Apple Computer this month is expected to update its retail copies of Mac OS X 10.4 to includ the first two maintenance releases to the Tiger operating system, ensuring that all new customers obtain the most stable and reliable version of Mac OS X directly out of the box.
The company's online store in Canada is already listing for sale the current version of Mac OS X as "OS X V10.4.2 'Tiger' Retail," although the latest official release remains at 10.4.1. Developers contacted by AppleInsider also said they are expecting to receive Mac OS X 10.4.2 on optical media -- something Apple did not offer with the release of Mac OS X 10.4.1 last month.
Mac OS X 10.4.2, which is due for release from the company this week, will reportedly deliver over 80 fixes and enhancements to Tiger, in addition to those included with Mac OS X 10.4.1.
Among the many fixes expected in the release are Finder updates to finding by kind and using Slideshow, updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers, and improved autologin for managed user accounts.
Other areas of change will reportedly improve user experiences with AirPort and wireless access, iDisk synching, installation reliability, and file sharing using AFP and SMB/CIFS network file services.
The release is also rumored to deliver enhancements to Address Book, Automator, Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, iCal, iChat, Mail, Safari, and Stickies.
Sources tell AppleInsider that Mac OS X 10.4.2 will likely arrive in two versions: a 42MB Delta release containing only the changes made since Mac OS X 10.4.1, and a 55MB Combo update that will pack all the enhancements made to Tiger since its inaugural release on April 29th.
According to reports already present on several Internet sites, Apple over the weekend provided its developers with Mac OS X 10.4.2 build 8C29, which at the time contained no known bugs.
Still, it's rumored that Apple continues to work on Mac OS X 10.4.2 this week and is considering builds from the 8C3x milestone as final candidates.
Almost as many fixes as new features for tiger.
