Mac OS X Public Beta

The Mac OS X Public Beta is an early beta version of Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system. It was released to the public on September 13, 2000 for US$29.95. It allowed software developers and early adopters to get a taste of the upcoming operating system, and develop software for the forthcoming operating system before its final release. It had a build number of 1H39.[1]

The Public Beta succeeded Mac OS X Server 1.0, the first public release of Apple's new NeXT OpenStep-based operating system, which used a variant of the classic MacOS' "Platinum" user interface look and feel. The Public Beta introduced the Aqua user interface to the world. Fundamental user interface changes were revealed with respect to fonts, the Dock, the menu bar (with an Apple logo at the center which was later repositioned, due to public request). System icons were much larger and more detailed, and new interface eye candy was prevalent.

With the Mac OS X Public Beta came fundamental technical changes, most courtesy of an open source Darwin core, including two features that Mac users had been anticipating for almost a decade: preemptive multitasking and protected memory. At the MacWorld Expo in June 2000, Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated Bomb.app, a test application intended to crash.[2] The application crashed, showing a dialog indicating that other applications were not affected (since Mac OS X had memory protection). A cheer arose from the crowd, as the older Mac OS dialog recommended a complete system restart after such an event.[citation needed]

Some features were not working or missing with this release - there was no support for web-based Java applets.[citation needed] There was no support for printing, Carbon was in a very incomplete state, and Classic applications couldn't access the network.[citation needed] This last was a particular handicap, as the only native web browsers then available were a beta version of Microsoft Internet Explorer and OmniGroup's OmniWeb, a holdover from the NeXT platform. Users of Netscape or Mozilla browsers had to wait.

Native applications in general were few and far between. Users had to turn to open source or shareware alternatives, giving rise to an active homebrew software community around the new operating system.

Apple used user feedback to incorporate improvements in the retail version that was to follow.[citation needed]

Mac OS X Public Beta expired and ceased to function in Spring 2001.[3]

Mac OS X v10.0 was the first completed release of Mac OS X. It became available in March 2001. Owners of the Public Beta version were entitled to a $29.95 discount on the price of the first full version of Mac OS X 10.0.