Apple appears to be pretty much done with work on its next-generation desktop operating system, with the company on Thursday releasing the Golden Master version of OS X 10.9 Mavericks to developers, people familiar with the matter told Apple news site 9to5Mac.
The label means tweaks and tests on the new operating system are now complete. Mavericks was meant to hit Golden Master status last month, but the discovery of “critical bugs” threw a spanner in the works, 9to5Mac said.
While Apple has made no mention of a specific release date for its new OS, it’s widely expected to hit the Mac App Store toward the end of this month, price currently unknown. From now until then the company will be busy training employees, such as AppleCare support staff, on the new operating system.
First unveiled at Apple’s annual WWDC event in San Francisco four months ago, the latest version of OS X brings with it hundreds of new features, including significant updates to Apple tools such as Finder, Calendar, and Maps, to name a few.
Finder Tabs, for example, will help you to keep a tidy desktop by allowing you to merge multiple Finder windows, which in turn will offer easier drag-and-drop copying between folders.
Safari’s been tinkered with to make it faster, and will also bring with it a number of social-friendly features such as a new sidebar showing your bookmarks, reading list, and shared links posted by people you follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.
For a full rundown of what to expect, check out DT’s comprehensive overview here.
