If an app becomes unresponsive and it isn't possible to quit in the normal way, macOS has an option to force the app to stop running and release the memory, as well as other resources that were being used. While the Mac is a solid computer, apps can still crash and need to be shut down. Related: Lock MacBook Shortcut: How To Quickly Secure A Mac That means Unix directly influenced a huge portion of the world's computers, leaving Microsoft's Windows OS as the rare exception. The freely available, collaborative, yet solid nature of Linux played a big part in it being chosen as the basis of Android and Chrome OS. Linux shares some of the free components of UNIX, replacing others to make this open-source software. iOS and iPadOS have similar underpinnings, as do many other computers. Reinvented as Mac OS X in 2001, this was a completely redesigned version of the Macintosh OS which used a variant of a Unix kernel known as BSD, an enterprise-grade OS designed for maximum reliability that can trace its origins as far back as 1960s.

Rather than allowing a wayward app to hold the resources it has claimed, possibly using memory and processor time, it should be shut down quickly so that the system can return to normal.Īpple's macOS is a very stable operating system (OS) likely owing to its origins. While errors like this don't happen often, the infrequency can make it harder to remember what to do to solve the issue when it arises. Apple allows MacBook notebooks and Mac desktops to quit an app even when it becomes non-responsive by using a 'Force Quit' option.

How to force close on mac os