OS X Mountain Lion Is Released

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8) on July 25, 2012 at $19.99 — the first time a Mac OS X release had been priced below $29, and the lowest price Apple had charged for a Mac OS release. Mountain Lion was distributed exclusively through the Mac App Store, requiring OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or later and an Apple ID, continuing the App Store-only OS distribution model Apple had introduced with Lion (10.7) in 2011. The release brought more than 200 features from iOS to the Mac, completing a deliberate convergence of the two operating system families that Apple had been pursuing since Lion. Messages replaced iChat: the new app combined the older AIM/Yahoo/Jabber protocols (iChat’s capabilities) with iMessage — Apple’s end-to-end encrypted messaging system introduced in iOS 5 (October 2011) — allowing Mac users to send messages to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users over data rather than SMS, with message delivery and read receipts. Notification Center (pulled directly from iOS 5’s design) arrived in the top-right corner of the Mac desktop: applications registered notifications that appeared as banners or alerts, collected in a notification sidebar revealed by swiping from the right edge of the trackpad. Reminders and Notes (both iOS 5 additions) arrived as separate Mac applications, syncing via iCloud. Game Center, Airplay Mirroring (mirror the Mac screen wirelessly to an Apple TV 2nd generation or later), Twitter integration in system-wide share sheets, and Facebook integration followed.

Gatekeeper was the most security-significant addition. Before Gatekeeper, macOS applied no application-level controls on downloaded software beyond user password prompts for system-level installation. Gatekeeper offered three settings in System Preferences → Security & Privacy: Mac App Store only (only MAS-sandboxed apps could run), Mac App Store and identified developers (Apple Developer ID-signed apps from outside the MAS could run), and Anywhere (no code-signing requirement). “Identified developers” were registered Apple Developer Program members who had paid $99/year for a Developer ID certificate used to digitally sign their applications — Apple could revoke a Developer ID (remotely disabling all apps signed with it) if a developer was found distributing malware. The Mac App Store pathway required full sandboxing (apps declared which capabilities — file system access, microphone, camera, network access — were approved), while Developer ID apps were signed but not sandboxed by default. Mountain Lion’s default was “Mac App Store and identified developers,” balancing security (no casual unsigned malware) with openness (any legitimate developer could distribute directly). macOS Catalina (2019) later added notarization as a mandatory requirement for Developer ID apps (Apple scan for known malware before issuing the notarization receipt), further tightening the trust chain without requiring MAS distribution.

OS X Mountain Lion also added Document Versions (Time Machine-like automatic snapshots of documents in iWork and TextEdit, browsable via a Time Machine-style interface), Power Nap (updating Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Notes from iCloud while the Mac slept, using only enough power to communicate with Wi-Fi), and Safari 6 (Reader mode for article text, Shared Links sidebar aggregating Twitter links from people the user followed, Offline Reading List). Java was removed from the default installation (a deliberate security decision, as Java browser plugins were a common malware vector in 2012). Mountain Lion dropped support for Macs with 32-bit EFI firmware and Macs predating mid-2007, requiring 64-bit throughout. The $19.99 pricing, paired with App Store distribution and free app upgrades from Apple (iWork, iLife apps updated to Mountain Lion functionality at no charge), established the pattern of near-free or free OS upgrades that Apple made permanent with OS X Mavericks (free, October 2013) and all subsequent macOS releases.