Panther Build 7B68

(originally posted at bigbadgeek.com)

Much much much better than the alpha that was released at Apple's 2003 WWDC. Here's a list of what I've found in the first two hours of playing:

• The system itself is both more stable and more responsive.
• The new DVD player seems to lack the memory leak of the old one.
• The new Finder has a less-buggy implementation of the column view.
• The Accounts prefpane now has user limitations implemented.
• The Simple Finder limitation for Guest users is pretty slick.
• Fast-user switching is, well, faster.
• Default bash shell.
• echo $SHELL /bin/bash
• Expose's desktop feature doesn't completely hide open windows.
• The new Activity Monitor has a process filter and is more usable in general.

Phew. Fantastic. I can't wait until they release this to the general public.