OS X is the operating system that powers every Mac. Built on a rock-solid UNIX foundation, it’s engineered to take full advantage of what the hardware is capable of. It’s designed to be as easy to use as it is beautiful to look at. It comes with an amazing collection of apps you’ll use — and love — every day. And it enables your Mac and iOS devices to work wonderfully together.
Easy to learn. Easy to use.
On a Mac, it’s easy to find, share, and do just about everything. You can control your Mac with simple, intuitive gestures. The Dock lets you launch your favorite apps with a click. Launchpad gives you quick access to your full library of apps. The Finder lets you browse and organize your files on your Mac and in iCloud with ease. Spotlight search makes locating documents, launching apps, and looking up information effortless.1 You can even have your apps and the operating system software update automatically. In fact, a Mac does so many things automatically, sometimes you don’t have to do anything at all.
Every detail considered. And reconsidered.
Over the years, OS X has changed in many ways. But the principles that define it haven’t: power, simplicity, beauty. Across-the-board refinements have made OS X El Capitan even more powerful and easier to use, while maintaining the elements essential to Mac. As with every Apple product, each detail is obsessed over: from the distinctive icons in the Dock to the streamlined toolbars to the fluidity of navigating everything from photos to web pages. Because when it comes to a great experience, the difference is in the details.
Control your Mac with a click, swipe, or press.
The Multi-Touch trackpad unique to the Mac makes gestures easy and smooth — so using your fingers to tap, scroll, pinch, and swipe feels perfectly natural. These Multi-Touch gestures are a fundamental part of your experience, which makes everything you do on your Mac simple, intuitive, and fun. And with the Force Touch trackpad on the new MacBook and MacBook Pro with Retina display, you can now unlock even more ways to interact with your Mac — right from your fingertips.
Two-finger swipe to navigate
Using two fingers, brush left and right along the trackpad to navigate forward and back in Safari.
Pinch to zoom
Zoom in and out of photos and web pages by moving your thumb and finger in a pinch gesture.
Three-finger swipe
Swipe three fingers to move between desktops and full-screen apps.
Three-finger swipe up for Mission Control
Swipe three fingers up on the trackpad to get a bird’s-eye view of everything running on your Mac.
Force click
Adding a little more pressure to a click enables new capabilities — Force click a word to learn the definition, an address to reveal a map, a link to preview a web page, and more.
Software and hardware
made for each other.
OS X is built to bring out the best in your Mac, so you get a fully integrated system in which everything works together seamlessly. It works with the processor and graphics controller in your Mac to deliver the best possible performance. It works with the super-responsive trackpad in Mac notebooks so Multi-Touch gestures feel natural to use. OS X even keeps your Mac up to date while it sleeps.2 Advanced power-saving technologies help extend battery life. And in OS X El Capitan, new system fonts are designed to look crisp and vivid on high-resolution Retina displays.
Amazing apps for everyday things.
With every new Mac, you get a collection of powerful productivity and creativity apps: Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Photos, iMovie, and GarageBand. And you get more great apps for the things you do every day: surf the web, make video calls, send messages, get driving directions, manage your contacts, access your email, and more. If you already use an iPhone or iPad, they’ll feel instantly familiar. Because they’re native apps — not web apps in a browser — they also take full advantage of the power of your Mac to deliver the fastest possible performance. And with the Mac App Store built in, it’s easy to find even more great apps.
Built for power. From the ground up.
Making powerful things simple requires some seriously advanced technologies. OS X is loaded with them. It’s built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability and industry-leading support for Internet standards. OS X takes full advantage of the multicore Intel processors and fast flash storage in your Mac to make quick work of any task. And the incredible graphics capabilities in OS X supply applications like Final Cut Pro with impressive power.
If you use an iPhone, you’ll love what you can do with a Mac.
A Mac will work with your iPhone in ways no other computer can. You can make and receive iPhone calls on your Mac, even if your iPhone is in another room. Send and receive both iMessage and SMS text messages on your Mac. Start an email, document, or browsing session on one device and instantly pick it up on another. And turn on the Personal Hotspot on your iPhone right from your Mac so you can get online in an instant.
iCloud. Everything you love, everywhere you go.
With iCloud, your data is kept up to date on all your devices.4 So a contact or a calendar event you add on your iPhone also appears on your Mac. You can send driving directions from your Mac to your iPhone. Add a meeting to your calendar on your Mac and receive an alert on your iPad. Even start a Messages conversation on your iPhone and finish it on your Mac. If you’re an Apple Music member, your entire library lives in the cloud, so you can always access all your music without it taking up any space on your devices. And iCloud Drive lets you access all your documents on your Mac and iOS devices and even on a PC. So your files will go wherever you do.