Apple Releases Lion Developer Preview 3 and Xcode 4.1 Preview 5

[fessura]

This new build is the first I've tried. After installing DP2 and then all the updates to get here, I have some issues:

Sticky mouse (on drag) - can't drag and drop anything anywhere. A new user account is ok. I've tried disabling as much as I could find and removing anything else running. deleting caches. nothing so far.

Finder - Icon View is blank. all others work.

QuickLook - blank window

Maybe the first two are related.

 

[Sturmi12]

I'm really liking several things about OS X so far, such as: incredible multitouch, no more manual driver updates, no registry, fast boot and load times, Firefox seems faster than my W7 experience, nice system preferences panel, everything is nicely integrated and works well. So there are many things I like better than W7, I just wish OS X had some key features that I really like.

Things I'm missing from W7: Auto align in explorer, TRIM, Cut & Paste, Window Snapping, No Menubar, & believe it or not Aero (Shine 2.0). The grey theme is getting old really fast for me.

Really liking the things I've seen from Lion so far. Killer new login screen (exactly how I wanted it!), Cut & Paste, stack icon size control, full screen apps, among other things.

Yes, bought my first Mac a month ago, and Cut&Paste and Auto Align are things I really miss too.

Before you start with "But there is Cut&Paste", I'm not talking about Cut&Paste in TextEdit but in the Finder, always opening two Finder windows to move a file is quite annoying.

 

[KnightWRX]

always opening two Finder windows to move a file is quite annoying.

You don't need to. I often move files using only 1 Finder window.

Seriously, Cut & Paste is over-rated anyhow. Use bash's auto-complete in the terminal. Much faster than navigating to the folder.

 

[iZac]

many have probably mentioned or alluded to this, but these new wallpapers seem to also be using the new 3200x2000 res. Who else thinks a new 30" display is coming? Does anyone even produce 3200x2000 panels?

 

[Sturmi12]

You don't need to. I often move files using only 1 Finder window.

Seriously, Cut & Paste is over-rated anyhow. Use bash's auto-complete in the terminal. Much faster than navigating to the folder.

How do you do it with only one window? And no I'm not going to use the Terminal to move files, that's what I have a Window Manager for.

 

[KnightWRX]

How do you do it with only one window?

Drag and drop the file as you would with 2 ? Just click and hold on the file then navigate to the folder where you want and then just let go of the mouse button.

You don't actually need to click things, mousing over them is sufficient and after a slight delay, Finder will perform an open operation on the target your are mousing over when holding the button down.

And no I'm not going to use the Terminal to move files, that's what I have a Window Manager for.

A window manager doesn't manage files, it manages the windows on screen (lets you move them, size them, hide them, sticky them, focus/raise/background them etc..).

Finder is a file manager. File managers suck for productivity. As soon as you get good with the terminal, it is most always simpler and faster. Heck, if you go one step further and get good with regular expressions, it's also much more powerful.

 

[chrono1081]

To those wanting window alignment try Flexiglass in the mac app store.

 

[Sturmi12]

Drag and drop the file as you would with 2 ? Just click and hold on the file then navigate to the folder where you want and then just let go of the mouse button.

You don't actually need to click things, mousing over them is sufficient and after a slight delay, Finder will perform an open operation on the target your are mousing over when holding the button down.

Okay didn't know this.

A window manager doesn't manage files, it manages the windows on screen (lets you move them, size them, hide them, sticky them, focus/raise/background them etc..). Heck, if you go one step further and get good with regular expressions, it's also much more powerful.

Finder is a file manager. File managers suck for productivity. As soon as you get good with the terminal, it is most always simpler and faster.

Well, yes and no. Maybe it is faster with the Terminal but I still don't want to use it.

 

[precator]

Parallels

Does Parallels work in this release?

 

[KnightWRX]

Well, yes and no. Maybe it is faster with the Terminal but I still don't want to use it.

Must be a sad existence when you fear learning something new. Your loss my friend. Bash is such a friendly and efficient environment to work in.

 

[Sturmi12]

Must be a sad existence when you fear learning something new. Your loss my friend. Bash is such a friendly and efficient environment to work in.

Oh wow, yes I must have a very sad life if I don't want my Mac to be easy too use without learning the terminal commands. Really, thank you for opening my eyes, starting tomorrow I will sit in front of my Mac all day and learn the terminal commands instead of using the "simple and intuitive" GUI.

 

[2Turbo]

To those wanting window alignment try Flexiglass in the mac app store.

That looks like a great app! Too bad it's $7.99 for something that should already exist in OS X.

 

[KnightWRX]

Oh wow, yes I must have a very sad life if I don't want my Mac to be easy too use without learning the terminal commands. Really, thank you for opening my eyes, starting tomorrow I will sit in front of my Mac all day and learn the terminal commands instead of using the "simple and intuitive" GUI.

All day to learn 5, yes count 'em, two letter words ?

Here you go :

ls - list files
cd - change directory
cp - copy
mv - move
rm - delete

All done in 2 minutes.

GUIs are far from "simple and intuitive". Let's take one easy example : Using 1 Finder window to move files. Did you manage to figure this out on your own ? Of course not, I had to explain it to you not 2 minutes ago. If it was intuitive, you wouldn't have needed me to explain it.

GUIs only seem simpler because they require only 1 button to operate, but the fact is, most GUIs have as steep a learning curve as command prompts. However, once you've learned the command prompt (which is quite easy to do once you set your mind to it), you are far more productive and faster at executing tasks on the computer.

Think of it like trying to get something done in real life by instructing another person on what to do. Which is simpler, pointing and touching things that this other person needs to manipulate in a certain way (the GUI) or just plain out telling them what you want done (the command prompt) ? It's much easier to verbosely express the tasks needed than to walk all around the room and pointing to things and then pointing to other things, hoping the poor soul figures out what you mean (move what object from what table to what other table ?).

Most people don't want to learn the command prompt because of one nasty little detail : Fear.

 

[pizzafootbal]

Lion via App Store

So, I've also heard some rumors about Lion to be released through the app store, but then how would you update? Just like any other app? Thanks!

 

[Sturmi12]

All day to learn 5, yes count 'em, two letter words ?

Here you go :

ls - list files
cd - change directory
cp - copy
mv - move
rm - delete

All done in 2 minutes.

GUIs are far from "simple and intuitive". Let's take one easy example : Using 1 Finder window to move files. Did you manage to figure this out on your own ? Of course not, I had to explain it to you not 2 minutes ago. If it was intuitive, you wouldn't have needed me to explain it.

GUIs only seem simpler because they require only 1 button to operate, but the fact is, most GUIs have as steep a learning curve as command prompts. However, once you've learned the command prompt (which is quite easy to do once you set your mind to it), you are far more productive and faster at executing tasks on the computer.

For the easy parts yes, but I don't want to configure my network with the terminal for example. But how do I remove a folder? Oh its rmdir, but wait there is a file in the folder, damn now I have to check the man page for rmdir, damn I can't find the command to remove a folder with files in it. Google it, oh it's rm -r.

Hell I can use the terminal, but again, I don't want to. I used Linux before and I just bought the Mac because "It just werks". I don't want to mess with the terminal anymore.

 

[KnightWRX]

Hell I can use the terminal, but again, I don't want to. I used Linux before and I just bought the Mac because "It just werks". I don't want to mess with the terminal anymore.

Hum... if that is the only reason you bought a Mac, you must be hella depressed Finder is such a bad file manager then. Linux has such a wide breadth of usable, intuitive and much more powerful file managers available. Dolphin is amazing, especially with the kparts support that lets you open about anything that has a kpart protocol handler (sftp, ftp, nfs, smb, webdav, name it).

But then again, I still believe bash is the most powerful file manager there is, on top of being a top notch automation environment and not to mention a fully programmable task executor. Adding 27 disks to a volume group ? Sure, you could click them one by one... or you could grep the kernel messages in the syslog to find the HW paths for your newly discovered disks, pipe all of that into a few greps/awks/xargs/seds and find your volume group extended with all 27 in a matter of seconds... compared to having spent 15 minutes of clicking through it in a GUI somewhere...

 

[hmottestad]

Reloading apps on restart

I don't know if this has been posted yet.

When restarting OS X Lion you get the option to resume your apps after the restart. Lion now manages to make some apps resume to their respective spaces. So far Safari manages this, but iCal and Address Book do not.

I haven't tried multiple windows in Safari and I haven't tried any non-Apple apps.

I hope that resume will reload every app to their respective space, since I usually run a nice setup of spaces with one dedicated to Mail and one for iTunes, one to iCal, two to Firefox (running webapps) and three spare spaces for whatever task I'm working on right now. In Snow Leopard I manage all of this by having the apps launch directly to their spaces, however this option has been removed along with the pref. pane from Lion.

 

[Sturmi12]

Hum... if that is the only reason you bought a Mac, you must be hella depressed Finder is such a bad file manager then. Linux has such a wide breadth of usable, intuitive and much more powerful file managers available. Dolphin is amazing, especially with the kparts support that lets you open about anything that has a kpart protocol handler (sftp, ftp, nfs, smb, webdav, name it).

But then again, I still believe bash is the most powerful file manager there is, on top of being a top notch automation environment and not to mention a fully programmable task executor. Adding 27 disks to a volume group ? Sure, you could click them one by one... or you could grep the kernel messages in the syslog to find the HW paths for your newly discovered disks, pipe all of that into a few greps/awks/xargs/seds and find your volume group extended with all 27 in a matter of seconds... compared to having spent 15 minutes of clicking through it in a GUI somewhere...

Well then lets look at it, why did I bought my Macbook Pro? Its quiet, it has the best Trackpad I know off, it has a nice display (well you have to like the glossy one), an awesome battery life, good manufacturing etc. etc.

What am I using it for? I'm doing alot of text processing, writing emails and all that daily stuff (surfing, listening to music, etc.), I even code a little with C++ and openGL for my computer graphics class. The Terminal might be extremly useful and time saving for some things, but how often do I need them?

And yes, Finder is one the things that sucks most.

 

[amoda]

I tried doing that with the first developer preview and it wasn't even too bad, but it wasn't compatible with my audio recording interface drivers, so just be aware that third party stuff might not work well, or at all. You can always partition and install it alongside your current system.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I mainly use the Office Suite and Photoshop and both seem to be working fine so I'm happy. Lion so far seems pretty nifty.

 

[tkermit]

Think of it like trying to get something done in real life by instructing another person on what to do. Which is simpler, pointing and touching things that this other person needs to manipulate in a certain way (the GUI) or just plain out telling them what you want done (the command prompt) ? It's much easier to verbosely express the tasks needed than to walk all around the room and pointing to things and then pointing to other things, hoping the poor soul figures out what you mean (move what object from what table to what other table ?).

Are you serious? Which do you think is easier: Giving someone directions for driving somewhere beforehand, or actually going along and only giving instructions before reaching relevant points of the route... Knowledge in the world vs. knowledge in the head and all that...

 

[KnightWRX]

Are you serious? Which do you think is easier: Giving someone directions for driving somewhere beforehand, or actually going along and only giving instructions before reaching relevant points of the route... Knowledge in the world vs. knowledge in the head...

Doesn't sound like much of a GUI vs CLI analogy. On the CLI, you can very much batch commands together and even execute them later, while many GUIs require babysitting and clicking the proper spot at the proper time.

A better analogy using driving instructions would be a drawn out map vs verbose instructions. But that falls to subjectiveness and the drawing skills of the person drawing the map.

 

[tkermit]

Doesn't sound like much of a GUI vs CLI analogy. On the CLI, you can very much batch commands together and even execute them later, while many GUIs require babysitting and clicking the proper spot at the proper time.

The point is about the amount of information that you have to store in your head. There's no discoverability with CLIs and nothing that helps you find the way. No road signs, no contextual visual information, no helpful scenery that reminds you of where you are and have to go next.

 

[kikuchiyo]

All day to learn 5, yes count 'em, two letter words ?

Here you go :

ls - list files
cd - change directory
cp - copy
mv - move
rm - delete

All done in 2 minutes.

In your bid to sound better than the other poster, you are giving dangerous advice. I use the terminal often, but using those commands is difficult without knowing how they work and potentially dangerous.

 

[Atlantico]

And yes, Finder is one the things that sucks most.

That's why we have the abbrevation FTFF in the Mac universe. Unfortunately Apple hasn't shown much interest in it and doesn't seem to have any clear idea of what to do with it, since 2001 when OS X was first released.

How bad is the Finder? It is hard to put any kind of quantitave definition to it, but it's so bad most users try their utmost never to use it - preferring to use Spotlight, the Dock, the Terminal or install third party app-launchers or Finder replacements.

 

[KnightWRX]

The point is about the amount of information that you have to store in your head. There's no discoverability with CLIs and nothing that helps you find the way. No road signs, no contextual visual information, no helpful scenery that reminds you of where you are and have to go next.

And what "contextual visual information" teaches you how to perform a 1 Finder window move operation ? Or what information tells you that the Face thing icon is the file manager ?

A lot of the GUI is not much more intuitive and is mostly storing things in your head too, except instead of memorizing strings of letters, you're memorizing drawings.

And seriously, [tab][tab] under Bash provides "road signs/contextual visual information/helpful scenery". I've "discovered" commands to do tasks I wanted done easily that way. If you've ever supported any kind of Unix box and software made to run on it, you'd know how to find things without having to refer to the Administrator's guide all the time.

Take for example HP's VSE software. All command line binaries are named hpvmsomething. In bash, as long as you have the installed path in your PATH, you can simply type hpvm and then do [tab][tab] to display the entire list of commands. hpvmstatus, hpvmstop, hpvmstart, hpvmcreate, etc... Tell me those aren't intuitive names. The provided "Usage" and man pages fill in the blanks.

You're kind of a jerk.

Just kinda ? I was going for my best Gregory House impression there.

In your bid to sound better than the other poster, you are giving dangerous advice. I use the terminal often, but using those commands is difficult without knowing how they work and potentially dangerous.

Yes, cd is such a dangerous command. Not to mention the dangers of ls! The horrors... It's not like Finder is any less dangerous, you could drag & drop an important system file to somewhere the system can't access it. In fact, you could do it "more intuitively and easily" according to some people.