Mac OS X 10.6 Called 'Snow Leopard'

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 651465
  • Start date Start date

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

Arstechnica reports on more details about the next major version of Mac OS X (10.6). According to the news site, the next version of Mac OS X will indeed be an Intel-only release and that it is code named "Snow Leopard".

Ars can also confirm the expected release target of January 2009 as well as a focus on speed and stability:

Snow Leopard is currently on track to come out during next January's Macworld, and it will not contain major OS changes. Instead, the release is heavily focused on performance and nailing down speed and stability.
The author points to future mobile devices as the driving force behind this focus on performance and stability. There is also a suggestion that Apple may move Mac OS X 10.6 to "Cocoa-only", but the full meaning of this remains vague:

There may be some disagreement here as to what exactly "Cocoa-only" means, so take that into account when thinking about this. For example, Apple may only axe Carbon UI stuff.
 
Don't forget, this is only a codename.. Apple have already trademarked Lynx (amongst others), so it's likely to change.

Would be nice if they could convince the devs to go all-cocoa.
 
Just a small revision then, guess the name is quite fitting.

So we'll be moving away from the space theme to all snowy whitey goodness then eh? :)
 
People familiar with the situation have confirmed to us that TUAW's details are true—Snow Leopard is currently on track to come out during next January's Macworld, and it will not contain major OS changes. Instead, the release is heavily focused on performance and nailing down speed and stability.
Click to expand...
That's nice, but I don't fancy having to buy another boxed OS to get it.
 
There's a couple of interesting points:

1. the fact that they'll have a very hard time persuading people to fork out £80 for a set of bug fixes to Leopard.

2. Adobe's software is running on Carbon's APIs.

3. If this is to target Windows 7 then it will probably have a revamp in terms of how you use the interface with "full-touch" too.

4. Completely Intel only 64bit will lay the PPC to rest but also the original CoreDuo machines.

Those four points will mean a smaller market of buyers.. so this sounds like it's technically driven for the new devices rather than for existing customers.
Perhaps they'll offer better versions of Pages etc at the same time for normal customers.
 
To be honest, I really cannot see OSX needing any major improvements. It's feature set is pretty much complete as far as I'm concerned. With Leopard, the last real issues were laid to rest in dual booting other OS's and sorting out the Finder.

Stability/speed improvements are all well and good, but I don't really have any speed or bug issues with osx anymore, and is certainly not enough to warrant a major new release.

I think Apple will have to get used to the idea that they have a perfect product and tacking on pointless extra functionality for the sake of trying to make it a continual revenue source will only deconstruct what they have spent years trying to achieve.
 
I will probably buy it if there are good gains in all areas.

Going x86-64 means that doesn't need to support PPC and that means far better optimized code. Can't be too bad then!
 
Concorde Rules said:
I will probably buy it if there are good gains in all areas.

Going x86-64 means that doesn't need to support PPC and that means far better optimized code. Can't be too bad then!
Click to expand...

Well considering the code base is just compiled it's a case of just compiling.. They probably use intel's own compiler anyway.. I know that they have GCC's 4.0.x as standard with Xcode 3.0 but GCC is now 4.4. so it's a bit behind the times.

They could also add more to Xcode's default set of library objects for Cocoa. It's still a thin veil when you dig into it.

Lastly optimisation is great - but it's specific to a platform, so hand coding things will be a nono.. especially with Intel's new highly-parallel CPUs on the horizon. This makes me think that they'll be redesigning chunks without the need to backward propagate the recoding for the PPC/Carbon areas.

There are requirements for new devices - but they're only really applicable for those new devices unless they add some gaming API type interfaces to Cocoa... which may lead to a DX10[.1] type Vista fiasco..
 
Adobe need a kick up the ass. No 64 bit Creative Suite until CS5?

Come on, that's pathetic considering Apple told them they were going to phase out Carbon like 2 years ago.
 
As a musician and knowing that my DAW software will support this, any extra performance is welcomed. I'll wait for the benchmarks before handing over hard earned, but if it's a significant increase it might be cheap bang for buck.
 
EVH said:
Adobe need a kick up the ass. No 64 bit Creative Suite until CS5?

Come on, that's pathetic considering Apple told them they were going to phase out Carbon like 2 years ago.
Click to expand...

As I understood it, most developers are pointing the finger squarely at Apple for this. In mid 2007 they announced (out of the blue) that Carbon 64 was dead and that was it. It even apparently surprised some of their own engineers.

Consequently I don't think there is still a 64 bit version of ANY commercial 3D rendering package as there has been on PC for several years now. Developers need to rewrite a lot of code and I don't think many of them were very happy about it.
 
LordSplodge said:
It's almost like Adobe are doing this deliberately...
Click to expand...

Like they're getting paid by a certain large corporation??

Ooo the conspiracy theories.. :D

Another point is that I would expect that this next version of windows may be the last 32 bit. Although I'm sure they've stated there will be a 32bit version I can't help but think they've also considered a quick drop of the 32 bit platform but probably got flack off many big development houses because of it.

philhoole said:
As I understood it, most developers are pointing the finger squarely at Apple for this. In mid 2007 they announced (out of the blue) that Carbon 64 was dead and that was it. It even apparently surprised some of their own engineers.

Consequently I don't think there is still a 64 bit version of ANY commercial 3D rendering package as there has been on PC for several years now. Developers need to rewrite a lot of code and I don't think many of them were very happy about it.
Click to expand...

I know how much that would hurt.. although it sounds like this next release has the debugging reduced for cocoa with perhaps some re-architecting.
I can't tell you how annoying it is that a lot of libraries (ie VTK) are still running a combination that results in a maximum of 2GB of data currently with Leopard (ie some sections are still 32bit).
 
Last edited:
Well the OSX 64 bit situation doesn't affect me at all yet as I don't even own a Mac but have been considering a MacPro for some time now.

Moving to a new OS is not a problem - It's the applications I use that are the sticking point and I don't want to lose the 64 bit versions that I currently use on the PC. As a Mac outsider I find Apple pushing 64 bit as big thing in OSX (as it has done for some time) to be laughable and slightly misleading. It was only in 10.5.2 (?) that it was possible to build a 64 bit application with a 64 bit GUI. I just don't think they are doing this very well at all.

I don't care what people say about MS but XP64 and Vista64 do the job without any nonsense.

The MacPro is still a tempting box though as I can run Bootcamp and then possibly move to OSX as the application situation improves.

I'm not sure if MS will dare to make Windows7 64 bit only - I would be more than happy but I think that sometimes they just can't win and will get crucified if they do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom