An Early Look At Mac OS X 10.8 658
adeelarshad82 writes "Earlier today Apple announced their next OS, Mountain Lion. According to an early look, OS X 10.8 does more to integrate social networking and file-synching into a personal computer than any other OS. It tightly integrates with the whole Apple ecosystem that includes iOS devices and the free iCloud sharing service. Moreover Mountain Lion adds a powerful new line of defense against future threats where a malware app is prevented from running even if it is deliberately downloaded to a computer. Even though Apple's clearly got a lot of fine-tuning to do—and possibly a few features to add, there's no doubt that Mountain Lion already looks very fine." Update: 02/16 15:04 GMT by T : New submitter StephenBrannen writes with some more details culled from CNET. The newest OS X has now been released to developers, with an official release date planned for this summer. "Mountain Lion, as it is called, will further blur the lines between iOS and its Mac OS. iOS features that are being ported include: Messages (replacing iChat), Notification Center, Game Center, Notes, and AirPlay mirroring. Also new to Mac OS is the addition of Gatekeeper, which should help prevent malware attacks on Apple products. Not announced is whether Siri will be ported to the Mac."
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like that "walled garden" known as Android that has the same user options to only install from the Android market or to allow "Other sources"?
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why bother? Change the package coloring, claim it's the most secure version of Windows and sell the upgrade for $150.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:3, Insightful)
Sort of like how Android by default "spreads FUD" about apps not coming from the Android market? Since, you know, you have to check the "other sources" option in order to sideload apps? Yes, even on the vanilla versions of Android from Google it defaults to blocking sideloaded apps.
Mac OS Xi 11.0 (Score:0, Insightful)
"Elephant" A big, fucking, white, elephant
Normal users shouldn't install just any program... (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as this review will cause hysteria among the Slashdot crowd (OMG THEY ARE LOCKING OUT CHOICES) I am very much in favor of using the App Store as the default repository. This has two major benefits as far as I see it. First, the applications will actually go into the /Applications folder instead of being run from a mounted .dmg file. Second, applications will actually get updated.
Another benefit is that this move will nip a lot of malware vectors in the bud.
Before everybody gets their panties in a twist, note that you can still install whatever you want after entering an admin user/pass and changing the settings.
I will agree with PC Magazine on a few points though - why the hell does a notepad have to look like a real life notepad? That's just cutesy stupid bullcrap.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Insightful)
Great, and those technically-savvy users can just click the other option and stop whining. For the average user, this option is great. Is a combo box really that hard for you "technically-savvy users" to figure out?
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you think this website is? It's for geeks. Geeks like gadgets, and talking about gadgets. If you don't like these posts, filter them out, or go somewhere else.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not a walled garden when it's entirely YOUR CHOICE to restrict where you want apps to only be installable from. If you don't like the default option, click on one of the two other options.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:5, Insightful)
$90? Where do you get your software? Windows 7 from the Windows store is $319.99. Even the stripped version (Home) is $199.99
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:5, Insightful)
After reading the article, I failed to find any hint of exaggeration that would merit the comparison to curing cancer. This is slashdot. It's about gadgets and tech. Updates to an OS, especially those that change the nature of the desktop/laptop experience, are worthy of a post. And I'm not just an Apple fan -- I would find it just as interesting to learn of new updates from Microsoft, HP, Linux, or any of the other players.
If you are feeling frustrated, perhaps you should spend your time elsewhere until you've regained (or developed) a sense of objectivity. About the only thing that has me puzzled is how the parent post rated a 5.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is that when Apple does something no different from Android (which is not called a walled garden) the only response from these whiners is to whine about "walled gardens" when that isn't the implication of this change. This has nothing to do with trying to lock down OS X. It's about giving users control of what applications can be installed.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh god a check box..... it's sooooo difficult.... please help me!
Note I said "lockdown coming," not "lockdown here." I'm just pointing out that Apple is very, very smart about social engineering. This is of course very "easy" for technical users to deal with. But many users I support (IT of course, this is Slashdot) don't know how to work System Preferences. A smaller number don't know about control-click. So for those users, applications now have to come from the App Store (or at least be signed). So all commercial application developers will fall in line, not because they have to, but because the incremental cost is small (get a dev key) and the cost of not doing it is huge (grandma can't buy your app).
Once those users are used to the change, Apple will take the next step. By taking baby steps, they can morph OSX into a fully walled garden without much protest, because each step is sooooo difficult that the people that complain are easily shouted down. And then they get 30% of every transaction.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:4, Insightful)
The difference is that MS charge over $100 for the upgrade, while Apple charge $30...
Because of the cheaper price, people will obviously have more tolerance for more frequent but smaller updates.
Also, Apple lets you install a single copy on multiple machines, MS doesn't, so if you have more than one mac the apple deal is even cheaper still.
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not free. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Normal users shouldn't install just any program (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's my experience maintaining a couple of friend's and family's Macs:
- .dmg files in the Applications folder. .app inside the .dmg, which is still inside the Downloads folder. .dmg and then the app inside it every time they wanted to use it. .dmg ever opened since last rebook still mounted, icon showing on the Desktop and in Finder.
- Apps in the dock that refer to the
- "My application stopped working after I emptied the Downloads folder".
- People who actually opened the
- Every single
Here, we're the 1%. Apple wants to make life easier to the 99%. Can't blame them.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:3, Insightful)
iOS prints money for them because they sell the hardware - the software side of things lives and dies on third party developer support, which is why they've introduced the App Store to OS X. However, the App Store doesn't really make any money for Apple directly (other than their own apps, but they sold those beforehand), just in the same way that the App Store on iOS is a very small source of profit for them (nearly lost in the noise).
There's no reason for them to change the way OS X works and force an App Store only model, merely offer it alongside what already exists. They're smart enough to realise that not everyone is going to want to use it (or be able to use it) and they're not going to cut off that feature on the Mac - remember, they make the bulk of their money on the hardware sales, so any reason *not* to buy a Mac is just a threat to their bottom line. They know apps like the Creative Suite and other heavy hitters that are expensive or so things outside of the app store guidelines are not going to go away (as well as all the open source and freeware stuff that's part of the BSD side of things).
All they're doing is adding another step to the process in almost exactly the manner people on slashdot have been suggesting ("have the app store, but they should have a way for power users who know what they're doing to be able to work outside of it with a setting or password etc") and suddenly this is evidence of them locking everything down?
It's a security feature (although whether it will become like UAC on Windows and simply clicked through without reading is another matter), not a prelude to removing the ability to install non App Store apps.
Save As = Duplicate? (Score:4, Insightful)
I still can't wrap my head around one simple issue. The simple one click process which allowed you to take a form letter with a few minor changes and save it has now become this funny process of duplicate and save??? Renaming something and adding steps does not make it simpler. I only updated one system to Lion because this seems to keep on getting in the way....
Keep iOS walled garden on iOS. I don't need silly apps to accomplish tasks I need an OS which will allow me to work. If Apple doesn't have a solution or if the software does not support it I will find my own solution. Sharing is not iCloud, Facebook or Twitter. Those are products. There are thousands or even millions of other solutions out there. Beside iCloud why not FTP/SFTP/SSH? Why no support from the Finder for the iPhone/iPad? Why is there only one way to skin a cat on OsX? As Apple continues with the iOS walled garden the functionality of the desktop is diminishing. My car is not made by Apple and yet I need to interface with it. My phone is not made by Apple because my iPhone could only connect to one computer. 32 gigs and I couldn't use it other than with one computer or a jailbreack.
Common people we are going back to 1983 where Apple products were locked down and limited by the vision of one company. The beauty of OSX is that it is on top of a very powerful OPEN system. As Apple locks this down it's just getting in the way like the ugly notes and contacts interfaces. /RANT
Re:Introducing Mac OSX 10.8! (Score:1, Insightful)
OS X isn't meant for enterprise environments, it requires Apple to release fixes for their buggy shite and quickly patch security flaws, this goes against Apple's ideology which is "We are right you are wrong"
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
I will play devil's advocate here:
Apple's mechanism for checking for signed apps is, IMHO, a very good thing. What this does is force the user to really think about installing a program where the developer wasn't interested enough in obtaining a signing key.
All OSes should have some signed executable mechanism available. What this provides is resistance from attack should a repo/store/marketplace be tampered with, and ownership.
Windows has had Authenticode for years now, to the point where if an application developer doesn't care enough to sign their installer and code, businesses won't buy their product.
As for the OS X App store, yes, it is a double edged sword, and there is justification for being worried that Apple is slowly boiling the frog, but having a store/repo is a security benefit overall, which has been proven with Linux repositories.
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:3, Insightful)
There is always rumors about a new iOS, or a new iPad or a new iPhone and somehow people get are juiced about them, in the end I just can't reconcile this enthusiams the people are having with the immorality of how these things are created. So Fuck you!
I know that Apple gets all the bad press for the Foxconn manufacturing atrocities, but keep in mind that Foxconn makes 'gadgets', and many other things, for many major companies [wikipedia.org] besides Apple including Acer, Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Vizio. The 'employment accommodations' are basically the same for any product they are making, so let's not pretend Apple is the only company who shoulders the "immorality of how these things are created".
Let's hear some of your vitriol aimed at these other companies as well, or you're just another Apple hater using Foxconn as an excuse.
Apple deserves and gets the most blame because they are the ones with most margins to spare and the most cash in the bank (~100 billion). I like how the Apple lovers gloat about Apple taking 75% of the smartphone profits, making tens of billions of dollars of profit every quarter and being worth more than Microsoft+Google COMBINED, and how they get most of the profits from the PC industry as well. So the answer to your question is, how much more money can Nokia pay it's workers on the $20 handsets it sells the most before declaring bankruptcy(ending up in workers completely losing their jobs), versus Apple with it's multi-hundred dollar margins while playing $8 or so for assembly for each iPad and iPhone?
Of course all of them deserve blame, but Apple deserves the most blame, they are in the best situation financially to pay better than all the companies you have listed, and STILL make monster profits. That's why the bad press is directed more against Apple.
Re:Hyperbolic much? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes "new" just means "new to OS X" not "new to the entire field of computer science".
When you view the release notes on a different application do you immediately update the word "new" to such levels of importance? Probably not.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, we are talking about OSX 10.8's new signed app treatment. Look at the post you replied before, he notes "This has nothing to do with trying to lock down OS X"
Android was brought up because Android treats apps exactly the same way (well almost) that Mac OS X 10.8 will, yet no one calls Android a "walled garden."
A lot of people here are screaming that forcing users into knowing what they are doing to install unsigned apps translates into OS X becoming a draconian walled garden that is going to destroy computing as we know it, despite being exactly what Android does.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Insightful)
Now you are just trying to save face in the error.
There is a lot of logic behind bringing code signing to the desktop, starting with the fact that’s where it was born.
By virtue of Android and iOS being new platforms they happened to be entirely built around code signing, but Smartphones are little more than cell capable PDAs, devices that allowed you to do anything you wanted. So did Windows Mobile, actually. Code signing requirements are just an evolution in computing, unless you are 12 you would have seen it coming years ago.
At the end of the day no freedom is being limited in the Mac desktop with this. Entirely the opposite: you are simply gaining more power. The user is getting the tools he needs to be able to say "i only want signed apps to ever run on my computer." He has just as much power to say "let everything run on my computer".
Any hypothesis of Apple locking down the OS just by giving users a strong security tool is just FUD.
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:5, Insightful)
Except Apple is getting all of the blame, not just "most". Microsoft also has a gigantic pile of cash, [businessinsider.com] yet you don't see anyone holding their feet to the fire over the XBox 360 and all the suicides at that Foxconn plant.
Which is why this is just an excuse to break out the Apple Hatorade.