Apple developers asked to test Mac OS X 10.4.10 broadly
A tenth and presumably final update to Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system is reported to have hit the widespread testing phase, placing within its cross-hairs nearly all of the system's most vital components.
Over the weekend, MacRumors reported on the release of the first pre-release builds of the software to developers. According to the rumor site, the two distinct software seeds carry build number 8R2205 (for the Intel version) and 8R205 (for the PowerPC version).
People who claim to be familiar with the test releases have noted on various web outlets that builds presently do not contain any outstanding issues. That should come as no surprise, as Apple is no longer adding feature enhancements to Tiger through its incremental maintenance updates.
Instead, the company is striving solely to stabilize and optimize the system ahead of Leopard, its next generation OS due out this October. As part of the effort, Mac OS X 10.4.10 in its early stages is said to target loose ends in over four dozen of Tiger's system components.
Those claiming to be familiar with Mac OS X 10.4.10 have singled out disc recording and mass storage operability as some of the focal points of the software. Meanwhile, others add that the Tiger update will also strengthen AirPort wireless software, graphics drivers, USB and FireWire.
Among the improvements reported to have been rolled into the initial builds are bug fixes for network directories and JavaScript.
The update is expected to arrive free-of-charge for owners of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger sometime later this year.
39 Comments
The bigger news is how soul-crushing this will be for those who argue x.x.10 releases aren't possible.
The update is expected to arrive free-of-charge for owners of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger sometime later this year.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Did anyone really expect Apple to charge for a sub-version update?
The bigger news is how soul-crushing this will be for those who argue x.x.10 releases aren't possible.
That's why I think people should not say "never".
I'm especially happy to see graphics drivers as an area of improvement; hopefully this will fix the ocassional kernel panics and lockups I'm seeing while running Second Life.
Another looooooooooooooong-standing issue that I hope they fix someday is the system getting into a hosed state when mounted network shares "go away" for whatever reason. The timeout on network shares is *way* too long and I shouldn't have to reboot just because I slept my laptop while connected to an afp share, then woke it up on another network.
Hopefully they get this and other minor issues fixed.
That's why I think people should not say "never".
Are you saying we should never say "never"?