Saturday March 25 08:30 PM EST
Mac OS 9 update leaks out early
By Daniel Drew Turner, Special to ZDNet
While Apple has yet to announce it, some users have been able to download the updater to Mac OS 9.0.4 from the company's own servers.
Mac OS 9.0.4 is here -- or is it?
Sources close to Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) told ZDNet News that the updater some users have downloaded from the company's servers was a pre-release version being tested internally at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The official release of Mac OS 9.0.4 will take place some time next week, sources said.
User reports of the updater's availability have spawned speculation on Mac-enthusiast sites across the Web. While Apple has not announced the upgrade or a release date, some users are reporting that they have been able either to download the update or access it through their computers' Software Update control panel.
"Nobody outside of the firewall should have gotten it," the source said.
The fix is in
The update, code-named Minuet, is a consolidation of bug fixes and system-specific tweaks included in the OS 9 software that shipped alongside recently released hardware such as the revised iBook, iMac DV and the "Pismo" PowerBook G3.
According to a listing of system components posted on the Italian site MacProf, Mac OS 9.0.4 contains new versions of the system's FireWire and Universal Serial Bus extensions (the latter has long been a source of complaint among Mac users), as well as fixes to the Sound Manager, which was tapped as the cause of stuttering during DVD movie playback.
In addition, the new version apparently includes enhancements to the Mac OS ROM and PowerPC Enabler 9.0.4 files, as well as the Script Editor and ATI drivers included with the latest Apple hardware.
Mac OS 9 was originally announced in October and shipped almost three weeks later. The new OS, which replaced Mac OS 8.6, updated the system's kernel and included the Sherlock 2 Internet search application, multiple-user capabilities and other new features.
Top