Untested Waters Mac OS
Editor's note
The 0.9 version of Circular Spectrogram for Mac is provided as a free download on our website. The unique identifier for this program's bundle is com.circularspectogram.Circular Spectrogram. The application lies within Lifestyle Tools, more precisely Travel. This free Mac app was originally developed by Andrew Ohlmann. Operating System OS X 10.10 Yosemite (Renewed) Apple MacBook Air 13.3' Laptop Computer, 1440 x 900 Display, Intel Core i5 1.6GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, AC WiFi, Bluetooth, Thunderbolt, Webcam, Silver, Mac OS, Hamedal 64GB USB Flash Drive.
September 13, 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the Mac OS X Public Beta. To mark the occasion, we're running John Siracusa's review of the public beta that originally ran on October 15, 2000. Enjoy the trip down memory lane!
If you're looking for some analysis and historical context, check out 'Here's to the crazy ones: a decade of Mac OS X reviews,' published in January of this year. John hits the Public Beta on page 4.
What is Mac OS X Public Beta?
Untested Waters Mac Os X
Let's disassemble the product name 'Mac OS X Public Beta.' First, Mac OS X (yes, still pronounced 'ten,' not 'ex') is the name of Apple's upcoming next generation operating system. The five previous articles in this series should give you a good picture of the Mac OS X development process so far:
Untested Waters Mac Os Catalina
- Mac OS X DP2: A Preview 12/14/1999
- Mac OS X Update: Quartz & Aqua 1/17/2000
- Mac OS X DP3: Trial by Water 2/28/2000
- Mac OS X DP4 5/24/2000
- Mac OS X Q & A 6/20/2000
Next, the word 'Public' signifies that the product is for sale to anyone with $29.95. Previous releases of Mac OS X have been available only to registered Apple developers.
Finally, the 'Beta' means...well, what does it mean? Some people contend that 'beta' means 'feature-complete, but still buggy.' Others consider it simply 'more stable than alpha.' The only real common ground these days is that 'beta' means 'unfinished.' Whether that means merely that bugs still exist or that entire features remain unimplemented has to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Taken all together, 'Mac OS X Public Beta' (referred to as 'Public Beta' or just 'Beta' in this article) means that for $29.95 you get an unfinished, buggy version of Apple's next generation operating system. Charging for public beta software is increasingly common among the big software companies. I paid for my copy, and it doesn't bother me too much. If you don't want to pay for buggy software, don't buy the beta. (Save your complaining for the price tag on the final Mac OS X release.)
AdvertisementIdeally, Apple would make the beta available for free download, possibly with the caveat that downloading does not entitle the user to the same feedback privileges afforded to paying customers. This would require some sort of proof-of-purchase verification during the feedback process. Currently, Apple's form for Mac OS X Beta feedback is open to anyone, since (presumably) anyone that has a copy of Beta is a paying customer. In reality, you can find disk images of the beta online with a little effort, and since there's no purchase verification, your feedback has the same weight as the paying users' does. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess.
Public Beta has been anxiously awaited by many Mac fans, even those that had access to the developer releases. Readers of this series are no doubt wondering if the issues raised in previous articles have been addressed in Beta. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but anyone who's read about the basic features of Public Beta elsewhere on the Web ought to know the answer to that question already. Ask yourself how different Mac OS X Public Beta is from the last development release, Mac OS X DP4.
Still not sure (or in denial) about how Beta stacks up? Read on and find out.
NOTE WELL: This article deals with Mac OS X Public Beta, NOT Mac OS X. Mac OS X Public Beta is a work in progress, not a finished product. You can, however, purchase Public Beta as an actual product, so it will be subject to a more critical eye than the developer releases were. Any and all features present in Public Beta are subject to change before release, but the window for such changes continues to shrink as APIs get locked down and software developers move their Mac OS X products closer to completion.