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OS X Businesses Operating Systems Apple

Jaguar Reviewed 64

Posted by pudge from the my-mac-only-has-16mb-ddr-anyway dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "A review with a lot of screenshots of the latest beta seed (6C37) has been posted. The latest advancements look pretty promising. I, like everyone else, am itching for a release." I don't know if it is more pretty, or more promising, but it does look cool. Dock improvements, iChat, search the disk from Finder windows, QuickTime 6, Digital Hub section of System Preferences, Firewall preferences, major Speech improvements ...
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Jaguar Reviewed More

Jaguar Reviewed

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  • Steve has finally put function over form...

    It'd be nice if this release runs fast. God knows it's pretty, but I'm ready for fast!

    • Re:please tell me... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Strog ( 129969 )
      Quartz Extreme
      Jaguar dramatically improves the performance of Mac OS X with Quartz Extreme hardware-based graphics acceleration. Quartz Extreme takes advantage of the OpenGL 3D graphics engine to make the entire desktop a fully accelerated OpenGL scene. A supported* video card can then render the drawing of the desktop, just like it would a 3D game. The main CPU chip(s) can then focus on application-specific needs, making the whole system faster and more responsive.

      That means your shadows will drop quickly, your genies will appear slicker and your transparencies will layer faster -- and Mac OS X can do more processing in the background while you move the foreground

      *nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance.

  • Helfe (Score:1)

    by mjpaci ( 33725 )
    Anyone care to post the text as the site seems /.'d.

  • Were in trouble... (Score:4, Funny)

    by zulux ( 112259 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @01:10PM (#3485376) Homepage Journal
    If Apple continues to name their releases after failed video game consoles, then by the time they get to 3DO, we're screwed.

    • Re:Were in trouble... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Melantha_Bacchae ( 232402 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @02:01PM (#3485735)
      zulux wrote:

      > If Apple continues to name their releases after failed video game
      > consoles,

      The next version of Windows is codenamed "Longhorn". It is a kind of cow.

      The jaguar is the biggest feline predator in the Americas. It kills by biting thru the skull of its prey (unless the prey is small enough that a smack in the face from one of its paws can kill it). It will eat just about anything, large or small (including cows). It is a very beautiful, very powerful animal that can make its home in nearly any terrain. It loves water.

      Apple is basically saying here: "Microsoft, my OS can crush your OS' skull and eat it for lunch. It can certainly chomp off large chunks of your monopoly."

      Does anyone have any doubts left as to what Apple's new relationship with Microsoft will be for the next five years? ;)

      Good.

      "Mothra's attack is working."
      -- Shouta, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"

      • The next version of Windows is codenamed "Longhorn". It is a kind of cow.

        Longhorn [whistler.net] is a bar at the Whistler ski resort north of Vancouver, BC (just a few hours drive from Microsoft's Redmond campus). The two mountains there are Whistler and Blackcomb. Whistler was the codename for Windows XP and Blackcomb is/was the codename for Windows .NET Server. See, it all makes sense..

        • Yeah, MS is spending way too much time on the slopes.

          Wait, now that I think of it, wasn't that big code
          freeze right around Whistler's peak season? =D
        • The real reason why Longhorn was chosen as the name of the new Windows is because Bill Gates is still hoping that his penis will grow. The current size and shape of Bill's penis is such that it can't be distinguished from his pubes. Whistler is named for his wife's reaction to the apparent lack of a penis (she apparently whistles during sex to occupy herself) and Blackcomb is actually named after the fated comb that once amputated his penis. Bill reportedly didn't notice it was missing until weeks later, but scientisis were able to attach a fetal mouse penis. All is well, and Bill says he notices a marked size improvement.
    • about 6 years ago I remember using some software called ichat.... oh here it is:

      http://www.ichat.com/

      ichat®

      Surely they Apple couldn't have overlooked this.

  • Mirror of 10.2 Screenshot (Score:5, Informative)

    by debugdave ( 153189 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @01:10PM (#3485378)
    Is Avaliable at http://www.apple.com/macosx/

  • NDA? we don't need no steenkin' NDA. (Score:4, Informative)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @01:11PM (#3485388) Homepage Journal
    Apparently not. Even though Apple made a big deal about ushering the press out after the WWDC keynote, they never signed NDA's. Developers, on the other hand, did. It is part of being an ADC member, if I remember correctly. So I can neither confirm nor deny that the screenshots at the macthis.org site look just exactly like Jaguar. With all those screenshots, that site is going down in a heartbeat... reload...... already flatlined. :)
  • Then i'd buy Jaguar immediately for the Quartz Extreme!

    It is mega-arousing/droolworthy.

    Pi
  • Supported hardware for Quartz extreme:
    "nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance"

    Would the ATI Mobility Radeon (found in PowerBook G4) be included in this? is it AGP?

  • Hmmm (Score:3, Informative)

    by Auckerman ( 223266 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @02:10PM (#3485797)
    1. macthis.org has no dns entry
    2. google has no idea who "mac this", mac.this, or macthis is/are.
    3. Do the editors even click on the links before posting?
    • Registrant:
      macthis.org

      2371 Purdue Drive
      Costa Mesa, California 92626
      US

      Domain Name: MACTHIS.ORG
      Created on: 24-AUG-01
      Expires on: 24-AUG-02
      Last Updated on: 24-AUG-01
      • Registered with no DNS. I already noticed they were in whois, but I have yet to find their IP.
        • Ah. Right. Sorry about that. Anyway, this is interesting:

          http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://macthis.org [archive.org]

          Last October this was just a test site by mrbiiggy, which is the same name that's on all the screen shots on SpyMac. He lists his homepage on his profile as knite.net, which is the same as his primary DNS, and it looks like a DSL connection in Costa Mesa, CA. It's probably the same web server that was doing macthis.org, but is now down for obvious reasons. I would guess that he yanked the IP and server when his phone jack started melting. His secondary DNS was on a cable modem in New York which isn't accepting DNS connections but is still up (as far as I can tell) but I imagine knite.net is the same IP as macthis.org.

          Anyway, it boils down to the fact that there probably was a site there, and just because there isn't one now is no indication that they didn't check the link before posting.

  • Screenshots (Score:4, Informative)

    by ekalb ( 537624 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @02:26PM (#3485918)
    Spymac has lots of screenshots of Jaguar from the WWDC here [spymac.com]. Guess NDAs don't bother some people ;)

  • Quartz Extreme (Score:4, Interesting)

    by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @02:59PM (#3486118)
    I hear this vast sucking sound; it's coming from a massive lack of information about the one thing most of us are craving on OS X: speed. If others could chime in on this thread maybe we can figure some things out.

    From what I've gleaned so far we know the following:

    - QE is said to need a "nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance."

    - The wording on the above statement may or may not be read as "requires", depending on whom you ask.

    - The tech involved in such a feat described (single pipeline of composited video) is really advanced and interesting, and raises questions; i.e. what does it mean for OS X when the entire drawing system is offloaded to custom chips? (or on a completely side note: what does it mean when you have standardized hardware-accel. video for your OS, and the Finder is now utterly replaceable? Things like this? [uiuc.edu])

    - The tech involved in QE may have come from Raycer, a company Apple acquired in early 2000. Raycer developed high-performance 3D visualization solutions using OpenGL. Apple consequently has a patent (lost the #, sorry) on vague things like 'large-scale grid transformations' (paraphrasing).

    - A lot of us iBook owners, and other Rage128-based Mac owners, would like to know if QE will work partially, or at all, on this hardware.

    So who can comment intelligently on what's happening here?

    • Re:Quartz Extreme (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 )
      "A lot of us iBook owners, and other Rage128-based Mac owners, would like to know if QE will work partially, or at all, on this hardware."

      in short - You're Phucked.

      quarts extreme is going to be the "killer app" to get everyone to upgrade from their "legacy" hardware, to the new ibooks and whatnot that you'll see comming out @ macworld NY. i'd suggest selling your ibook now, or at least get someone with cash in hand lined up for it, as it's about to devalue by about $300 :)

      it's no coincidence that the new tibook came out with a 32 meg ati radeon 7500 a week before they released the minimum "optimal performance" specs for quartz extreme. so far the only laptops capable of quartz extreme is the rev. b & c tibooks. all ibooks, crt imacs, and g3 powerbooks are Phucked.
      • all ibooks, crt imacs, and g3 powerbooks are Phucked.

        I guess my Cube is phucked, too. :-(
        • no, you can get an Apple-legitimate Radeon 32MB for your Cube, same as the one in my PowerMac, excepting the addition of a little fan. Quiet one, though - should've ordered that Radeon when you got it...
          • no, you can get an Apple-legitimate Radeon 32MB for your Cube

            Thanks for the info! Where would I get this? I don't see it offerred at the Apple on-line store. About how much should I expect to pay for it?

            should've ordered that Radeon when you got it...

            I got it used; DVD/450 model with 192MB RAM (64+128; one open DIMM slot) plus a USB CD-writer for about $800. Still seems like a pretty good deal.
            • best bet is to try and find someone who's upgraded their stock Radeon OEM to something else and get theirs. AccelerateyourMac.com forums are a great place to start looking. You could also probably obtain one as a spare part from an Apple service centre, but e prepared to PAY that way...
              • Thanks again.

                Apparently, these things are pretty tough to come by. I found this forum post [xlr8yourmac.com], dated 4/19, about somebody who had 80 of the things... sold out within hours.

                A search on eBay turned up one that recently sold for $300, and two open auctions with current bids at $275. Impressive, considering that Apple used to sell them for $249. The Anonymous Coward above said that my Cube will appreciate in value; evidently, that goes for the graphics card, too.

    • Re:Quartz Extreme (Score:3, Informative)

      by Srsen ( 413456 )
      The requirements for QE are based on the video chip architecture, not the amount of VRAM on the card. 32MB is recommended the same way that OSX has 192 MB of installed RAM recommended. That's what you need for optimum performance under heavy loads, but it will work OK with half of that amount.

      The graphics accelerators will still work on all Rage128 Macs, they just won't pipe the 2D, 3D, and video all through the chip like QE.
  • Likely one that will be answered easily here.

    There was mention that Jaguar would require a 32mb video card. Being the owner of the crt iMac I obviously do not have one (16mb ATI). Does anyone know if the higher end video card would be required to update to 10.2 and just have some features turned off (the hand writting software for instance could be completely disabled).

    I can see why I would need to have a 32mb 3d video card just so I can finally be able to print to a CUPS printer. Thanks.
    • no it does not require a 32 mb video card, that is only required to use quartz extreme, which is hardware based rendering for the gui. yours will still use software based rendering as is used in 10.1.

      (i know that is not exactly true about software based but i'm keeping it simple to avoid confusion)
    • Spring-loaded folders were in the classic Mac OS since 8.0 or 8.5, I believe.

      Essentially, you can drag an item on top of a folder and hold it there, and after a moment the folder will open up and reveal its contents. You can continue to drill down through folders in this manner, and when you release the mouse button, all those open windows you left behind just close up, leaving you where you dropped your file.

      It has also been nicknamed "drag-and-drill".

      Once you use it a few times, you take it for granted, and a lot of people were disappointed to find this feature absent in Mac OS X.
    • In OS 9, if you dragged a file over a folder icon, the folder would temporarily open so you could put a file many layers deep without having to open the window first for the folder you wanted the file in, then move windows about so that the original file and the folder you want to put it in are both visible and so on. Once you were finished all the temporary open folder windows were closed.
  • I'm wondering if Apple has gotten everything worked out with Core Audio, and if Jaguar will be the release that makes it possible for major audio software makers to finally start releasing OS X ports.

    As I understand it, audio and MIDI are there in 10.1 but not yet robust enough for the pro apps. Any info on this?

    • Re:Audio!! ?? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Just a tidbit: if you look at the SpyMac pics of Jaguar, there seems to be a 'MIDI Setup' app; it has a pair of XLRs for an icon. Seems promising.
    • Yes, it is in 10.1 robust and all. Check some apps that use it: Peak, Deck and Ableton Live.
      • Right. And audio is totally fucked on all DP G4 Quicksilvers in 10.1. Have a look at the OSX-->Using Audio forum under Apple's support pages for more detail, if you like.

  • Quartz Extreme (Score:3, Interesting)

    by owenc ( 255848 ) on Thursday May 09, 2002 @11:38AM (#3490836) Journal
    If anyone is wondering exactly what Quartz Extreme could do, here's a screenshot [mycom.co.jp].

    There's a DVD playing. The teacups are floating around from a different application. They are chrome.

    They are reflecting in real time what the movie is playing.

    (probably why it won't work on my Rage 128)

  • Well, I saw info about CUPS. But I'm not getting the feeling that that will enable me to print to a USB printer connected to one Mac, from another Mac. WTF!

    I mean, for the home user, it's rediculous to not be able to print to my printer from all machines, having the printer being shared by one. Bah!

    I've seen several hacks to get around this, but none do I consider acceptable. It should just WORK! And it's all because of the rediculously stupid choices made in terms of interfaces and responsibilities of the printer driver. SOOO stupid that it is responsible for the physical location of printing, and not JUST the data formatting for the printer (via any deliverable means). That certainly doesn't encourage vendors to update drivers often either. Why? Because it's a pain in the ass with all that it has to do.

    *sigh*

    Just my gripe. Something I would LIKE to see in 10.2, personally.

    -Alex
    • Well, that was one of the announcements, buried in the noise. Printer sharing, for the education sector. I guess that means USB sharing might finally work.

      I imagine that what is in Jaguar is a lot of 'minor' tweaks/refinements that add up to a much nicer experience overall. For instance, it appears as if scanners might finally get some decent support; the new Finder features sound like ones that might actually be useful rather than flashy; there is a GUI interface to the ipfw; there is support for IPv6.

      A lot of these are not really earth shattering, but they make a first step to being useful in the corporate market, for instance.

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