Is this really the Golden Master?

What part of 'developer preview 2' do you not understand?

Alex Hobbs said:

Was just wondering if that means it is already featured-locked.

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As it is just a Developer Preview (version 2), it is far too early to tell.

GM would mean this is the final, shipping version. So no. I don't think we'll get the GM til June...maybe at the WWDC.

No, I don't think so...I've found more annoying bugs on this released than in the previous one...so...

I hear a lot of confusion about this. I don't know why TechCrunch said what they did, but by all accounts, there is no golden master right now. This is just a developer preview. After this there will (probably) be betas. And after that there will eventually be a golden master or two.

Apple uses the term "golden master" uniquely, but it's basically what most software companies would call a "release candidate". The goal is to make only one RC. You release a RC build when you legitimately believe that the product is complete and this is the build you plan on releasing to the public. It's the last phase in testing. You let your testers try it out and see if there are any show-stopping flaws, if not, the "release candidate" becomes the "release".

When the GM is ready, it will be released to developers and labeled as such, and the public release will follow very shortly after. I don't know why TechCrunch is claiming this is an "internal GM", maybe they know something I don't, but as it stands it seems they are just causing confusion.

I think you mean Golden Master Candidate, and no, this is not. GM Candidates generally don't have a list of known problems. It just means that they fixed everything they know of and it is feature complete.

mrblack927 said:

I hear a lot of confusion about this. I don't know why TechCrunch said what they did, but by all accounts, there is no golden master right now. This is just a developer preview. After this there will (probably) be betas. And after that there will eventually be a golden master or two.

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Right. Adobe and other big software manufacturers need at least > 6 months to optimize their software (much more than just InDesign and Photoshop) for the new OS. Apple probably wants to optimize Lion for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge (via Intels Mac OS X compilers, not just via the GCC), which means that we will see Lion GM/RTM in January/February 2012 and Lion final in March/April 2012. This would make more sense, because it reduces additional development costs for Apple, after Ivy Bridge comes out.

mrblack927 said:

I don't know why TechCrunch is claiming this is an "internal GM", maybe they know something I don't, but as it stands it seems they are just causing confusion.

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Duff-Man says....I suspect that someone just misunderstood or misinterpreted something they heard or were told. Perhaps what was said regarding which build to release as the 2nd preview got twisted into being *the* GM release....oh yeah!

To put it simply, TechCrunch was plain out wrong and don't want to admit it.

Techcrunch is the LAST place I would go, even after deciding to not look any further, I still would not go there or read anything they claim.

Just my opinion.

if it were GM, wouldn't Apple call it that?!!