Until 2016, Apple's flagship operating system was known as OS X, with the “X” representing the Roman numeral for 10. The original OS X, Cheetah, was rough around the edges, and it wasn't really until Panther (10.3) that things took off. Tiger (10.4) introduced many of the features Mac users take for granted today.
Until Snow Leopard (10.6), OS X supported PowerPC Macs. Leopard is the newest OS X release that will run on PowerPC Macs. It doesn't support G3 processors, so your older hardware will probably be most useful on Tiger (10.4).
Data retrieved from Apple on Sept 17, 20221).
Release Name | Version |
---|---|
OS X El Capitan | 10.11.6 |
OS X Yosemite | 10.10.5 |
OS X Mavericks | 10.9.5 |
OS X Mountain Lion | 10.8.5 |
OS X Lion | 10.7.5 |
OS X Snow Leopard | 10.6.8 |
OS X Leopard | 10.5.8 |
OS X Tiger | 10.4.11 |
OS X Panther | 10.3.9 |
OS X Jaguar | 10.2.8 |
OS X Puma | 10.1.5 |
OS X Cheetah | 10.0.4 |