macOS Archive

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Apple Macintosh computer.While the original Mac is certainly meager by today's standards, thereare few that would argue against its revolutionary status in the earlyyears of personal computing. In commemoration of that event, today also marks the launch of OfB MacFor.Biz, the new section of Open for Businessthat will cover the Mac in much the same way OfB covers GNU/Linux andBSD. In this premier piece, they will examine the latest Mac OS X, 10.3 "Panther," on two separate generations of Macintosh systems. Read more at MacFor.Biz.

This is the second part of Pudge's review of Mac OS X Server 10.3 on Slashdot.

This major revamp of Mac OS X swaps eye-candy for speed and a compelling feature-set, says APCMag in their review.

Apple has already proved it can deliver supercomputer technology with a cluster installation at Virginia Tech, so what does Xgrid bring to the table? In typical Apple fashion, Xgrid provides an easy-to-implement solution for two common problems in the scientific community: The lack of cheap computing power, and wasted cycles on unused desktops.

This document attempts to give a hacker over-friendly answer to the question "What is Mac OS X?".

Apple today previewed Xgrid, a computational clustering technology from Apple’s Advanced Computation Group (ACG). Xgrid helps scientists and others working in compute intensive environments to fully utilize all IT resources, including desktops and servers, by creating a grid enabled "virtual" IT environment that takes advantage of unused computing capacity to run batch and workload processing.

"One of the problems of computer security in practice is providing an easy mechanism for the user of a system to take advantage of the security features present in an operating system. A system may have significant security features, but absent an interface that allows the user to easily make use of those features the effective security of the system may be low." Read the interesting PDF article at Sans.org.

Apple Computer has issued a security update that, among other fixes, closes a hole in Mac OS X that could have allowed hackers to take control of a computer under particular circumstances.

MacMinute reports that Apple has released Xcode 1.1, an update to its set of powerful developer tools for Mac OS X. Version 1.1 provides overall stability and performance enhancements to Xcode IDE, as well as improvements to debugging, workflow, the Xcode build system and CodeSense. Apple recommends that all Xcode users install this update. Xcode 1.1 is available via the Software Update preference pane. Apple also released today iTunes 4.2 and QuickTime 6.5.

The 10.3.2 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.

A small community of desktop "skinners" has sprung up around Unsanity's ShapeShifter, a utility for Mac OS X that allows the desktop interface to be customized in highly personal and sometimes strikingly beautiful ways. ShapeShifter, released earlier this month, is a $20 utility that can alter all the elements of the Mac OS X interface, including menus, windows, buttons and boxes.

The Pro App Runtime update for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther provides improvements for Apple's professional applications, and is strongly recommended for all users of Final Cut Pro, Cinema Tools, Compressor, LiveType, Soundtrack, and DVD Studio Pro. This update improves general user interface appearance and reliability and is required to receive future updates for these applications. It is available via the Software Update utility.

Apple on Friday seeded its Select and Premier Apple Developer Connection members with the latest builds of Mac OS X 10.3.2 Panther Server and Client. Both seeds carry build number 7D18 and weigh in at 52.8 and 35.7MB, respectively.

The Idea Basket has published a review of Panther targeted towards Switchers: "Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" finally fulfills the promise of the OS X product line by giving users a fast, stable, and easy-to-use environment in which to get their work and play done as quickly and efficiently as possible -- and still have fun to boot. Panther contains some of the most innovative and state-of-the-art technology available in any mainstream OS."