| Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger | |
|---|---|
| Version of themacOS operating system | |
Screenshot of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Note that the Apple logo on the menu bar has been changed to one with a less glossy appearance. | |
| Developer | Apple Inc. |
| OS family | |
| Source model | Closed, withopen source components |
| General availability | April 29, 2005; 20 years ago (2005-04-29)[1] |
| Latest release | 10.4.11 / November 14, 2007; 18 years ago (2007-11-14) |
| Update method | Apple Software Update |
| Supported platforms | IA-32,x86-64,PowerPC |
| Kernel type | Hybrid (XNU) |
| License | Commercialproprietary software[2] |
| Preceded by | Mac OS X 10.3 Panther |
| Succeeded by | Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard |
| Official website | Apple - Mac OS X at theWayback Machine (archived July 28, 2006) |
| Tagline | Tiger unleashed. |
| Support status | |
| Historical, unsupported as of September 4, 2009.Safari support ended November 2010 andiTunes support terminated as well.[3] | |
Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4) is the 5thmajor release ofmacOS,Apple's desktop andserveroperating system forMac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005, forUS$129.95 as the successor toMac OS X 10.3 Panther. Included features were a fast searching system calledSpotlight, a new version of theSafari web browser,Dashboard, a new 'Unified'theme, and improved support for64-bit addressing onPower Mac G5s. Tiger also had a number of additional features thatMicrosoft had spentseveral years struggling to add toWindows with acceptable performance, such as fast file search and improved graphics processing.[4]
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was included with all new Macs, and was also available as an upgrade for existing Mac OS X users, or users of supportedpre-Mac OS X systems. The server edition,Mac OS X Server 10.4, was also available for some Macintosh product lines. Six weeks after the official release, Apple had delivered 2 million copies of Tiger, representing 16% of all Mac OS X users. Apple claimed that Tiger was the most successful Apple operating system release in the company's history.[5] On June 11, 2007, atWWDC 2007, Apple's CEO,Steve Jobs, announced that more than 67% of the 22 million Mac OS X users were using Tiger.[6]
Apple announced atransition to Intel x86 processors during Tiger's lifetime, making it the first Apple operating system to work onApple–Intel architecture machines. The originalApple TV, released in March 2007, shipped with a customized version of Tiger branded "Apple TV OS" that replaced the usualGUI with an updated version ofFront Row.[7]
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was succeeded byMac OS X 10.5 Leopard on October 26, 2007, after 30 months, making Tiger the longest-running version of Mac OS X.[8] The last security update released for Tiger users was the 2009-005 update.[9][10] The latest supported version ofQuickTime is 7.6.4. The latest version ofiTunes that can run on Tiger is 9.2.1.[11] Safari 4.1.3 is the final version for Tiger.[12]
Despite not having received security updates since 2009, Tiger remains popular with Power Mac users andretrocomputing enthusiasts due to its wide software and hardware compatibility, as it is the last Mac OS X version to support theClassic Environment – aMac OS 9 compatibility layer – andPowerPC G3 processors.[13]
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was initially available in aPowerPC edition, with anIntel edition released beginning at version 10.4.4. There is no universal version of the client operating system, although Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Server was made available on a universal DVD from version 10.4.7. While Apple shipped the PowerPC edition bundled with PowerPC-based Macs and also sold it as a separate retail box, the only way to obtain the Intel version was to buy an Intel-based Mac bundled with it. However, it was possible to buy the 'restore' DVDs containing the Intel version through unofficial channels such aseBay, and officially through Apple if one could provide proof of purchase of the appropriate Intel Mac. These grey-colored 'restore' DVDs supplied with new Macs, are designed to only restore on the model of Mac that they are intended for. However, they can be modified to work on any Intel Mac. The retail PowerPC-only DVD can be used on any PowerPC-based Mac supported by Tiger.
The system requirements of the PowerPC edition are:[14]
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger removed support for olderNew World ROM Macs such as the originaliMacs andiBooks that were supported in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther; however it is possible to install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on these Macs using third-party software (such asXPostFacto) that overrides the checks made at the beginning of the installation process. Likewise, machines such asbeige Power Mac G3s and 'Wall Street' PowerBook G3s that were dropped by Mac OS X Panther can also be made to run both Mac OS X Panther and Mac OS X Tiger in this way. Also, Tiger can be installed on unsupported New World ROM Macs by installing it on a supported Mac, then swapping hard drives. Old World ROM Macs require the use of XPostFacto to install Tiger.
Tiger was the last version of Mac OS X to support thePowerPC G3 family of processors.
The name "Mac OS X Tiger" was reported by Mac Magazine on March 30, 2004; According to Mac Magazine, this information came from a safe source. Furthermore, Mac Magazine reported that the internal codename for Mac OS X Tiger had been "Merlot".[15]
Apple mentioned Mac OS X Tiger by name in a press release published on May 4, 2004, for its upcoming WWDC 2004 event.[16]
Apple CEO Steve Jobs first presented Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in hiskeynote presentation at the WWDC on June 28, 2004. In October and December 2004, several non-commercial developers' releases of Tiger leaked onto the internet viaBitTorrent file sharers. Apple sued these file sharers.[17] On April 12, 2005, Apple announced Tiger's worldwide release would be April 29. AllApple Stores around the world held Tiger seminars, presentations and demos.
On June 6, 2005, at the WWDC inSan Francisco, Jobs reported that nearly two million copies had been sold in Tiger's first six weeks of release, making Tiger the most successful operating system release in Apple's history. Jobs then disclosed that Mac OS X had been engineered from its inception to work with Intel'sx86 line of processors in addition to the PowerPC, theCPU for which the operating system had always been publicly marketed. Apple concurrently announced its intent to release the first x86-based computers in June 2006, and to move the rest of its computers to x86 microprocessors by June 2007. On January 10, 2006, Apple presented its newiMac andMacBook Pro computers running onIntel Core Duo processors, and announced that the entire Apple product line would run on Intel processors by the end of 2006. Apple then released theMac Pro and announced the newXserve on August 8, completing the Intel transition in 210 days, roughly ten months ahead of the original schedule.
Tiger is the first version of Mac OS X to be supplied on a DVD rather than a CD, although the DVD could originally be exchanged for CDs for $9.95.
John Siracusa, writing forArs Technica, wrote that some features in Tiger were half-baked, such as filesystemmetadata, Spotlight, and Dashboard. According to Siracusa, Spotlight in Tiger is confusing because it has two disparate interfaces which are kept separate, yet can accomplish the same task. Siracusa also wrote that some of Dashboard's UI choices were strange.[18]
Apple advertised that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger had over 150 new and improved features, including:
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In addition to these APIs, Tiger introduces a new window theme, often described as 'Unified'. A variation on the standard, non-brushed metal theme used since the introduction of Mac OS X, this theme integrates the title bar and the toolbar of a window. A prominent example of an application that utilizes this theme is Mail.
Tiger is also the first version of Mac OS X to include the "Zoom" screen magnifier functionality.
Shortly before the release of Mac OS X Tiger, the computer retailerTigerDirect.com, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that Apple infringed TigerDirect.com's trademark with the Mac OS X Tiger operating system.[23]
The following is a quotation from TigerDirect.com's court memorandum:
In 2005 TigerDirect was denied apreliminary injunction that would have prevented Apple from using the mark while the case was decided.[25] Apple and TigerDirect reached a settlement in 2006, after which TigerDirect withdrew its opposition.[26]
| Mac transition to Intel processors |
|---|
At Apple's 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Steve Jobs announced that the companywould begin selling Mac computers with Intelx86 processors in 2006. To allow developers to begin producing software for these Intel-based Macs, Apple made available aprototype Intel-based Mac ("Developer Transition Kit") that included a version of Mac OS X v10.4.1 compiled to run on x86 processors.
This build included Apple'sRosetta compatibility layer — a translation process that allows x86-based Macs to run software built only for PowerPC, with a moderate performance penalty. This is contrasted with the contemporary Mac OS 9 Classic mode, which used a comparatively large amount of system resources.
Soon after the Developer Transition Kits began shipping, copies of Tiger x86 were leaked ontofile sharing networks. Although Apple had implemented aTrusted Computingdigital rights management scheme in the transition hardware and OS in an attempt to stop people installing Tiger x86 on non-Apple PCs, theOSx86 project soon managed to remove this restriction.[27] As Apple released each update with newer safeguards to prevent its use on non-Apple hardware, unofficially modified versions were released that circumvented Apple's safeguards. However, with the release of 10.4.5, 10.4.6, and 10.4.7 the unofficially modified versions continued to use the kernel from 10.4.4 because later kernels have hardware locks and depend heavily onEFI. By late 2006, the 10.4.8 kernel had been cracked.[28]
AtMacWorld San Francisco 2006, Jobs announced the immediate availability of Mac OS X v10.4.4, the first publicly available release of Tiger compiled for both PowerPC- and Intel x86-based machines. This version was the first version, other than the version provided with the Developer Transition Kits, to include Rosetta.
| Version | Build | Date | Darwin version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.4 | 8A428 | April 29, 2005 | 8.0 | Preinstalled on much of the new line of computers |
| 8A432 | Original retail release | |||
| 10.4.1 | 8B15 | May 16, 2005 | 8.1 | Improved reliability, particularly in networking; improved compatibility with software and hardware devices.[29] Also addresses a widget auto-installation issue.[30] |
| 8B17 | May 19, 2005 | Server edition | ||
| 10.4.2 | 8C46 | July 12, 2005 | 8.2 | |
| 8C47 | Server edition | |||
| 8E102 | October 12, 2005 | Exclusively forFront RowiMac G5 released on same date | ||
| 8E45 | October 19, 2005 | Exclusively forPowerBook G4s released on same date | ||
| 8E90 | Exclusively forPower Mac G5 Dual and Quad released on same date | |||
| 10.4.3 | 8F46 | October 31, 2005 | 8.3 | |
| 8F1111 | November, 2005 | Intel[31] | ||
| 10.4.4 | 8G32 | January 10, 2006 | 8.4 | PowerPC |
| 8G1165 | Shipped on initial Intel-based Macs | |||
| 10.4.5 | 8H14 | February 14, 2006 | 8.5 | PowerPC |
| 8G1454 | Intel | |||
| 10.4.6 | 8I127 | April 3, 2006 | 8.6 | PowerPC; Finalretail release |
| 8I1119 | Intel | |||
| 10.4.7 | 8J135 | June 27, 2006 | 8.7 | PowerPC |
| 8J2135a | Intel | |||
| 8K1079 | August 7, 2006 | Exclusively forMac Pro released the same date | ||
| 8N5107 | Exclusively forApple TV (formerly codenamed iTV)[32] | |||
| 10.4.8 | 8L127 | September 29, 2006 | 8.8 | PowerPC |
| 8L2127 | Intel and Universal Server Edition | |||
| 10.4.9 | 8P135 | March 13, 2007 | 8.9 | PowerPC |
| 8P2137 | Intel and Universal Server Edition | |||
| 10.4.10 | 8R218 | June 20, 2007 | 8.10 | PowerPC |
| 8R2218 | Intel and Universal Server Edition | |||
| 8R2232 | ||||
| 10.4.11 | 8S165 | November 14, 2007 | 8.11 | PowerPC |
| 8S2167 | Intel and Universal Server Edition |
The company did the same for OS X Tiger, officially known as OS X 10.4, which was retired from support in September 2009, more than four years after its introduction.
| Preceded by | Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) 2005 | Succeeded by |