Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday announced the release of Mac OS X Panther and Panther Server, the latest major updates to its Unix-based operating system. The releases come just four months after Steve Jobs demoed the new operating system during his keynote address at the companies Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Both versions will be available on Friday, October 24, beginning at 8:00 p.m. "We made a big bet a while back to go to a whole new architecture and we are reaping the benefits of that right now," Brian Croll, Apple"s senior director software, told MacCentral. "We are able to turn out features at a level that is just staggering in the number and level of features." Highlights of the new operating system version include a revamped Finder interface that Apple describes as "user-centric." The interface puts user"s favorite folders, hard drive, network servers, iDisk and removable media into a single location that Jobs likened to the playlist used by iTunes.
"The new Finder is so convenient -- it puts all of the information that you need, right in front of you," said Croll. "It approaches things a lot more like a user would, rather than how a computer approaches things." Other new features include faster search, colored labels and better integration with Windows network environments. Panther supports ActiveDirectory and SMB-based home directories on Windows servers and enhanced Windows integration that allows for printing to shared printers. "This is the fourth major release of Mac OS X in a little over three years -- on the Windows side, there is one release every six or so years," said Croll. "This is a testament to a lot of the core decisions that were made early on with Mac OS X." Exposé is another new feature of Panther. It allows users to view all open windows and choose any one of them to be on top; Exposé also unshuffles overlapping windows into an organized view. In an interview with Apple when Panther was introduced in June, Exposé was clearly one of the breakthrough technologies.