Mac OS X 'Snow Leopard' to Focus on Performance, Quality

[unwinded]

I've put a lot of thought into this and can see the pros and cons for both arguments.

I do think the PowerPC camp has history on their side though. The last 68k Mac was released in 1994 (but there may have been a 68k PowerBook released in 95) and it wasn't until late '98 when PowerPC-only 8.5 was released.

Apple is much different these days though. But still, there is some talk that the non-x64 Core Duo Intel Macs of 2006 would also go unsupported in Snow Leopard. Just seems a little too soon, that's all. If there is hope for the Core Duos then there is hope for at least G5 (and probably G4 since they sold them alongside G5 until the end).

 

[penter]

16 Tb Ram!!!

WOW!!!!
My gosh, thats some serious RAM.
It's theoretical, though, but still...

 

[kamiboy]

Uhhh, Hibernation on Windows takes power also. Really you should not be turning your OS X machine off all the time unless you plan on not using it for a extended period. Sleeping really does not use that much energy.

I have no idea why unzipping a file renders Safari useless since the unzipping is done by the Finder app.

-mark

Do you know what hibernation is? It is when windows, or OS X dumps the state of the system (content of ram etc.) to the HDD and then turns OFF the machine completely using no more power. Then when you turn it on again later everything the OS knows it was hibernted and copies everything back into memory just like nothing had happened.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

A bit off-topic, but one thing I'd like to see them do, is make an option kind of like Windows has with "theme," to make it so you can change your skin to some of the previous OS X skins. Maybe I'm feeling a bit of Leopard today and some Tiger tomorrow? I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but it'd make a cool little edition, and I don't think it'd be too hard.

 

[Simmerl]

A bit off-topic, but one thing I'd like to see them do, is make an option kind of like Windows has with "theme," to make it so you can change your skin to some of the previous OS X skins. Maybe I'm feeling a bit of Leopard today and some Tiger tomorrow? I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but it'd make a cool little edition, and I don't think it'd be too hard.

You can choose between graphite and blue, and that's enough.
I can't see why they would add bloated theme customisation to a release which is all about performance enhancements.

 

[slughead]

Between a 3G iPhone for $199, or, as Bertrand Serlet put it, "we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system," I think the phone's more interesting.

Yeah, "the best smart phone EVAR" that didn't come with 3G in the first place (which was nearly commonplace when it came out). Congrats on having caught up with everyone else, Apple! Oh, and thanks for the $10 extra per month to do it!

I don't blame Steve for not talking about Snow Leopard in depth during the keynote. My guess is that if the release is a year off, it's not ready to demo, and for people who thought iPhone demos were un-interesting, just imagine 2 hours of slides and pie charts on how OpenCL and Exchange 2007 will eventually work on Snow Leopard...

Not to mention the fact that 10.6 has no "neat" features we've come to expect in demos. expose (10.3), spotlight (10.4), time machine (10.5) to name a few.

What has 10.6 have? Oh, all the things 10.5 was supposed to have, apart from exchange support (which 90%+ of mac users will never use). Multicore/64 Bit/OpenCL were ALL mentioned in the 10.5 "preview" a billion years ago. Now we get to pay $130 more to finally get it. It's like paying for XP over Windows 2000.


Yeah I'm cynical.. Worst. Keynote. Evar.

 

[Tosser]

Yeah I'm cynical..

Cynicism is the antedote to hype, fud and general ignorance.

 

[slughead]

Has it occurred to you that you don't HAVE to buy Snow Leopard, but could easily wait until the subsequent release, which will presumably incorporate the improvements of 10.6 as well as the uber kewl new features you seem to be demanding?

Yeah, you didn't HAVE to buy 10.4, either. The people who waited for 10.5 got pretty screwed with their 3rd party software though... and iLife... and updates... Also, what if you had a G4 under 867Mhz? you pretty much have to be running 10.4 now, whether you wanted it or not.

 

[Erasmus]

Do you have some kind of tiny hard drive? Leopard uses about 16GB in my system.

Well, my 2.2 SR MBP has a 120 GB HDD. If not for my 160 GB external HDD, there is no way I would be able to store everything I need, and even with that, I'm running out of room! Let alone the fact that to use anything on the external disk, I need to plug it in, carry it around with me, etc.

An extra 5 gig or so would make me very happy.

 

[DMann]

Yeah, "the best smart phone EVAR" that didn't come with 3G in the first place (which was nearly commonplace when it came out). Congrats on having caught up with everyone else, Apple! Oh, and thanks for the $10 extra per month to do it!

Blame AT&T, not Apple. AT&T's 3G network was not even close to offer coverage for 3G last year. Besides, the new 3G chip (Infineon Technologies AG) uses less power, making it possible to achieve 5 hours talk time vs 2.2 with the previous one, thus making 3G a viable option for the iPhone. As far as the $10 is concerned, that is AT&T's doing, not Apple's.

Not to mention the fact that 10.6 has no "neat" features we've come to expect in demos. expose (10.3), spotlight (10.4), time machine (10.5) to name a few.

If you don't feel that ZFS read/write is a noteworthy feature, and "Grand Central" for highly efficient multi-threading, multi-core performance, and GPU computing, all of which will make spotlight and time machine work exponentially faster, more accurately, and with more depth, you ought to think again. Also, the release of 10.6 is a year away - it is very likely new features will find their way into 10.6 by then.

 

[Eric S.]

Well, my 2.2 SR MBP has a 120 GB HDD. If not for my 160 GB external HDD, there is no way I would be able to store everything I need, and even with that, I'm running out of room! Let alone the fact that to use anything on the external disk, I need to plug it in, carry it around with me, etc.

An extra 5 gig or so would make me very happy.

But for how long? Not for long, I bet.

Wow, I guess my obsolete, Model-T ("get over it") G4 system with 350GB internal disk space is worth something after all!

 

[bigwig]

What the heck is "Grand Central"? I don't see what it gives you than an optimized pthreads implementation doesn't.

 

[penter]

I didn't realize you became the spokesperson for the 6 billion people on the planet.

oh, but he did. lol

and it's 6.7 billion

 

[penter]

What the heck is "Grand Central"? I don't see what it gives you than an optimized pthreads implementation doesn't.

I think it's an optimized way of managing processes through multicore/hyperthreading useage (inclding that of GPUs).

 

[DMann]

What the heck is "Grand Central"? I don't see what it gives you than an optimized pthreads implementation doesn't.

Basically, the same - each object having its own data type, interfaces on a subset of APIs, defined in POSIX, in collaboration with the GPU. They can call it whatever they want to, as long as it utilizes all cores efficientily by the time Nehalem makes it's debut.

Yes, but is it bootable!

With Read/Write capabilities being addressed, it may very likely soon become bootable - Imagine the possibilities of combining drives with dynamic volume expansion.

 

[superfula]

I'll believe it when I see it. The Exchange thing that is. The 10.5 box says it integrates with AD. It doesn't say "integrates with AD if you have a lot of patience and a strong drink in your hand"

 

[DMann]

I'll believe it when I see it. The Exchange thing that is. The 10.5 box says it integrates with AD. It doesn't say "integrates with AD if you have a lot of patience and a strong drink in your hand"

kudos to MS........ I'll drink to that.

 

[Sunnzy]

Sorry if this has been asked before... is that a Keynote for Snow Leopard?

SJ said there are 3 things to talk about in the WWDC08 keynote... then go ahead and talk about the iPhone... naturally I just skip the iPhone stuff but it turns out it just ended without talking about it 10.6?

So is there a video of the KeyNote at all?

Thanks.

 

[Tosser]

Sorry if this has been asked before... is that a Keynote for Snow Leopard?

SJ said there are 3 things to talk about in the WWDC08 keynote... then go ahead and talk about the iPhone... naturally I just skip the iPhone stuff but it turns out it just ended without talking about it 10.6?

So is there a video of the KeyNote at all?

Thanks.

Nope. It happened "after lunch". I kid you not.

 

[Eric S.]

Sorry if this has been asked before... is that a Keynote for Snow Leopard?

SJ said there are 3 things to talk about in the WWDC08 keynote... then go ahead and talk about the iPhone... naturally I just skip the iPhone stuff but it turns out it just ended without talking about it 10.6?

I think he was referring to the development areas important to Apple, not specifically about the keynote address.

So is there a video of the KeyNote at all?

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/index.html

 

[MShock]

Read and write support for ZFS is a most significant feature. This alone, would make the upgrade worthwhile.

I hope this will also be included as an option on the regular OS. Boot support would be amazing.

 

[masterhiggins]

Sounds fantastic!

I firmly believe that this is the best thing apple has ever done. Rather than falling in line with the disturbing amount of developers that merely try to tack on bloated features, they're optimizing what they currently have for the sake of performance. It's fantastic. Hopefully they'll follow the same direction with Logic Pro, which has become so bloated it's nearly useless for most users. I'm tired of having to buy the most powerful machine to cover up for poor development and sloppy coding.

-mh

 

[richard.mac]

Nope. It happened "after lunch". I kid you not.

it was talked about at the State of the Union keynote. anyone have a link to this? i think its only available to developers though.

 

[froggytreafrogg]

Mac OS X 10.6: Leopard Snow!!!

Hello Macrumors-goers, word has it that a new Mac OS X is coming out. It is an addition to Leopard called "Leopard Snow." Also 10.6. I was just interested if someone heard the same thing I had and if it were true.

 

[David G.]

Snow Leopard.