'Back To the Mac' Media Event On October 20th

Kildjean writes "Engadget reports that Apple has issued invitations for a special media event to be held next Wednesday, October 20th at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. The invitation for the event, which is to be held at the company's campus in Cupertino, California, carries the tagline 'Back to the Mac.' The invitation also contains an image of what appears to be a lion peeking out from behind the Apple logo, hinting at discussion of Mac OS X 10.7. 'Lion' has been one of the most commonly-suggested 'big cat' names for the next-generation operating system. Much of Apple's notebook line with the exception of the entry-level MacBook is due for a refresh, and Apple has refreshed at least a portion of its notebook line each October or November for the last several years. Apple's desktop offerings have all been updated relatively recently, suggesting that the company's media event may focus on notebooks if new hardware is included on the agenda."

Re:And???

[zn0k]

Because the release of the next major version of the second most popular Desktop OS family is news.

Just like the release of Ubuntu 10.10 and Windows 7 were news.

This is news?

[kellyb9]

I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Apple. But this is the biggest non-news story ever posted to Slashdot. Basically, Apple is holding an event where they *may* introduce a new release of their operating system and their laptop and desktop lineup is due for a refresh which may or may not happen on Oct 20th. There's absolutely no information in there thats news.

Re:And???

[UnknowingFool]

So you're saying OS X is not? I would be interested if Apple announces the successor to Snow Leopard and what features it might have. Then there is the hardware refresh.

Daily Steve Jobs Bowl Movement Updates Next

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, I remember when Slashdot use to be a tech and open source news and tech discussion forum. Can't believe it has transformed into an Apple fanblog.

Allow me...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's what is going happen:

* Jobs will give the name of the new OS that won't be coming out for at least a year and encourage developers to get involved with it by offering some promotion/kool-aide.

* There will be updates to the macbook pro and macbook air line. Maybe some small addition to the macbook. (The new macbook air is supposed to be epic. I'm gonna hope for -typical- with an i3 chipset. Just saying...)

* He will not want to talk about iOS saying this is about Macs with the exception of the new iLife Package which will have some App Made Easy program in it.

* See above...new version of iLife.

* There will be some one more things nonsense, everyone will go nuts. Drink more kool-aide, spend all your money...hoozah.

Yes, I own I mac and an iphone...but I hate the hype. Anyone that really cares read macrumors and daringfireball, right? (Yes, gruber is an asshole.)

Re:And???

[ByOhTek]

This isn't the release of the next major version. This is a press release for an event for which there is speculation for the next major release being announced.

The announcement of the release or upcoming release would actually be FP worthy.

Re:This is news?

[CannonballHead]

Not quite. Apple is: Pre-knowledge rumors, rumors, post-rumor rumors, faked Steve Jobs e-mail rumors, announcement, pre-beta rumors, beta, post-beta rumors, faked Steve Jobs e-mail rumors, final [, faked Steve Jobs e-mail rumors].

Interested to see any changes in OSX

[StuartHankins]

I recently (within the past few months) upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard and it went very well... I knew the next release would be out sometime before mid-2011 but I just couldn't wait any longer. The biggest issue for upgrading was not having updates for software running on Tiger anymore.

Things I hope they change:

• Make it easier to install binaries used on other *nix systems. Because the pain of using Fink or DarwinPorts is too much. Both install absolutely ridiculous sized frameworks and trying to compile something when you don't have a binary is a mixture of voodoo and tears, roughly where Linux was 15 years ago. Recently I wanted to install a2ps to use some documentation scripts I created which run on Fedora / RHEL. I gave up, it was too much bother.
• Make it easier to setup passthru printers (required to print large documents successfully from Parallels). Yes I know CUPS, I maintain all printers company-wide for our RHEL servers. So it was only a little bit of an inconvenience to setup... but the thought of trying to explain how to do that to someone else isn't a happy thought. The raw printers don't even show up in the GUI, the only way you see them is in Terminal or the CUPS web interface.
• Let me set my Terminal preferences for new windows, then actually use those preferences. Every day at work, I start up at least 2 rdesktop sessions using a separate script for each. Every day it adds another terminal preference to the list. Periodically I go back and delete these extra prefs. Just use my existing prefs like Tiger did, already!
• This new "downloaded from the internet" warning causes some people problems, so provide a way to turn it off. Previous versions of AFP do not like files with more than 2 or 3 extended attributes (or whatever they're called) and trying to copy or move these files to a network AFP share fails. I setup my downloads folder as a watched folder, and created a folder action script to remove 2 or 3 of the most common extended attributes. Another thing I don't want to try to explain to someone.
• Change the swapping settings to be less aggressive by default. I upgraded to 4GB to get around most of the swapping but I've found the easiest way to keep the system stable and happy is to just shut it down regularly.
• Please don't add a lot of extra eye candy or things to slow us down. I'm using a 2007 MacBook Pro and while it's plenty fast for what I need, I don't want to have to upgrade either.
• Above all, the system works very well so don't screw it up. This is really important.

Re:And???

[Tsiangkun]

Haha. AC has a point. MacOS is the UNIX on the desktop and laptop that linux was never able to achieve.

Re:This is news

[kwerle]

I recommend you change your /. settings so you don't see apple news.

Easy enough.

Re:MBP

[DCstewieG]

Step 1: Ditch Firefox. It's become a cow. Unless you absolutely need some extensions you can't get elsewhere, try Chrome or Safari.

Dear Apple....

[Lumpy]

I' love to "get back to the mac" but I cant. You wont make a mac pro that is affordable in any way so I had to abandon the Mac platform and go back to the PC platform like many MANY businesses have.

I would love to stick with Final Cut and the mac platform... but I am able to buy 2X the machine for 1/2 the money AND have enough left over to buy new video camera gear. for the price of ONE Mac Pro quad core that can do AVCHD editing smoothly.

I loved editing on the mac platform, but they made the mac pro platform way too expensive.

New desktop?

[LoudMusic]

The discussion seems to be very OS oriented, but I'd like to see some hardware changes. There have been plenty of "refreshes" but nothing that is a truly NEW Apple computer. How about a desktop computer between the mini and the pro? Something better than the absolute base model and the absolute top end, that I can use on my KVM switch. The current pricing is $700 and $2500. Bit of a price gap for headless desktops there.

Re:And???

[UnknowingFool]

Also there's probably lots like me that use more than one (Windows, Linux, and OS X).

Re:And???

[Yvan256]

The poll would need to specify if it's about your preferred choice or the OS you spend most of your time with because company policies.

Slashdot should to these two polls next:

Which is your preferred OS? (given a choice, which do you use)
- Windows 95/95 OSR2/98/98SE/ME/NT
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
- Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
- Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
- Linux (Red Hat, Ubuntu, etc)
- I use Open/FreeBSD you insensitive clod!

Which OS do you use the most? (even if you don't like it but are forced to use it for various reasons)
- Windows 95/95 OSR2/98/98SE/ME/NT
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
- Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
- Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
- Linux (Red Hat, Ubuntu, etc)
- I use Open/FreeBSD you insensitive clod!

Re:And???

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

This is worthy of a front page news item why?

Because this is an ad-supported site and every news story with the word 'Apple' in it generates heaps of comments. Think about that next time to you contribute to the thread.

Re:Jailbreak

[Dynedain]

I'm not sure they will. After all, right now you can buy a Mini with OSX server, and even sans optical drive if you wish. If they wanted to force more expensive hardware for their upper-end features, they would prevent OSX Server from running on a Mini. Originally the EULA prevented you from using OSX Server on anything other than an XServe or MacPro, but now they not only allow it, they endorse it.

They want Macs to be the machines people are using to create content and apps for the mobile gadgets. I don't see why they would undermine that. However, I would not be surprised if they built-in an AppStore for OSX.

Re:most will be happy with a MATE Imac or a system

[UnknowingFool]

Mac pro over kill hardware price Do you realy need a 1k PSU for a 1 cpu system with a ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB GDDR5.

A Mac Pro is an expandable workstation. If Apple didn't put a powerful enough PSU for the the 3 PCI slots and the 3 HD expansion bays, there would be complaints that Apple put in an underpowered PSU. Some people actually use them.

Mac pro at $2500 comes with a W3530 cpu about $300 (same price area as the i7-930) but apple only puts 3gb ram in and only a ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 (add $200 for a ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB)

Perhaps maybe because a Xeon is not the same thing as a Core i7. Intel considers them different families, maybe you should too.

But when you can get good I7 systems with 6gb ram and a better or the same video card for $1000-$1500. Where is the that extra $1000+ going a full boxed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate is only $300 oem full is like $200 and big oem like dell pay less.

Again an i7 isn't a Xeon. If you want an i7 from Dell, buy one.

There are people who may not want to play games but for $2500 you should get a Nvidia Quadro or ATI fire pro ATI FireGL card.

I don't think it is listed anywhere on the MacPro website [apple.com] nor does Apple hint that the MacPro is a "gaming machine". The problem is that you keep saying it's not a gaming machine but that's just your misunderstanding of what a MacPro is. It has always been a professional workstation so that professionals can edit sound/music/graphics/video for a living. It is not made for you to play Crysis, although you can do it. If you want a gaming machine, companies like Alienware make equipment specifically for you.

Re:And???

[dgatwood]

There's something truly sadistic about control-C as the keystroke for copying... when you've just typed the last line in a twenty-line command in a terminal window SSHed to a UNIX box. :-)

Re:Jailbreak

[Dynedain]

And how much would it cost you to purchase a PC with Windows 2008 and unlimited CALs?

Re:And???

[fyngyrz]

The whole hipster blogosphere will cream itsself over the slightest hint of what Apple will do or not do.

Considering Apple's present market capitalization, I'm afraid you've mischaracterized where the interest is coming from. It's only the most valuable technology company in the world, you know. So what it does demands attention; both from the technology sector in general, and of course from its customers.