If you want to read the (so far) difinitive review of Mac OS X Developer Release 4, check out John Siracusa's 12-page report over at Ars Technica.

Mr. Siracusa issues this note: "This article deals with Mac OS X Developer Preview 4, NOT Mac OS X. Mac OS X DP4 is a work in progress, not a finished product. You will never find Mac OS X DP4 on a store shelf. It will never come pre-installed on your computer. Unless you are a developer, you will never use it at all."

Well, except for all the bootleg copies floating around, that is -- no, I don't have one, but I could easily get one for the asking.

Incidentally, one of my non-developer DP4 bootleg copy using friends sent me this comment last night:

"Using DP 4 is making me hate OS 9. OS X [DP4] is very cool, but the hangovers from OS 9 annoy me."

This is a guy who really disliked OS X DP3, so there is evidently progress.

For Mr. Siracusa's review, go here:
http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/2q00/macos-x-dp4/macos-x-dp4-1.html

Go2Mac.com has also posted a lengthy article on installing DP 4 on PowerBooks.

Most of the testing was done on a pair of 500MHz FireWire PowerBooks, but there was also a Wall Street 250 MHz machine used. The article notes that "Mac OS X DP4 works with any desktop G4, G3 or iMac and any PowerBook G3 except the original PowerBook G3."

That is officially. A reader report cited in the article claims success installing OS X on an original G3 (Kanga) PowerBook, and muses: "Makes me wonder what will happen with all those G3 upgraded PCI Macs... Maybe there is hope yet..."

You can check it out here:
http://www.go2mac.com/articles/read.cfm?id=204

Charles W. Moore

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February 09, 2012