Apple has a new version of OS X coming to Macs this fall, and for the first time ever, it’s giving up to 1 million members of the public the opportunity to test it out in advance – for free, and without requiring they register as a developer, starting this Thursday. The purpose of the advance feedback is to gather feedback and help test the release before its wider launch, and by opening it up to the public, Apple can likely get more input about how consumer-facing features are working than they would with a pool limited strictly to developers.

We’ve had some time with the pre-release build ahead of today’s launch, and our time spent with the next version of Apple’s desktop OS has proven one thing: Yosemite offers a host of great new features for users new to Mac and experienced Apple fans alike. Even the pre-launch build feels like a solid step-up from Mavericks, which bodes well for the finished result that should launch once Apple irons out the bugs and incorporates user feedback from its beta test program.