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."
Hyperbolic much? (Score:3, Informative)
While having a mechanism for the OS to check and display the cryptographic signature and signing party on an executable before executing it, the notion that this is 'new' seems to stretch credulity. Most Linux distros have been signing packages since shortly after they stopped supporting vacuum tube based systems, and Windows users have been getting little boxes describing(or freaking out about the lack of) 'Authenticode' signatures on drivers, activex controls, and executables for years now...
There are, undeniably, times when Apple introduces novel things, or non-novel-but-polished-to-an-unprecedented-sheen things; but this would not seem to be one of them...
Not free. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Informative)
According to Gruber at Daring Fireball, the developer IDs will be issued free of charge. It's only if you want to submit to the App Store that you need to pay $99.
Yearly upgrade cycle. (Score:5, Informative)
gruber's got a few words on mountain lion. [daringfireball.net].
Interesting to see Apple's moving to an annual release cycle.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Informative)
In the minds of many technically-savvy users, there is a huge distinction between a general purpose computer, and media consumption devices like phones and tablets. In the minds of corporations like Apple, eroding those distinctions helps them sell more media consumption devices and more media to be consumed. There will always be more technically-UNsavvy users than savvy, so they're just following the market. However, that leaves a lot of us out in the cold.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair, OSX already tells users not to trust any app that is downloaded from the internet, and asks you a confirmation to run it. If the app attempts to modify certain sectors, access some data, or even save information in some places, you are forced to enter a password to allow the app to do this.
I think this happens every single time the app attempts such modifications. For the most part only installers trigger this password validation now, and they do every time you run them. At least thats where I see them the most often.
This is not new either, has been there since at minimum Leopard (10.5). It appears the main difference here is the need to right-click (or ctrl click) to get the contextual menu that will allow you to open up the app. Makes it harder for people to accidentally click-open malware apps that somehow get downloaded by them clicking on the wrong thing.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Informative)
No, the OS is set to, by default, say "this application is not signed and hence not trusted", it's nothing to do with spreading FUD, it's a legitimate security device –warning users not to run random things that they don't know the origin of.
Re:Normal users shouldn't install just any program (Score:4, Informative)
Since when does one run applications from a mounted .dmg file instead of from the Applications folder? You're supposed to copy the application bundle in the .dmg to the Applications folder to install it, then trash the .dmg.
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:5, Informative)
An Apple boycott would be silly, as just about any other manufacturer (Dell etc.) have their stuff manufactured over there too.
Apple is the first tech industry to join the FLA which is currently visiting China. First impression: Conditions are better than the norm:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Apple+iPad+factory+conditions+better+than+norm+agency/6162817/story.html [vancouversun.com]
Bert
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:5, Informative)
OS X doesn't have service packs. "Service Pack" is MS terminology.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:2, Informative)
See: OSX 10.7 Lion EULA [apple.com] (PDF) sections 2.A. or 2.B.i. depending on your acquisition method.
Section 2.B.i:
"You are granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive license:
(i) to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control;"
One copy on each computer that you control doesn't equate to a single upgrade.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:5, Informative)
unless you obtained the Apple Software from the Mac App Store or under a volume license, maintenance or other written agreement from Apple, you are granted a limited, non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at any one time.
"Unless" is a very important word here. Since most people bought Lion from the Mac App Store, the rest of the quote is irrelevant. Simply put, you can buy one copy of Lion from the Mac App Store and use that single copy on ANY Apple-branded computer...according to your cited text, it doesn't even have to be one you own (unless that is stipulated elsewhere in the EULA).
It's not "simply copyright violation". And you are correct, you didn't even need to consult the EULA, because when you did, you got it wrong.
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:4, Informative)
This isn't exactly a rumor the article points to Apple's website. The details here are rather official. Given that there is an already released developer preview, no reason to call these rumors.
Re:Not free. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:5, Informative)
You need to actually read the stuff that you link.
Section 2.a. only states that you are not allowed to transfer the OS X that came with your Apple computer to another Apple branded computer. This also applies to people who decided to purchase the upgrade that is packaged on the thumb drive from Apple. BTW you can provide your own thumb drive and go through the iTunes method of purchasing and STILL be able to use section 2.b. below.
Section 2.b. explicitly allows you to use the upgrade that you purchased using iTunes (The method first pushed by Apple) on any computer that you own which is an actual Apple branded computer using at least OS X snow leopard. I legally updated my iMac and two laptops with my $30 update. Apple was even nice enough to help.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not free. (Score:5, Informative)
(Responding AC because I'm at work...)
A free account is 5GB, which can't even handle a full ipad backup (something I recently encountered as it tries to back up your apps as well, and with a game like rage weighing in at 1.1GB, you can see it fills up quickly).
You could not be more wrong.
http://www.apple.com/icloud/what-is.html [apple.com]
"Your purchased music, apps, books, and TV shows, as well as your Photo Stream, don't count against your free storage."
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:4, Informative)
Apple is also offering a free-of-charge Apple developer IDs which they can then use to cryptographically sign their applications. The feature by default will not ask for password for any signed app, so this does not force any developer to go exclusively via the App Store, but it may make it necesary to sign your app.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Informative)
Look at Apple's financial statements (and if you think they are lying, tell the SEC) - the App Store makes a profit for Apple but it a very small one in comparison with the hardware sales that are the reason the store exists for in the first place.
Apple has repeated stated year, on year, that the App Store is not much better than break even for them as a standalone product - the real money makers on the store are the third party developers.
Yes, much is made of the "massive" 30% cut they take for handling payment processing, store front, advertising, servers, bandwidth etc that go into running the store.
Yes, they pay all of those running costs and "the rest is profit" - and it *is* running in profit, just a very tiny profit compared to the hardware. They're not running the store to make money directly - they run it at near break even so that they can make money selling iOS devices.
The store prints money for third party developers - Apple stated something like $2.5 billion paid out to developers at the last big keynote I saw (Steve was alive at the time, since he was the one who said it), and it's going to be even more now.
It's not printing money for Apple though, not directly at any rate.
Re:OMG! OMG! (Score:4, Informative)
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). . . 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?
So Apple is to blame because the system that exists where most electronics manufacturing occurs in countries like China simply due to the fact they make more profit? I see where does HP and Dell fall in line as (by all accounts) they make many more computers than Apple in China?
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.
Um Apple does pay better than their competitors. However maybe you haven't parsed the notion that these are the same exact factories that work for Apple's competitors. Meaning paying one set of workers more than another does not really change the situation very much. And the situation is cultural. If you live in rural China where most of theses workers originate you have two choices: Subsistence farm and be at the whim of droughts and floods or go work in a factory far from home. Be aware that if you don't like the work, there are millions of others ready to take your place. As for wages, they are a decent wage for China. Most slashdotters can't seem to understand that living wages differ in different parts of the world. $7.25/hr in the US is a fortune in some places. In other places, that is pittance.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:5, Informative)
So now compare that to the cost of XP, Vista and Windows 7 in the same time frame.
Re:lockdown coming. (Score:5, Informative)
Apple developer IDs are entirely free, not technically.
The way Apple Developer program works is that you first get an Developer ID. Once you have that, you log in and you can subscribe to the iOS Developer program($99/year), the Mac Developer Program ($99/year), or the Safari Developer program (free.)
You only have pay for the Mac Developer program if you want access to software and OS betas and App Store publishing among other things.
Up to this point everyone has stated only a Developer ID is required to get the required certificate. Anyone that goes through said process would know the rest I listed here. Gruber likely thought not everyone would figure Dev IDs are free.
Re:Hear that, MSFT? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm afraid you don't know what a service pack is. Service packs bring security updates and new drivers. New functionality is a rarity.
Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion are about new functionality. They are equivalent to to the XP, Vista, Windows 8 changes.
Apple does them more often than Microsoft because they can. Vista for example was only so long coming because Microsoft development process was fucked, and they had to restart development at least once.