Snow Leopard Free Upgrade?

[MikhailT]

i am pretty sure that users will notice a difference. there are actually a few visual differences, but the 're-write' of the OS will make things not only run a lot faster, but take full advantage of all not only all CPU's in the system, but GPU when developers release their updates for current software

This.

My belief is that 10.6 will be become the baseline for the next generation of Mac softwares.

Imagine Safari 5 (if 4 doesn't include it) taking advantage of the tab per process by using Grand Central and OpenCL to power some of the HTML5/CSS animations. All Apple's pro software taking advantage of the GPU, Final Cut/iMovie using the GPU/CPU to encode faster or provide real time special effects, transition effects, so on without any hit on performance.

Hell, I am hoping Adobe would use OpenCL to power their next flash player so that it'll stop sucking so bad on macs.

 

[MBX]

Guys i know it's getting a major rewrite under the hood and all the OpenCL, GrandCentral, 64bit stuff blah blah. Which i'm excited about too, usually more excited about these than the "shiny" stuff.

But why should we pay a full price for these features taking more advantage of hardware, CPU/ GPU the way it should be anyway?

When Steve Jobs said Leopard was 64bit i was a bit surprised to find out it wasn't really completely 64bit. And now i have to pay a full price upgrade to SnowLeopard because it's now fully 64bit?

 

[emt1]

Guys i know it's getting a major rewrite under the hood and all the OpenCL, GrandCentral, 64bit stuff blah blah. Which i'm excited about too.

But why should we pay a full price for these features taking more advantage of hardware, CPU/ GPU the way it should be anyway?

When Steve Jobs said Leopard was 64bit i was a bit surprised to find out it wasn't really completely 64bit. And now i have to pay a full price upgrade to SnowLeopard because it's now fully 64bit?

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Nobody is forcing your hand.

 

[vansouza]

What do you think will Snow Leopard be a free upgrade to existing Leopard users? I can't imagine Apple charging full price on backbone improvements that i personally regard more as a "service pack".

Sure it will be free and Apple will pay her employees with what, clam shells?

 

[MikhailT]

Guys i know it's getting a major rewrite under the hood and all the OpenCL, GrandCentral, 64bit stuff blah blah. Which i'm excited about too, usually more excited about these than the "shiny" stuff.

But why should we pay a full price for these features taking more advantage of hardware, CPU/ GPU the way it should be anyway?

When Steve Jobs said Leopard was 64bit i was a bit surprised to find out it wasn't really completely 64bit. And now i have to pay a full price upgrade to SnowLeopard because it's now fully 64bit?

Your logic doesn't make sense to me at all. There is no such thing as an absolute thing, nothing is static and nothing is perfect in the world of software development or anything in life. We can’t expect those developers to work for free just because some features “are supposed to be there in the first place”.

We have to continuously invest into new technologies to be able to go to the next level. We're paying for all the costs that went into developing those features, which requires a lot of highly skilled developers. Those salaries and R&D costs aren't cheap. We aren’t paying for any of those “service packs” or 10.x.x updates, those came from our initial payment for the 10.x product.

Grand Central, OpenCL and many other things are major features that are going to help every developer for the Macintosh platform (not just OS X but iPhone as well) and in return they will bring us the next generation of Mac software that'll be shiny for the public. Just because we won’t see it out of the box doesn’t mean the value of the product is worthless.

As for 64bit, Leopard can run 64bit apps but it had a 32bit kernel with 32bit drivers with 64bit API and external subsystems that interact with the kernel. I don’t think Steve Jobs said Leopard was fully 64bit from the ground up, he just meant that it can run 64bit apps. They can't create and optimize all the 64bit drivers in time for Leopard's release; it would take them another 1-2 years to do so. Which mean it would be delayed further then it already was.

Now, if you don't agree that the value of the price is worth it, than don't buy it. You can always wait for the next version like a lot of people did when Leopard came out.

 

[vansouza]

Guys i know it's getting a major rewrite under the hood and all the OpenCL, GrandCentral, 64bit stuff blah blah. Which i'm excited about too, usually more excited about these than the "shiny" stuff.

But why should we pay a full price for these features taking more advantage of hardware, CPU/ GPU the way it should be anyway?

When Steve Jobs said Leopard was 64bit i was a bit surprised to find out it wasn't really completely 64bit. And now i have to pay a full price upgrade to SnowLeopard because it's now fully 64bit?

No, you don't have to pay anything at all that is the beauty of it all. You can stick with the perfectly good and getting better, Leopard.

 

[Imola Ghost]

What? There's a new OS coming out for Mac's? Damn I just bought my Macbook 4 days ago! I would have waited if I had known. When is the new OS expected out?

That sucks!!!

 

[flopticalcube]

September/October at the earliest, IMO.

 

[jaw04005]

It's a complete re-write, not a service upgrade.

They rewrote select parts including the Finder, but to say it's a complete rewrite is an exaggeration.

Mac OS 10.1 Puma was a free upgrade, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. However, like others I would expect it to be a $129 upgrade.

Personally, I'll wait for the release of the final feature list before passing judgement.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

They rewrote select parts including the Finder, but to say it's a complete rewrite is an exaggeration.

Mac OS 10.1 Puma was a free upgrade, so it's not out of the realm of possibility. However, like others I would expect it to be a $129 upgrade.

Personally, I'll wait for the release of the final feature list before passing judgement.

Ok, I'll sidetrack here a little...

I guess I shouldn't have used the word "complete" but a finder rewrite sounds like a very major task.

If I understand correctly, SL will phase out all existing carbon code (in favor of Cocoa) and will be a true 64-bit OS. Is that true, or am I misunderstanding.

I really have no idea what carbon or cocoa means.

 

[HLdan]

I understand your logic; I personally feel as if this OS should be offered at a discounted rate for Leopard users, say $69.

However, I'm quite certain that we can expect to pay the normal price: $129.

That wouldn't be fair, Tiger users should get the same deal.

 

[jaw04005]

If I understand correctly, SL will phase out all existing carbon code (in favor of Cocoa) and will be a true 64-bit OS. Is that true, or am I misunderstanding.

Someone with development expertise will have to explain. However, I've read from articles on Apple Insider that they are wrapping most built-in O/S applications (Image Capture, Address Book, etc) in a cocoa wrapper. I'm not sure if that is the same thing as getting rid of the carbon code.

It was common thought at one point that Carbon was supposed to be used for applications ported from Mac OS 9, and Cocoa was supposed to be used for everything developed from scratch for Mac OS X. So, Carbon was a stop gap. However, I've read articles to the contrary.

Best advice read these entries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_(API)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_API

The only difference I've ever been able to tell between the two as an end-user is that "Services" features (built-in spell check, speech, etc) are not available in Carbon applications.

Anyway. Back on topic.

 

[samh004]

I see it more like either free upgrade to existing Leopard users or not more than $29 for existing leopard users.

Just because it uses part of the old name doesn't mean it isn't vastly different.

Guys i know it's getting a major rewrite under the hood and all the OpenCL, GrandCentral, 64bit stuff blah blah. Which i'm excited about too, usually more excited about these than the "shiny" stuff.

But why should we pay a full price for these features taking more advantage of hardware, CPU/ GPU the way it should be anyway?

If you don't have a system that'll benefit from those improvements then you shouldn't be looking to buy it anyway.

However, just because you think it should be in there from the start, doesn't mean actually writing all that code and implementing it didn't cost a fortune to Apple.

Everything is worth something, in this case it's a nominal fee, much smaller than W7 at least. If it's not going to be worth it to your system, the answer is clear.

If I understand correctly, SL will phase out all existing carbon code (in favor of Cocoa) and will be a true 64-bit OS. Is that true, or am I misunderstanding.

I really have no idea what carbon or cocoa means.

That's correct. Or at least that's what has been said so far, things do change though.

 

[HARDY SINGH]

Thanxxxxxxxx