Mac OS X Public Beta
| A version of the macOS operating system | |
 |
|
| Developer | Apple Computer |
|---|---|
| OS family | |
| Working state | Historic, not supported |
| Released to manufacturing |
September 13, 2000 |
| Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
| Preceded by | Mac OS 9 |
| Succeeded by | Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah |
| Official website | https://beta.apple.com |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported as of March 24th, 2001 | |
The Mac OS X Public Beta (internally code named "Kodiak") was the first publicly available version of Apple Computer's Mac OS X (now named macOS) operating system Cheetah to feature the Aqua user interface. It was released to the public on September 13, 2000 for US$29.95. It allowed software developers and early adopters to test a preview of the upcoming operating system and develop software for the forthcoming operating system before its final release. The US version had a build number of 1H39 and the international version had build number 2E14.
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 Mac OS's "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 to the left of the menu bar and made an active interface element). System icons were much larger and more detailed, and new interface eye candy was prevalent.
The Kodiak's arrival marked some fundamental technical changes, most courtesy of an open source Darwin 1.2.1 core, including two features that Mac users and developers had been anticipating for almost a decade: preemptive multitasking and protected memory. To illustrate the benefits of the latter, at the MacWorld Expo in June 2000, Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated Bomb.app, a test application intended to crash.
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