Exactly a year ago today I have released the first Beta version of my now popular Mac-like desktop project, OS X Mercury. Beta 1 was the first version to sport feature-completeness, and included all programs and tools for the environment in a stage that was ready to test. Despite the agreement that it was a closed Beta, many have posted the link to access the code in forums anywhere. At the time, the project was developed under the Code Name “Asteroid”, as a quote to a product from Apple with the same code name, which however never released.
OS X Mercury Beta 1 has slight display issues in Firefox 3 Beta 3…
The feedback was generally positive, the code appeared to be working as expected across platforms, mainly targeted were Windows and Mac OS X. I have had people who tried it on Linux platforms too, which (except for the fonts) also seemed to be working. About four weeks after Beta 1, a second version was released, Beta 2, also closed. Beta 2 nearly eliminated all known issues and was almost identical to final release.
Shortly after general public release on May 18, the desktop got pretty popular and even made it into Lifehacker.
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