Macenstein

Posted by Brain in a Jar

Anyone who spends as many hours a day on the Mac forums as we do surely remembers the flap over the numbering of the latest incremental OS update, 10.4.10. Not to re-ignite the debate, but it turns out super-geeks may not be the only folks to find fault in Apple’s numbering logic.

While adding a new system to the Macenstein Labs stable, we noticed something strange. Despite having run the requisite out-of-box Software Update, our new system showed up in Remote Desktop claiming to run OS 10.4.9. How strange, we thought to ourselves, and became even more perplexed after checking System Info and seeing that, yes, we were indeed running 10.4.10.

Above: Would a build by any other number not smell as up-to-date?

On closer inspection, we noticed that ARD seemed to show three flavors of 10.4.9 running happily in the labs, builds 8P135, 8R218 and 8R2218. A little quick research revealed that the latter two are the build numbers for OS 10.4.10, PPC and Intel respectively. Apparently, Apple’s own Remote Desktop refuses to recognize the “illogical” numbering.

With a few months remaining until OS 10.5 makes its debut, and major OS updates scheduled further apart than in the past, here’s hoping that the OS Update team brings everyone else in Cupertino into line. Or they could just do away with version numbers altogether, and move to the completely consumer-unfriendly build numbers. Maybe that’s what the super-geeks have been hoping for all along.