macOS Archive

At Macworld Conference & Expo, Microsoft Corp. announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Windows Media Player for MacOSX (6.1 MB). The new player has been Carbonized to run natively on MacOSX and displays the operating system's new Aqua interface. Windows Media Player for Mac OS X allows Mac users to easily enjoy playback of high-quality Windows Media Audio and Video content. The new release supports the latest Windows Media Audio 8 and Windows Media Video 8, as well as Windows Media Digital Rights Management, and is available in six languages worldwide. The new player features the new Aqua interface, which provides a look consistent with many other new Mac applications. Also, The OfficeX Test Drive (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage the e-mail application and personal information manager) has been released for MacOSX as a free download (122 MB). Inside the OfficeX Test Drive you’ll see how it combines several new and improved features with core MacOSX technologies.

Less than a month ago, the book publishers Addison Wesley released "Cocoa Programming for MacOSX," which covers the MacOSX RAD development tools, Objective-C and the Cocoa API in easy-to-follow lessons. Update: The author of the book was kind to direct us to the place where you can actually download the source code discussed in the book! Thanks Aaron.

Macslash.com reports that according to the Software Update readme, the 30.3 MB MacOSX upgrade brings the following: "The 10.1.2 update delivers improvements and new functionality, as well as expanded peripheral support for Mac OS X. Enhancements include: Updated and new USB and FireWire device support, including FireWire-based digital cameras, PC Card storage devices, including media readers, IrDA modem support for FireWire-based PowerBook models, Audio, Display, and Speech improvements, Networking and Printing improvements, AirPort v2.0, Apache web server v1.3.22, AppleScript v1.8". Update: Of the version that potentially will become 10.2 or 10.5, leaked screenshots have been released on the web.

"You expect a few surprises on a visit to the headquarters of Apple Computer Inc. But Jordan Hubbard? What's he doing here? The same thing he's been doing for the past decade: trying to take over the world. Or at least the part that uses desktop computers. Did you miss last week's column? Check the archive to stay up-to-date. Hubbard is one of the leaders of the open-source software movement, along with guys like the legendary Linus Torvalds, cocreator of Linux. Their goal is to supplant traditional software with powerful programs that come with raw computer code and programming tools, so skilled users can modify the software themselves." Read the interview with Jordan at Boston.com.

"Phil Schiller, Apple's VP of worldwide marketing, has gone on the record to suggest March as the date when new Macs ship with OS X as default. Macs have shipped with both the old and the new operating systems preloaded since May, but with OS 9.x as default, and Apple has been pretty cagey so far on even suggesting a date for the big switch." TheRegister reports.

A suite of programs that include AbiWord, Gnumeric and Gimp constitues the OpenOSX Office for MacOSX. The suite also installs XFree86 4.1.99.1, XDarwin 1.0.4, Ghostview 1.5, Oroborous Window Manager, ORBit 0.5.11, Gnome, Library 0.17, Bonobo 1.0.10, Glib 1.2.8, Libxml 1.8.14, GnomePrint 0.31, and DYLib. The CD costs $30 USD.

"This is the third and final installment of my MacOSX 10.1 saga. For six weeks now, I have attempted to use 10.1 exclusively during my workday. When I first embarked on this adventure, I knew it would take several weeks to thoroughly test-run the new OS. In part two of my empirical extravaganza, I revealed software that I've found indispensable under 10.1, and admitted that I cheat daily by rebooting into 9.2.1 to perform backups. Now, I will present my final conclusions." Editorial by Stephan Somogyi.

"My fellow cheapskates, I feel for you. Really, I do. I know you want to upgrade to OS X but are racked with doubt. Is Apple's stunning new operating system really worth its $130 price tag? After all, that's enough to buy more than 10 different shareware versions of solitaire or keep yourself in beer and pizza for month." Read the rest of the editorial at BusinessWeek.

I went on and wrote a review about MacOSX 10.0.4 a month ago, but it was never finished as I had to fly to France for my own wedding. I came back and MacOSX 10.1 had been released. I scrapped completely the old text, as 10.1 brings some more speed and new features to the system, and restarted writting the review from scratch.

Apple has released a binary snapshot of Darwin, the core OS of Mac OS X. Darwin 1.4.1 brings the snapshots to the level of OS X 10.1. For the first time, bootable CD images are available, for both PowerPC and Intel. Details are here.

A PC World article says that all indications point to Apple releasing OS X 10.1 this month, as promised. The article covers some of the shortcomings that users dealt with in the 10.0 release, and how they've been addressed with 10.1. The article also mentions that Microsoft Office for OS X is expected in November. Update: A news.com article has more details, and reports that current Mac OS X users will be able to obtain the upgrade CD at no cost from Apple dealers and Apple retail stores. Apple had originally said it would charge $20 for the upgrade.