Tuesday, December 14, 2004, 12:10 pm

Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update ready for release?

By Katie Marsal

Rumor has it that Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update, a forthcoming maintenance release for Apple Computer's Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" operating system, has been declared gold master.

According to developer chatter, earlier this week Apple provided its software developers with one more build of the system update, said to be Mac OS X 10.3.7 build 7S215.

The latest build reportedly fixes a bug in the software-based graphic driver, which should improve portable battery life.

Apple employees have worked diligently over the last month and a half to deliver the OS update--the final one of the year--prior to the holidays. It was only four weeks ago that the first developmental versions of the Mac OS X 10.3.7 began to surface outside the company.

The 25.5MB update will sport several key enhancements that will fortify the Panther operating system. Some of these enhancements include improved AFP support for saving documents with long file names, better FireWire device compatibility, and a revised version of OpenGL with updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers.

Developers also say the update will improve compatibility for third party applications and bundle an updated Preview application.

An official release of the software is now imminent, they added.