Over 80 bug fixes due in Mac OS X 10.5.7 "Juno"

The new beta, reportedly labeled Mac OS X 10.5.7 build 9J30, is believed to be just the third external distribution of the impending software release provided to third-party application developers, with roughly the first two dozen builds having been evaluated in-house.

People familiar with the new build say it bundles an updated version of Adobe's Flash Player while delivering five additional bug fixes, bringing the total number of code corrections expected as part of Mac OS X 10.5.7 to over 80.

Among those areas of the system most recently addressed were iChat, the CoreGraphics framework, iCal, and the HFS+ file system. Earlier builds had reportedly reflected a strong focus on a broad range of syncing bugs and cookie issues within Safari.

To the best of their knowledge, those familiar with the beta software say Apple has yet to narrow a list of core target areas in which developers have been asked to direct their evaluation efforts, suggesting additional pre-release builds may be in the cards before the software hits the final candidate stage that precedes a release to the general public.

Arriving in tandem on Thursday was an identically-numbered build of Mac OS X 10.5.7 Server, those people say. The work-in-progess release is said to pack just over a couple dozen fixes with a focus area spanning just nine core components. Among them are Calendar Server, Podcast Producer and Network Image Utility.

As was reported last week, Mac OS X 10.5.7 is believed to be referenced internally by the codename "Juno" or "Project Juno."