Panther Preview Release?

[RatsPaw]

I haven't had a chance to watch the entire keynote yet, just bits and pieces, but there was a little bit on a TechTV article that said that there would be an option to preview Panther before it went gold. I know that full ADC members will be seeded builds as time passes, but is there going to be a Public Beta for Panther, like there was for Cheetah (10.0)? I figure it would definitely be a pay deal, but did anybody else hear this, or was the writer just smoking something?

Rat

[Ripcord]

This definitely wasn't in the Keynote. Jobs simply said that everyone at the conference was going to get a free "Developer Preview". I suspect it's possible that everyone in the Developer Connection channel will have access to a similar deal, perhaps at a fee, but I haven't heard anything about this.

I'm not sure what the legality of "sharing" a copy of the developer's preview is. I strongly suspect that the license prohibits this.

[RatsPaw]

Yeah, it did sound a little odd when I read it, and it probably wouldn't be all that useful (who knows what software would actually run on it). I wouldn't trust any beta version of an OS on my primary machine, even OS X, but I know that the Carracho servers are already soliciting copies.

On the other hand, they did have the public beta for 10.0, and Apple probably wouldn't mind getting some easy cash from folks willing to try a beta of Panther.

Rat

[celeborn]

The Public Beta for 10.0 was an entirely different matter - because it was the first Mac OS X release. So I'm certain there won't be any publicly available beta of Panther.

[THEMACER]

When i but the new g5's in sep, will panther be installed on it or willi still have to pay?

[lurk]

As I understand the G5's will all come with a coupon for a free copy of Panther when it comes out.

[Greystroke]

as in panther will most likely be coming after the G5's are up for sale?

[serpicolugnut]

As I understand the G5's will all come with a coupon for a free copy of Panther when it comes out.

I've read just about every word of the G5 documentation, and I haven't seen anything like that mentioned. The Panther release is so far out (probably Dec or later) that I doubt Apple is going to give free upgrades to it. The only people who will be elligible for a free (read: $19.95 s/h) upgrade will be those who buy a Mac on the day of or anytime after the release date is announced.