While Microsoft was busy
announcing the Windows 8 release schedule, Apple went a step further. The Cupertino-based company has shipped the Golden Master of its forthcoming operating system, OS X Mountain Lion to developers.
The Golden Master (GM) release is an important milestone which indicates that beyond any last-minute critical bugs that may be discovered, the code of the operating system is "frozen". If everything goes as planned, the copy shipped to the developers today (build 12A269) is the one end-users can expect to buy later this month.
While Apple hasn't confirmed the OS X Mountain Lion release date beyond "July 2012", the GM milestone indicates that Apple is on track to meet its target.
The Golden Master of OS X Lion, Mountain Lion's predecessor, was shipped to developers on July 1 last year, with the final release popping up in the App Store on July 20. It's reasonable to expect a similar gap between the two milestones with OS X Mountain Lion, which puts the release date around the last week of this month.
OS X Mountain Lion, or Mac OS X 10.8, offers
new features like iOS-style notification center, system-wide Twitter integration and Gatekeeper for enhanced security. The OS will be available for $19.99, with customers who've bought a Mac after June 11 this year
eligible for a free upgrade.
See:
10 new features of OS X Mountain Lion