MWNY - Apple Announces Mac OS X 10.1 Upgrade

by , 1:00 PM EDT, July 18th, 2001

Since the release of Mac OS X 10.0, Apple has released 4 minor updates (10.0.1 through 10.0.4) to the operating system. Although these updates offered minor speed and functional updates, OS X still can't match the performanc of Mac OS 9, which has had years to mature and be fine-tuned for the Mac. But all that will change with the release of Mac OS X 10.1. According to Apple:

Mac OS X v10.1 delivers improved performance, with dramatically faster application launch times, blindingly fast menus and window resizing, faster logins and a more responsive feel overall. In addition, Mac OS X v10.1 features an enhanced Aqua interface, with a moveable Dock, which can be placed on the right, bottom or left edge of the screen; Dock menus that enable running applications to present a menu from their Dock icon providing fast access to commonly performed functions; and new menu items for frequently used system controls like battery, AirPort, monitors and sound.

• dramatically enhanced system performance, especially application launch time and window resizing;
• fine tuning of the Aqua interface for a more customizable experience that includes the ability to position the Dock on the left, the right or at the bottom of the screen;
• data CD burning capabilities within the Finder and DVD video playback and authoring capabilities to support iDVD, making Mac OS X the ultimate engine for the digital hub;
• broadened support for hundreds of third-party peripherals such as printers, cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, rewriteable drives and storage devices;
• unprecedented network integration with Mac, Windows, Linux and UNIX environments through AFP/AppleTalk, SMB/CIFS, WebDAV and NFS file services running on Mac OS X Server, AppleShare, UNIX, Linux, Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers;
• greatly enhanced 3D graphics performance with updated OpenGL software and full support for NVIDIA GeForce3;
• a more powerful and efficient iDisk leveraging the Internet standard WebDAV protocol to allow users to stay connected to their iDisk, even behind corporate firewalls;
• substantial improvements to AppleScript throughout the system and full support for Internet scripting using SOAP and XML; and
• the final version of Internet Explorer 5.1 with full support for Mac OS X's Java 2 runtime.

Mac OS X v10.1 will ship this September.

Mac OS 10.1 will be available for free. You can find more information at the Apple Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This update will help fill in some of the gaps in functionality that have prevented many from totally switching over to Mac OS X, such as DVD playback and CD burning. The support for more computing standards and devices is also welcome. Finally, the speed increase in launching is truly impressive, as witnessed by the demo at the keynote.

Apple