Inside Apple's OS X 10.6.3 update

For many years now, I've written articles detailing the changes in each minor OS X update that's released, such as the now-available Mac OS X 10.6.3. In the beginning, writing these articles was both interesting and worthwhile, as Apple rarely went into great detail about what was in a given update.

Times, though, are changing--the notes accompanying the 438MB 10.6.3 update include links to pages that detail both the general changes as well as the security-specific changes in this update. While these notes clearly don't document every single change in the update, they do cover a lot of them.

One area that wasn't covered in Apple's release notes involves graphics--specifically, improvements to the OS X 3D graphics engine. A representative from VMware, which makes Fusion for the Mac, told me that "VMware is excited about the release of Mac OS X 10.6.3, as the improved graphics drivers greatly improve 3D and interactive performance for VMware Fusion customers."