Snow Leopard to Get Cocoa Finder and ImageBoot

[MacRumors]

AppleInsider reports that Apple's next version of Mac OS X Leopard will introduce a "massive rewrite". According to the rumor site, Apple will rewrite Finder, as well as other Apple applications, from Carbon to Cocoa.

Apple has reportedly tapped select members of its developer community to begin testing the updated graphical file system manager as part of a new pre-release copy of Snow Leopard belonging to the build train 10Axxx. In addition, many of the Apple-authored applications accompany the new build are also said to have been wrapped completely in Cocoa.

Other changes expected include broader support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 within Snow Leopard's apps such as iCal, Address Book and Mail.

Meanwhile, a new ImageBoot feature should allow Macs to boot from a disk image and store multiple different configurations on the hard drive.

This latest version of Snow Leopard is expected to be broadly seeded to Apple's developers as early as this weekend. Aside from these new improvements, Snow Leopard is expected to bring more multi-processing and GPU support.

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[happydude]

anyone else get nervous nowadays when apple decides to do major overhauls such as re-writing finder. they're quality control is about as good as M$ as of late. get ready for 10.6.1 to be released a week later with "minor bug and security fixes"

[SandynJosh]

Originally Posted by happydude

anyone else get nervous nowadays when apple decides to do major overhauls such as re-writing finder. they're quality control is about as good as M$ as of late. get ready for 10.6.1 to be released a week later with "minor bug and security fixes"

It's always risky when anyone tried to go into uncharted waters with cutting edge capability. I'd much rather see Apple do that then not. The company is so future focused they are having to think beyond incrementally advancing the OS. I don't think they have a quality control problem a la M$, if anything they are needing to anticipate and deal with totally new issues never seen before and address then in ways that shield the user from even knowing they could have plagued them.

I started with a Mac 128K running 1.1g and have stuck with Macs through all the good and bad in between. The company has really pushed the envelope with Jobs, V2.0 at the helm and the computer/communicator/consumer world is much better for it.

[pgifford]

I'm more looking forward to Snow Leopard than any other update! It sound pretty cool.

[The Tall One]

Sounds great! I would love to be able to boot from disk images, that would be tremendous, especially when it comes to troubleshooting your system. AMMMMEERRIIICCCAAAA

[erockerboy]

yay performance boost. this should be great!

[iMacmatician]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

AppleInsider reports that Apple's next version of Mac OS X Leopard will introduce a "massive rewrite". According to the rumor site, Apple will rewrite Finder, as well as other Apple applications, from Carbon to Cocoa.

Yay! Finally! I'd like to see a Cocoa Finder. But I'd also like to see improvements in the Finder, like:

• More info shown in the main window (so I don't have to Get Info as much)
• Thumbnail files (like Windows XP's Thumbs.db) for immediate thumbnail creation
• Quick Look by holding down Option and hovering over a file/folder
• Tabs
• Groups like in Windows Explorer

Or maybe the Finder will make an iMovie HD 6 -> iMovie '08 type transition. I think the most likely possibility, however, is that the Finder will look and feel similar in Cocoa as it was in Carbon (but snappier and more stable).

Originally Posted by Omni Geno

This sounds fantastic. Sure to continue keeping OSX waaaaaay ahead of Windoze Vista/Windoze 7 for the foreseeable future.

I hope so, since there are rumors that Windows 7 will be released on June 3, 2009.

(yeah right)

[madrag]

lovely news!

the bootImage seems awsome! I know I'll use it, I already make so many images of my systems, and that will come handy.

[nick9191]

The Finder was carbon?

That means that they took the finder from Mac OS Classic, then souped it up for OS X.

ROFL.

[CWallace]

The more I read about Snow Leopard, the more I like it.

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

ImageBoot would be really sweet feature.
I can think of a BUNCH of ways this would work great in the educational environment.

[ricosuave]

It would be a nice improvement if the new cocoa finder would include the file size when you run a search within the finder window.

Another would be to have the default search within the folder in which you are searching and not go outside to "This Mac" unless it is selected.

[Headrush69]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

Another would be to have the default search within the folder in which you are searching and not go outside to "This Mac" unless it is selected.

Agreed. The current behaviour isn't very intuitive.

If I enter search terms in a search field in a window, one would expect it to be searching within that window by default. If I wanted a system wide search I would just use the Spotlight menu option which is always onscreen anyways.

[shawnce]

Originally Posted by nick9191

The Finder was carbon?

That means that they took the finder from Mac OS Classic, then souped it up for OS X.

In reality only a some aspects (mostly low level) of the Mac OS X Finder had anything to do with Finder from Mac OS days (at least at this time). One of the reason Mac OS X Finder is Carbon based was as an "eat your own dog food" product to help validate Carbon on Mac OS X.

[cube]

I only care that the upgrade cannot fail on 1.8GHz Giga Design Cubes, the reason I'm staying away from Leopard.

[8CoreWhore]

Anyone besides me get the sneaky feeling that Snow Leopard will be priced lower than the usual 129USD? I'm thinking 89USD. I'm not saying they should, just going by the incrementalism of the OS name.

[illegallydead]

Originally Posted by 8CoreWhore

Anyone besides me get the sneaky feeling that Snow Leopard will be priced lower that the usual 129USD? I'm thinking 89USD. I'm not saying they should, just going by the incrementalism of the OS name.

$89 sure would be nice, seeing as it doesn't introduce loads of new features.

However, knows people will pay $129 happily (especially if it does what all it claims in terms of stability and streamlining), so, knowing , they will not miss out on that $40 of profit if they can help it.

Here's hoping they do make it cheaper though

[brentj84062]

That sounds absolutely fantastic, especially images. The possibilities with that are very exciting!

[8CoreWhore]

"Image Boot" sounds like Linux "Live CD", where it is not necessary to install the OS to run it.

[Michael73]

Anyone else here think SL will appear just prior to WWDC so that WWDC can be all about this new cat?

[schneb]

Remember, iMovie 08 was a complete rewrite of iMovie HD. And look where that got us. A totally useless interface that only video newbies would appreciate. Which, in turn, also shut down an entire Plug-in industry that put their trust, effort, and capitol into the Apple signature iLife application--let alone those who payed for such plugins.

I'm all for cleaning up code and going on diets to prevent bloat. But don't go and give us a completely new way of doing things... AGAIN!

[illegallydead]

Originally Posted by schneb

Remember, iMovie 08 was a complete rewrite of iMovie HD. And look where that got us. A totally useless interface that only video newbies would appreciate. Which, in turn, also shut down an entire Plug-in industry that put their trust, effort, and capitol into the Apple signature iLife application--let alone those who payed for such plugins.

I'm all for cleaning up code and going on diets to prevent bloat. But don't go and give us a completely new way of doing things... AGAIN!

iMovie is (and was) very much designed for amateurs. Like iTunes, it is not meant to be a super powerful program, just one that works well for casual use. I think '08 was just reinforcing that concept.

If you want good video editing, then go with Final Cut. It has hundreds of great plug-ins, IS the industry standard, and is powerful as bejesus.

Obviously the $200 price tag of Final Cut Express is hard to swallow when iMovie is included with OS X.
However, you can (or could) still download the last version of iMovie from , so your complaint is....?

[edit]
Just checked the website, and you CAN still get iMovie HD 6 (a.k.a. iMovie '06)
Link: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
[/edit]

[iVoid]

I guess that means carbon is going to be phased out at some point.


I just hope they don't decide to leave off useful features we've come to expect.

[juststranded]

BOOTING FROM DISK IMAGE WILL BE FREAKING AWESOME!

I was just backing up my system yesterday thinking they should try to do that. What a huge advantage. Backing up your system will be so easy.

[Ade-iMac-177]

Sorry to dampen the high spirits but a Cocoa implementation of the Finder would work exactly the same as the Carbon one. I expect the only reason they are doing this is so they can make a 64-bit implementation as they scrapped their 64 Carbon support.

It would in no way be inherently faster or more stable just because they have changed the framework.

However a rewrite is a good excuse for apple to add a number of new features and sort out a number of problems. Let's hope they get it right this time.