When Steve Jobs took back the leadership of Apple in the mid-1990s, many people thought that the company had had its day in the sun and was out for the count. But the visionary entrepreneur saw things differently. Even though Windows was the ubiquitous platform of the time, he saw an opportunity to turn things around at the company he had founded over two decades earlier, with an intuitive, user-friendly interface customers would love. 

In 2001, the company launched the new version of its Mac OS - one in a long line of updates that would follow. The first version, released in on March 24 of that year called Cheetah promised users a brand new interface that would make using a Mac a breeze. Indeed, that was the impression that the company wanted to sell. For too long, argued Jobs, people had struggled to use clunky Windows systems prone to crashes and general problems. He envisioned a new kind of OS built from the ground up that would allow people to do the things that they wanted to do, like work on presentations, play games, and browse the internet. Jobs wanted to put an end to the rigmarole involved in running a regular PC and finally give users a seamless experience. You shouldn’t have to be an expert to use a computer. 

The following evolution of Mac OS Versions infographic makes these improvements visible. You can see how Apple redefined the operating system, making it less a tool for engineers and more something that regular consumers could use with ease.