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Leopard: Evolution vs. Revolution

Swad

By Swad

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Today brought our first taste of Leopard and, based on the reaction here and elsewhere in MacLand, it was bittersweet.

 

What we saw:

- Updated Mail, iCal, Spotlight, Dashboard, iChat. A few very cool things in the works.

- Time Machine. Easily the best backup system around, if only slightly ripped from (gasp!) Vista.

- Core Animation. A technology that rocks. Period.

- Universal Access. Much improved synthetic speech. Not that useful for most of us, but helpful for a few.

- Spaces. Desktop switching comes to the Mac! (...if only slightly stolen from Linux)

- 64 Bit Support. Cool implementation, should be handy.

 

What we didn’t see:

- New Finder. Probably the thing most of us want the most. Mostly.

- Built in virtualization support. Looks like it’ll be Parallels or VMware for now.

- A silent death to “Brushed Metal.” See the Safari window in the Spaces video?

 

Leopard is clearly a strong addition to an already strong OS. And, in spite of Apple’s barrage of “copying” jokes, it will undoubtedly be better than Vista.

 

Keep in mind that, at this point, we don’t even have a beta to play with, so Apple still has time to throw in a lot of fun features (not to mention Steve’s “Top Secret” items... I suppose we’ll have to wait for his next podcast...).

 

The question is: Is this what you were hoping for? Is this process of slow, consistent OS improvement what you’d been expecting from Leopard, or had you been hoping for something completely new? Now that the “cat” is out of the bag (sorry for the bad pun, but hey - it’s better than a few at the Moscone Center), what’s your take?

 

P.S. Catch all the Keynote goodness here.

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Lynx34

I think the new additions were more cool than useful, with the exception of Time Machine (which was both), and spaces. For example a lot of the new iChat features are already in Adium, with the exception of the new video chat features. However, like mentioned, the really cool stuff either isn't done, or didn't want to give out at this time. Also, the fact that it is a developer's conference makes several things that are probably cool to the attendees, but not necessarily the end-users (such as Core Animation), although the end-user widget creator (I can't remember what it's called, WebClip or something) was pretty cool.

 

I was most dissapointed in the release window. I was still holding out for Q4 06, or at least MacWorld 07. THe second thing would probably be the minimal 'really really new' stuff. Most of the features shown were extensions of current apps (Mail, iChat, etc.) as opposed to brand new things like Spotlight was for Tiger or Exposé for Panther. But that's life, I guess...

 

All in all, I feel satisfied by the keynote. I went in with minimal hopes, just in case. I wasn't absolutely blown away, with the exception of a few parts, of which I can't remember, I just vaguely remember having my jaw dropping... But yeah, it's something to keep my mouth wet until some more info rolls along.

 

As a side note, I can't wait for the windows boys to start screaming about the 3d window effect on Time Machine being copied from Vista, despite having a much different use, not to mention the fact that it's much more appropriate in Time Machine than in Vista...

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retroz
Wow. I'm still amazed of Leopard. I can't wait to get my hands on the dev disk. There's a torrent floating around out there of it.

 

The biggest surprise is the sticker price. Whether or not $2499 does indeed buy a 1.5X faster than a G5 QUAD though has yet to be seen!

 

On the other hand, a $150 Motherboard, GPU card and a single DUO CORE 2 overclocked might be workable and worth it (saving a bundle) if and only if DUAL DISPLAY is once and for all settled and solved.

 

Otherwise, $2499 might be money well spent, especially since it's $1000 dollar cheaper than the quads...what scare me though is do you have to buy the GPU from Apple or can you buy your own 3rd party GPU and updgrade? The thought about Apple only GPU (i.e. you have to buy it from them) would be bad for business.

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ampTK

I think there will be more to come in the leopard front.

 

They didn't want to show any UI improvements but iChat was no longer in brushed metal.

They will obviously change somethings in Finder even if are minor changes (they always change something), but they didn't show even the slightliest change.

 

They obviously wanted to show some things but without giving any hint in the rest, seriously they didn't even bother to use a different desktop background. And I bet this "we will show only what's necessary" policy will be present in the Developers preview

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MarkW

It's a little late for MS to copy any Leopard features for Vista, so that argument doesn't fly.

 

To me, this looks like a joke. I won't use any of those new things. I wonder if all the effort has been in re-writing it in 64-bit? If that is the case, and they cleaned up the code while at it, and made it much faster -- that seems to be the only possible saving grace.

 

Oh, and if this time machine thing, or whatever the heck it's called is really just one of the features of the new rumored file system, ZFS, that would be cool, too, because there'd be a bunch of other benefits of having that as well.

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Takuro

Here are my personal comments about some of the innovations in Leopard:

 

Time Machine: A feature that is long overdue in Apple's operating systems. It's definately the most striking feature that was showcased. Even though it's easily arguable that it rips off System Restore, it definately takes file restoration to a whole new level. Apple definately caught up to... exceeded Windows's capabilities in this sense. It's going to be interesting to see how Time Machine stores the files, how quickly it works, and how much disc space it will require.

 

Web Clip & Dashboard: Nothing mentioned was remotely interesting to me. I classify Web Clip as a simple widget itself. It is a very innovative idea.. sure. But it's not really state-of-the-art in complexity. Dashcode would have been interesting had it not leaked a long time ago.

 

iChat: The level of interaction between two users on two seperate computers will skyrocket with iChat. It's amazing how presentations can be shared. There were a few more mundane features: such as animated user icons (didn't AIM have this since day 1?) and Photo-booth effects. The ability to save video chats is a great idea. However, it seems that all these features depend on the other user to be using iChat as well. I'd like to see some innovations that take AIM users (and now MSN and Yahoo users, apparently) into consideration.

 

Mail: I fell asleep during this part of the keynote. This app has now been added to the endless list of Apple programs that come with pre-made templates. I did like the "To-Do" integration between iCal and Mail though. I found the "note" feature retarded because of one simple fact: you're basically emailing yourself. Use the Stickies program!

 

Spotlight: Most of the new features really should have been in the original Spotlight that was released with OS X 10.4 Tiger. Apple was mostly making due changes after lots of requests.

 

Spaces: A lot of us who use Desktop Manager or VirtueDesktops have wanted Apple to support multiple desktops out-of-the-box. At first, I wasn't impressed. Then I saw how an application can be dragged from one virtual desktop to another. I think this is one of the most promising features.

 

Accessibility: Just the other day I watched an old Keynote from 1992 when they showcased the first Mac to have text-to-speech abilities. I realized that although Apple has thrown in some new voice tones, they all still sound very unnatural. I was surprised to see Steve demonstrate the new "Alex" voice. I forsee countless hours of prank phone calls.

 

Over-all, the 2006 keynote gave me one general feeling over-all: Leopard seems more like "OS X Tiger version 1.5." I'm sure that Steve was being honest when he said that lots of features were being withheld to prevent more "copying," but one must ask: isn't it a little late in the game for Vista to rip off any Leopard features?

 

I was disappointed to see a OS X Tiger GUI on screen today. By Spring, I hope to see a lot of big changes. I don't see much innovation in announcing that Photobooth and FrontRow, both long-standing applications now, will be part of the standard operating system for all machines. I think they can (and will) do better than that...

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tripleboot

Mac OS X Leopard Sneak Peak

 

Time Machine does look pretty impressive. Although that wonderful GB of information they say your pulling from cyberspace is coming right off your HD hidden somewhere taking up globs of space. Some people use programs such as the PC system restore, or my favorite Acronis Disk Director Suite.

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Takuro

I just realized something. I previously complained that the GUI looked just like Tiger's. Well look at this pic from the WWDC when Jobs showcased a beta of Tiger:

 

hideya_zu3.jpg

 

Note: the menubar looks totally different than the final version of Tiger. They also used the Panther wallpaper in that beta. Other screenshots reveiled that there wasn't even a dashboard icon in the dock!

 

I'm glad I noticed this. Now I'm more upbeat about Leopard. So much can change between now and Spring 2007! :D

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A Nonny Moose

Here were my thoughts software wise:

 

1. Time Machine--It's about friggin' time. Now what I'm wondering is what happens when a Target Disk is hooked up. Will it clone a Mac?

 

2. Mail--RSS is good, but no newsgroups???

 

3. iChat became iCandy. The only good thing was the tabbed interface. (but Chax already does this).

 

4. Spaces--Stolen from Linux, but OS X is *nix also. I like the Exposé interface that it gives also, BUT...there should be an easier way to switch desktops.

 

5. Spotlight--maybe it will be updated so that I won't have to use Laserlight anymore.

 

6. New voices! I love playing with the Mac OS X voices (Vicki made a good secretary for voicemail messages).

 

7. Web Clip--it might get me to return to Dashboard. might...maybe...

 

As for OS X vs Vista, the bar is getting raised by Apple before Microsoft even gets beta #990234567230 out this coming January and then releasing Vista in October of 2012.

 

For the bad things:

 

1. Finder--it could still get updated behind everyone's back. You never know.

 

2. No Virtualization support--Apple seems to be touting Parallels as the be all of virtualization. Why go out on a limb and reinvent the wheel when there are reeeeeeeeeeally good wheels out there? Maybe Apple will buy Parallels.

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iMaurice
I just realized something. I previously complained that the GUI looked just like Tiger's. Well look at this pic from the WWDC when Jobs showcased a beta of Tiger:

 

hideya_zu3.jpg

 

Note: the menubar looks totally different than the final version of Tiger. They also used the Panther wallpaper in that beta. Other screenshots reveiled that there wasn't even a dashboard icon in the dock!

 

I'm glad I noticed this. Now I'm more upbeat about Leopard. So much can change between now and Spring 2007! :P

yay :blink::D:):D:D:D:D:D:D

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cyrana

I say it'll be a revolution, once it gets released. After the big 'Top Secret' thing at the start of they presentation on it, you'd hae to think there is some 'insanely great' stuff coming for it. :) Looks pretty good w/the rather mundane changes showcased, though.

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Ouch
I've heard a rumor that Leopard is going to work on our PC's just like Windows. Is it true?

 

If we knew that it would cease to be a rumor and would be either a fact or fiction... :sorcerer:

I hope the ZFS rumor is true - if only so i can tell my friends my laptop uses "adaptive endian-ness"! Genius.

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