Screenshots of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther Leaked 545
gorman writes "Screenshots of Apple's next major update to OS X, Panther (10.3), have finally been leaked to the web. For months very little has been known about Panther, with only several minor rumors here and there. These screenshots show off many new features, including the return of labels, a brand new Safari-like finder, and an interesting window management system called Exposé. In addition, the screenshots show off refined visuals and improvements to all of the included Apple applications, such as video support in iChat and enhanced spam filtering in Mail. While these screenshots show off a pre-release version of Panther, it's definitely interesting to see what Apple is working on! Steve Jobs will demonstrate Panther during his keynote this Monday at WWDC and will make it available to developers."
Longhorn 2003 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Longhorn 2003 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Longhorn 2003 (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Longhorn 2003 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Longhorn 2003 (Score:2)
Don't forget that even if the screen shots are real, they are of an OS that won't be released for many more months. Apple has been known to change things, sometimes a lot, (add/drop/polish features) in the final couple of months before release.
Re:Longhorn 2003 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Longhorn 2003 (Score:4, Funny)
Gnome Themes (Score:2)
Re:Gnome Themes (Score:2)
What I want is a why to make my Linux box look similar to it. Nothing more.
Re:Gnome Themes (Score:5, Funny)
Innovations like OpenOffice.Org and GIMP... (Score:3, Informative)
GIMP is impressive solely for the fact it's an open answer to Photoshop (c'mon, how many of you actually USE CMYK separations?) and it works. You have no excuse to use Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro, because there is a Win32 version out there.
Re:Innovations like OpenOffice.Org and GIMP... (Score:3, Interesting)
The GIMP is impressive in my opinion solely because of the speed it was developed, and the ground it covered to get to be a somewhat competative application. The GIMP certainly does not have to justify its existence to me, it can and will continue on without me using it. With that said...
I've tried The GIMP out, several times. The linux version and the Win32 version both. I can use CorelDRAW, Paint
Re:Gnome Themes (Score:5, Informative)
What the...? (Score:3, Funny)
The circle of theft is supposed to go Xerox->Apple->Microsoft->KDE. Didn't you know that? How dare you suggest the circle be broken!
Re:Gnome Themes (Score:3, Interesting)
Original ideas are overrated. I'm not impressed by something wildly new, especially in interface design -- just look at the shambling wreck that is Enlightenment to give an idea of how much "originality" can be a bad thing. I'm much more pleased to see competent integration of pre-existing, and poss
Re:Gnome Themes (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just like the false Bill Gates "640kb" quote. People refuse to believe otherwise because it fits their agendas.
Next.
Re:Gnome Themes (Score:5, Informative)
Legal precedence for "look and feel" (Score:4, Insightful)
A better precedent for your argument is the canonical Lotus vs. Borland case, in which case it was ruled that a menu system was not artistic expression protected by copyright. Note that the first trial judge ruled against Borland, saying words like "Cut" and "Paste" could be changed to, e.g., "Snip" and "Dupe." Had his ruling stood, we'd have had to learn a new menu system for every software company, raising the barrier of entry for new software companies who would have had to invent new words and keyboard shortcuts for "File/Open" = Ctrl-O, and innovation would be even more stifled than it already is. Can you imagine shopping for cars if each company had a different mapping for left pedal = break, right pedal = gas?
Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~12fg/Panther/
Torrent here (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Torrent here (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Torrent here (Score:5, Interesting)
I understand completely though. And I'm not poking fun. After all...
I'd browse about, dreaming of getting out of that as well. :-)
Re:Torrent here (Score:5, Funny)
That's because we're all so technically l337 that we've altered the user agent string so we can access our online banking.
$$$$ Money ???? (Score:2)
Will it be a downloadable update, or will I have to purchase an upgrade disc? If I have to buy it, how much will that cost???
Re:$$$$ Money ???? (Score:2)
So Panther should be free to owners of Jaguar/10.2.
Re:$$$$ Money ???? (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$$$$ Money ???? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$$$$ Money ???? (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably the same as what Jaguar cost.
Based on the 10.1-to-10.2 transition, probably not. The x.y.z (where the z varies) updates are free. Geez... you're getting oodles of new features and can't cough up the modest price to support the company? Why do people always expect new software releases to be free and are outraged when they're not? Software isn't free. It takes developer and Q/A time (which is very expen
Re:$$$$ Money ???? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$$$$ Money ???? (Score:2)
"Desktop Experience" (Score:4, Funny)
Between that and Microsoft's ' rich internet experience' crap.
Its a damned OS, its a TOOL.. its not some drug induced altered state of mind...
Re:"Desktop Experience" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Desktop Experience" (Score:5, Funny)
You obviously have never encountered Steve's Reality Distortion Field. Whatever it is that Steve is smoking, at least he's kind enough to share.
Re:"Desktop Experience" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"Desktop Experience" (Score:2)
Jimi Hendrix has the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Steve Jobs has the Macintosh Desktop Experience.
Re:"Desktop Experience" (Score:5, Insightful)
You're partially right - it's an OS, but it's also a user interface, and all of the changes shown in the screenshots are UI changes. It may be jargon that reeks of marketspeak, but "experience" is actually a fairly useful way of thinking about how people work with UIs. It's more than file management and app launching, it's the utility of system alerts and messages, the clarity of the typeface, the ease with which the user understands what's going on, the myriad ways the user's time using the interface is helped or hindered by the UI design.
Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Like, the fact that the application kills its own preferences if your drive runs out of space.
Or the problem of attachments being destroyed when sent if they have a resource fork.
I switched to Mail.app for a day, but switched back to Entourage when I discovered these serious issues, as well as the lack of interface behavior controls (like the fact that Mail.app automatically marks an email viewed in the preview pane as "read", when I don't want it to).
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:2)
The Mac needs a decent email app. Entourage corrupts mailboxes (and is from M$), Eudora hasn't gotten any real improvements since version 3 (no, I don't consider advertising an improvement), and MailSmith suffers from lack of UI controllability (much like Mail.app).
Did I miss something?
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:5, Interesting)
All I have to complain about is that with large folders it appears to stall indexing them but simply quitting and restarting it clears the issue (and no, Force Quit doesn't destroy anything). Also I wouldn't mind if it had parallel IMAP/POP connections but as far as I'm concerned I'm very pleased by it.
Saluti
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:3, Informative)
Mozilla Mail.
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure. I've got a 900 MB mailbox I can't send email from anymore because if I send more than 2 attachments, it replaces the additional ones with randomly-selected email from my Inbox. I had to create a new Identity (thus making a new mailbox file) in order to continue working. At least I can easily reference my old mailbox. (And, yes, I've already tried all the rebuild functions and whatnot.)
M$ was willing to help with it, but only if I sent them my mailbox file. Riiiiigghhht. I
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, how dare Mail.app mark a message "read" when it's been viewed! I think it should only be marked as "read" after I'd read it, and considered the spiritual nature of it's consequences. When will apple correct this deficiency???
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mail.app spam improvements? How about real fixe (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not a Mail.app bug, that's an OS X behavior. I've experienced this particular little "feature" with MT-Newswatcher, Safari/Chimera/MSIE, AlphaX, Preview, etc.
That said, I've been using Mail.app to handle email from 5 different accounts since 10.0 and I've had no problems with it.
Oh wow! (Score:3, Funny)
HTTP Mirror (Score:3, Informative)
How about Voice for Chat? (Score:2)
I hope it's there - Yahoo for OS X has had video for ages and it's a lot less useful than voice.
Another thing I'd like is a better shortcut key set than they have. I don't want to *always* keep a mouse in hand.
Also a way to minimize all windows at once...
I don't see another $140 of value here yet...
Cheers,
Jim
Re:How about Voice for Chat? (Score:3, Insightful)
I have 8 Mbit DSL - I can do full voice and video on a PC.
People always told me that Macs were better at Audio/Video.
(Has that changed?)
This was typed on a Mac.
somebody repair the drain pipe (Score:4, Interesting)
All those leaks... surely a sign Apple is sinking! (Score:5, Funny)
Inconsistent UI (Score:2)
A few observations (Score:5, Interesting)
1) I completely stoked to see Security having it's own control panel.
2) Where's the advanced spam filtering mentioned? I just see the normal Mail.app screen.
3) I don't see the Safari driven finder either. It's just the normal finder window with a brushed metallic look. (I still haven't made up my mind on the metallic. I don't hate it, but it's not lickable like the rest of the OS)
4) For anyone who's never used them, folder actions kick ass.
Can't wait till monday.
-E2
Re:A few observations (Score:3, Interesting)
Look closer... (Score:5, Funny)
True, but it's a normal Mail.app screen with nothing in the inbox. That's some damn good spam filtering.
Re:A few observations (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think that's a Safari-driven finder. I think Safari is the active app, and the rest of the apps are ghosted.
As far as the brushed metal look goes, there's a hack for OSX that lets users make all the windows brushed metal, or make none of them brushed metal. (I read about it
HTTP Link (Score:2, Informative)
Not much left for Steve (Score:2, Funny)
They still haven't fixed fucking iTunes, though (Score:3, Interesting)
Meh... (Score:2)
Wonder what these guys were looking at... (Score:2)
I wonder if the screenshots were taken during the pr0n testing phase, or if a desperate wife was trying to "convince" her husband to come home and stop playing with Panther....
Brushed Metal? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's with all the "brushed metal"-looking programs this time around? I thought Apple was going for UI consistancy. Surely having a bunch of built-in programs that look totally different from everything else on the system defeats the purpose here? And if you must violate your own UI consistancy standards, you should at least do it for something less ugly-looking than brushed metal. Ew!
Food for thought (Score:5, Interesting)
[quote]
Re: This is fake
First, I'm really really really pissed off because I wrote this whole message and then accidentally deleted it. Seems you can't control-Z in these input boxes.
Second, I think these shots are fake, too. I hope they are for some of the reasons outlined below. I'll be going into a lot less detail in light of the fact that I'm having to type it all again. I did do an Observation/Conclusion thing, but this time I'll just make the observations and you can make your own conclusions.
I have only skimmed the thread, so apologies if these points have been brought up. Just seemed like everyone was "WOOHOO"ing without really looking closely. And similarity to other posts is just coincidence.
OBSERVATION: In the Activity Monitor window there are strange inconsistencies.
* First there are really tacky colours. Windows type tacky colour, not beautiful Apple colours.
* Second, the "% Nice" uses a , to seperate the decimals, not a . like the rest of the %'s. This smacks to me of a slip-up by someone European making the fakes.
* Third, the "Threads" and "Processes" don't line up right. Unless this is a very early build, it's very sloppy.
OBSERVATION: Yahoo Instant messenger is in the dock and on the desktop. If this is Panther, that presumably means no Yahoo support in iChat.
OBSERVATION: In the full screen of the expose desktop, Safari is all blocked out. Why? What incriminating website could he/she be looking at?
OBSERVATION: Why are the iChat windows censored totally? Why not just block them out like the Safari window?
OBSERVATION: About Finder is all wrong. "The Macintosh Desktop Experience"? And why "Finder version 10.3" rather than "Mac OS X (10.3)" like we'd expect? These aren't big things, obviously, but still...
OBSERVATION: No build number. Seems strange, since they'll most likely be giving out preview copies on Monday, and developers will want to know what build they're working with. If it's the final release, how did slip-ups like above creep in?
OBSERVATION: In the iChat window, it says "There is no camera attached to this computer." Yet the progress bar seems to be showing activity of some sort?
OBSERVATION: The Finder window named Xdrive is metal, but not entirely consistently. The metal has a bar down the right, next to the scroll bar, unlike Safari. This on its own is nothing that important, but the grow icon thing in the bottom right seems misplaced.
OBSERVATION: In the Mail screenshot, the "Working Offline" seems all wrong. Especially the "o" in working.
It just seems all wrong to me. I'm bound to end up with egg on my face, but I thought these items needed discussion.
- Jimmni
[/quote]
Points worth thinking about.
(tig)
"We do not inherit the land from our ancestors"
"We borrow it from our children"
Re:Food for thought (Score:3, Informative)
Or making the screenshots. On a French Canadian system, for example, you'll get commas for decimals in every application that displays decimal numbers. Not that I'm espousing one opinion or another. Just that whoever did these may have been a French or Spanish speaker who temporarily switched their language to English for the screenshots... and nu
Re:Food for thought (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Food for thought (Score:4, Insightful)
OBSERVATION: The "More Info" button in the About Finder window, which launches Apple System Profiler, is missing.
OBSERVATION: Corners for activating Exposé would conflict with the screen saver in a confusing way. Also, if Exposé is a real feature, it's a development code name - no way in hell Apple would ship it with that name.
OBSERVATION: System Preferences is an inactive window (titlebar widgets aren't colored), and the titlebar is not translucent.
Observation: The brushed metal Finder window includes what appears vaguely to be a list of mounted volumes (along with a Network icon). However, the disk image icon is that of an image file, not a mounted volume!
OBSERVATION: The Applications, Documents, etc. links in the aforementioned Finder window aren't vertically aligned very well.
OBSERVATION: In the same Finder window, the Xdrive volume is selected in blue, and what appears to be an Applications (Mac OS 9) folder behind it (no menu transparency!) is ALSO selected, making it unclear which item the displayed menu would apply to. It seems REALLY strange to have a toolbar button with a menu that contains precisely the same menu items that are also in the main system menu bar. Contextual menus are neat time-savers, but that's just stupid. Apple does seem to like non-descript graphical labels like that, though (see iTunes - grrrr!).
Re:Food for thought (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Food for thought (Score:3, Informative)
why are "leaked" screenshots censored? (Score:4, Funny)
is it only about the eye candy now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Most Tantalizing (Score:4, Insightful)
Expose' looks like a neat feature but probably more complex than most people will want to deal with. I'm also curious how the corner activation behavior will work with multiple screens.
The one panel Finder window looks like a very cool user interface improvement to tackle problems of novice users ("I have to dig so deep to get to my home folder" and "why can't I have a simple desktop like OS 9") The new highlighting method (blue rounded rectangle around the filename) looks like a nice eye candy improvement.
System Preferences has gotten rid of ColorSync, My Account, and Login Items. Combined Desktop and Screen Savers. Combined mouse & keyboard. Added a Print & Fax icon. Added icons for Security and Expose'. Hopefully this indicates a trend of trying to integrate tools from the Utilities folder into the System Preferences.
While all of these are nice changes (and I will be first in line to buy my copy), I don't think these changes alone are compelling justifications of a large upgrade price for an experienced user. I hope Apple will backport any security and bug fix updates for Panther back to Jaguar for those users who don't find the upgrade makes sense.
Steve Jobs's keynote (Score:4, Funny)
Steve Jobs come on stage, talks about lots of nifty new stuff for a long while, then prepare to go away, turn back to face the crowd...
"Oh, and one more thing, I almost forgot to talk about Panther..."
Audience yawns, somebody yells "We already saw the sceenshots!"
Steve looks a little bit disoriented "euh, yes, hum"...
But quickly recovers "Oh, and one more thing, we have at the back a demonstration machine of the new PowerMacs coming to market next month, you are really going to shit in your pants with these"
A few Apple guys come on stage with a machine described by Steve as a dual G5 (970) 2GHz, audience yawns, somebody yells "Yes, we have known for THREE BLOODY DAYS".
Steve positively looks finished, his face looking down, his speech notes fall from his hands, the lights on stage dim out while he slowly turns to exit, he advances near the back of the stage, and stops!
A spot lights up on him, his hunched body straightens up, he turns back to face the crowd with a small smile on his face, advance to the podium with long strides and start speaking:
"You will have to excuse me but I almost forgot this one LAST thing due to ship in two month."
Curtains open, revealing another machine which Jobs describes as a dual PPC G5 (970) 2.5GHz with more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at to an audience that stays here gobsmacked, not believing what they see.
After having written this I guess I will be labeled a deluded Mac Zealot but the truth is that while MacOSX makes me drool (figuratively of course) I never owned a Mac myself but if I was in Steve Jobs position with a long string of surprises at previous keynotes and with a new architecture that cannot be too surprising in itself given how badly it is needed and expected I probably would manufacture some rumours and faked leaks to dull people's expectancy into a big surprise and then I would use a wild card to shock and awe (to reuse an already overused term) the audience by its unexpectedness as much as by its intrinsic quality. Of course this is assuming that Apple does have such a card up its sleeve.
$2,000 dollars to drink the kool-aid (Score:3, Funny)
Re:OMG OMG OMG OMG (Score:2)
And it doesn't even look different to the present one.
Re:OMG OMG OMG OMG (Score:2, Funny)
Re:OMG OMG OMG OMG (Score:2, Insightful)
there are some big differences graphically and at the core, if nothing else in that this release will bring native applications that are based on existing x11 applications. slashdot is pretty late and pretty conservative on this
Re:Looks the same to me. (Score:3, Informative)
Secondly, some of these things do look to be significantly new..... as far as look and feel, of course it's the same.... what would be the point in dramatically changing the look and feel?
Feature-wise though, Expose looks like a very nice addition, as are labels.... not sure what Folder Actions are, but they could also be an interesting addition..... the new drive view also looks like it could be an improvement.
Some of the
Re:Looks the same to me. (Score:5, Informative)
It's really an elegant solution to window clutter. It's either this or virtual desktops, and Apple probably would dislike virtual desktops due to the "where the hell did my windows go" factor. With Quartz, all the zooming should give the user usable visual feedback as to what's going on.
Re:Looks the same to me. (Score:3, Informative)
If folder actions are applescripts that run when files are added or removed from folders (I think that's what they call it), that's available now.
Metal Sucks. Aqua slightly better. (Score:5, Insightful)
* With these brushed-metal windows, you cannot tell which window is in front.
I've closed so many windows I didn't intend to simply because I thought it was in the foreground when I hit Cmd-W.
Why did Apple have to toss out all the UI lessons they'd learned since 1984?
Re:Metal Sucks. Aqua slightly better. (Score:3, Interesting)
You know, I have a TiBook and I'm very happy with it, but I have to echo your question.
OSX is better than the competition, but it drives me nuts how it fails to live up to its potential. The old Mac OS sucked at a technical level, but I greatly prefer the interface. The NeXT interface was far better than Aqua as well, in my opinion. I'd love to have the option to make OSX look and act like either.
Under the hood it's great. And
Re:I love metal (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Metal Sucks. Aqua slightly better. (Score:3, Insightful)
I found MacOS9 much less than a "well-refined user interface". Why? Well, let me list a few items that come to mind:
1. When MacOS boots, only some extensions are shown loading up (with the associated puzzle piece icons). Why are some hidden while others get icons? Any logic to it whatsoever? Why is there no way to find out what one is during the boot sequence? As it is, one has to go
Re:Why doesn't Apple embrace open source fully ? (Score:2, Insightful)
(Ask Mandrake oops can't)
-E2
Re:Why doesn't Apple embrace open source fully ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why doesn't Apple embrace open source fully ? (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps both.
Re:Why doesn't Apple embrace open source fully ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Using GNOME or KDE in their next release would be a horrible idea for Apple. And here's why.
Apple already just recently (well, 10.0) totally changed their UI and user experience from what it had been for a decade. That pissed off a lot of hardcore old users. Apple doesn't need to go alienating their users again. (And no, I don't feel that the Aqua themes "count". They're pretty, but they're not "there", from my recollection.)
Performance-wise? The most recent releases of GNOME and KDE felt slower on my 866 MHz i686 machine than 10.2 did on my 700 MHz PPC750. Apple really doesn't need their OS getting slower, especially on their low-end machines, which people here already bitch and taunt as being horribly underpowered.
Finally
Really finally, now, as a matter of personal opinion, I do actually like the whole OS X UI system better than GNOME or KDE. The legions of rabid and not-so-rabid Apple loyalists would probably agree with me, since OS X probably at least tries to follow whatever Apple's UI standards are. Not only are GNOME and KDE "not Apple", but the UI experience is different. So I don't think Apple would garner support from their users by switching.
Re:Some of these look faked. (Score:5, Informative)
Also you'll notice, that foreground windows are shaded grey and have coloured stoplight buttons, while the unfocused window is plain white and has monochrome stoplight buttons. So, apparently unfocused titlebars are not translucent anymore.
I really hope those screenshots are either fake or just plain unpolished/unfinished. Jaguar looks way better IMHO.
Re:Some of these look faked. (Score:5, Interesting)
It scales all windows so that they can all fit on hte screen at once showing you everything you're doing - you lcik on one and they revert to their normal state but with the selected window in the forground.
Or at least thats how I imagine it from the description.
Re:Arrrgh (Score:2, Funny)
Step3: Profit
Re:changes to the OS X operating system (Score:3, Insightful)
OS X was criticized early on by MacOS fanatics who thought they changed too much. In retrospect some of the changes were good, and some were bad. Regardless, OS X still has a long way to go to reach it's usability potential. There's lots of room for aquafying CLI tool
Re:changes to the OS X operating system (Score:4, Insightful)
Panther will be alot better for smp Xserve boxes, and Java Servlets. (Java uses threading heavily as opposed to seperate processes). Yahoo even turned down Java for PHP because FreeBSD 4.x did not have good threading. Remember that previous versions of MacOSX used FreeBSD 4.2 and 4.4 for alot of the internals. SMP support in FreeBSD 4.x = Linux 2.0.
Macs have great UI's and if you use a computer as a workstation, a good as well as flexible gui is nice to have. Also apple uses better resolution icon's and heavy colors so its visual apealing to your eye's. Even the fonts are professionally done with heavy R&D so they are not too blury and easy to read. Try MacOSX for a week and kde, gnome and even Windows will be painfull.
Remember that Apple makes workstations, desktops, and laptops are for consumers so UI is extremely important unlike tradional unixies. They are not made for computer experts. Graphical artists are Apple's main customers who are obsessed with detail. The gui is as important if not more then stability for this market. Internals are not that important.
I have never used MacOSX but I was told that its not as stable as big iron unix's like Solaris or even Linux. It came out a little too early and was quite slow.
Both reliablity and speed improved as the OS matured. But its a hell of alot more stable then MacOS9 or Windows95x. The api's are more solid as well which make bugs less apearent for third party apps that use them.
hear hear! (Score:4, Funny)
Either slashdot should retract all articles that might be read on other news sites, or at least apologise profusely for being so redundant.
In fact, Slashdot should really just close up shop since all they do is repeat articles and news easily gleaned from browsing through 5 or 10 thousand websites, and a few hundred newsgroups.
Admit it Slashdot, you're just a wanna be
Re:Apple upgrades more often than windows? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple has been releasing (paid for) OS updates at a rate of about 1 per year for the last 5 years. Every 6 months or so, they release a free update. With OS X there have been more frequent patches and updates, but in general the 1 OS update per year hasn't really changed.
Re:must upgrade? (Score:5, Insightful)
A quick answer: in the "Macintosh universe" (for lack of better word) it is much more common to purchase your OS as OEM than it is in the "Windows-Intel unverse". 100% of Macs are being sold with an OEM MacOS (even those that are sold with Linux pre-installed). I don't know the exact figures for x86 machines, but they are obviously nowhere near the 100% figure. If you are a Windows developer, the Windows 95/98 users are still an important client group for you. But if you are a MacOS developer, you don't pay much attention to the MacOS 8.1 users, since they are probably also stuck with pre-1998 machines, and if they didn't cough out money for a new machine in 5-6 years, they will probably neither cough out it for your application. On the other hand, every new Mac that was recently sold was also sold with a recent MacOS. So you don't have to worry, like your Windows counterpart, "is the market ready for a XP-only application". You KNOW that the market is ready for Jaguar-only apps - so why waste your time and energy for MacOS 9.x?
Re:Finally the one mouse button problem is solved. (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know about Mac users, but I know plenty of Windows users who can't seem to tell right from left. If I only had a nickel for every time this exchange has taken place during a tech support call I have taken from a Windows user:
Me: "Okay, now right-click on that icon to bring up the context menu, and select 'Properties' from it."
Them: "Ok, I clicked on it, but the icon just goes dark."
Me: "Did you click, or right-click?"
Them: "What do you mean, 'right-click'?
Me: "Right-click, as in, click the right mouse button."
Them [astonished]: "You mean it does *something else*???"
Let me tell you how Apple came to use the horrible, one-button mouse. When they were developing the Lisa and Mac, they were also hiring scads of employees to do admin & custodial jobs and other non-techie stuff. Many of them had never touched a computer before, and Apple used them for testing to find the optimal number of buttons on the mouse. One is the correct number of buttons for the uninitated user, as borne out by usability testing. When people get used to their machine and learn the ins and outs of the OS, they can cough up a couple bucks for a multi-button mouse with lots of bells and whistles.
Finally, I do believe that recent changes to Apple's nomenclature indicate that the new towers to be announced Monday will include a multi-button mouse with a scroll wheel-- the mouse that comes with the consumer level systems has been changed from "Pro Mouse" to just plain "Mouse," and I think the new keyboard that has begun shipping with those systems is likewise simply named "Keyboard." This could indicate that the "professional" desktop Macs are going to ship with more feature-laden mice and keyboards than the machines aimed at Grandma and other first-time computer users.
~Philly
Re:Brushed Metal vs... uh.. Aqua? (Score:4, Interesting)
Brushed Metal is for all "digital lifestyle" applications. That is, applications that control such devices or use/manipulate the data from those devices (photos, music, video, contacts).
Aqua is for everything else (graphics, sound, animation, text). If an application is not used primarily to interface with digital lifesyle devices, it should use the standard Aqua theme.
Apple's thinking was that this provides a distinction between a "general use" app and a "limited use" app. iPhoto is an exreemely useful app, only if you have lots of photos and/or a digital camera. Photoshop is useful without either. The brushed metal interface also somewhat mimics the curent fad of bright metal cases on consumer devices, much like stereo equipment from the 70s. This is a subliminal "ease of use" thing.
Re:It doesn't seem like there's a lot of new stuff (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple has almost always been very conservative with their version numbering schemes. They're not ones to jump to the next whole integer just for the glitz of it.
When 11.0 is released it will either be one of two things:
1. A complete re-write and restructuring of the underlying OS and APIs in a new language or for a new processor/system technology. The re-write will be totally invisible to the end user who will have
Re:Nice... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes the g4 sucks goatballs compared to your system. No arguments from me here. The reason for this is your 2001 cpu is actually newer then Motorolla's G4! The G4 is well over 5 years old. Imagine using a pentium or pentium pro today? It was designed in 1997 and came out in late 98/early 99.
They have really screwed Apple and I am glad they finally booted them off their platform.
Traditionally PowerPC based macs were twice as fast as Windows machines or close to the same speed for half the price during the mid 1990's.
What changed is Motorolla's commitment, the cheaper development of wintel boxes, and the AMD vs Intel war.
Motorolla's shareholders do not want to upgrade their chip facilities as well as invest R&D for cutting edge chip designs. Its expensive and the embedded market is more profitable for them.
Then why are G4's expensive? Motorolla must use Intel for chip development. Intel of course charges the competition alot. Second to meet shareholders expectations they need to raise the price of their G3's and G4's and use the money to create embedded chips so they can claim they are growing on their SEC sheets.
Third, G4's are slow because they were designed in the 1990's and use ancient SDRAM technology. The new DDR based mac's have a chipset to slow down access from the memory to the cpu! Yes the pci based devices can use the newer memory but not the crippled g4's.
Motorolla even tried to make a g4 with full ddr support via the G5, but did not plan on improving any radical performance boasts. They were still planning to charge an arm and a leg and provide a inferior solution. After all they owned a monopoly on the cpu for the mac right? Wrong.
Anyway the new IBM built 64 bit macs in which Panter is designed for are very very fast. Go read some preliminayr leaked benchmarks at macslash.org for more info.
IBM wants to make cheap blade servers running AIX so they needed to mass produce a slimmed down version of their power4 processor. Apple is perfect for creating large bulk to reduce costs for IBM. The powerpc970 aka g5 aka power4-lite is a slimmed down power4 powerpc based processor. It can easily beat a pentiumIII 3ghz hands down in most benchmarks( real, not photoshop ). For things like encryption key building its almost twice as fast.
But the cool thing about this is that they use so little watts. Risc processors make great laptops.
What you say it true for at least the next couple of months. I would not touch a mac today. However by christmass....