macOS Archive

After years of backing only one format in the recordable DVD format war, Apple Computer is adding limited support of a rival format into its operating system.

Macdevcenter has an overview of the features and benefits of Mac OS X 10.3. The essential question is asks is "Should I upgrade?" and it answers "yes."

Apple yesterday seeded a new build of the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update, providing build 6R73 to developers. "This build addresses some issues found in the last seed," Apple told testers. 10.2.8 was released last month but was pulled quickly due to some problems it introduced to some users. Update: The new build is now available via Software Update.

A number of Mac news sites are citing insider information and claim that Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (version 7B85 or 6) has reached Golden Master status and is heading for duplication.

BlogD features a preview article of the upcoming Mac OS X Panther 10.3. Elsewhere, PathFinder 3.0 was released. PathFinder is a very interesting and innovative alternative to OSX Finder file manager.

Mac OS X 10.2.8 apparently pulled Mac OS X 10.2.8 has disappeared from Apple's Web Servers, and is no longer available via the automatic Software Update function. The update created a number of problems to some users.

Apple seeded build 7B74 of Mac OS X 10.3, Panther, to developers and testers, ThinkSecret reports. The new build was posted to the Apple Developer Connection Web site late Saturday. Apple has determined which bugs will be fixed in the initial Panther release.

Apple today seeded build 7B68 of Mac OS X 10.3, Panther. The update was posted to the Apple Developer Connection Web site this afternoon in three segmented disk images. The company also posted build 7B68 of the Xcode development tools.

The company is doing wonderful things for programmer productivity. Now Apple is wooing developers in compelling ways as if it were trying to make up for the lost time. If only the IDE supported more languages, SDTimes says.

The Power Mac G5 computer is not supported for use with any version of Mac OS X Server 10.2, or any earlier version of Mac OS X Server. Mac OS X Server 10.3 will be supported on Power Mac G5 computers, Apple reported. Elsewhere, Unix users will be major beneficiaries of the upcoming 'Panther' version of OS X, Apple Computer told the AUUG conference.

Throughout the week, Apple has made number of software seeds to developers and testers. On Monday, Apple seeded build 6R50 of Mac OS X 10.2.7; on Tuesday, build 7B49 of Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" as well as Xcode; on Wednesday, build 6R50 of Mac OS X Server 10.2.7.

Popular Intel-PC emulation software VirtualPC will not run on the G5 Powermacs. Microsoft, the new VirtualPC owner, says that compatability will have to wait until the next full version of the software, a year away. In other news, FWB, the makers of once VirtualPC-rival RealPC, will not be porting their product to Mac OS X. The current management decries the former management's hyping "vaporware" by promising a new version of RealPC.

ThinkSecret reports that Apple is preparing updated iMacs and Powerbooks, while two new development seeds were also sent to beta testers.

It's been known for a while that the new Apple G5 machines would come out before the next major release of OS X, Panther, would be ready. It's confirmed today, though, that Apple will be releasing a new version of OS X with the G5, a version that has been "optimized to take advantage of the 64-bit technology in the Power Mac G5." "The kernel has been updated to take advantage of memory expansion and the vector libraries and math libraries have been optimized," said an Apple executive. "Any application that does dynamic linking to those libraries will get an automatic benefit without having to recompile."