OS X 10.11 El Capitan

Apple introduced OS X El Capitan 10.11 and its developer preview on June 8, 2015. The September 29 release announced the free update for September 30; Apple's security archive records 10.11's release on September 30. This separates the previous day's promise from the publication record.

Original typographic card; not a historical screenshot.

Family: OS X
Version: 10.11
Minimum RAM: 2 GB
Historical US price: US$0

Apple · El Capitan · 2015-06-08 · Apple · El Capitan · 2015-09-29 · Apple · Security archive · 2015

El Capitan refined Yosemite's window management: Mission Control arranged windows in one layer and Split View placed two apps side by side in full screen. Spotlight gained natural-language searches and an adjustable window. Safari added pinned sites and an audio mute control; Notes added checklists, attachments and an attachment browser.

Apple · El Capitan · 2015-06-08 · Apple · El Capitan · 2015-09-29

Metal reached the Mac with a smaller supported-hardware list than the system itself, such as MacBook Pro from Mid 2012 and iMac from Late 2012. Apple's test figures are not applied to every computer. System Integrity Protection debuted in El Capitan, restricting root's actions on protected files and folders; it did not prohibit changes across the entire disk.

Apple · El Capitan · 2015-06-08 · Apple · El Capitan · Technical specifications · Apple · System Integrity Protection

General requirements were OS X 10.6.8 or later, 2 GB of memory and 8.8 GB free, plus a compatible model from the official list. These included MacBook Pro from Mid/Late 2007 and Xserve Early 2009. The archive dates 10.11.1 to October 21, 2015, while the 10.11.6 advisory records July 18, 2016. These are selected milestones, without build numbers.

Apple · El Capitan · Technical specifications · Apple · Security archive · 2015 · Apple · 10.11.6 · 2016-07-18