Apple to Declare Mac OS X Panther Gold Master

An anonymous submission to AppleInsider claims that Mac OS X 10.3 will indeed ship this month and that build 7B86 will be declared the Gold Master, if 7B85 has not assumed that role already. A second — unconfirmed report — states that 7B85 is indeed the final product and that it will be the version forwarded for duplication.

Apple was actively seeding daily builds of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther until a couple of days ago, when the seedings seemingly halted at build 7B85.

All system components, as of build 7B85, reflect final status. Only Boot ROMs remain in the final candidate stage. However, it is customary for Apple to release systems to the public with these ROMs in such a state.

Additionally, depending on geographical location, it seems that both the October 24th date reported by MacRumors.com and the October 25th date reported by AppleInsider sources, are of accuracy.

Stay tuned for further updates.