The trading of beta, or test, copies of Mac OS X version 10.1 is running fast and furious on the Internet, with Mac enthusiasts willing to put up with five- or six-hour downloads--even over speedy broadband connections--to get the software.
Internet chat rooms are abuzz about the release, which offers performance improvements, DVD playback and recording, and refinements to Mac OS X 10's Aqua user interface.
"OS X users and developers all have the fever: It's the best thing out there, and we want the newest and the best--for bragging rights and for knowing we're out in front," Jeffrey Barbose, a San Francisco software developer and long-time Mac owner, said in an interview via email.
Apple is expected to release Mac OS X 10.1 in September. Current OS X users will be able to buy the update for about US$20, according to Apple.
Typically, Apple releases OS test versions to a select group of developers and beta testers, who sign nondisclosure agreements. But enthusiasm for "Puma"--the code name for Mac OS X 10.1--has opened a floodgate of leaked betas.
"I am surprised at the leaks. If at this stage of the game, there are these kinds of leaks, imagine the impact on sales when (the software) is released," said Tim Deal, an analyst at Technology Business Research.
Apple spokesman Bill Evans declined to comment on the leaks.
Three beta versions
At least three versions, or builds, of the release are currently in wide circulation: 5D15, 5F7 and 5F24.
As anticipation grows for Mac OS X 10.1's release, so does the pressure on Apple to deliver the upgrade on time and with improvements in speed and stability. Apple released Mac OS X in late March and started shipping the OS on new computers two months later.
Mac OS X, the first major overhaul of Apple's operating system since its 1984 introduction, is based on BSD Unix, a popular variant of Unix. Although OS X offers many improvements--among them better memory management and ability to run multiple programs--some developers privately complained of stability problems when moving their applications to it.
Adobe Systems, for example, skipped last month's Macworld Expo in New York, with some speculation of a rift between the company and Apple over Mac OS X's stability. Abode publicly pegged its absence on its need to cut costs. Microsoft, the largest maker of software for the Macintosh, currently is testing a Mac OS X version of Office, the beta of which can run only on Puma.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs previewed Puma at New York Macworld. Besides speedier performance and interface tweaks, Jobs promised OS X 10.1 will offer long-delayed DVD playback and a new version of Apple's DVD authoring software.
"This is what they should have released in the first place," Deal said. "These are the kinds of features and performance Apple needed to deliver when they released Mac OS X."
Puma roars
If the beta seen by News.com is any indication, Apple may have licked some of Mac OS X's biggest shortcomings, particularly slow performance using the file system and Aqua interface.
"The current version of OS X is a tad sluggish, but only in (user interface) transactions, like growing a window," Barbose said.
In the most recently released Mac OS X version, 10.04, the operating system can sometimes take five seconds or longer to execute file menu commands, even on the fastest Macs available. The 10.1 beta largely solves that problem, although not completely. Overall handling and opening of programs and documents is also vastly improved.
"Apple clearly has done that extra fine tuning to Mac OS X 10.1," said Chris LeTocq, a Guernsey Research analyst. "It's the kind of thing you don't do when you have short deadline for (initial) release the first time around. Then, your concern is stability."
As Jobs noted during his Macworld keynote, Apple also has made a number of tweaks to Mac OS X. The Dock, a toolbar for open programs, can be placed on either side of the desktop, instead of just at the bottom of the screen. And some controls, such as sound and display settings, can be placed in the menu bar that runs across the top of the desktop.
Many other tweaks add items found in older versions of Mac OS, such as 9.1, that were missing in 10.04. People can now easily use an Apple network time server for setting the date and time. Like earlier Mac versions, people now can place up-and-down scroll arrows together at the bottom of a window rather than separated at the top and bottom.
The beta seen by News.com, however, did not offer DVD playback, one of the features sorely missing when Apple launched Mac OS X.
"That 20 bucks could be worth it for a lot of people, just for the performance improvements," LeTocq said.
But Deal sees another important benefit to the upgrade: Full support for hardware, such as the DVD and DVD-recording drives that Apple has been shipping with Macs. Up to now, OS X users have had to rely on an older version of the operating system to run the hardware.
"One of the most important things is for people to get the most out of their hardware," Deal said, "and finally being able to run Mac OS X as their primary OS, instead of having to rely on (version) 9.1."
