOS has gone through four major revisions, each bringing important new features to iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.

These days, it's easy to take Mac OS X for granted. Sure, we all love our Macs and the applications we use. But what has the operating system done for us lately? Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was released a year and a half ago, but most of its changes were under the hood. The last release to include significant user interface enhancements was Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which is now more than three years old.

If Mac OS X has seemed neglected lately, it probably has a lot to do with iOS hogging all of Apple's attention. Since Leopard's release, iOS has gone through four major revisions, each bringing important new features to iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.

Until a few months ago, I fully expected Apple to announce Mac OS X 10.7 at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference. But when I saw that there was no Mac-specific track on the conference schedule and that Mac apps would be excluded from the annual Apple Design Awards, I got the message loud and clear: iOS and the products it powers--the iPhone, iPod touch, and now the iPad--are now the stars of Apple's software show. Mac OS X, last updated a year ago, now plays second fiddle.

OS X's last major release, Snow Leopard, included internal changes, bug fixes, and performance improvements, but very few new features that were visible to users. Could it be that Apple thinks there's just nothing left to add to Mac OS X? I sure hope not, because I have plenty of ideas. Here are just two of them, one concrete and the other more fanciful.

Editor's Note: All work and no play would make the Mac a dull platform for these last 25 years. We asked John Siracusa of Ars Technica to give his list of the five greatest Mac games.

A "Mac game" is a game that's some combination of first, best, or only on the Mac. Such games are rare these days. Many of the classics required dexterity and dedication well beyond that demanded by today's crop of mass-market video games. Here are the best of a bygone era.

Editor's Note: What's more iconic than icons? John Siracusa of Ars Technica weighs in with his four favorite Mac icons of all time.

Finder

As long as there have been TV set-top boxes, users have clamored for Apple to create one.

Almost 15 years ago, Apple did design an Apple Interactive Television Box, but it never emerged from the prototype stage. Ten years ago, a project code-named Columbus was rumored to be a set-top box but turned out to be the iMac; it was hard to be disappointed.

As long as there have been TV set-top boxes, users have clamored for Apple to create one.

Almost 15 years ago, Apple did design an Apple Interactive Television Box, but it never emerged from the prototype stage. Ten years ago, a project code-named Columbus was rumored to be a set-top box but turned out to be the iMac; it was hard to be disappointed.