Back on September 13, 2000 Apple shipped the public beta of Mac OS X.

At the time things were bleak for Apple, having been marginalized by their own mismanagement and miscalculations.

I myself, coming from the printing and publishing industry, was experimenting heavily with Windows and early versions of Linux. I was tired of the constraints imposed by Mac OS 8 and 9.

As a tinkerer and developer, I wanted to more and as Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server 1.2 (aka Apple-branded NEXTSTEP OS) arrived things began to change.

Looking back 7 years, there is one conversation I had with an Apple employee in the parking lot in Cupertino which keeps resonating with me.

He said, Mac OS X is not about the consumer, it is about the developers. They wanted to attract developers and not just from big companies, but the open source and independent developers.

Mac OS X would rise or fall on the ability of developer, both professional and hobbyists.

He asserted everything else would take care of itself, if they succeeded in that area.

Here in 2007, on the eve of Mac OS X 10.5 being released, my assessment is that Apple has delivered on much of that goal.

As a developer, 10.5 is very exciting. The foundation has been improved to include nearly all the tools I use. From Ruby to ZFS, and a lot in between. Not to mentioned some exciting Cocoa upgrades that will push the development UI applications to a new level of sophistication.

It is an exciting time to develop on this platform.

Recent comments in the Mac community, suggests that 10.5 will be a disappointment. The criticism being that the features being touted for consumers are lacking and don’t justify the 10.5 moniker or upgrade price.

At the consumer level, a lot of polish has been added. From the added sophistication to many applications like iChat and the Finder to the speed improvements in core systems like Spotlight.

Apple is delivering on their commitment to the vision I heard 7 years ago.

I expect next year to the be the best yet.

Apple will open up the iPhone and iPod Touch in some way and Mac OS X will continue to solidify its position a developers platform.