Mac OS X turns ten this week. That's ten years since the first public release of the jewel in the crown that signifies Apple's rise from the brink of death with a modern and "revolutionary" clean slate. But it wasn't the first time a piece of Apple software saved the company -- that honour goes to the original Macintosh operating system: System 1.0. Read on to learn how Apple changed its fortunes and revolutionised computing back when the terms GUI and mouse were foreign concepts.

The core of the Macintosh experience was never the attractive industrial design, the sense of superiority, or the use of a strange one-button mouse -- although those elements were vitally important. From the very beginning, even before the first Mac hit the market in 1984, right through to the latest iMac or Macbook models, the Macintosh was about providing the most accessible and intuitive interaction possible between humans and computers.

Computers should be easy to use, with user interfaces that Jack and Jill Smith who just walked in off the street can use comfortably with almost no instruction. Gestures, not typed commands; desktops, buttons, and icons -- not command lines, carriage returns, and terminals -- have clear analogies to things from everyday life that people without a degree in computer science can understand. This is at the heart of the Apple philosophy, as it has existed since that fateful trip to the Xerox labs in December 1979.

Apple has released the Magic Trackpad, a multi-touch trackpad designed for use on desktop computers. It has a size and profile that matches Apple’s most recent keyboards. Priced at US$69, many have labelled the device too expensive, while others wonder if it is the beginning of a paradigm shift away from mouse input. Check out the MacScene forum thread for the community’s take, and see the official product page for more information.

Valve plans to give away some of their code for OpenGL on the Mac in order to accelerate and motivate further development of Mac versions of Steam games. They claim that this will eliminate the “real hard work” in putting games on the Mac.

Apple announced an update to the iMac line, with speed bumps and a move to discrete graphics cards across all models. They also introduced a new Mac Pro line that promises “up to 50 percent greater performance,” and a 27-inch LED Cinema Display, which will replace the existing 24-inch and 30-inch models. The new Mac Pros will be available “in August” while the Cinema Display is set for a September release.

Apple’s Q3 earnings revealed that the Mac is growing in popularity, despite the recent focus on iOS devices. The iPad has already sold more than 3 million units. The iPhone 4 sold over 8 million units despite its much-publicised antenna problems and limited international release.

Emulator updates after the break.

Leading digital distribution platform Steam finally made its way to the Mac on May 12, with around 50 launch games. The Mac Steam library now includes 96 titles, including newly released ports of Half-Life 2, Torchlight, and Portal. Check out the MacScene community’s reaction here, here, and here, in addition to a Portal-specific thread here.

As proof of a drastically changing tech landscape, Apple’s market capitalisation surpassed that of Microsoft last week, making it the largest technology company in the world. This marks one of the most incredible turnarounds in any company’s history, with Apple having been all but dead back in 1997, when Steve Jobs returned as CEO. Don’t celebrate too soon, though, because the happy folks at Microsoft are still way ahead on revenue.

In exciting news for Amiga fans, a new emulator called PUAE has been released. PUAE merges Richard Drummond’s E-UAE 0.8.29 with the latest version of WinUAE, and is available for Unix-based platforms. You can download the latest version from here, or check out Ultimate Amiga for more information.

When Windows 95 came out, I didn’t care. Sure, I was just a kid, but I could clearly see that it was inferior to System 7.5.5. Years later I learned this isn’t strictly true -- although the feature gap was almost non-existent (despite what Windows’ marketing suggested), they each possessed different strengths and weaknesses. But all I saw was an ugly interface, a continued reliance on the dated DOS back-end, and the infamous blue screen of death. And games still looked better on the Mac, even with the aging hardware.

It was like a window to another dimension, where somehow everything bad reigned supreme over all that is good. I didn’t like it. I wanted to close the shutters and pretend there was no other dimension. But there was no escaping Windows, and I soon came to terms with my aversion for the OS, thanks in large part to a game called Civilization II and a little thing called the Internet.