Apple has opened its OS X Beta Seed program to the general public, allowing virtually anyone to try out its latest builds of OS X.

Up until now, Apple's OS X Beta Seed Program has been available only to developers, while others were denied access. This week, however, Apple has announced that it is opening up the program to the public, without requiring interested parties to pay the usual $99 fee to enroll as developers.

While the new OS X Beta Seed program is now open to the public, there are a couple of prerequisites. Interested parties must be over 18 years of age and have an Apple ID in order to qualify. Once you meet these simple requirements, all you have to do is sign in at Apple's beta registration website and agree to the terms and conditions.

Once you sign up and agree to everything, you will be able to download and test the beta builds of Apple's OS X before they are ready to make their wide debut as final releases. This way, you can try out the new features and functionality ahead of time and help Apple improve its OS.

"Join the OS X Beta Seed Program and help make OS X even better," Apple touts. "Install the latest pre-release software, try it out, and submit your feedback."

"The OS X Beta Seed Program gives users the opportunity to run pre-release software. Test-drive beta software and provide quality and usability feedback that will help make OS X even better."

While this is excellent news for those who are not developers, but still want to get early access to the latest software, keep in mind that you will not be dealing with final releases. The installation, upgrade, and functionality of the OS may pose some issues, therefore it is highly recommended that you back up all your important data and documents before proceeding to install beta versions of the latest OS X.

To learn more about the new OS X Beta Seed program or to sign up and take part in the process, head over to Apple's website at this link.