El Capitan will also see the arrival of Metal, the core graphics technology that debuted on iOS, which will provide app and game developers with access that is more direct to the Mac’s GPU.

Given El Capitan’s relatively modest range of tweaks and improvements, it’s perhaps understandable that Apple wouldn’t want to shout from the rooftops about its launch. At the time, Apple said the OS would release sometime “this fall”, but didn’t offer up a specific date. The relative lack of interest in El Capitan’s previews may be due to its positioning by Apple as a performance, stability and reliability upgrade that includes few impressive new features.

Apple announced that the upcoming Golden Master version of its OS X 10.11 El Capitan is now available for download to both developers and beta testers.

Much like its namesake, El Capitan is focused on rock solid improvements on the foundations laid down by OS X Yosemite. Packed to the rafters with great power user features, Apple has made sure that its desktop experience is as top notch as possible this time around.

This new OS X release will also introduce Swift 2, Apple’s programming language for apps.

El Capitan will arrive exactly two weeks after the release of iOS 9, the latest version of Apple’s mobile OS, which will roll out on September 16. If you haven’t already installed a previous beta on your Mac, you should first enroll in the Apple Beta Software Program.

There are also some other smaller features that aren’t entirely huge by any means, but many users will be excited about them. By shaking your finger back and forth on the trackpad, the cursor will get bigger so that it’s easier to find.

El Capitan will run on the same Macs that now run Yosemite, 2013’s Mavericks, 2012’s Mountain Lion and 2011’s Lion, according to Apple’s system requirements.