Mac OS X Lion Roundup: Recovery Partitions, TRIM, Core 2 Duo Minimum, Security Focus

[commander.data]

What I'd like to know in terms of OpenGL 3.2 support is if GLSL 1.50 support is present currently? I've gotten a report, admittedly from a GMA X3100 user, that Lion is still showing GLSL 1.20 (OpenGL 2.1 level). The GMA X3100 wouldn't fully support OpenGL 3.2 anyways, but Apple still develops a common GLSL front-end that sends supported commands to the GPU and the rest emulated by the CPU. For instance the GMA 950 in Snow Leopard supports GLSL 1.20 even though it's only OpenGL 1.4 compliant. That the GMA X3100 doesn't report GLSL 1.50 support in Lion doesn't bode well for full OpenGL 3.2 support. Hopefully Apple isn't just adding in more extensions on top of OpenGL 2.1 as they have been doing in Snow Leopard. Perhaps someone with a more recent GPU and Lion can comment on the GLSL level.

And in terms of the Core Duo issue, the issue does not have to do with dropping support for 32-bit apps. 32-bit apps will be support and supported for a long time regardless. What dropping Core Duo does allow Apple to do is standardize on a 64-bit kernel to avoid maintaining 2 different kernels. As well, dropping Core Duo allows Apple to standardize and optimize the OS on SSSE3 which the Core Duo doesn't support for additional acceleration. Going 64-bit in the kernel also has security benefits since address randomization is a lot more random in that large address space so dropping Core Duo can save them negative security related press on their latest OS down the line. Not much comfort to Core Duo owners, but of course Snow Leopard will continue to receive security updates for likely at least 2 years until 10.8 arrives.

 

[chris200x9]

The MacBooksPro have switched to AMD graphics cards. AMD don't have their drivers up to snuff yet, eg. OpenGL textures not supported. You can only do OpenCL in Quartz Composer on NVidia cards and I'd think that goes for OpenCL in general. AMD was actually listed for a developer to re-write the drives for OSX on the OpenGL Apple developers list. Twice, the second time only a month or so ago.

what?! It's a well known fact amd crushes nvidia in opencl.

 

[mdgm]

Has anyone confirmed if SATA III is fully supported in Lion?

Isn't SATA III supported in OS X 10.6 on the new 2011 MBPs? You need to have Sandy Bridge (or later) hardware, so currently the only Macs with SATA III are the new 2011 MBPs.

 

[mdgm]

I have the 2007 MacBook2,1 with a C2D 2.16Ghz processor and 2GB RAM. Do you think I should upgrade this to 4GB RAM before installing Lion even though it can only address 3GB?

 

[tigres]

You know my MBA says my SSD has trim support under profiler, but osx leopard does not support it. How do we know 10.7 does, just from a screenshot?

 

[MacAddict1978]

Not being a jerk, but it's really helpful when people actually read what they are commenting on.

Core Duo is not being supported. Core 2 Duo is different. If you Mac is 5 years old or newer you're fine. 5 years is very generous. And that doesn't mean Apple isn't offering support for older systems, not just the new upgrade. You'll still get security and the like. No one bought a computer 5 or 6 years ago saying I can't wait to run Lion on this baby. You bought it with Tiger or Panther or whatever version. Don't buy tech if you aren't happy with what it does when you buy it, because it's outdated before you even warm it up.

And again, the reading thing. PPC has been dead for a LONG LONG time. I can't remember that last time I saw new software released as a dual binary.

32 bits apps run on a 64 it machine. Developers already offer software in that has 64 bit support baked in. They don't have to do anything different. This is better for developers. Over the next few years as the majority of people are all on a 64 bit platform, there isn't a need to keep supporting 32 bit apps.

Wow, they are already dropping supported models? This means when Applecare is expired, so is your ability to use the newest OS release!

This will not be good for Apple's reputation at all!
Don't expect your 3 year old $2500 computer to be able to run new software in its 4th year.
This means developers will need to make 3 versions of their software; PPC, Snow Leopard and Lion.

 

[KPOM]

this is not a fully capable 64bit OS. lots of people are still running 32bit apps. itunes for one is still 32bit as is iphoto

Apple maybe ready for 64bit, but App developers, including some of their own apparently aren't

Windows 7 64-bit runs a 64-bit kernel and will install only on an x64 system, but it runs 32-bit applications just fine. It does require 64-bit drivers. What Apple is doing with Lion is essentially releasing only the 64-bit kernel version. Apparently Microsoft is going to do the same with Windows 8.

 

[coder12]

AH MAN! Unless a workaround is created, my 10v and its atom processor won't be using Lion ...

Looks like I'll just install SnowTunes and pretend I have 10.7 installed.

 

[KPOM]

Yeah, but the CPU difference the Core Duo and the original Core 2 Duo's, is negligible.

Not really. The Core 2 Duo has the x64 instruction set while the Core Duo didn't. True, the Core Duo (and its immediate predecessor, the Pentium M) served as the microarchitectural basis for what became the Core 2 Duo, but they are different chips.

Windows 7.... It can even run on 8 year old computers. Slowly, but it is supported.

Microsoft has always maintained a high degree of backward compatibility. However, it's a bit of a false comparison since Windows 7 is Microsoft's current OS, and historically Microsoft updates its operating systems less frequently than Apple. Since 2001, Apple has had 7 major operating system releases (10.0 to 10.6). Microsoft has had 3 (XP, Vista, 7).

 

[KPOM]

Core 2 Duo minimum?

Does that mean it will run crappy on a 2010 MBP or will it run smoothly?

There's no reason to think it won't run smoothly. Windows 7 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor, but runs smoothly on a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo.

 

[karsten]

I have the 2007 MacBook2,1 with a C2D 2.16Ghz processor and 2GB RAM. Do you think I should upgrade this to 4GB RAM before installing Lion even though it can only address 3GB?

mine shows 2.07GB memory used so it might be a little tight that's with safari, mail, calendar and twitter open

 

[AidenShaw]

Total BS. Any decent GC algorithm is not guessing. It either identifies garbage or it doesn't. Attributing this to guessing is spewing nonsense.

Consider the following scenario:

1. I download an 8 GiB ISO image of a DVD to my SSD
2. I burn the ISO image to a disc
3. I delete the 8 GiB ISO image

How can GC determine whether that 8 GiB is in use (and must be preserved), or if it's garbage that can be collected?

If it were really guess then sometimes it would collect non garbage.

One would hope not - it's more likely that the GC would fail to find garbage and preserve it.

 

[mdgm]

mine shows 2.07GB memory used so it might be a little tight that's with safari, mail, calendar and twitter open

Is that on Lion? I guess your answer is a yes then to doing the RAM upgrade. I probably won't buy Lion till after a few point updates or so, so I've got a bit of time to wait before I need to buy the RAM upgrade.

 

[karsten]

Is that on Lion? I guess your answer is a yes then to doing the RAM upgrade. I probably won't buy Lion till after a few point updates or so, so I've got a bit of time to wait before I need to buy the RAM upgrade.

yeah the new lion release

 

[misfit356tsw]

Not being a jerk, but it's really helpful when people actually read what they are commenting on.

Core Duo is not being supported. Core 2 Duo is different. If you Mac is 5 years old or newer you're fine. 5 years is very generous. And that doesn't mean Apple isn't offering support for older systems, not just the new upgrade. You'll still get security and the like. No one bought a computer 5 or 6 years ago saying I can't wait to run Lion on this baby. You bought it with Tiger or Panther or whatever version. Don't buy tech if you aren't happy with what it does when you buy it, because it's outdated before you even warm it up.

And again, the reading thing. PPC has been dead for a LONG LONG time. I can't remember that last time I saw new software released as a dual binary.

32 bits apps run on a 64 it machine. Developers already offer software in that has 64 bit support baked in. They don't have to do anything different. This is better for developers. Over the next few years as the majority of people are all on a 64 bit platform, there isn't a need to keep supporting 32 bit apps.

Not meaning to be a jerk but all of this talk of 64 bit operating systems has alot of Core2 Duo users worried because their Macs have a 32 bit EFI so therefor they cannot run in 64 bit mode. So what is Apple going to do about all of the 32 bit EFIs?

 

[Thomas2006]

If itunes is still 32bit, there is NOT SINGLE ONE reason for them to let the early Intel support go other than greed. Point blanc.

OS X Server is a fully 64-bit OS, which means it has a 64-bit kernel, which needs 64-bit hardware. Since the server and client are now one OS, it needs 64-bit hardware to run. It would not surprise me if Apple "ported" the client applications/utilities to the server OS and dumped the client.

The most recent update dropped support for OS X "Tiger" making iTunes Intel-only so the next update could bring a 64-bit version. Apple could have something up its sleeve where "Lion" and iTunes are concerned so we will just have to wait until WWDC2011 to find out if there is.

 

[cult hero]

Well, there goes my still-perfectly-functional-and-used MacBook 2 GHz Core Duo.

Yep. There it goes. The day Lion is released that still-perfectly-functional-and-used MacBook will cease working and you'll be FORCED to upgrade since clearly you can't live without the features in Lion—except, of course, that you can and have been for basically all of your computing life.

Why do I get the urge to set things on fire every time someone uses the frowny face on this forum?

 

[commander.data]

Not meaning to be a jerk but all of this talk of 64 bit operating systems has alot of Core2 Duo users worried because their Macs have a 32 bit EFI so therefor they cannot run in 64 bit mode. So what is Apple going to do about all of the 32 bit EFIs?

It's not that they can't run in 64-bit mode, it's that Snow Leopard doesn't supporting booting the 64-bit kernel on them. The processors switch to 64-bit mode just fine to run 64-bit apps on a 32-bit kernel in Snow Leopard. I'm curious about this as well. Hopefully Apple has designed Lion's 64-bit kernel to run on 32-bit EFI since it seems to be a design choice rather than a technical limitation since 64-bit kernels in other OS work just fine with 32-bit EFI. Or perhaps Lion will just include firmware updates for all older computers, which would be a dangerous proposition increasing the possibility of something going wrong.

 

[Mikey7c8]

seriously if all those core duo / solo macs are all 'perfectly fine' then they can be 'perfectly fine' running snow leopard also.

The 64-bit transition needs to happen, and whilst I concur that it's unfortunate that older users are left behind this is by and large the same in the pc world.

 

[misfit356tsw]

Yep. There it goes. The day Lion is released that still-perfectly-functional-and-used MacBook will cease working and you'll be FORCED to upgrade since clearly you can't live without the features in Lion—except, of course, that you can and have been for basically all of your computing life.

Why do I get the urge to set things on fire every time someone uses the frowny face on this forum?

Because you are socially dysfunctional?

 

[misfit356tsw]

It's not that they can't run in 64-bit mode, it's that Snow Leopard doesn't supporting booting the 64-bit kernel on them. The processors switch to 64-bit mode just fine to run 64-bit apps on a 32-bit kernel in Snow Leopard. I'm curious about this as well. Hopefully Apple has designed Lion's 64-bit kernel to run on 32-bit EFI since it seems to be a design choice rather than a technical limitation since 64-bit kernels in other OS work just fine with 32-bit EFI. Or perhaps Lion will just include firmware updates for all older computers, which would be a dangerous proposition increasing the possibility of something going wrong.

I was under the impression that Windows in boot camp used a bios emulator which could be 64 bit. I'm just worried that if I'm unable to boot into 64 bit Snow Leopard I will be unable to use Lion. Actually I am not all that worried because my computer will still work.

 

[cult hero]

Aww... Did that big, mean Apple marketing department hurt your feelings?

Must be the case considering he basically trolls this board along with Eidorian constantly complaining about Apple's products and policies and how great his snazzy Windows machine is.

Not that I care if people have non-Apple stuff, but I don't troll Dell's forums either.

 

[cult hero]

Because you are socially dysfunctional?

I'm just going to pretend those frowns are upside-down smiles.

(Although, that's as good a theory as any for my pyromaniac impulses.)

 

[jamesryanbell]

Pretty pathetic that you would need an Intel Core 2 Duo or better to run it. This is Apple obviously wanting to sell more units. Shame. This is probably one of the contributing factors why my company is now phasing back to PC's.

The days of keeping a computer for four or five years should be over. Gotta rock a new one every two years at a minimum. We need to be spending a LOT of money.

 

[misfit356tsw]

I'm just going to pretend those frowns are upside-down smiles.

(Although, that's as good a theory as any for my pyromaniac impulses.)

Good sense of humor. I prefer the eye rolling emoticon myself.