I miss the days of the keynotes being just a bit cringe and a bit cut throat.
Apple’s keynotes now are almost too perfect and sterile.
Apple’s keynotes now are almost too perfect and sterile.
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Mac OS X Snow Leopard Launched 15 Years Ago Today With '0 New Features'
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We really need another bug fix release. Heard to get when the marketing people are running the show.
I saw Bertrand at a coffee shop in downtown Palo Alto a few weeks ago. Didn't want to disturb him but was cool to see he was working on his Mac
This was the version of Mac OS that shipped with my first Mac. 10/10 OS release. I'd love for them to ship something like this at least once every few years
It was, and still is, one of the best versions of Mac OS of all time. Ranks right up there with System 6.0.8.
Dropping PPC support was and is incredibly obnoxious and uncalled for, though.
But every release of Mac OS since 10.6.8 has been significantly worse.
They're all fugly now, and I still want my scroll arrows back!
Dropping PPC support was and is incredibly obnoxious and uncalled for, though.
But every release of Mac OS since 10.6.8 has been significantly worse.
They're all fugly now, and I still want my scroll arrows back!
Yeah, I wish they do this once they stop supporting Intel Macs and only have to build macOS for Apple Silicon… it would be such a sweet release…
They should NEVER stop supporting Intel, and they should restore PowerPC support.
Mac OS 20: 32-bit support, Aqua returns, PPC support is back, and the return of scroll arrows!
Yesterday I opened a link in Safari (iOS) and the address bar was taking up 50% of the screen. No way to fix without quitting the app.
Sonoma prompts me daily to update MacOS, despite the fact I’m already on the latest MacOS (this has nothing to do with betas, it’s just a bug).
Every day I get dozens of little bugs like this on both my iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch.
System level stability is fantastic but the UI layer is shocking. On Mac the issues started with Big Sur. MacOS has felt slow and janky ever since.
MacOS has also become incredibly frustrating to use as a developer. I constantly have to go into system settings to approve various developer tools to run. Like, multiple times a week. It looks like this is going to get even worse in the next MacOS.
MacOS has become the exact thing Apple mocked all those years ago.
Sonoma prompts me daily to update MacOS, despite the fact I’m already on the latest MacOS (this has nothing to do with betas, it’s just a bug).
Every day I get dozens of little bugs like this on both my iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch.
System level stability is fantastic but the UI layer is shocking. On Mac the issues started with Big Sur. MacOS has felt slow and janky ever since.
MacOS has also become incredibly frustrating to use as a developer. I constantly have to go into system settings to approve various developer tools to run. Like, multiple times a week. It looks like this is going to get even worse in the next MacOS.
MacOS has become the exact thing Apple mocked all those years ago.
I don't like to hit disagree, but I'll tell you why I had to this time.
As a 20 year Windows admin, this is a terrible idea. One of the single best things about macOS, is that macOS is macOS.
Windows Home is a subset of Pro, missing useful features aside from domain join. Forking Windows has made it worse, not better. Edit: Oh yeah and don't get me started on the actual true version of Windows, Windows Enterprise. And that's just client side.
Please don't give Apple any encouragement for this idea.
Having said that, I would love for everyone to receive a bugfix/performance update. It's long overdue. All we really need is a way to sell it to shareholders.
New CFO, that's your cue.
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Snow Leopard was, IMHO, the BEST Mac OS X version. Noticeably faster, and seemingly bug free.
Today marks the 15th anniversary of Apple releasing Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which became available to purchase for $29 on August 28, 2009.
After advertising Mac OS X Leopard as having "over 300 new features" in 2007, Apple previewed Snow Leopard at WWDC 2008. Notably, during that year's "State of the Union" session, Apple showed a presentation slide that said the update had "0 new features," as Apple opted to focus on under-the-hood performance and stability improvements.
"We've built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown," said Apple's former software engineering chief Bertrand Serlet. "Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before."
With Snow Leopard, Apple said it refined 90% of the foundational "projects" that were built into Mac OS X. Apple pitched the update as offering a more responsive Finder app, an improved Mail app that loads emails up to twice as fast as before, up to 80% faster Time Machine backups, and a 64-bit version of Safari that was up to 50% faster than the previous version. Snow Leopard also took up around half as much disk space as Leopard.
You can watch Serlet speak more about Snow Leopard at WWDC 2009 below.
Article Link: Mac OS X Snow Leopard Launched 15 Years Ago Today With '0 New Features'
Ah, the good old days, when macOS (OS X) had personality, warmth, a bit of fun and quirkiness, fun new-install welcome videos, polished design, normal sized buttons, cool little menu or screen fade-ins and fade-outs, the iconic and useful menu/option drawers, stunning icons that were easily distinguishable from one another, some texture and layers that brought the eyes exactly where they needed to go, and so on. All of these things aided usability (IMO).
Now we have ugly, (still) flat-ish, lazy, hard to distinguish tile icons (most that cannot be changed), cold interfaces where most apps all look the same or like generic Finder windows, with many default options and buttons hidden, tiny glyph-based little toolbar buttons and tiny notification 'x' buttons, extra clicks, unused space, dizzying System Settings, lacking polished and elegant fade transitions, no personality, fun, or the warmth that OS X used to give.
This is mostly subjective, I know. I think that modern, clean, and tastefully done skeuomorphism should make a comeback. As long as real life objects exist in the real world, why not have a version of those mechanics on screen? Sadly, this is a hot-take these days as people will just retort with 'YOU WANT MORE FELT AND STITCHING?!?!' No, a tasteful modern take.
I hate that (one of the reasons why) macOS today looks like iOS is because Apple knows that a majority of their customer base only use iOS and they want them to buy Macs and feel comfortable using them.
Now we have ugly, (still) flat-ish, lazy, hard to distinguish tile icons (most that cannot be changed), cold interfaces where most apps all look the same or like generic Finder windows, with many default options and buttons hidden, tiny glyph-based little toolbar buttons and tiny notification 'x' buttons, extra clicks, unused space, dizzying System Settings, lacking polished and elegant fade transitions, no personality, fun, or the warmth that OS X used to give.
This is mostly subjective, I know. I think that modern, clean, and tastefully done skeuomorphism should make a comeback. As long as real life objects exist in the real world, why not have a version of those mechanics on screen? Sadly, this is a hot-take these days as people will just retort with 'YOU WANT MORE FELT AND STITCHING?!?!' No, a tasteful modern take.
I hate that (one of the reasons why) macOS today looks like iOS is because Apple knows that a majority of their customer base only use iOS and they want them to buy Macs and feel comfortable using them.
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We haven’t fallen. macOS is better than ever, much more stable, solidly secured, more useful then ever. I don't know how you came to your conclusion but you are hilariously wrong.
Yeah, I was soooooo impressed and surprised when Apple announced this during that keynote that year. That would not be possible anymore in these days of rapid development and iteration. That OS really did feel like a polished version of Leopard when it was released. It was so nice.
You could not be more wrong. We have fallen so far. Mac OS is worse than ever, much less stable, laughably secured, less useful than ever. I don't know how you came to your conclusion, but you are hilariously wrong.
Snow Leopard had zero new features except for all the new features they advertised, such as a completely new version of QuickTime (QuickTime X), Dock Exposé (hold down an app icon on the dock to see its windows), and Exchange support in Apple Mail.
Zero new features was just marketing.
(But I ❤️ Snow Leopard.)
Zero new features was just marketing.
(But I ❤️ Snow Leopard.)
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I would love new versions of macOS, and iOS, that were optimisation versions, with minimal new features, but can you imagine all the yelling, shouting, and unlimited angst from the majority?
I feel a bit nostalgic when I see the old iterations of the interface, but please let's not go backwards! I don't want to go back to the old skeuomorphism.
I feel a bit nostalgic when I see the old iterations of the interface, but please let's not go backwards! I don't want to go back to the old skeuomorphism.
The truth of the matter is, Snow Leopard did launch with new features, and it added several new major features later on (most notably, Mac App Store with 10.6.6). Some of the new features include:
- Dock: stacks, minimize to the icon
- File system: HFS+
- iChat: Higher resolution video
- Mail: Exchange
- Safari: Top sites, Cover Flow, HTML5
Safari indeed was snappier.
Stop the cap. It did not have 0 new features. I can name Microsoft exchange support and screen recording.
In all seriousness, something like this with refinements would be nice for all platforms in 2024 (except tvOS since… we get that too much). Closest I think we got to this was iOS 15.
In all seriousness, something like this with refinements would be nice for all platforms in 2024 (except tvOS since… we get that too much). Closest I think we got to this was iOS 15.
Microsoft had a go with Windows ME, the image of the kid randomly whacking the keyboard with a toy hammer is burned in my brain for life sadly
i bought it for my C2D mini, then bought a refurb 2011 mbp to have it on the first quad i7. i remember my first use of that 15" i got around 10 hours on battery which was in stark contrast to my prior iBook that did like 4 hours at best. hated everything about Lion and then when 10.8 was looming i remember posting on here that it should be called mountain lion.
QuickTime X was and is a sad joke. Instead of taking the wonderful QuickTime they had and improving it, they abandoned it and came out with something FAR less useful and usable. Until then, QT was easily extensible by just adding CODECs, after that it became an afterthought that nobody actually used. That bit of Apple idiocy (along with Final Cut Pro X) was when Apple lost their way with video production.
Sadly, they kept repeating the pattern of stupidity with the loss of iPhoto and Aperture, iTunes, classic iMovie, Server, and other missteps.