Mac OS X Tiger


Mac OS X Tiger is the 5th major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005, for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Included features were a fast searching system called Spotlight, a new version of the Safari web browser, Dashboard, a new 'Unified' theme, and improved support for 64-bit addressing on Power Mac G5s. Tiger also had a number of additional features that Microsoft had spent several years struggling to add to Windows with acceptable performance, such as fast file search and improved graphics processing.
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 supported pre-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. On June 11, 2007, at WWDC 2007, Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, announced that more than 67% of the 22 million Mac OS X users were using Tiger.
Apple announced a transition to Intel x86 processors during Tiger's lifetime, making it the first Apple operating system to work on Apple–Intel architecture machines. The original Apple TV, released in March 2007, shipped with a customized version of Tiger branded "Apple TV OS" that replaced the usual GUI with an updated version of Front Row.
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was succeeded by Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on October 26, 2007, after 30 months, making Tiger the longest-running version of Mac OS X. The last security update released for Tiger users was the 2009-005 update. The latest supported version of QuickTime is 7.6.4. The latest version of iTunes that can run on Tiger is 9.2.1. Safari 4.1.3 is the final version for Tiger.
Despite not having received security updates since 2009, Tiger remains popular with Power Mac users and retrocomputing enthusiasts due to its wide software and hardware compatibility, as it is the last Mac OS X version to support the Classic Environment – a Mac OS 9 compatibility layer – and PowerPC G3 processors.

System requirements

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was initially available in a PowerPC edition, with an Intel 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 as eBay, 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:
  • Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 family processor
  • Built-in FireWire
  • DVD drive for installation
  • 256MB of RAM
  • 3GB of available hard disk space
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger removed support for older New World ROM Macs such as the original iMacs and iBooks 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 that overrides the checks made at the beginning of the installation process. Likewise, machines such as beige 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 the PowerPC G3 family of processors.

History

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".
Apple mentioned Mac OS X Tiger by name in a press release published on May 4, 2004, for its upcoming WWDC 2004 event.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs first presented Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in his keynote presentation at the WWDC on June 28, 2004. In October and December 2004, several non-commercial developers' releases of Tiger leaked onto the internet via BitTorrent file sharers. Apple sued these file sharers. On April 12, 2005, Apple announced Tiger's worldwide release would be April 29. All Apple Stores around the world held Tiger seminars, presentations and demos.
On June 6, 2005, at the WWDC in San 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's x86 line of processors in addition to the PowerPC, the CPU 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 new iMac and MacBook Pro computers running on Intel Core Duo processors, and announced that the entire Apple product line would run on Intel processors by the end of 2006. Apple then released the Mac Pro and announced the new Xserve 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.

Reception

John Siracusa, writing for Ars Technica, wrote that some features in Tiger were half-baked, such as filesystem metadata, 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.

New and changed features

End-user features

Apple advertised that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger had over 150 new and improved features, including:
  • Spotlight — Spotlight is a full-text and metadata search engine that can search everything on one's Mac, including Microsoft Word documents, iCal calendars and Address Book contact cards. The feature is also used to build the concept of 'smart folders' into the Finder. Spotlight will index files as they are saved, so they can be quickly and easily found through a search-as-you-type box in the menu bar. As a side-effect, it adds hidden folders and indexing files to removable media like USB flash drives.
  • iChat AV — The new iChat AV 3.0 in Tiger supports up to four participants in a video conference and ten participants in an audio conference. It also now supports communication using the XMPP protocol. An XMPP server called iChat Server is included on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Server.
  • Safari RSS — The new Safari 2.0 web browser in Tiger featured a built-in reader for RSS and Atom web syndication that can be accessed easily from an RSS button in the address bar of the web browser window. An updated version of Safari, included as part of the free 10.4.3 update, can also pass the Acid2 web standards test.
  • Mail 2 — The new version of Mail.app email client included in Tiger featured an updated interface, "Smart Mailboxes", which utilizes the Spotlight search system, parental controls, as well as several other features.
  • Automator — A scripting tool to link applications together to form complex automated workflows. Automator came with a complete library of actions for several applications that can be used together to make a Workflow.
  • VoiceOver — screen reader interface similar to Jaws for Windows and other Windows screen readers that offers the blind and visually impaired user keyboard control and spoken English descriptions of what is happening on screen. VoiceOver enables users with visual impairment to use applications via keyboard commands. VoiceOver is capable of reading aloud the contents of files including web pages, mail messages and word processing files. Complete keyboard navigation lets the user control the computer with the keyboard rather than the mouse, a menu is displayed in a window showing all the available keyboard commands that can be used.
  • A complete built-in Dictionary/Thesaurus based on the New Oxford American Dictionary, Second Edition, accessible through an application, Dictionary, a Dashboard widget, and as a system-wide command.
  • .Mac syncing — Though this was not a new feature,.Mac syncing in Tiger is much improved over Panther. Syncing tasks in Tiger are now accomplished through the.Mac system preferences pane rather than the iSync application.
  • QuickTime 7 — A new version of Apple's multimedia software has support for the new H.264/AVC codec, which offers better quality and scalability than other video codecs. This new codec is used by iChat AV for clearer video conferencing. New classes within Cocoa provide full access to QuickTime for Cocoa application developers. The new QuickTime 7 player application bundled with Tiger now includes more advanced audio and video controls as well as a more detailed Information dialog, and the new player has been rebuilt using Apple's Cocoa API to take advantage of the new technologies more easily.
  • New Unix features — New versions of cp, mv, and rsync that support files with resource forks. Command-line support for features such as the above-mentioned Spotlight is also included.
  • Xcode 2.0 — Xcode 2.0, Apple's Cocoa development tool now includes visual modelling, an integrated Apple Reference Library and graphical remote debugging.