-Mac+vs+PC+vs+Lynix

Macintosh, commonly known as Mac, is a [|brand name] which covers several lines of [|personal computers] designed, developed, and marketed by [|Apple Inc.] Named after the [|McIntosh] variety of apple, the [|original Macintosh] was released on [|January 24], [|1984]. It used a [|graphical user interface] (GUI) and [|mouse] instead of the then-standard [|command line interface]. The current range of Macs varies from Apple's entry level [|Mac mini] [|desktop], to a mid-range server, the [|Xserve]. Mac systems are mainly targeted at the home, education, and creative professional markets. Production of the Mac is based upon a [|vertical integration] model in that Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system that is pre-installed on all Macs. This is in contrast to most [|IBM compatible PCs], where one vendor provides the operating system and multiple vendors create the hardware. In both cases, the hardware can run other operating systems; modern Macs, like other PCs, are capable of running operating systems such as [|Linux], [|FreeBSD], [|Windows], etc. Original Macintosh computers used the [|Motorola] [|68k] family of [|microprocessors], but later models switched to [|Motorola] and [|IBM]'s [|PowerPC] range of [|CPUs] in 1994. Apple began a transition from the PowerPC line to [|Intel]'s [|x86 architecture] in 2006, which for the first time allowed Macs to run native operating system binaries for the x86 architecture. Current Macs use the [|Intel Core 2] and [|Intel Xeon] 5100 series microprocessors. All current Mac models come pre-installed with a native version of the latest [|Mac OS X], which is currently at [|version 10.4.10] and is commonly referred to by its code name of "Tiger". Apple has announced that [|Mac OS X v10.5], codenamed "Leopard", is set to be released in October of [|2007].