Edible Apple

About a month ago, Apple unleashed the developer preview of OS X Lion and it didn’t take long to see that as opposed to the Leopard to Snow Leopard upgrade, Lion brings with it a number of significant UI changes. Concurrently, Apple gave a number of select security experts copies of OS X Lion to gather their feedback regarding any potential security weaknesses in the upcoming OS.

With a bevy of developer feedback now at its disposal, Apple is getting ready to release the first golden master candidate of OS X Lion to developers according to a recent report from TechCrunch. While subsequent candidates are sure to follow, the designation of golden master indicates that Apple is ceasing development of new features and will now focus on clearing the OS of any bugs up until Lion hits the market.

Specifically, Apple is gearing up to deploy an OS X Lion update to developers that they may be classifying as the “GM1” release, we’ve heard. “GM” or “Golden Master” is a title reserved for software that is complete. But from what we’ve heard, this is only the initial Golden Master candidate. In other words, don’t get too excited just yet.

There’s no official release date for Lion just yet, but with WWDC 2011 rumored to take place from June 5-June 9, a Summer launch for Apple’s latest OS upgrade seems like a safe bet. You can check out a video preview covering some of Lion’s newest features over here.

And so it would appear that the upcoming departure of Bertrand Serlet is having little to no effect on OS X development.