Today, Apple is unleashing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard onto the world. It’s already available to people in Australia and New Zealand (you liking it, Kaiwai?), and Europe and the US will follow later today. There’s an article on what’s new for Ruby developers, while others want to figure out what Leopard means to the ‘enterprise’ (I love those silly business terms). Update by AS: My copy of Leopard was slated for a 10AM delivery, but didn’t arrive. I called FedEx and a CSR told me that an internal memo was just released; Apple has apparently waved the shipping deadline for all packages today and requested delivery be rescheduled at the end of the business day. Update 2 by AS: Ok, we’ve received our copy. How about you other US’ers?
My name was mentioned 🙂
Anyway, I’ve sent off the uptodate so hopefully some time next week – so hopefully then I’ll have a review done; if you want to have a nosey, I’ve done a mini-review of my MacBook over at my blog
here are my thoughts.. add this to your review or leopard..
Mac OS X 10.5 Review. (
Before i get too far into this review, i just want to say this. I upgraded my 10.4.10 install of Tiger to Leopard 10.5 (gm) build 9a581) with all the excitement of a little boy on christmas morning, however, within two hours found myself backing up my personal files wiping the install, going back to tiger.. the reason, the dock. The OS is almost perfect. Yes there are little things that bugged me, but overall great.. but here is my BIG NOTE TO APPLE… we (the end users) do not like features being taken away from us… and your way is NOT always better.. So, before you creative professionals who need applications a mouse click away and people who like clean organized docks go upgrading.. you should read my review.. because everyone at all the major publications are paid well to blow smoke and reality distortion dust up everyones butt, i’m not.
Ok, that being said…
Icons: BAD: If you need them large in the sidebar, you may want to wait.
1.) The Icons are hideous compared to past version of mac os x. Mac os has been known from day one for beautiful 3d, realistic icons that have made other os’s icons look like crap.. now for some reason in 10.5 apple took a step back an has gone to a flat, dull icon theme.. not really impressive. I can actually say.. vistas look better, and thats a sad comment. Also, on the icon rant, the icons in the sidebar of the finder can not be set to a larger size. The current “tiny” icons are hard to see and navigate, especially for children, elderly or people with special needs. That seems like a serious OS design flaw. There should really be an option for larger icons or at least they should automatically grow and resize when the sidebar divider is pulled out and made larger, they are just much too small.
Default Wallpaper: BAD: all i can say is.. who is the startrek fan at apple?
2.) The default wall paper is also apples most hideous offering to date. It makes me recall old lame redhat and caldera linux background from the early 90’s.. The swirly 60’s startrek theme is probably where steve jets his magic reality distortion dust from. It’s just bad. Why not some new blackish variation on one of the many faces of the blue swishy background? Not we get.. “lame space” ! My suggestion is digging into the system/library folder on the root directory, finding the core services folder and replacing the file “DefaultDesktop.jpg” with something easier on the eyes. That picture file is the background shown when you start up your computer behind the login screen.. and i’m guessing.. because i haven’t tried it.. the default background for time machine. But im not entirely sure on that one. I personally like something a little more solid and subtle that draws my attention to the windows and icons on the desktop.. this new default image screams so loud you can see anything but “space”.
Finder + Coverflow: aka: Coverblow.. who cares..
3.) The finder itself is great as a whole, it’s fast and does it’s job well and the redesigned look matches the rest of the mac os x experience really well. The only drawback, as mentioned above, is that the icons in the sidebar can not be resized. The only other comment I would have about the finder, and this is probably shared by most people, is that quick look is a stupid eye-candy feature, and not really useful for anything other than browsing photo collections.. which i can easily do in iPhoto.. or apples pro application formats. As a graphics professional, i been through a few version of adobes bridge application and others like it in the past few years, and most people i know never use bridge or choose not to install it during the install process. The point being, the finder already previews file… images, pdfs, and a few other formats.. I would have wished apple would have ditched the whole quicklook thing in place of just getting the system to correctly preview illustrator, indesign, quark and other commonly used media files in the finder. Creative professionals: NO.. 10.5 still does not preview the most commonly used graphics formats.. even with the much talked about cover flow.. the issue is skirted and never answered directly by apple because they want you to upgrade.. so.. now you know..
4.) The dock… well what can I say.. absolutely unusable.
In the past, i would create a folder and place shortcuts to all of my applications in it and sort the shortcuts in folders, i could then drop the folder in the dock and with a simple right click have access to all of my applications from a organized menu and have a nice clean and tidy dock to boot. Now, enter the leopard dock.. I can still get a pop up, but a hate all of the real-estate it uses on the screen, also, from the pop ups, you only get one level.. so if you have a folder that contains another folder of shortcuts for example, you can only open the folder, not preview multiple levels.. Let me explain: I hate having a million icons in my dock.. my current tiger dock contains, from left to right, the finder icon, preview, mail and a firefox icon, then the spacer, a folder that contains all of my application icons, and then the trash icon. A total of six icons all together.. I like my dock really clean, small and out of the way. My icon folder contains several folders called adobe, internet, games, utilities etc.. and those folders contain all of my shortcuts.. a simple right click from the dock lets me access every application that i need without ever having to dig around in the finder or applications folder. This functionality has been completely removed. That drives me nuts.. Also, when folders are placed in the dock, they use the icon from the first file in the folder instead of the folders icon.. So your custom folder icons don’t work anymore.. That makes the icons hard to figure out.. especially if the files in your folders change a lot.. who was in the HIG department at apple and what the hell drugs were they on. The dock at least needs some options that can be set by the user, like.. turn OFF stacks and grid or fan or.. what ever the hell it’s called and let us be able to use the functionality of the old dock with the new look.
I think power users will be up in arms about the limited dock functionality.
1. Agree with Icons. Can’t wait till CandyBar 3 is out and I can get Agua on there.
2. Wallpaper can be changed. They changed it from the default Blue, so at least it does show a shift in direction at Apple.
3. I’ve never understood Coverflow either, but it’s very easy to never use, so fine-by-me. More file previews will come as companies update and add Leopard file-filters. Apple have done the grunt work thus far and I suspect the independent macshops will jump upon this feature right away.
4. Stacks seems like the fail-feature. It’s not very OS-like. No doubt this was Steve Jobs’ idea, you can almost always spot his personal ideas because he knows what he likes when he sees it, but has just no idea about good new features himself. The dock will be a contention point for years to come – this is the Mac after all, we have wars over the most trivial UI things. Whole articles are written on scrollbars. I’m willing to just ride it through and see how I feel in six months time.
I think power users will be up in arms about the limited dock functionality.
I think power users use Quicksilver.
If you want to try a 2D dock all you have to do is set a property. Granted it’s not the 10.4 version, but perhaps to your liking?
The command is:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock
Got it from:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2007101815375480&query…
Apple.com says Leopard wont be released for another six hours.
Apple.com says Leopard wont be released for another six hours.
Uhhhh, you may want to note that most of the world doesn’t live in the eastern standard time zone.
In fact, in some places of the world it’s already tomorrow.
As a self-appointed geek, I know it’s hard enough waiting for the good stuff, so enjoy
Does it support Java 6? This isn’t mentioned in the official new features list: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html
In case it doesn’t, Leopard has nothing to do with ‘enterprise’ whatsoever.
Lame Java support is what always prevented me from buying a Mac.
Edited 2007-10-26 12:56
I was thinking about your comment about bad Java support out of the box. I started thinking which operating system that includes Java.
Windows don’t include any version of Java, so far I know.
Most Linux distributions does not include Java out of the box, because legal reason. This will change very quickly now when Java has been GPL:ed
Mac OSX includes Java out of the box, perhaps not the latest version.
It is fairly easy to install the latest Java (JRE and JVM) on all the above mentioned systems.
So I’m a bit curious about which operating systems you are running now, so may I humbly ask what OS you are running?
I hope someone proves me wrong but I think there just isn’t any kind of Java 6 for Mac. So it’s not a question of Java being bundled with the system but the availability of Java 6 for Mac.
The problem is that there’s no Java 6 for Mac OS X, not that it isn’t bundled by default.
Edited 2007-10-26 13:38
There is a java 6 for mac. It used to be available on the apple developer’s site, however now you have to google and scrounge around on message boards to find a user posted (and probably illegally provided) copy of the .dmg.
At least 1.5.0_13 is there.
Edited 2007-10-26 13:41
It has nothing to do with legal reasons and everything to do with GPL zealotry. Sun made it perfectly legal for Linux distributions to redistribute Java almost a year or more ago now.
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin
Hey, I’m one of the lucky ones to get it here in Australia…
———————————–
$java -version
java version “1.5.0_13″
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_13-b05-237)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_13-119, mixed mode, sharing)
———————————–
Apple is working on version 6, but obviously other priorities got in the way…
You’ll love XCode though…
So far, I am loving it, seems faster than Tiger, but haven’t taken it through it’s paces yet…
Setting up gmail in Mail.app is so easy, very suite, and iChat very nice too…
Wow, iCal starts in less than a second (I have a 2.16 iMac 24”).
Terminal has tabs
Just checking to see how fast things load, very impressed…
Still looking at all the new stuff…
Huge disappointment. I’m primarily a Java developer by trade and bought a Mac last year. I didn’t think Apple’s lag in Java releases would be that big of deal. Truth is, it’s very annoying.
I don’t really know what you can do about it though. One thing comes to mind and that’s to release their jvm/jdk implementations under a license similar to Open JDK. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.
Of course other OS’s don’t come with Java installed and that’s fine because when deploying my software I can always distribute the JRE as an optional download. With OS X that’s not possible. So in my opinion it’s worse because there is less choice for the developers which ultimately results in less choice for the consumers.
The thing is that other oses do include java vms. If you walk into a retail store and run “java -version” from a prompt, most will give you java 5 (some java 6). MS doesn’t ship it, but Sun has oem agreements with most vendors.
OpenSuSe includes sun’s java 5 and ubuntu is steadily making it easier.
Of course, most of those are still stuck with 5 by default as well. Hopefully they will move to 6 as the default within 6 months or so.
I rather like it. Sure not the latest versions, but it comes with all the programming languages i would ever need :
tom-goossenss-imac:~ Tyr$ java -version
java version “1.5.0_13”
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_13-b05-237)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_13-119, mixed mode, sharing)
tom-goossenss-imac:~ Tyr$ python –version
Python 2.5.1
tom-goossenss-imac:~ Tyr$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.6 (2007-06-07 patchlevel 36) [universal-darwin9.0]
tom-goossenss-imac:~ Tyr$ perl –version
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LC_ALL = (unset),
LANG = “UTF-8”
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale (“C”).
This is perl, v5.8.8 built for darwin-thread-multi-2level
Copyright 1987-2006, Larry Wall
Edit: forgot about objective C + Applescript 🙂
Edited 2007-10-26 19:03 UTC
Does it ship with PHP4 still or have they moved to 5?
How many in the “Enterprise” are using Java6? I bet you not a whole lot. Tool.
The company I’m currently working at still uses JDK 1.4.2 for critical applications/middleware as the virtual machines are rock solid after years of usage and bugfixing. If I’d have to hazard a guess I would say that it will need years until JDK 6 will be used for large projects.
Edited 2007-10-26 20:50
How many in the “Enterprise” are using Java6?
All I know is the few ‘Enterprise*’ java apps I use don’t work on Java6, just Java5.
* The company’s travel recepit reporting tool and IBM’s HMC app for managaing pSeries (sorry, System p) servers, among a couple others.
Java 1.5.0 is still the default for Leopard.
Apple’s Java 1.6.0 VM is 64-bit Intel only, which is why they are not making it the default (so as to get consistent behaviour across all Macs, including PPC ones).
I believe on a 64-bit Intel Mac, you should be able to activate 1.6 (or, perhaps it’s still only available as a developer preview).
Also, contrary to some claims, you cannot install a later version of Java from Sun for the Mac. You’d have to get your updates from Apple.
Edited 2007-10-26 13:33
A beta is freely available at connect.apple. (need an Apple ID, like the one you might use for the iTMS, to get in)
They are usually a bit behind he curve, but they VM implementations are usually considered very good, and have contributed code and improved designs to Sun as well.
…at Thom’s annoying posting. Just post the news for god’s sake.
The good.
– Leopard feels much more snappier on a MBP compared to Tiger. Noticably snappier. Is it due to newer compilers, a multithreaded Finder, or just a fresh install, who knows, but it is quite snappy. BeOS like, even.
– Cover flow kicks major ass. How did we use computing without it?
– Objective-C 2.0 is here, along with a HTML manual. Pity the manual is not online yet, since there is zero information about Obj-C 2.0.
– Spaces kicks major booty. Me like very much.
The bad.
– Blue 2D folder icons are ugly.
– When you drag a folder to the section where the Stack lives, you get the default folder icon. Ugly.
– New dock is pretty when placed along bottom of screen, but c’mon Apple, we have WIDESCREEN monitors, which means we have smaller height compared to width. This means that Dock naturally belongs on LEFT or RIGHT of screen. The pretty Dock effects are disabled when the Dock is actually where you use it. Fortunately, there is a nice workaround on the net (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2007101815375480) which makes the side dock transparent.
– Speaking of transparency, the background of a transparent window needs to be darker. Even Dashboard is no longer usable due to light background, especially when you have white documents open.
– Software Update is currently broken (file on server unreachable). Naughty naughty.
That is pretty subjective given that the current set of icons are so out of place with the rest of the operating system, its no even funny.
I mean, on one hand you have icons with attempts to he ‘3d’ and yet, you have other icons which have gone from the conservative flat look.
I’m happy they’ve gone for the professional flat look; sure, its not ‘teh glossy’ but at least they’ve chosen to go with something that won’t age terribly.
Meh, give it time, I’m sure they’re getting things sorted. At least in the Apple world, you know it’ll eventually be fixed versus the Windows update which is buggy and problem prone. Anyone tried to download the malicious remover application using Windows Update, on a machine infected by blaster? lots of fun for all concerned.
What I’m excited about is X-Code 3.0, Objective-C 2.0 and lots of other fun things – iLife hopefully sometime next year along with an improved iWorks. Things are pretty exciting in the Mac world. Like I said in my previous, whilst the Windows users are cringing, whining and gnashing their teeth in pain over the changes in store by Microsoft – us Mac users are excited about what is on offer.
Why should anyone be happy about this? It is mostly a closed sourced OS and can only run on apple hardware. I really do not get most of you people, you bash MS so much about how closed sourced and controlling they are but none of you same that about apple which is even more controlling than MS. Why isn’t the iPOD open and is able to work seamlessly on Linux as it does on Windows and MAC? Come on, even if they do not want to do it they could have made it possible for other programmers to do this, but they have not done that. I will not buy anything that is locking me in and that is what apple is doing. No please do not get me wrong they make really beautiful products but we need to stick to our principles and not get could up by the eye candy of things and lose our way.
Stop giving these companies so much power, just because they make a good looking product. The products should meet your values.
And what makes you think that most people share your valuess? Some people, in fact alot of people don’t care if a product is open or closed source, they just want something that works for them.
And what makes you think that most people share your valuess? Some people, in fact alot of people don’t care if a product is open or closed source, they just want something that works for them.
Exactly. There is software in a lot of stuff these days…from toasters to your car.
Are we to believe all the holier-than-thou open source zealots check their cars for open source software as a condition to buying it?
Because, as Kaiwai said, first and foremost, it’s exciting!
Remember Amiga. Remember BeOS. They were closed-source, yet people were excited about using (and developing) them daily. In the end, that’s what matters.
And that’s also why BeOS is dead now..
Could you please inform me what a MAC is? I know what a Mac is, its short for Macintosh but as far as I know, MAC is “Media Access Control” – how can an operating system run on top of a technology that sits inside a NIC? confusion abound.
Oh, and as for Linux – why should I run an operating system which has no choice what so ever – by virtue of the fact that none of my applications or hardware is supported.
So lets look at the situation. Mac in one corner with choice, ease of use and a wide variety of hardware that ‘just works'(tm) vs. Linux whether something works is a hit or missed based on whether someone one can hack to pieces something to get it to work.
I don’t know about you, but it appears to me that you’re completely out of touch with what people like me want. I want to use my computer, I want to run the applications I like, I want my hardware to work out of the box without things partially or not even supported.
As an end user, I don’t care about the any of the excuses you pull out of your hat, I just want it to work – that is why Linux isn’t attractive to me or the vast majority of end users. How about instead of lambasting me and users who are happy with their Mac/Windows machine, you get your contraption working properly so that it is actually a viable alternative to more than just the geeky fringe of the IT world.
Edited 2007-10-26 15:55
Aside: LOL at the no choice for Linux apps… Usually the argument is Linux has far too many software choices and that the devs should focus on just a couple of them. But I guess someone could come to that conclusion if they were trying to install iWorks and MS Office; rather than OO.org, koffice, goffice, Star Office, Applixware, etc.
Really it just sounds to me that you’ve just decided that Linux won’t work and have modelled your software and hardware requirements around that. Whatever man, I’m going to go play some Quake Wars (real people do that, right?), you should go get that for your Mac, it’s a lot of fun on my linux desktop and notebook… and it just works
Unfortunately the thinking that Linux/open source/free “alternative” software (OpenOffice instead of MS Office, GIMP instead of Photoshop, etc.) is good enough for a lot of people continues to be quite false.
A lot of people do require a Mac or Windows box to do their job, which in the end is all most people outside the Linux fringe care about.
And quite frankly, those alternatives are terrible at best. I’ve used StarOffice 8 and OpenOffice.org 2.3 – both of their are terrible. From the font font rendering to the look and feel. Its so stuck in the early 1990s, its not even funny.
Heck, I’m willing to give alternatives a try. I’m actually running iWorks right now, its a bloody awesome package – and it might actually end up replacing the need I once had for Microsoft Office. So it isn’t as though I’m unwilling to look for alternatives.
As for GIMP; its a joke quite frankly. The developers know the issues that plague it. Heck, I *TRIED* to help out fixing up the user interface. Having been verbally abused in their IRC channel I decided that they don’t want help. Interesting enough, these people turn around a month ago asking for submissions – bugger than for a joke, after being treated the way I was.
Yeah, how boody terrible. I actually want the software and hardware to work for ME rather than ME changing my whole life and the way I do things to get the software to work.
Sorry, computers were designed to work for man. They were designed to make us more productive. I’m not going to change the way I do things to suite some sort of idealistic wet dream of free software, free speech and free love it the net result is that my hardware and software choices are limited to a few half finished applications that do very little in the way of comparable outcomes to their commercial counterparts.
Yes, yes, the OP typed it as uppercase when it shouldn’t be. We are all impressed by your superior pedantry.
Ha. Mac the cornerstone of choice and a wide variety of hardware? Please. By all measures, Windows is the king of choice when it comes to software and hardware available. Linux and Mac are approximately equal.
Great, you like the Apple apps, and your Apple hardware works with it (shocking).
Using the argument that Linux doesn’t support your hardware is retarded, since you specifically bought hardware that Apple supports. Do the same for Linux, and guess what, everything will “just work”.
I have no problems with you enjoying your Mac (it’s a nice platform, just a little too locked down for my taste). I just get annoyed when people make sweeping generalizations about what “the vast majority of end users” want and thinks everyone choosing a different alternative is doing it just to be geeky, and not because it actually works better.
“Ha. Mac the cornerstone of choice and a wide variety of hardware? Please. By all measures, Windows is the king of choice when it comes to software and hardware available. Linux and Mac are approximately equal.”
My problem with this statement is that it is very easy to find professional, commercially supported, end-user applications for the Mac. It is NOT easy to find such software for Linux – no matter the distribution. I’m not talking about things like databases, I’m talking about things like my Cell phones wireless software, PIM software, Accounting/Billing software, etc etc.
Also, when I buy hardware from a respectable manufacturer, if I see the Mac logo I’m pretty certain it will work without any shenanigans and often without even installing a “driver”. On linux, this is a real hit or miss thing and even when the hardware does work, it often requires knowing things about the OS and it’s inner workings that no casual end-user would ever have knowledge of.
Great, you like the Apple apps, and your Apple hardware works with it (shocking).
Using the argument that Linux doesn’t support your hardware is retarded, since you specifically bought hardware that Apple supports. Do the same for Linux, and guess what, everything will “just work”.
First, why on earth are you bringing up linux and open source ideology into a discussion that should be about Apple and Leopard?
Second, the “everything just works” if hardware is designed for linux is just rubbish. We aren’t talking about the kernel and hardware support. Linux is a kernel. An Apple box running OS X and the software it comes with is a complete environment. Compare a dell that shipped with a linux distro to a Mac, along with Vista. The Mac to an every increasing number of people comes out as the clear winner.
It may not for you but then we don’t go to every Linux 2.6.x blah released article and throw in Mac and Apple praise. That is what the OP was complaining about. Stick to the topic.
I didn’t bring up Linux, I was responding to Kawai. And I never mentioned any sort of ideology.
When an individual can’t even get the name right, the validity of their whole argument goes out the Window, along with those who claim that ‘leopard is just a service pack’.
There is a gulf of difference between making a comment which isn’t popular, but with merit, and simply blathering on, off topic, ignorant rantings on a product of which the contributor has at best limited understanding of.
If you took the time to read (of which you didn’t or otherwise you wouldn’t have made such an ignorant reply) the issue isn’t just about lack of support, but complete support.
My old HP laptop had a built in webcam which was supported. The problem was that it wasn’t fully supported of all its features because the UVC implementation, an openstandard which is fully documented, isn’t fully implemented on Linux.
According to their project (http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/) it hasn’t been updated in months if not almost a year. Is this the dynamic opensource in action? Lets not get started with my Intel HD Auio, again, another openstandard which Linux fails to support completely. These aren’t ‘weird and whacky’ bits of hardware. All this is off the shelf, mainstream components that appear in millions of laptops and desktops around the world.
95% run either Windows or MacOS X – that is the reality. The reality is that for the majority of people – your ‘rage against the machine’ means very little in their lives. They go to work, do what they need to do, then come home. They load their machines, surf the net, check the email, check out some porn, then off to bed. The religious wars which your brethren go on about hold very little interest by those in the mainstream.
You fail to mention that 90%+ of that is Windows. MacOSX is just as much as fringe as Linux. Perhaps not in the US, but if you take a worldwide view…
This is what I don’t like. Your assumption that everyone using Linux must be doing it because of ideology or some sense of rebelling. I use it because it works better, but I’m happy to use other OSe when they make sense. Religious views do not enter the equation.
Finding hardware that is 100% supported by Linux is nearly impossible. Even supported hardware are often not fully support.
And the ‘Just work’ is not only for hardware, it’s for everything. Use bluetooth headset for exemple, it’s technically open and supported.. but well have fun, because the kernel module that make that possible was deprecated before being completed and it had been replace by another one that still ins’t fully functionnal. On OS X, plug, 2 click, confir, it works. Every bluetooth device, any brand.
Anyway, there will be always someone to blame.
using a Mac, is still an alternative you know.
And we don’t think it’s geeky because you choose it, we think it too geeky because we are all geeks who tried and used linux and/or still using it for some reason. Can you say the same for OS X?
If you can only use Linux, it looks like you’re the _real_ locked in person in here.
For many years before Mac I ran Linux and FreeBSD. I remember trolling through source code, tweaking things to squeeze every bit of performance out of my piddly P75, stripping out as much as I could to have as small as possible kernel with everything as modularised as I could. This was before we had the youngsters here who jumped on the Linux/*BSD bandwagon in the last couple of years.
I was a *NIX head back in 1995/96 before it was ‘cool’ and ‘elite’ thing to do. Back when newsgroups were still forums of debate and discussion, where you could log onto a BSD IRC channel and see real world problems being solved.
Then you get to a point when you simply just stop caring about it. That is where I am in my life, I just don’t care about all the holy wars that go on between the camps. I just want my computer to work, I want access to applications I like, and I’d like my hardware to be properly supported.
If it means that I purchase an Apple and I become a ‘disciple’ of Steve Jobs, then so be it. I don’t care if someone likes something else, it does become an issue when I’m told I’m some how ‘inferior’ because I’ve opt’ed out on this jihad against Microsoft or what have you.
Edited 2007-10-26 18:14
Funny, I feel exactly the same way. For me, that feeling has led to no longer wanting to bother putting up with Windows. For you it has led to choosing OS X. That’s fine, but realize that the final choice can be different even though the motivation is exactly the same.
MAC, short for mandatory access control a technology of TrustedBSD.
http://www.trustedbsd.org/mac.html
I don’t like Mac’s (anymore), but they are of course superior to this KDE/Gnome/Vista bloatware.
So lets look at the situation. Mac in one corner with choice, ease of use and a wide variety of hardware that ‘just works'(tm)
You’ve gotta be shitting us. There’s no such thing as a wide variety when it comes to hardware for the Mac. And no surprise that things just work, because OSX only runs on a very small subset of hardware, which doesn’t require a lot of testing to make sure nothing screws up the system.
OSX is a nice system, but you Mac folks should stop overhyping it. Especially when it comes to things like just works.
Actually OS X is rather open for a propriety OS, they release sources for there updates and kernel, thats pretty much why you can run it on a PC. Since when has Windows been like this?
Do you pay for quality food? Or you always grow your own fruit and vegetables, and only depend on the friendliness of your neighbours to provide you the fruit you can’t grow yourself?
(I’m hoping the analogy is obvious here, so I won’t draw a side-by-side comparison.)
One problem with windows is not only that it’s closed source, but more because the business tactics.
While on my Mac I have an open source Darwin, an open source html engine, fully access to open source language such as python, java, ruby etc. On my Mac I code solution that work everywhere. The problem with Microsoft is that they always tried to kill things they didn’t bring to the market and put everyone aside.
Plus like others said. It simply works, even if it brings the new stuff (the fun). They make things simple but efficient. Apple has a vision and ideal that are inspiring and fun.
Just look at exposé. When it first appeared everyone was crying out how useless it was. Exposé gives a productivity boost to everyone who uses it well. Now Microsoft in their lack of innovation just copied it. Well they copied the cool 3d effect, but they forgot about the usability part. Linux, compiz and beryl appear, they merge, they bring like apple eyes candy and a productivity boost. But how the hell is the interface so geekish. But hey, that’s powerful, you can even make a 0.001 variation ..
Sorry, but the product does meet my values and Macs, iPods, and Mac OS X work very well indeed.
Contrast this to my Ubuntu experiment where things work, but poorly. Yes, the software update is as nice as Apple’s and…oh, wait, that’s it.
I believe in available software that works for me with a minimum of fuss and almost anything available for a Mac does that. Some software for Linux is better than that for Windows and some is worse, but the quality rarely approaches the quality of software for Mac OS X.
I want Linux to work. I want a path out, but as long as interfaces are designed by committee, sorry, it won’t work for me.
I don’t mind proprietary software as long as it works well and interoperates well with open solutions. Most importantly, I want a smooth, uninterrupted workflow. OSX gives me the best desktop for now, and I choose open source applications to run on it. MacPorts, anyone?
Can any of you that already have their mits on Leopard confirm if Apple put more options to configure mouse movement?
Specifically, the mouse movement acceleration curve?
I hate the mouse pointer movement on Tiger and run it with SteerMouse to correct it…otherwise I become nauseous after more than half an hour of use.
Edited 2007-10-26 15:17
Will X Code 3 be available for 10.4? as free download like X Code 2.4? or Will I need to buy the Leopard upgrade to have it?
As far as I know, you will require 10.5 to use XCode 3. Sorry to say, at least that was the case with the preview version of Xcode 3.
I think Apple has rewritten much of Xcode using Objective-C 2.0. Which by itself is only available for 10.5
It says somewhere that ruby and python are now supported. (It even said pyobjc to build cocoa interface)
Does Xcode 3 has code completion for python and ruby?
Now I am using eclipse for that reason, I’ll probably switch if python is fully supported.
From the desktop screenshot you’d think they nabbed the semi-transparent and 3d-wannabe icon bar from Sun’s looking glass. Of course… its Apple’s idea though cause apple never ever steals ideas with their super original UI. Ever. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar and an Apple hater forever.
Arn’t you forgetting that Apple stole the original Mac UI from Xerox? What matters is that Apple does things better. Microsoft try rip off Apple and it always comes out worse. What were they smoking with the Zune?
@ kaiwai
What I find funny is that you jump the gun on everything here. You said that a lot of people on here bash Microsoft and Apple because they are closed source, and how you don’t like these “flames” yet no one in this entire conversation had said anything negative until you decided to open your mouth.
Here’s more info on the issue people are having with Java and Leopard:
http://www.cio.com/article/149200
Whats so unbelieveable about people liking the system they have, not every apple user is an itool, not every windows user is in the borg, and not every linux user is in a rebellion against “the man”. people use what they like, and what makes them the most productive in the activities they are involved in, or what keeps them interested as a hobby, I enjoy using linux, and oddly enough vista, because I like dealing with the issues, figuring out solutions to the problems that arise, and the knowledge gained from it all. Why cant people believe that others can like mac, or bsd, or linux etc..
Have your opinions, but to attack somebody for not sharing your view of what is “the best system” is nonsence.
Apple is making waves, and as a fellow nerd I salute!
Some care some do not! Funny last time I bought a music CD it played in any CD play I put it in and last time I bought a CD play it played any music CD I put in it.
Last time I check I could connect the iPod to any computer open my default jukebox and sync my music! I could even use any jukebox play I wanted to sync with it.
And as for Leopard I am going to buy it now so I can install it on my own custom build computer. Yes with all the hardware choices out there, I will be able to find all I need to fig my budget.
Yes I am so happy.
I guess in the end, different strokes for different folks.
As for me, I will not be buying any Apple products until I have what I think are real choices.