Today, Apple releases the latest version of its Macintosh operating system, OSX 10.4 (pronounced O-S-10 version ten-point-four) -- known to beta-testers and industry insiders as Tiger. It's a major step forward for Macintosh users and a bigger step forward for system administrators and programmers. Yet, on the surface, users of Microsoft Windows may ask why there's so much fuss.

	Paul Sakuma, Associated Press Apple salesman Brian Tong holds up a copy of the operating system dubbed "Tiger" at the Apple Store in Palo Alto, Calif. Click photo for larger image. Related articles They love their Macs but want free upgrades Product Review: Long before Longhorn, Apple lets Tiger out of bag

For the end user, Apple is concentrating its magic in two areas -- finding files easily through Tiger's new Spotlight feature, and on user interface touches, collectively known as Dashboard.

Spotlight focuses the user on what he needs to find on the system -- not on what it is named. It allows the user to search everything in his system, from files and e-mails to contacts to images and movies. Then the user can save his results in a Smart Folder that automatically updates itself. You can create Smart Folders for almost anything on your system, such as smart groups of contacts or songs that you've downloaded from Apple's iTunes music store.

With Apple's recent megasuccess in the music download business, this could be a feature to which users will flock, because it allows them to download a tune and then play it by typing the song name, album or artist straight from the desktop.

Windows users may see Spotlight as a function similar to the latest desktop search mechanisms that have been released for Windows by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and other companies. While the user functionality is similar, the Windows-based search mechanisms are add-on applications that must be downloaded by the user. Spotlight is native to the operating system.

According to Doug Davidson, partner at CityNet Inc., who has been using the beta version of Tiger, the distinction is important because doing it at the system level allows it to be faster, and for other applications to take better advantage.

Davidson's CityNet, a Southside Internet Service Provider, uses Macintoshes extensively in its operation. While other ISPs have gone with standard UNIX-like systems or Microsoft Windows, Davidson has selected the Apple platform for most of his development work.

Apple's OSX operating system is based on Darwin, the core of one of the standard UNIX systems. Darwin is "open source," which means that developers can see how the program is written, create their own enhancements, then submit their enhancements to be incorporated into the main software for distribution to all users. According to Davidson, Apple has taken full advantage of the open source roots by incorporating external enhancements. CityNet has in turn taken advantage of the open nature of the Apple system. Davidson develops his software on Macintosh systems, and then moves it to other UNIX systems at CityNet. According to Davidson, the move usually goes smoothly.

Chris Rasmussen, president of The New Media Group, a Downtown company that trains advertising agencies on how to use computer applications, says Apple's new operating system is "what happens when you reach a point where the computer can do almost anything. The designers understand the way people think. Instead of humans conforming to an inflexible interface, they are adapting the operating system to human needs."

OSX 10.4's Dashboard is key to that focus on human needs. Dashboard is a refined interface that puts Web-enabled applications, called widgets, on the user's desktop. These widgets are miniapplications that can be stand-alone or can query the Net for information. Standard widgets include a dictionary, a calendar, a phone book and a flight tracker. Users can create their own widgets too.

Dashboard widgets are similar in some ways to Apple's desktop accessories, which longtime Apple users will remember from older systems. But they use newer technology and are more flexible. Widgets may remind Windows users of Active Desktop, a similar feature originally touted in Windows 95.

Davidson suggests that the power in Dashboard is not the set of widgets that come with the system, but that it gives nonprogrammers the ability to create their own miniapplications without knowing how to program. Since Apple's market stronghold is advertising agencies and other creative industries, this could be a boon to a graphic designer who wants to put his own tools in easy reach.

While Dashboard and Spotlight are two of the most visible changes in OSX, there are more than 200 changes in the software that affect many Macintosh functions. In particular, Apple has rewritten its core image, video and audio functions to take better advantage of add-in boards and multiple central processing units (up to four) -- potentially making systems work faster.

It also has enhanced its QuickTime multimedia application. The combination of these multimedia changes positions Apple for the future of home entertainment, including HDTV -- a market niche that it has already begun to capture with its iPod line of products.