Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Developers talk up Mac OS X 10.3.8 enhancements

Apple developers claim a forthcoming update to Panther will improve overall stability and deliver a new version of the Mac OS X kernel.

In an unmoderated internet-based developer chat room on Thursday, Apple developers fueled rumors of a successive update to Apple Computer\'s Mac OS X 10.3 \"Panther\" operating system.

Rumored to have been released to some Apple developers this week, Mac OS X 10.3.8 will be one of the final updates to the Panther OS, according to developers. The release will reportedly deliver improvements to the Mac OS X graphics sub-system, especially OpenGL intensive apps games. Overall system reliability will also see fortification, they said.

More specifically, developers said the system update would improved Quartz 2D Extreme performance on PCI devices and deliver a new version of the Mac OS X kernel, said to be 7.8.0. The most recent release of Panther — Mac OS X 10.3.7 — includes kernel version 7.7.0.

The Panther update is also expected to repair performance bugs associated with Nvidia graphics and OpenGL.

Developers say the software, which reportedly weighs in at just shy of 19MB, is slated to debut next month and may boast support for new hardware offerings that may come to market around the same time.