The Mac OS X Public Beta (internally codenamed "Kodiak") was an early beta

Software testing

Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...

 version of Apple Computer's Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

 operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

 Cheetah. It was released to the public on September 13, 2000 for US$29.95. It allowed software developer

Software developer

A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process. Their work includes researching, designing, developing, and testing software. A software developer may take part in design, computer programming, or software project management...

s and early adopters

Diffusion (business)

Diffusion is the process by which a new idea or new product is accepted by the market. The rate of diffusion is the speed that the new idea spreads from one consumer to the next. Adoption is similar to diffusion except that it deals with the psychological processes an individual goes through,...

 to test a preview of the upcoming operating system and develop software for the forthcoming operating system before its final release. It had a build number of 1H39.

Successor OS

The Public Beta succeeded Mac OS X Server 1.0

Mac OS X Server 1.0

Mac OS X Server 1.0, released on March 16, 1999, is the first operating system released into the retail market by Apple Computer based on their acquisition of NeXT. It followed the Rhapsody series of developer releases of what was to be known as Mac OS X...

, the first public release of Apple's new NeXT

NeXT

Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...

 OpenStep

OpenStep

OpenStep was an object-oriented application programming interface specification for an object-oriented operating system that used a non-NeXTSTEP operating system as its core, principally developed by NeXT with Sun Microsystems. OPENSTEP was a specific implementation of the OpenStep API developed...

-based operating system, which used a variant of the classic Mac OS

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

' "Platinum" user interface look and feel. The Public Beta introduced the Aqua user interface

Aqua (user interface)

Aqua is the GUI and primary visual theme of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system. It is based around the theme of water, as its name suggests, with droplet-like elements and liberal use of translucency and reflection effects...

 to the world. Fundamental user interface changes were revealed with respect to fonts, the Dock

Dock (computing)

The Dock is a prominent feature of the graphical user interface of the Mac OS X operating system. It is used to launch applications and switch between running applications...

, the menu

Menu (computing)

In computing and telecommunications, a menu is a list of commands presented to an operator by a computer or communications system. A menu is used in contrast to a command-line interface, where instructions to the computer are given in the form of commands .Choices given from a menu may be selected...

 bar (with an Apple logo at the center which was later repositioned, due to public request). System icon

Icon (computing)

A computer icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen and used to navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a small picture or symbol serving as a quick, intuitive representation of a software tool, function or a data file accessible on the system. It functions as an...

s were much larger and more detailed, and new interface eye candy

Eye candy

Eye candy may refer to:*Attractiveness*Eye Candy , an album by Mis-Teeq*software "Eye Candy", a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks that adds new filter effects*"Eye Candy", an episode of the animated series Happy Tree Friends...

 was prevalent.

Technical changes

With the Mac OS X Public Beta came fundamental technical changes, most courtesy of an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 Darwin

Darwin (operating system)

Darwin is an open source POSIX-compliant computer operating system released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code developed by Apple, as well as code derived from NeXTSTEP, BSD, and other free software projects....

 core, including two features that Mac users had been anticipating for almost a decade: preemptive multitasking and protected memory. At the MacWorld Expo in June 2000, Apple CEO

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...

 demonstrated Bomb.app, a test application intended to crash.

Native apps

Native applications in general were few and far between. Users had to turn to open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 or shareware

Shareware

The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

 alternatives, giving rise to an active homebrew software community around the new operating system. The poor state of the Carbon API contrasted with the relative maturity of Cocoa also gave rise to an anti-Carbon bias among OSX users, one that persists to a certain extent to this day.

Expiration

Mac OS X Public Beta expired and ceased to function in Spring 2001.

Mac OS X v10.0

Mac OS X v10.0

Mac OS X version 10.0, code named "Cheetah", is the first major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. Mac OS X v10.0 was released on March 24, 2001 for a price of US$129...

was the first completed release of Mac OS X. It became available in March 2001. Owners of the Public Beta version were entitled to a $30 discount on the price of the first full version of Mac OS X 10.0.