Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Updates Panther Via Software Update

Posted by pudge on from the and-it-softens-butter-without-melting-it dept.

arobase writes "Apple releases update to Panther thru Software Update. The build number changes from 7A179 to 7A202. Updates Mail, Exposé and iChat."

4 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. updates to closed developer betas make news now? by RalphBNumbers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they've updated a closed developer beta that only a few thousand people have legally, and this is news?

    If you want to talk about closed betas of Apple's upcoming updates, at least talk about the recent one that fixes the screensaver character buffer bug that got plastered all over /. a few days ago. It isn't all that important either, but at least it serves as a good followup.

    --
    "The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
  2. the reason why they'd do this by goodchef · · Score: 5, Insightful
    There would seem to be no compelling reason to use software update for a patch that's for a still-developers-only product. 1) It does make it easier for those developers to get it. But the bigger reason I see is that since pretty much everyone who has Panther will install this, Apple would get a decent count of the number of installed copies of Panther, and from that a fairly decent estimate of the amount of piracy.

    Personally, I could download it, but I'll just wait until August when they release it. One of the big reasons I like Macs so much is that they just work, and installing a prerelease version of an OS while they're still tweaking it and fixing bugs means goodbye to that.

    --

    "Inflammable means flammable? What a strange country!" -Dr. Nick, The Simpsons

    1. Re:the reason why they'd do this by phillymjs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There would seem to be no compelling reason to use software update for a patch that's for a still-developers-only product.

      How about this reason: To test the new Software Update control panel?

      I have only given my downloaded copy of Panther a cursory playing-with on my spare G4, but I can tell you that Software Update is quite different from the one in Jaguar-- you can opt to have the computer automatically install "important" updates, and there are a few other changes that have been made.

      ~Philly

  3. Re:One step closer to Linux by Mikey-San · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, that's what a lot of people just don't understand. It may be easy to type a short command in a shell window, but most end-user/average consumer types are deathly afraid of the command-line. (I'd like to blame DOS's shitty CLI for this, as bash and the C shells are nice.)

    Geeks will use a CLI; Mom and Dad won't.

    --
    Mikey-San
    Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)