Jobs: Leopard Will Anchor Product Schedule For A Decade

[jstad]

Not only is this good to hear from the user's point of view, since we get bored easily and demand something new, but it is also a great business model for Apple. It also inspires developers to keep developing their software products for customers since there is always something new to add/learn.

 

[Capt. Obvious]

Preview of 10.6 at MW SF?

MWSF '09, perhaps....

 

[VaDor]

Well, the good news is that Macintosh OSX is remarkable stable and quality.

notwithstanding some problem areas, it does get continually refined. A much better approach than Microsoft's Windows. Which takes the approach of delivering buggy and problematic operating systems.

Vista has been uniformly reviewed as horrible and most software does not take advantage of it properly.

Well Print System I think is the worst part of Mac OS X , I have a canon mp530 shared in network.. and I have to use printfab drivers.... that sucks

Everything else I love it!! But please Printers,scanners this type of things came on... especially when they are shared.. with windows or something...

 

[cohibadad]

I don't see why people are getting confused by code name and version name.

Just like iLife '08, if you look at version number of iPhoto, it's actually iPhoto 7. That's all. Windows XP is windows 6. Windows 7 is the next one.

Microsoft numbers Windows 2000 as NT 5 and XP as 5.1 (for enterprise versions they consider them the same and will send you either install CD or both). Vista is NT 6.0.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

10.6 not coming in 18 months

If the rumors of no PPC support in 10.6 are true, there will be a lot of p****d off G4 and G5 owners in 12-18 months time.

This would be true, but I think you are reading things wrong here a bit.

The "10.6 not supporting PPC" is more open (wild?), speculation than a rumour. It also was originally phrased as "The next OS version might not support PPC" not 10.6 specifically.

The announcement today from Steve is more about saying that 10.5 is the foundation for the next ten years. 10.6 therefore might not come in 18 months but in ten years time.

The way I read it, the interim is going to be filled by 10.5.1, 2, 3, etc. every 18 months and 10.6 is actually a long way off. I would expect PPC support to be dropped when the machines are too far behind to expect any decent performance out of them. More like a few years than 18 months.

 

[matticus008]

Not quite.

Right, you proceeded to say almost exactly the same thing. The version numbers are based on the Windows family lineage, which informed the NT versioning scheme, from which we get to Windows 7.

Vista, however, is not based on NT 3.1 code OR Win9x code. Very little of NT3 survived even as far as NT 4.0. From the GUI right down to the kernel, 4.0 was a thorough rebuilding, which accounts for the relatively anemic release of NT 3.51 as a stopgap measure.

For what it's worth, no one was even talking about code lineage.

 

[TurboSC]

people at microsoft have to be kicking themselves right now... especially with the lack-luster release of Vista... sucks to be them.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

So guys (and gals), wern am I going to see a viable replacement for my 12 inch powerbook? When would you all speculate that a slim MBP or MB or tablet/multitouch will come out based on this interview with jobs?

 

[Counter]

I think 10.6 will have PPC support but it will certainly be the last.

 

[Cloudane]

I sort of wonder where they came up with Windows 7 as a code name. Does it show that people at MS can't count?
Windows 1, 2, 3 (and 3.11), 95, ME, 98, XP and Vista seem to be 8, and I didn't bother with the NT and 2000 flavors.

It's kind of confusing, and it looks like plenty of people have it covered already, but here goes.

First you have to remember that up until XP, there were 2 different versions, Windows x.x (DOS based) and Windows NT x.x (NT kernel based). Generally the version numbers were based off the UI revision, but up until XP they were technically different.

95 = 4.0
NT4 = NT 4.0
98 = 4.1
ME = 4.9
2000 = NT 5.0
XP = 5.1 (now they merged the versions, and since it's based on the NT kernel it took the next NT version number)
Server 2003 = 5.2
XP x64 = 5.2
Vista = 6.0
Ergo, the next is Windows 7.0. (I'd love to see them actually call it that instead of all those silly dates and other weird names!)

ME was actually a stopgap (ahem... downgrade) that came after 2000 and was based on DOS even though it tried its best to hide it.

Leopard is 2.5 years since Tiger and much more than a service pack. Service Packs by and large bring no new functionality to an OS. The only one that sort of bucked the trend was XP SP2, which was brought on by Microsofts poor project management for Longhorn

True. I was thinking of Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98 Second Edition, which were both similar scale upgrades to those that OS X goes through. But actually, IIRC, OSR2 was only available through OEM (new PC) and 98SE was a full purchase only.

And those people who are moaning about the upgrade cycle compared to Windows do not need to upgrade. A lot of people upgrade every other version for the $129. Myself personally, would rather update every 18-24 months and keep on the cutting edge, using the latest features as soon as possible. But you have the choice to stay with whatever version you are currently running. With Windows you had no choice but to stick with an antiquated XP for 5 1/2 years.

Mm, also true. Panther has been pretty functional for those who wished to stick with it, and anyone making the leap from Panther to Leopard is getting quite a major upgrade!

2014 will be nothing like 1984.

Oh it will in Britain, and it'll be double plus ungood, but that's for another thread

 

[rockosmodurnlif]

No-one is forcing you to upgrade.

Yes they are. They keep adding features I will use.

 

[reallynotnick]

So what about OS 11? I mean is it going to go all the way up to 10.9? Is Apple going to be doing "episodic" OS's like Valve? Maybe by 10.9 we will hit the glass wall as far as OS's go, or 11 will be like an organic every growing OS.

I guess the numbers aren't a huge deal, as long as my computer keeps getting faster and my OS keeps getting juicier.

 

[Multimedia]

What A Company!

Forget what a country. What a Company! I love this platform so much I could cry.

 

[Cloudane]

I guess they'll keep OS X going until there's something completely revolutionary behind the scenes. The Unix based OS X has got a hell of a lot of life left in it yet.

Don't be surprised to see an OS X 10.16 or something (who says it has to count up in decimal?) but I'm really wondering how many cat names they can come up with. We'll have done Moggy, Meowth and Felix and everything by then.

 

[gwangung]

Actually, I'm wondering if this announcement means that there will be fewer under-the-hood tinkering with OS X than in the past. From what I read, there were substantial, but not visible, changes in the core of the operating system, with each subsequent release..

 

[MattInOz]

Well Print System I think is the worst part of Mac OS X , I have a canon mp530 shared in network.. and I have to use printfab drivers.... that sucks

Everything else I love it!! But please Printers,scanners this type of things came on... especially when they are shared.. with windows or something...

I hear apple have hired a new guy who's a real gun with printer drivers.
So with any luck Printers will get the overhaul it needs.

 

[Wolf Am I]

people at microsoft have to be kicking themselves right now... especially with the lack-luster release of Vista... sucks to be them.

Wait a tick... say you're playing poker and you've got 5% of the chips. And you just win another 3% from the pot... the other player who happens to have 93% of the chips left isn't going 'damn, it sucks to be me'. I'd say they'd be like... GOT SO MANY CHIPS... DAMN, THIS IS GOOD.

give it several more years of the tide changing and market shares shifting, then they might be kicking themselves.

 

[crazybrit]

Try That Microsoft

Do you think that if the boys at Redmond were confronted with a need to port Windows to a new processor, they would be able to do it quickly, and in such a way that ALL the applications would run seamlessly. Without a hitch?

I am blown away by the fact that here I am almost 8 months after the release of Vista, and I still can't upgrade because my engineering apps will not run on it.

Oh, and now I have a Pro with 8GB of RAM, so I need 64-bit. Do you think it is an easy transition to get a 64-bit Vista? NOTHING runs on THAT! I mean, isn't it ironic that Windows supports backwards compatibility when nothing will run on their new OS except their own rewritten software?

So I am looking forward to Friday. I get to open a box with a brand-new leading edge 64 bit operating system, and I know that I can install it with confidence, and everything will run. Not only that, but my system will probably run a lot faster, thanks to the 64 bits, and the multi-threading.

I guess I can't understand why the "Industry Leader" with all its resources cannot do that too.

 

[MaskedPhantom]

10.6 therefore might not come in 18 months but in ten years time.

Are you on drugs? I mean... seriously?

 

[MLeepson]

The article makes me think that a touch interface computer is on the horizon for Apple.

On the Apple Job's web site. Under Hardware: "Multi-touch Engineering"

 

[0007776]

MWSF '09, perhaps....

that may not give enough time for testing, I think leopard would have had almost 10 months if it had been released on schedule. I'm guessing that we have an august WWDC and see it then if it is really only going to be 18 months or less.

 

[VaDor]

I hear apple have hired a new guy who's a real gun with printer drivers.
So with any luck Printers will get the overhaul it needs.

Yeah, the cups (http://www.cups.org/) guy.. let's hope Leopard print system is better than Tiger

Thinking in that I really haven't read or listen anything about the Leopard printing system

 

[Stella]

Yes, exactly. microsoft do far far better job on backwards compatibility than Apple. Saying that they have got better...but not good enough.

And you completely missed the point. Apple forces the upgrades on you. If you want to really update any of the other software you have to buy a new OS. That is how apple forces it on you.

Its a lot different. Hell, you can't even run the final release of Java 6 on OSX 10.4!!

Erm, you do realise windows 98 was released last decade, right? Apple doesn't support its latest .Mac iSync on OSX10.3 any more! You can't run iLife 08 on a machine from 2002 - a 5 year difference also.

Don't even try to compare Apple and microsoft with backwards compatibility - microsoft wins the vast majority of the time. Apple do a very poor job.

How is this different than Windows? Try installing the latest (or even the 2003 version!) of Microsoft Office on an older PC running Windows '98. All you get is a dialog box telling you it only works on a newer operating system, and it cancels the install!

You can't run the current version of Windows Media Player on a Windows '98 or ME machine either.

And most recently, you can't make any use of the latest version of "Direct-X" video extensions in any OS older than Windows Vista.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Yes, exactly. microsoft do far far better job on backwards compatibility than Apple. Saying that they have got better...but not good enough.
Its a lot different. Hell, you can't even run the final release of Java 6 on OSX 10.4!!

Erm, you do realise windows 98 was released last decade, right? Apple doesn't support its latest .Mac iSync on OSX10.3 any more! You can't run iLife 08 on a machine from 2002 - a 5 year difference also.

Don't even try to compare Apple and microsoft with backwards compatibility - microsoft wins the vast majority of the time. Apple do a very poor job.

I think that was my point. Apple forces its upgrades on people. Apple Backward compatibility is beyond poor. Tiger I think should at least have Devs and Major Support from apple up until at least leopard is replaced by what ever is next and so on but come Christmas getting new stuff for tiger will already start be coming an issue.

 

[matticus008]

Tiger I think should at least have Devs and Major Support from apple up until at least leopard is replaced by what ever is next and so on

They do. The developers just don't bother after a new release; why should they? What would you like Apple to do to provide extra "support" after an OS is replaced? There's nothing that stops the ability of developers to continue releasing software for Tiger. More to the point, I can still get almost all software I need to work on an old 2001 iBook (upgraded to Panther) to this day.

Legacy support is intentionally poor at Apple. A four year old Mac will easily run Leopard. Six years is a good run for a computer. It will continue to work for many years after that, even if it no longer runs the latest OS, contrary to what you seem to think is a disappearance of software immediately following a new release. The real problem is that developers of new software don't bother to support older OSes, but I wouldn't if I were them, anyway.