14 DAY TRIAL // For well over a year now, speculation on which would come first - Mac OS X 10.4.10 or Leopard - made the subject of talk between Mac users. However, with the announcement that Leopard will be delayed until October, the speculation slowly died out as the logical conclusion was drawn. Now, it looks like the moment is finally here, as Apple prepares the latest, and probably last, update to Tiger.
At the end of last week, Apple released the first seed of Mac OS X 10.4.10 to developers. The pending update is a historic first, marking the first version of Mac OS X to see a ninth substantial update since its release.
According to the release notes that accompany builds 8R205 (PPC) and 8R2205 (Intel), the update will address issues with mds and network home directories, and an issue with the BSD Kernel. In addition, the PowerPC build corrects a problem with JavaScriptCore.
Apple is also likely to use this update to add support for any upcoming Macs, such as refreshed MacBook Pros and iMacs, which were originally intended to ship with the next-generation Leopard operating system. The multi-month Leopard delay means that these new systems will have to work in existing versions of Tiger. Furthermore, this update is also very likely to contain support for the iPhone, which will be shipping next month, well ahead of Leopard.
According to the release notes, there are no known issues with the current builds, but Apple is soliciting feedback from developers in about two dozen particular areas, from AirPort to FireWire to Screen Savers. So far, it is unclear when a public release of the Mac OS X 10.4.10 will become available, but it can't be longer than a month, simply because of the iPhone launch and the impending need to be ready for it.