[sonichart]

Suprised this hasn't been posted yet, but here ya go

Apple set to begin testing Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update

By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 04:00 PM EST

Apple Computer this week is expected to begin widespread testing of Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update, the next in a series of maintenance updates to its Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" operating system and the first update to address bugs lingering the company's initial release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 for Intel-based Macs, AppleInsider has learned.

Contacts often familiar with Cupertino, Calif.-based company's operating system plans say the Mac maker this week began distributing the first external builds of Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update, which weigh in at approximately 15MB.

Two of the most recent builds are rumored to have appeared as "Mac OS X 10.4.5 build 8H3" and "Mac OS X 10.4.5 build 8H5."

While the specific fixes and enhancements planned for the update are unknown, Apple is reportedly asking that its developers and partners put weight on Safari, Core Graphics intensive applications, Quartz Composer, and the Mac OS X Dock.

The company also reportedly asked that developers test networking, the Mac OS X crash report, File Sync, Software Update and the MSDOS File System.

Members of Apple's Developer Connection program could begin to receive their first pre-release distribution of Mac OS X 10.4.5 as early as Wednesday afternoon, contacts have said.

It's unclear when Apple has targeted the release of Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update. Earlier this month, the company update Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" to Mac OS X 10.4.4 to coincide with the release of the first Intel-based Mac systems: the iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1491

[chucker]

There isn't really much interesting stuff to this. It's way too early for that.

So yes, a relevant news tidbit, but hardly anything exciting. "10.4.5 is coming" is about as surprising as "newer Macs will have higher performance and additonal features".

As for "soon", I wouldn't count on it coming any sooner than February, if not March. There are no huge bugs in 10.4.4 that I'm aware of, and Apple usually likes to stick to their normal release cycle anyway.

[Franz Josef]

Yeah, "soon" is over-egging it. Don't hold your breath.

[sonichart]

Originally Posted by chucker There isn't really much interesting stuff to this. It's way too early for that. So yes, a relevant news tidbit, but hardly anything exciting. "10.4.5 is coming" is about as surprising as "newer Macs will have higher performance and additonal features". As for "soon", I wouldn't count on it coming any sooner than February, if not March. There are no huge bugs in 10.4.4 that I'm aware of, and Apple usually likes to stick to their normal release cycle anyway.

Well I understand this is not an upgrade, but it is a landmark upgrade of sorts. First of all, it will be the first OSX Update made available as a universal binary. I'm the type of person that gets excited about ANY type of service pack release (not so much with MS Windows products) but, Apple seems to do a very good job of fixing more than they break (if anything) in .X upgrades.

With 10.4.4 I was very pleased to see the stability of Safari increase. I had some issues with it crashing on certain pages with WMV files or embedded mp3/movie files.

Don't be suprised to see this update sooner than later. With the intel macs just arriving to consumers, i'm sure that ALL the bugs haven't been worked out and 10.4.4 isn't perfect.

I wasn't expecting a big hoopla over this, but there seemed to be plenty of excitement over 10.4.4 being made available during MacWorld recently. Anyhoo-- just my $.02

[chucker]

Originally Posted by sonichart Well I understand this is not an upgrade, but it is a landmark upgrade of sorts. First of all, it will be the first OSX Update made available as a universal binary.

Erm. You sure about that? That would make the update huge. Even if they were to use binary diffs on everything, it would probably amount to several hundreds of megabytes.

I wouldn't count on it. I also don't see the point. PowerPC Macs have 10.4.4 and can get a PowerPC 10.4.5. Intel Macs have 10.4.4 and can get an Intel 10.4.5. Why provide the other version?

They might do it with some applications, but the entire system? I don't think so. Seems wasteful.

I wasn't expecting a big hoopla over this, but there seemed to be plenty of excitement over 10.4.4 being made available during MacWorld recently. Anyhoo-- just my $.02

Well, 10.4.3 had a lot of glaring issues for quite a few people. Like I said, I'm not sure that's the case for 10.4.4.

[scratt]

Apparently it's available to developers right now.. I must go check..

[Moogs]

Sooon, very soon... and then the world will spin correctly on its axis and this abomination we know as 10.4.4 will be vanquished from our sight forever.

[motivio]

Originally Posted by scratt Apparently it's available to developers right now.. I must go check..

Any news about updates on RAW files support in 10.4.5?

JO

[sirnick4]

I'm holding out for tabs in iChat!!!


C'mon Apple, DO IT ALREADY!!!


Not going to happen

[rasmits]

All I want is for Mail and iChat to hide at start up. That's really all I want at this point, then I can die happy.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by sirnick4 I'm holding out for tabs in iChat!!!

Apple very rarely adds major features, especially ones that change the GUI, to x.x.X updates. These releases are generally only for optimizations, bug fixes, security fixes, and support for other new Apple products. So, don't hold your breath.

[Maciej]

Originally Posted by rasmits All I want is for Mail and iChat to hide at start up. That's really all I want at this point, then I can die happy.

I second that, completely. *sigh*

[ZachPruckowski]

Wait. People's iChat and Mail even open at startup? Because mine really don't. I've got 10.4.4, but I don't use either of those apps, even though I left them installed.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by ZachPruckowski Wait. People's iChat and Mail even open at startup? Because mine really don't. I've got 10.4.4, but I don't use either of those apps, even though I left them installed.

No. The opening at startup can be achieved by adding them to Login Items.

The complaint is that the "Hide" functionality is broken, and has been since 10.4.0.