We broke the news yesterday that Apple had released Mac OS X 10.0.4, and overnight we have been working to figure out just what has been changed. The biggest noticeable improvements appear to be a much faster Finder, a much more efficient Classic environment, better Dock performance, and more:

• Switching from application to application is quicker, especially switching from Classic apps to X apps, or vice versa.
• Finder performance greatly improved. Working with windows in the Finder is much snappier, especially with folders that have many hundreds of items. Window resizing, while not as instantaneous as Classic, has become much faster. Some have even referred to resizing as "usable."
• Dock performance seems faster. This includes pop-up menus, especially pop-up menus with many items in them. This feature is still not instantaneous, but is very serviceable.
• Multi-button mice will have their right button function in Classic as a ctrl-click, just as in Mac OS X itself. Scroll wheel support has not been added to Classic or Carbon, and still only works in Cocoa apps.
• Some of our staff is reporting faster boot times, but others are saying they are not seeing a perceptible improvement. We are soliciting for feedback from other users on this issue.

We also culled our forums for some of the comments from other users who have been discussing Mac OS X 10.0.4:

Anon: Finder DEFINITELY feels faster in the screen redraw area; opening/closing folders is much faster, menu items seem faster, and live-resizing seems a little faster.

Anon: Applications seem to launch faster and run faster. The Finder is actually usable.

Ricky: The only major improvement is that my right-click button works in Classic! Still no scroll-wheel support.

MOSiX Man: The Finder definitely feels snappier - and Iim running 10.0.4 on a rev. A iMac with 96Mb memory. Maybe itis just pre-binding, but I didnit see this kind of speed-up with any of the previous updates.

Anon: I can verify that app launching feels faster, some redrawing is also snappier, but could be quicker. The resizing of windows/panes is still a bit choppy. Closing apps is faster.

Anon: Well, on my iBook 366, with 128 MB RAM, it definitely feels faster. Apps load more quickly and scrolling is snappier. It is much better than with previous upgrades. I donit think it is just because of the prebinding, which didnit seem to help all that much previously.

Anon: On my B&W G3 350, I noticed very improved scrolling speed in iTunes especially.

Scott Reynolds: I can report that Finder navigation performance is dramatically improved on my G4-500 Cube with 640MB. Also, Classic is taking measurably less CPU while idle.

Anon: One thing I noticed on the whole iSub issue: while my iSub still doesnit work, the sound from the built in speakers is noticeably less tinny once 10.0.4 was installed.

One poster also reported that the install removed all of his custom icons. While a minor update in most ways, Mac OS X 10.0.4 seems to offer some definite speed enhancements. Jump into the forums, or post your comments below if you wish to discuss the update.