Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update Is A Whopper, But No Big Changes

The Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update is one of the biggest Apple has ever released — but there appears to be few major changes, just a bunch of bug and security fixes under the hood.

It looks like Apple is putting the finishing touches to OS 10.5 before releasing Snow Leopard in the fall, which will have major changes under the hood.

The Mac OS X 10.5.7 delta update, which updates 10.5.6 to 10.5.7, weighs in at 442MB; while the combo update, which transforms any version of 10.5 into 10.5.7, is a whopping 729MB.

According to an Apple support document, the update fixes bugs and security issues in the core OS, iCal, Mail and printer controls. Possibly the biggest change is adding RAW support for several new cameras, and improved graphics on recent MacBooks with Nvidia cards.

But according to Macworld Rob Griffiths, who examined installer log files, the update tweaks a long list of applications, from Address Book to Terminal.

“What’s most surprising about the number of modified applications is that very few of those are mentioned on Apple’s 10.5.7 notes page—only Dashboard, Time Machine, iCal and Mail are directly called out, but none of the rest,” writes Griffiths. “(The log) reveals a total of 16,915 changed files on my MacBook Pro. Despite that, things seem to be running very smoothly here after the update.”

This article is copyright Cultomedia Corp.