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

[MacRumors]

With the first developer preview of Mac OS X Lion having been out for over 24 hours now, some additional points of interest are surfacing from those who have had a chance to look through the build. Among the interesting observations:

- Apple has added support for a separate recovery partition, hiding away utilities needed for repair and troubleshooting right on the user's hard drive. The new system will allow users to boot to the recovery partition without the need for an operating system disc. The move, along with the shift to Mac App Store distribution for the developer preview, signal a reduced reliance on DVDs that may become important if other notebooks follow the MacBook Air's lead and see their internal optical drives removed entirely.

- As noted by MacGeneration [Google translation], Apple has added TRIM support in this initial developer build of Mac OS X Lion. TRIM support provides for optimization of solid-state drives by cleaning up unused blocks of data and preparing them for rewriting, preventing slowdowns that would otherwise occur over time as garbage data accumulates.

- Mac OS X Lion requires a minimum of an Intel Core 2 Duo, leaving out compatibility for Apple's earliest Intel-based machines offering Core Solo or Core Duo processors.

- CNET notes that Apple has apparently invited a number of security researchers to test out Mac OS X Lion, a move that seems to signal a more open relationship with those who are trying to find security vulnerabilities in Apple's software.

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

 

[IzzyJG99]

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.

 

[ravenvii]

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.

Not sure if serious.

 

[Genocyde]

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.

To be honest I don't think most companies adopt bleeding edge operating systems, and the ones that do won't be hanging on to core solo machines.

 

[AidenShaw]

- Apple has added support for a separate recovery partition, hiding away utilities needed for repair and troubleshooting right on the user's hard drive.

Nice to see Apple copying Windows' good ideas.

- ...Apple has added TRIM support in this initial developer build of Mac OS X Lion. TRIM support provides for optimization of solid-state drives by cleaning up unused blocks of data and preparing them for rewriting, preventing slowdowns that would otherwise occur over time as garbage data accumulates.

LOL for all the posts claiming that TRIM wasn't needed.

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.

Not pathetic - smart. All Lion systems will be x64 systems. Developers won't have to worry about the tiny fraction of Intel Apples that are x86-only.

If you look my history of posting, you'll see that I've said

• Apple should have skipped Yonah (Core and Core Duo) and waited for Merom (Core 2) several months later. I said this before the first Yonah systems were released.
• I said that Apple should have dropped x86 in Apple OSX 10.6 - and made that release x64-only.

32-bit is dead. Windows Server doesn't support 32-bit, and the next version of Windows client won't support 32-bit. Apple is doing everyone a favor by simplifying Lion.

 

[Minimoose 360]

In before people whining about how it won't run on their 8 year old Intel PowerBook and cursing Apple.

EDIT: in AFTER. Really?

 

[Hellhammer]

I've been running this for couple of hours now. Been pretty good so far

 

[orfeas0]

I guess the next generation will be the one we were expecting as "the future of macbooks".

 

[LucasLand]

how much and will it be available via app store?

 

[LucasG]

This is getting pretty good actually. Liking these new little details.

 

[impulse462]

This is great for current MBA users. Hopefully Lion offers a lot of OpenCL optimization as well.

Pretty excited about airdrop too, if its gonna be like dropbox.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

- Mac OS X Lion requires a minimum of an Intel Core 2 Duo, leaving out compatibility for Apple's earliest Intel-based machines offering Core Solo or Core Duo processors.

What is the newest computer being excluded now?
My iMac will be turning four years old this coming October... I intend to replace it either this year or next, and it will be capable of running Lion, so I can't imagine many people will be the kind who always want to have the newest operating system available, and at the same time not be able to get it because their computer is too old.

 

[milbournosphere]

Well color me surprised. My Core Duo MBP keeps up with Snow Leopard just fine. Add an SSD and I could get a lot more life out of my laptop. I don't understand the restriction. My Core Duo chip can handle Angry Birds apps just fine...

 

[donga]

TRIM? i guess late is better than never...

 

[CyberBob859]

- Mac OS X Lion requires a minimum of an Intel Core 2 Duo, leaving out compatibility for Apple's earliest Intel-based machines offering Core Solo or Core Duo processors.

Well, there's my excuse to upgrade my Macbook 1,1.

 

[FuFuFu]

Lion will be the real king of Mac OS X ... I like it.

 

[mrblack927]

Unfortunately Lion (at least for now) supports trim ONLY on Apple SSDs. My Intel X25-M G2 isn't supported in Lion, even though the drive itself supports TRIM. I've heard the same from people with Vertex 2 drives. Might change by release time, might not. Great way to get people to buy your SSDs....

 

[Full of Win]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Yet another area where Windows is ahead of OS X. With that said,as controllers get better, this becomes less important.

 

[celticpride678]

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.

This might be the case for iOS devices, but not as much for Macs. Lion is very resource hungry, since most applications will be running in a suspended state. Processor power just wasn't there anymore.

I've been using Lion for nearly 24 hours and it's been rock solid. Not one crash and just a few bugs. Safari hasn't even crashed on Flash.

 

[Rudy69]

Well color me surprised. My Core Duo MBP keeps up with Snow Leopard just fine. Add an SSD and I could get a lot more life out of my laptop. I don't understand the restriction. My Core Duo chip can handle Angry Birds apps just fine...

Your Core Duo chip is 32 bit only and Apple is moving so that all Lion computers are 64bit

 

[JohnGalt81]

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.

More likely it requires a 64-bit processor, which Core 2 Duo processors are, and the original Core Solo/Duo processor are not.

Your company is switching to PC's because they last longer? That's a new one.

 

[Actarus]

Nice to see Apple copying Windows' good ideas.




LOL for all the posts claiming that TRIM wasn't needed.

Absolutely true. I agree with both statements. In fact, TRIM has benn also copied from Win and Linux... welll better now than never.

 

[iMouse]

In before people whining about how it won't run on their 8 year old Intel PowerBook and cursing Apple.

EDIT: in AFTER. Really?

I still have yet to receive my Intel PowerBook...

 

[dscuber9000]

Core 2 Duo is the minimum? Dodged a bullet there.

 

[Yankee617]

I've been running this for couple of hours now. Been pretty good so far

I'm looking forward to this. Looks like it will run on the 2010 C2D-based 13" MBP that I plan to give to a friend as well as the snazzy new base-model 2011 13" MBP (with its i5 CPU) that I intend to buy soon.