The bMighty Blog -- Apple

Version 10.5.2 of Mac OS X "Leopard" has only been out since February, but Apple is hard at work on the next incremental upgrade, which will be version 10.5.3.

As reported on several Web sites and blogs (Apple won’t comment publicly), preview betas (called "seeds") of 10.5.3 version been released to third-party software developers. The first seed came out on March 28, and according to MacRumors has fixes encompassing Dashboard, Parental Controls, iCal, Sync and memory leaks (which affects overall stability).

The most recent seed came out on April 11, and address problems with AirPort, Spaces, Time Machine, and other applications, again according to third-party blogs and Web sites. Apple’s legal agreements forbid recipients of these seeds from discussing what’s in prerelease software "on the record."

What does the 10.5.3 update mean for enterprise users? To be honest, it shouldn’t have much impact on the migration from 10.4.x Tiger to Leopard. Mac OS X 10.5.2 addressed the major flaws in Leopard (of which there were many). Now that we have a stable operating system, there’s no reason to hold back, unless you’re finding specific compatibility issues, such as with QuarkXpress 6.5.2, which Quark does not support under Leopard at all.

Interestingly, operating system updates are often timed to coincide with new hardware releases; this lets Apple ensure that Mac OS X works fine on the latest desktops and notebooks. Maybe that’s the case this time –- and maybe not.

Even so, it is gratifying to see Apple work so hard at continuing to fine-tune its operating system software, which after all, is the mainstay of the Mac platform. While the hardware that you find in a MacBook or iMac is cool and well-designed from a visual perspective, it’s industry hardware technology. The real value of the Mac is in Mac OS X, and it’s great that Apple is not standing still.

Spotlight on Solutions

(Sponsored By Cisco)