Apple Drops Mac OS 9 675
Eugenia Loli writes "MacCentral has the up-to-the-minute updates on the Apple WorldWide Developer Conference. The first big news is that Apple drops Mac OS 9. 'It's time to drop OS 9,' Steve Jobs said. 'We can do things in X that we just can't do in 9... a hundred percent of what we're doing is X only. [...] Mac OS 9 isn't dead for our customers, but it is for developers. Today we say goodbye to Mac OS 9 for all future development,' said Jobs." We all expected this to happen sooner or later, more sooner than later. There's been no new Apple development for Mac OS 9 in some time; only maintenance updates. But I won't stop Mac OS 9 development. You can't stop me! Muahahahaha! Update: 05/06 18:31 GMT by P : More news from WWDC continues to roll in.
Eugenia Loli writes "Probably the really big news is with Jaguar, the codename for Mac OS X 10.2. There is handwriting recognition technology that will be recognized by any application that uses text. Apple also introduced Quartz Extreme, which takes the compositing engine in Quartz, and accelerates it in graphics cards, and combines 2D, 3D and video in one hardware pipeline via OpenGL. 'Everything on the screen is being drawn in hardware by OpenGL.' It requires AGP 2x and 32MB of video RAM. It is not possible on older graphics cards like RAGE 128 cards, said Jobs -- that means it'll work on newer iMacs and eMacs, but not on older machines, he emphasized. Jobs said this puts Apple two years ahead of 'the other guys.'"
Update: 05/06 18:46 GMT by P : An anonymous user writes: "Apple is releasing Mac OS X Rackmount Servers. Also releasing AIM-compatible messaging called iChat; you can create buddy lists of anyone on the local network, and you can use your mac.com username to log in to it."
Rendezvous sounds interesting... open standard too (Score:5, Interesting)
Update from WWDC (Score:0, Interesting)
Inkwell: Handwriting recognition technology. Recognized by any application that uses text, even basic UNIX applications like Terminal.
Quartz Extreme: Takes the compositing engine in Quartz, and accelerates it in graphics cards. Combines 2D, 3D and video in one hardware pipeline via OpenGL. "Everything on the screen is being drawn in hardware by OpenGL." Requires AGP 2x and 32MB of video RAM. It is not possible on older graphics cards like RAGE 128 cards, said Jobs -- that means it'll work on newer iMacs and eMacs, but not on older machines, he emphasized. AGP 2x and 32MB video RAM are required for this new technology. Jobs said this puts Apple two years ahead of "the other guys."
It is funny if you think that Apple STILL SELLS the Classic iMacs for $1000, that only have 16 MB of graphics RAM.
Makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)
And again it shows that Apple are able to make gutsey decisions and lead the market rather than follow it. Whatever you think of the relative merits of X vs. 9, this is the kind of bleeding-edge decision making that Apple needs if it is to differentiate itself from the Windows platform.
how about the source (Score:1, Interesting)
Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)
Down inside, the original MacOS was a lot like DOS - single-application, single thread, and no memory protection. Over the years, multiple applications were retrofitted to the thing, resulting in a horrible mess. CPU dispatching was the worst part. "Cooperative multitasking" wasn't enough. But instead of putting a real scheduler, all sorts of "tasks" (timer tasks, vertical blanking interval tasks, system tasks, deferred tasks, multiprocessor tasks, Open Transport tasks, etc.) were added over time. Each of these had a different set of restrictions on what it could do. It would have been far simpler to put in a real CPU dispatcher early on.
Better late than never, I suppose.
Why the icon? (Score:5, Interesting)
One rather ballsy note from Jobs (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple seems to be taunting them on purpose, consider their "Rip. Mix. Burn." ads. Gateway payed Apple the sincerest form of flattery with their later ad campaign, but still Apple was the first to stick their neck out.
Good coverage at Spymac (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Does this really impact developers? (Score:5, Interesting)
For our Mac version of the product, we had just decided (last week!) to drop support for Mac OS 8.6. Carbon on 8.6 was a major pain.
By going 9-up only, it'll spare us about 4 weeks testing.
Now that Apple itself is dropping support for Mac OS 9, it'll be easier on us to talk about dropping 8.6 support.
We'll continue supporting Mac OS 9 for this release, but for the next release, we'll have ample munitions to entirely drop classic Mac OSes. That ought to trim the application code by about 10%, and accelerate the runtime because of all the IF X switches in the code.
Might not sound like that big of a deal, but when your networking stack checks, at runtime, which layer you're using (Mac TCP for 8.6, OpenTransport for 8.6 up to X, and BSD for X), this really adds up. Let alone all the Classic vs AQUA UI tweaks.
Out of curiosity, I just grepped our sources for this specific runtime switch. There are 87 occurences of it!
Dammit! (Score:3, Interesting)
WTF is that?!? The iBook, a machine they are selling RIGHT NOW does not meet those specs. So basically their current 'entry level' model is never going to have accelerated video? This is ridiculous.
I had one, it was so slow that I sold it. This video driver issue is probably the reason why.
Macs last longer than PCs, huh? How long is an iBook with no video acceleration going to be able to keep up with OS X? Apparently by "two years ahead", Steve means "you'll need the machine we'll be selling two years from now to keep up with the OS we're selling today".
Nice to see X in full, but visit 9 sometime (Score:2, Interesting)
I am glad to see OS 9 as 'dead' because this forces developers to start creating more native support for OS X and not settling for 9 compatibility. As of right now, I have an Epson scanner with no native X drivers.
On the other hand, I am very concerned of the loss of support for 9 users. One example that comes to my mind is the Western Michigan University Theatre department [wmich.edu] which run 9 on all of their Apple computers, most of which can't even run 10.1, let alone the new demands of 'Jaguar.' Also, all of the major programs (besides Office) are either not available in X or require a major upgrade to become X compatible. That's a lot of money to spend, epically when most of your computers can't run in X. The question can be raised that the department needs to update their hardware, but when the current setup is fully functional, why spend the money to change it all?
I believe this move is to create a focus for developers to develop support of X that take charge of very innovative technologies that X has to benefit the users. I only hope that we 9 will still be supported and at least welcomed. Hopefully someone will visit the retirement home once-in-a-while and say hello to 9.
Re:Gutsy move (Score:5, Interesting)
I just couldn't let this one pass by unchallenged. My first Mac was a Quadra 700 and the software I used then was WriteNow (68K Assembly ), FoxBase+ (68K) and I added
Cyberdog as a browser with OS 8 on my PM6500. All run flawlessly under OS X 10.1 on my G3 400 PowerBook. In fact they a much more stable and I don't notice any
difference in speed. My hat off to Apple Enginerring. An incredible feat of backwards compatability.
Re:One rather ballsy note from Jobs (Score:3, Interesting)
Um... I don't think so. I'm not there or anything, but I don't believe that's what happened.
Steve was talking about a home environment with several Macs using iTunes on one of them to stream MP3s over AirPort to the others. Rendezvous would make it easier to get something like that going, because the Macs would all be able to automatically discover one another without anybody having to manually set up IP stuff. Similar to DHCP, but without the server.
This is really different from peer-to-peer file sharing over the internet.
Incidentally, what Steve described is exactly how I'm set up right now. I've got about 12 GB of MP3s on my iMac (most of 'em ripped by me from my collection of 200+ CDs) and I stream 'em over AirPort to my other Macs, including the iBook I'm using to write this. The only difference is that I'm not using iTunes to serve streams, obviously, because it doesn't do that yet.
osX and Mac (Score:1, Interesting)
The problem with the lack of acceptance for some with osX has been in the very different interface from the classic that hardcore Mac fans used and loved for years. I, for one, can't stand the Microsoftian dock (I don't mind it being there for others but I'd like to have the option to get rid of it completely). I'd like my alias to be Command-M, not Command-L (why the change?). I'd like to be able to add aliases to my Apple menu, etc. All these nifty little things that helped our workflow are difficult and/or impossible with osX so we're forced to use the os like newbies again for some of the operations we now take for granted. I still don't like the Control Strip and I was glad when you have the option to not have that appear. I respect those that like that but I don't. I don't like stuff on my desktop. I don't mind if they're the default - as long as I can turn all of this stuff off rather than have an interface forced upon me. I think the Mac part of osX should have remained the same as the classic with additional tools and stuff added as OPTIONS, rather than forced interface additions. Then the acceptance would have been better.
The added UNIX support is enough for me to adopt it regardless of the interface nitpiks I have now with osX. I hope to see some of this improve later. I would also like to see improved classic application support (those that don't work under osX) - right now it required gobbling up a lot of hard drive space and still slow performance for non osX applications. I am willing to forgive this since osX is relatively new although not long-term. If applications don't support osX better than I'd like a better support from osX for os9 applications.
I think osX deserves a huge round of applause for combining a UNIX environment with the Mac - it's definitely the best of both worlds - and far far greater than any of the Windows operating systems. It will also help improve the annoying Mac networking interface plus allow for the ability to ping without having to download some shareware like MacPing to set up a network.
osX is still new and still could use a lot of improvements although this is definitely a step in the right direction for Apple. For those of us who cross the line between artist and programmer, this is utopia.
Re:Two years ahead of the "other guys" (Score:3, Interesting)
First off, you need a LOT of video ram to make this work fast. I guess 32mb is a lot, but still, if you run out the card starts swapping between video ram and main ram, which is slow. I don't know how much space all those Aqua graphics take up with animations, but I'd be surprised if it's a lot less than 32mb.
Secondly, OpenGL just wasn't designed for 2D graphics! It has virtually NO support for 2D drawing, if you wish to display something it must either be sent directly to the card as pixel data (slow) or uploaded to video RAM and displayed as a texture on a polygon. This seems like a rather strange way to go about things.
Take the lack of support for text in the API. When writing the VGL, which is the OpenGL widget set for my game (btw I'd be the first to admit I'm not a hotshot coder) I had to create my own text/font system. It was fast certainly, but required you to upload the font to video ram again, which placed restrictions on how you managed font textures.
I can't figure out why anyone would want to use 3D acceleration for making 2D stuff go faster. As far as I know, 2D and 3D acceleration are different things - am I wrong?
Re:Finally! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Dammit! (Score:4, Interesting)
Heh, you're a slow learner, aren't you?
Notebooks are crap. They have the worst possible ROI. You pay the extra money for a cute portable system, that's a bitch to upgrade and a fixed video system.
Back in '95, our family bought a 7200/90. The next year I bought a PB 1400/117 (first rev). They were at par with each other (601 vs 603e). Then we put an L2 cache in the 7200. Holy shit. And now it's hosting several GB of HD space. My PowerBook is still stuck with it's 740 MB HD and 32 MB of RAM; and I'm not spending a dime to upgrade those. The battery's dead, and that bugger itself is too expensive. Who wants to work on a 117 Mhz PPC with no L2 cache? The 7200 still runs Office and we use it daily.
Two years later, my bro bought a PB G3/233 (Wallstreet). Damn nice. Same price as my PowerBook, whose performance was going in the gutter. We also bought a Beige G3/233 MT that year.
The MT is still running; 256 MB of RAM, Rage 128 and a 400 MHz G3. It's got USB too now. My bro's PowerBook is pretty much stuck with its initial config (more ram, better HD- but still a slow notebook HD). It's not a fraction of the machine that the MT is.
Notebooks cost more, they use non-standard, fragile, expensive parts, and they last two years if you're lucky. This is standard fair.
Macs last longer than PCs, huh?
That 7 year old 7200/90 is chugging along just fine. My Powerbook makes a very pretty doorstop (it's got one of them BookCover things; I put a Craig Mullin's Oni painting-printout in there).
Notebooks are great if your company pays for one. Hell, it's a win-win for companies, take your work home with you! Do it on the train! In the airport! Otherwise they suck.
yet i'm still tempted to buy an ibook.
Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)
How in the hell are .NET and OS X similar? One is a new Unix-based operating system leveraging Apple technologies, and one is a completely new "applications as internet services" paradigm. Hell, I'll go even further to prove my point that switching words proves nothing:
"This makes huge sense for The Legions of Satan: their future is .Mussolini and the company has been saying this for some time. I'm glad they are making the cut now, still relatively early in .Mussolini's life cycle. This will help push developers onto the new platform; in turn this is good for end users because the applications they need to run are more likely to appear on .Mussolini.
And again it shows that The Legions of Satan are able to make gutsey decisions and lead the market rather than follow it. Whatever you think of the relative merits of .Mussolini vs. traditional COM applications, this is the kind of bleeding-edge decision making that The Legions of Satan need if they are to differentiate itself from the other platforms."
Of course changing the words to something inherently changes their meanings. That's how language works, dummy.
Re:New to Macs, Do They Charge for Updates? (Score:2, Interesting)
"Sometimes"
Apple has never charged for online downloads of point upgrades. This usually means things like 10.0.1,
That being said, Apple *does* charge for "big" point upgrades. Technically, they charged for 10.1, although it was available *for free* if you had a MacOS Up-to-Date card. All you had to do was give the guy at an Apple Store or a Comp-USA the card [one of the three] and you walked out of the store with a "free" upgrade.
So what is MacOS Up-to-Date?? When you purchased your mac, it came with all sorts of paper/docs, etc. One of those bit of paper is important. It allows you 3 "free" updates to the Mac OS. After you use your cards, you are expected to pay full retail for your OS purchase. The cool bit about this being that the cards aren't needed for the downloadable updates.
While it hasn't been announced as of yet, I would speculate that 10.2 *is* a "pay" upgrade. The new features that they are adding are *huge*, and anything of this magnatude is a pay upgrade. Apple is an interesting company, as they realise that users won't pay $100 to $130 for a "dot upgrade". This means that they will charge maybe $50, but with that you get a CD, so if you lunch your HDD you won't need to play "software update control panel wheel of fortune".
I hope this helped
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OS X to sync with FreeBSD 4.4 (Score:1, Interesting)
Until now, OS X's Darwin was synced with FreeBSD 3.2, if I understand things right.
This doesn't mean a lot to me. Could somebody with a clue and the ability to be clear please explain what syncing with FreeBSD 4.4 adds to the table?
It certainly sounds good.
Inkwell: The real news (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm excited because it's so useless. There is no way that Jobs would put his people through the effort of bringing handwriting recognition to OS X unless it was a precursor to the iPad [fury.com]. My guess is October, January at the latest.
Soooooo happy.
Re:Two years ahead of the "other guys" (Score:4, Interesting)
Here is a quiz for you:
1. which company bought. Raycer Graphics?
2 Who was the Head of 3d engineering at Apple
(Answers: Apple, ex-CTO of Raycer)
Re:Two years ahead of the "other guys" (Score:2, Interesting)
Unfortunately it's tough to do, especially when it comes to device drivers. Windows 96/98/ME were still able to load 16-bit device drivers, if necessary. There are quite a few people around with strange, old, hardware that they need to run. With Windows ME, Microsoft introducted a compatible device driver model so people could write drivers for 98/ME and XP with a single code base.
It was worth it for Microsoft, and it will be worth it for Apple. OS 9 has a great deal of "legacy" code in it that bogs it down. Let's hope they can make the transition as smoothly as Apple did. (Please, Apple zealots, don't mod me down just because I didn't say that Bill Gates was satan in this post.)