Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) Due in Q1 2009?

[kaiwai]

In theory, yes. But that is only relevant when Apple opens OS X for non-Apple hardware, meaning: Regular PCs, as in Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Asus, Acer or Lenovo.

You will have a hard time finding corporations or large organizations that willingly enter a hardware-vendor-lock, especially when that vendor is more expensive than the competition, does not sell low-end office machines, has the general policy of not providing product road maps, has no enterprise-level support services worth mentioning and worst of all is not even compatible with legacy (Windows-based) applications out of the box.

'enter a hardware vendor lock in' - and Microsoft lock in is even better? how about pulling your head out of your ass for 5 minutes and realising that hardware lock in means NOTHING when the software is based on open standards that allow easy interoperability with non-MacOS X platforms!

Dear god this is pathetic, just because you can choose hardware vendors, doesn't mean you actually have choice. You have a choice of hardware but you're stuck with software lock in - you're in a worse position than if you went all Mac.

On top of that, OS X is lacking a large amount of enterprise-level features, from deployment over administration to backup.

What about backup? if your employee's don't save to the server, where all the backups take place - then it is tough luck for them. Obviously if they don't follow company policy, the work they're doing isn't of particular high importance.

As for deployment - ever heard of NetBoot/Netrestore?

Try selling that to an IT department of a large organization. Good luck, you'll need it.

OS X was made for consumers, small sites and basically everything that has nothing to do with the enterprise. Its direct competition from Redmond was mainly made for exactly the other end of the spectrum: Large scale deployments in huge organizations. Places where nobody cares for design and beautiful user interfaces and where only enterprise-ready feature lists count.

You'll have more luck selling Linux in those places than OS X. For starters, Linux can be deployed on already existing hardware. And that closes the circle back to the statement that Apple needs to open OS X for third party hardware if they want to gain any significance in the enterprise market.


(Does this forum have a problem with Firefox?)

Again, another clueless statement; You simply line up your hardware upgrade to your software transition - how the bloody hell is that any different to the approach which companies are taking today with migrating to Windows Vista?

Dear god, please - work in the IT field for a period of time before opening your ill informed mouth.

 

[niklot]

Apple's current strategy in the consumer market is very high profit margins in a niche market with small market share. It's worked well so far, but my opinion is that Apple's margins will seriously suffer in today's economy. Their recent release of notebooks was a slap in the face for those wishing more affordable Macs that are actually reasonably priced compared to the competition.

I'd love to see an open OS X. I dislike Apple hardware. But there is a 0% chance Apple will allow it. And so users like me will have to continue making the decision of whether OS X is worth the lackluster, overpriced hardware.

there we go again... if you compare pc hardware to mac hardware than ull come to the end, that there is not a real big difference in price but an enormous difference in design!

 

[ccuk]

'enter a hardware vendor lock in' - and Microsoft lock in is even better? how about pulling your head out of your ass for 5 minutes and realising that hardware lock in means NOTHING when the software is based on open standards that allow easy interoperability with non-MacOS X platforms!

Dear god this is pathetic, just because you can choose hardware vendors, doesn't mean you actually have choice. You have a choice of hardware but you're stuck with software lock in - you're in a worse position than if you went all Mac.
<SNIP>

Your post is somewhat ranty to be quite honest.

Read what you wrote. If someone transitions to an all Mac environment, and subsequently get bespoke apps written for said OS, which quite a few companies I know of do, then they are tied not only to Mac OSX, but also to the Mac hardware. At least running Linux or Windows for example, the IT dept have choices over different forks of upgradability, software and or hardware. They also get to choose where to source the hardware from and what software licensing strategy suits their business.

Mac OSX isn't the be all and end all OS you seem to think it is, every OS has its place and purpose, hence why they each have a slice of market share.

 

[57004]

The slide says "14+" which I take to mean 14 months or more.

Since we don't know exactly how much 'more' means, there's very little in this that we didn't know before. All we know now is not to expect it this year.

I'd say the guy just stuck the '14+' in because Apple just doesn't know yet when to release but they know it's not this year. Although he could have put 'TBD' or something like it.

Are the beta's even stable yet? That's usually a good indication (and it was also warning of Leopard's delay back in the days when we were all waiting for it to come out at the original date).

 

[arn]

I'd say the guy just stuck the '14+' in because Apple just doesn't know yet when to release but they know it's not this year. Although he could have put 'TBD' or something like it.

14 months brings you to the beginning of Q1 2009. So 14+ just means at least 14 (to get you to Q1 2009)

arn

 

[dubhe]

I wonder if there will be a big announcement at the consumer level about it. For us Mac addicts this is a big thing, but for your average consumer, if it doesn't look any different then they won't even notice. They will see it like Leopard SP2

 

[iPave]

Hell, cut off the Core Duo owners, too. I don't want 32bit stuff holding back my machine.

I'd HAPPILY drop $300 on a version of OS X coded ONLY for 64bit Intel chips, with full OpenCL/CUDA and multithreading. No bloat, no stupid flashy crap, just pure performance. Get the install under 4GB, idle RAM usage down to a couple hundred megs.

I'm bitter, though. I'm tired of bloat and bugs.

Why??? 32 bit compatibiity won't slow your mac.

 

[3247]

Perhaps the sheer dedication of resources to Snow Leopard for a Q109 release is the reason why other projects have been put-off/delayed (iPhone push-notification, in-ear headphones, 120GB-HDD MacBook Air, etc)... it certainly raises the question.

The Snow diet for Leopard is probably necessary to fit the cat onto an Atom.

In other words, Apple might need Snow Leopard to be able to release some new hardware products. (12" MacBook <<1000 USD, MacBook Touch, Mac Nano... who knows?) If this is the case, they would certainly dedicate as many ressources as possible to Snow Leopard.

I don't think I've even had Leopard for a year. This seems a bit rushed to me, but maybe the "Snow Leopard" name means it'll be a major yet not major upgrade. I understand the need for utilizing multi-core processors, but that's about the only big improvement I have heard of. Nothing else really landmark like Time Machine.

Steve announced that Snow Leopard will have no new features but only improvements to the core in his MacWorld 2008 keynote.

BTW, snow leopards (Uncia uncia or Panthera unica) are actually smaller than leopards (Panthera pardus). So yes, it all makes sense.

 

[MacTraveller]

Interesting. Snow Leopard @ MacWorld? I'm game. Probably won't be that soon, but I can dream can't I?

More likely, it will be announced or introduced at Macworld. It probably won't actually ship until February or March.

 

[MacTraveller]

Macs are not overpriced this has been discussed too many times now. If you didn't get it...

Mac has features and a quality you rarely find elsewhere. Some features of new macbooks aren't comparable in small notebeook pc maket like multitouch pad, Nvidia, 9400M, unibody. So get the fact and stop whining.

Some people just want a $2.00 hamburger (PCs). It feeds their hunger fine.

Others are more willing to spend the money on sirlion steak (Macintosh).

Both hamburger and sirloin steak will feed anyone's hunger.

 

[bergmef]

I'd like to see snow leopard demo'ed at macworld and hear Steve say that it will be finished for wwdc and everyone that comes to wwdc will walk out with a free family pack box.

Take the time, make sure it's the best it can be.

PS. I wish my company would switch to Macs. Our IT guy uses a Mac in his personal life but corporate is 100% against it. My only problem is the engineering software. I use Mentor Graphics running on Linux and there is no version for Macs. I would love a Mac workstation with snow leopard and my CAD tools.

 

[dernhelm]

I didn't get a chance to read everything in this thread, but I had to post these two pressing questions:

1. LWMLAF? Anyone know what this means?

2. Where is the latestpics download? I see it came from here...

Careful there. You're risking the tortured cries of the many. Xenu won't save you, electric ribbon or not.

I hold out this insane and desperate hope that it's going to be cheaper than the usual OS X updates. Throw something our way, Steve.

Amen. But it won't be less expensive. Just because you can't see the "bling" doesn't mean they didn't spend a lot of engineering resources on the release. The price of the upgrade covers those resource costs (among other things). I kinda doubt they are making an real money on them.

 

[GSMiller]

Hopefully when it's said that "Apple has said that they would be focusing on both quality and performance in Snow Leopard." that doesn't mean that they're just changing the color of the scroll bar in Safari and stripping PPC support.

Since Snow Leopard is mainly focusing on performance, I would imagine the system requirements not being much greater (if at all) than Leopards. Albeit, no PPC support.

 

[SkyBell]

Well, Here's hoping it does have PPC support. (I fully expect it to be dropped in 10.7, but come on, one last time, please?)

 

[koobcamuk]

It's a MacRumors tradition that we see the absolute worst in every rumor, so before anyone else gets there...

It may not be cheap. It may not run on PPC processor machines. Like Leopard, it might be fragile on release. It may mess with your apps and your setup, it may be disappointing to many and it may just be late.

OK, we've got that out of the way.

Personally, I think that if you want to get the best out of an OS release, join the party at 10.X.5 or 10.X.6 as the OS is getting to be very refined by then. When 10.5 gets it's last iteration, it'll be great. 10.4 wasn't great. 10.4.3 crashed all my macs. 10.4.11 is amazingly stable...

10.6 will have issues. For sure.

 

[t0mat0]

Interesting to see the possible change of date (not that it wasn't anything other than written on sand before, being an "about a year" description).

If it's within Q1, unless Redmond can move their Windows 7 launch date forward another quarter, Snow Leopard will be out before 7, which is a potentially good thing in my book (no clash of events, better comparisons).

Even if they can't launch by WWDC 2009, if they're quite ready, they can sneak some of the secret features out their to whet our appetites. Nothing like being given some tidbits, and a few months to discuss rumours on the site, eh?

 

[iOrlando]

I've asked this in the past, but never got an answer.

How do you get this new operating system when it comes out if you buy a macbook now? Do you just have to buy the program and install it and thats it? all the info is switched over?

 

[samh004]

Not sure of this was mentioned, did a quick search of the thread but found no reference to it.

Concerning the prospect of Snow Leopard being released in Q1 2009, towards the end of the PDF it says Back to My Mac being based off .Mac. However since the middle of this year it's been known as MobileMe, so perhaps this slideshow is based off old information. At least in parts.

I've asked this in the past, but never got an answer.

How do you get this new operating system when it comes out if you buy a macbook now? Do you just have to buy the program and install it and thats it? all the info is switched over?

You are more or less correct. Generally you just install the new system over the old one, and instructions are provided/it is all automatic so you don't have to worry about it. There are several ways the upgrade happens, and those ways are all heavily debated by members on here as to what is best.

To sum them up very simply:

1. Overwrite old system
2. Backup old files, install new system, copy old files to new system
3. Delete everything and install new system

 

[Sky Blue]

I've asked this in the past, but never got an answer.

How do you get this new operating system when it comes out if you buy a macbook now? Do you just have to buy the program and install it and thats it? all the info is switched over?

You buy the DVD from Apple and boot your machine off of it.

 

[bishboria]

I didn't get a chance to read everything in this thread, but I had to post these two pressing questions:

1. LWMLAF? Anyone know what this means?

2. Where is the latestpics download? I see it came from here...

I would also like to know what LWMLAF is!

Anyone got an idea?

 

[Half Glass]

I've learned from the others here after rushing to Leopard: I'll wait until at least 10.6.2 before I upgrade.

--HG

 

[TJunkers]

That would be awesome! I guess they are doing this to compete with Windows 7... Hopefully there is enough to be thrilled about cause Windows 7 is a huge update! Wonder if we are going to see 10.5.6 to 10.5.9 in the next coming months!

 

[CyberBob859]

I've asked this in the past, but never got an answer.

How do you get this new operating system when it comes out if you buy a macbook now? Do you just have to buy the program and install it and thats it? all the info is switched over?

If you buy the MacBook now, you'll have to buy the Snow Leopard DVD when it comes out and install it. (This does NOT include the iLife suite, BTW.)

 

[wallaby]

10.6 before May would be nice; I could still grab it at student discount prices before I graduate. Snow Leopard, CS4, and a bigger hard drive for my MBP would be a nice upgrade from my current 10.4/CS3 set up, granted they don't all suck.

 

[dwman]

Q1 seems awfully ambitious. I'd rather they wait until late spring/early summer and get it right. Obviously they can't catch every single potential bug, but 10.5 had more than it's share of issues upon release last year. Anything that makes the OS smaller, more secure and faster is more then ok by me. That said, I'll probably wait until at least 10.6.2. Leopard is pretty solid for me.