Moving on from iOS 10, we get to OS X, and the biggest news is the forthcoming death of HFS+, but before we get there, Apple made it official: OS X is now macOS, causing millions of slightly peculiar people like myself to twitch every time we have to type it out. It should, of course, be called Mac OS, but maybe that’s why I’m a sad, lonely translator, and Apple has so much money it can buy, like, I don’t know, Belgium. macOS Sierra (10.12? We don’t yet know) will be coming this fall.
With that out of the way: Apple announced a brand new file system. You’d think big news like this would be front and centre during the keynote, but I guess not everybody gets bug-eyed by the supposed brutal murder of HFS+. In any event, the new Apple file system is called Apple File System – because, you know, Apple is for creative snowflakes – and it’s been designed to scale from the Apple Watch all the way up to Mac OS macOS (this is not going to work out). Since I’m by far not qualified enough to tell you the details, I’ll direct you to Ars, where they’ve got a good overview of what APFS is all about, or you can dive straight into Apple’s technical documentation.
For the rest, macOS was pretty under-served at WWDC, as expected. Siri is coming to the Mac, and there’s things like a universal clipboard that works across devices, and Apple states that every application can be tabbed now – basically all multi-window applications can be tabbed, without developer input. I’m kind of curious how this will work in practice. Lastly, Apple is making it first steps towards macOS treating the file system like iOS does it (i.e., pretending it doesn’t exist), by using iCloud to automatically sync your desktop and documents folder. All optional now, but you can expect this to expand and eventually be mandatory, and cover all user-facing files.
One final tidbit: the Mac App Store has been effectively declared dead – all the APIs that were previously only available to MAS applications, are now available to everyone. And nobody shed a tear.
As always, there’s more, but this is the highlight reel.
Since APFS is in developer preview until sometime in 2017, it’s probably good to not make a big deal about it at the keynote.
Given how strongly more advanced filesystems are tied to virtual memory architectures (such as ZFS and to a certain extent btrfs), and how OS X is somewhat unique kernel-wise, I’m not too surprised that the way forward is a new FS altogether.
All good points. But does it prevent bit-rot? So far only Zfs, BrtFS, and MS’s ReFS does.
Haven’t you heard? Apple pitties people that work on anything 5 year old. Bit rot is not handled at the filesystem level but at the sales level
You can only prevent bitrot by having multiple copies on multiple disks. You can know that it has happened, but you can do nothing about it with a single disk desktop system.
That can help, to a point, but better still you need to read this article with real examples by ArsTechnica on http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/bitrot-and-at… .
This list of ‘features’ in macOS Sierra is amazingly underwhelming. Unless you’re fully invested in Apple’s ecosystem it’s just pure fluff.
I think the reality distortion field is finally gone. WWDCs have always been mainly fluff from way back, difference being that Jobs, unlike Cook, knew how to sell ice to the Eskimos.
The file system though, long time coming, and sorely needed. And an easy way to transfer files has been missing for a long time.
The question is: does Apple have the talent to pull it off? Their hardcore OS development comes in fits and spurts, and I’m not sure why. Their services, icloud included, suck badly. But maybe this time they won’t?
They don’t want it to become a Longhorn
> basically all multi-window applications can be tabbed, without developer input. I’m kind of curious how this will work in practice.
Probably in a similar way Group & Tab Windows works in Compiz https://youtu.be/KGkodX89ouA?t=249
I’m wondering if Dominic has had anything to do with the new FS? Anyone know if he’s still at Apple?
This was my first thought too. 🙂
LinkedIn says he’s still there (wow, 14 years!), so I bet this is his baby.
I saw a comment on HackerNews that said he was originally hired to be responsible for HFS+ (making is suck less) and I remember him being part of Spotlight (making the indexing work), so I’m guessing he will have jumped on making a better FS. I wonder if there will be attributes? 😉
Shouldn’t that be appleFS then?
In English, we only capitalize proper names, and that definitely is not a proper name 😉
I wonder how the file system will be changed to APFS when you upgrade from existing HFS+ installation. Like if I’m performing an upgrade from El Capitan to the newest macOS, will I get APFS or will it stay on HFS+?
You’ll stay on HFS+, cuz APFS won’t be out until at least next year
It still doesn’t answer the question. So how in a year from now my live installation will be converted from hfs to apfs?
IIRC, Apple didn’t provide tools to convert from HFS to HFS+ in place. Third parties did, though.
Presumably, this will be the same situation.
Well, according to the latest Ars article on it, Apple will provide a conversion tool.
First you say “macOS Sierra (10.12? We don’t yet know) will be coming this fall.” and talk about the new filesystem as if that is going to be included, then you link to something that says the following in the first few lines: Important: APFS is released as a Developer Preview in OS X 10.12, and is scheduled to ship in 2017.
You also say “Lastly, Apple is making it first steps towards macOS treating the file system like iOS does it (i.e., pretending it doesn’t exist), by using iCloud to automatically sync your desktop and documents folder. ”
If synching 2 folders is pretending a file system doesn’t exist then Windows has been pretending the same for a long time now and so has Google and basically everyone else.
And while we agree that the Mac app store is effectively dead (was it ever alive?) I don’t understand how extending those API’s (spreading the genes so to say) causes that death. Appstores are good at providing simple installations and keeping track of what you have installed. Few people use these features in Desktop OS’s, but this only means we can see more saved/synched settings in regular programs (good) and more ads in regular programs (bad)
Because nobody liked the MAS, nobody used the MAS, and most importantly: developers hated it. Now they have zero reason to use it. It’s dead.
Again, I know more than most others
.
You sound like a Scientologist.
He sounds like he has watched too many Trump videos.
(multi-quoting looks broken)
Edited 2016-06-14 13:01 UTC
No. I just know the right people. Some really famous Apple blogger might call it “a little birdie”.
Unfortunately for your case, this is one of this situations which is reversed; this is about what you know, not who you know…
(Re)Distribution and updates. (I am not disagreeing that the MAS is a dead-app store, just disagreeing that extending these API’s would be the reason)
I think not. Not unless they’re going to give a free storage upgrade to sync the 90 or so gigs under the Documents folder, and even then… they don’t need my content (that’s why it’s mine). On top of this, we have these annoying things called data caps…
Amen brother! The thing is though,the majority of their users would be fine with this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Apple is no longer providing viable solutions for professions, their now strictly a consumer based company. Now, enterprise my use say an iPad, but they could easily use any tablet as they just need a mask/template to enter and retrieve data.
Buying a MacPro is simply stupid nowadays, as you can get 3x the machine for less and it will actually support dual CPU’s and quad GPU’s. My workstation has dual Xeon 14 Core, 128GB ECC, 2 Nvidia K6000’s and a Tesla K20. Paid $3000 less than a fully configured Mac Pro that only has 1 12 Core CPU, outdated GPU’s that can’t even run in succession or together, and 64GB RAM that Apple charges more than a grand over street value for. 10 Grand for that, yeah, no thank you, it was a rip-off three years ago and still a rip-off okay 2 1/2 years, but the point still stands.
Yeah, can you believe that, it’s been almost three years since the last Mac Pro update, simply mind blowing, you would think they would at least update the CPU’s and GPU’s, I mean the 14 core is compatible, I know because I helped a work colleague upgrade his, what a nightmare endeavour that was, it worked in the end though. He did it after his extended Apple warranty was finished, again, this thing is oooolllldddd!
Edited 2016-06-14 16:17 UTC
I agree.
The funny thing is, I really enjoyed OS X recently because I could still see it as a traditional desktop OS, maybe even more than Windows has become. It has a mostly consistent windowing environment, it enforces the menu bar (ribbon menus are terrible, they always were and always will be worse than menu bars), and although many of the same features I don’t want exist in OS X as do in Windows (whole-system search, the store, etc), they were fairly easily ignored.
Plus, the OS doesn’t have ads in it. And it only bugs you to update by putting an option to update in the system update screen…which makes a lot of sense, when you think about it.
Even if they were, see point 3 about data caps. I think Wi-fi Assist proved that users are not, in fact, happy with a sudden increase in their data bills and we’re at the point where even a lot of home internet is capped.
LOL, sure you did.
Apple is already providing IBMers macbooks and mac’s for their daily jobs.
It’s not that they are not providing the tools just that our “breed” of professionals is either being migrated in the cloud or is slowly dying as a profession.
Fewer companies are investing in their own mainframes nowadays due to cost related matters.
It may not be appealing to everyone but rental services started to be a thing a few years back and they are here to stay.
Edited 2016-06-17 14:16 UTC
The moment OSX stops supporting a regular file-system is the day I bail on it. I simply despise iOS for this reason alone, I can let go the lack of real multitasking, not being able to select my own default apps, no customization what’s so ever, multi-user support, etc. However I want, no I need a real file-system as Apple’s alternative, which is nothing at all, is simply horrid.
Sounds to me. [Could be wrong].
WHAT? How are they going to buy software now ??
And update it ?
While some at Apple may have that goal, I doubt that it will ever happen.
Apple, though its partnership with IBM, is actively working to get Macs into corporate America. IT departments are not going to accept the corporate proprietary intellectual property, contract documents, personnel files, and so forth, being shared through iCloud — regardless of what assurances Apple gives them regarding file and transport encryption.
In addition, there are environments with no Internet access of any kind for reasons of security. I don’t see Apple closing themselves out of those environments, either.
The integration with iCloud is not the same as making the file system transparent.
You can have a filesystem you can’t truly examine while still being local. Windows has arguably taken a more aggressive approach with this, using the ‘Libraries’ feature.
Agreed, but I was addressing the claim that iCloud integration would eventually be mandatory.
Even the .app “files” themselves are really nested directories and files, displayed and treated at the GUI level as files. That’s been a very good thing, allowing installation of software with a single drag & drop of what appears to the user be a single file.
Surely after 9 years of typing out iOS, macOS shouldn’t be too much of an issue?
It could have been worse, they could have called it Mac. O.S. ?