“In recent weeks, the core feature set and low-level changes to the Mac OS X codebase have been firmed up in preparation for focused efforts to produce a ‘WWDC Preview’ release in early August to be shared with developers in attendance of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (Aug. 7-11),” Mac OS Rumors reports. “A lot of ambitious ideas — like the use of a BitTorrent bandwidth-sharing reward system to alleviate some of Apple’s massive use of Internet bandwidth for the iTunes Store, Software Updates, et cetera — that didn’t make the cut in previous versions are being considered very seriously as part of the very ambitious Leopard feature set.”
“Apple is soon to introduce its ‘Mac Pro’ line, which will sport Intel’s ‘Conroe’ desktop Core 2 Extreme processors with up to two four-core processors for a total of eight CPUs. Making good use of all those resources and avoiding current problems where one core may run at a significantly higher temperature than all the others, causing potential crashes and other problems down the line….is a huge challenge. Leopard is being focused like a laser beam on that task and the results will be very impressive,” MOSR reports. “Leopard will introdce a lot more moving, animated, flowing and interactive ‘living interface elements’ to the Mac experience… For example, switching between applications will now give a much more obvious and graphically rich interface cue so that even novice Switchers will recognize what is occuring without having to look at the Dock, Menubar, et cetera for feedback. It will be very obvious as the interface moves and flows.”
“Simultaneous (e.g. not dual-boot) operating system virtualization technology derived from quiet efforts in this area at Apple over the past five years will allow Leopard owners to run OS X, Windows, Linux, Solaris and other operating systems simultaneously with near-native performance and no need for third party software,” MOSR reports.
Much more in the full article, including a bit about Apple’s forthcoming ‘Mac Pro’ line decked out with with Intel ‘Conroe’ Core 2 Extreme processors with dual four-core processors for a total of eight CPUs,here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Cathy” for the heads up.]
more eye candy…..
Anyone concerned about Leopard having too much eye candy, well wait and see. If all this visual feedback is for real I am a bit concerned too BUT I think Apple would do it right. I can’t tell you how many switchers I know have problems with an application because they are actually in the Finder. They they don’t realize they changed apps and they never check the application menu.
I think there is a way to do this and not have it get in your way. And I’ll bet you’ll be able to turn this off. If it’s true.
Warning!
It’s MacOS Rumors!
“The sky is the limit, and Leopard will make some impressive inroads with the possibilities that are just beginning to be explored by third-party developers.”
Umm… How can third-party developers explore Leopard’s possibilities when Apple hasn’t yet released the feature-set?
Dan Rather was exposed as being a liar before the entire world. He had been coloring his newscasts for years with obvious untruths. The man is a serial fabricator. MOSR is a serial fabricator. The implication is clear.
*shaking head* Why do I have to keep explaining the obvious to political cretins who can’t see the truth when it’s right in front of their eyes?
BustingTheSkulls says: “Why do I have to keep explaining the obvious …?”
From your perspective, I know that must seem like a really good question. Yet the answer to it is simple, really. Allow me to explain:
You keep doing the same thing, BustingSkulls, because you’re actually the idiot in the equation, but just don’t know it.
Hope that helps
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malckwan says: “Will Leopard still be optimized for the PowerPC?
There’s still a very large installed base of PowerPC Macs that’ll need to be supported. One wonders if Apple will herd these potential cash cows to upgrade to Intel based Macs by releasing less optimized versions of OS X for PPC.”
Wonder no more; that’s exactly what Apple is going to do. They have to create as much performance differentiation between the ‘old’ & ‘new’ hardware as possible, in order to create the impression that the switch was even more than just ‘all good’. Given the higher costs of using Intel chips, as well as the greater-than-predicted energy use and heat issues, Apple will pull out all the stops on the software optimization front to put the switch as it stands in the best possible light. That will mean minor improvements in PPC OS performance vis a vis the Macintels, and noticable feature ommissions (although the latter may be justifiable in some cases, if the features are multithreaded in nature and the PPC machine in question is only single core).
And yet, if you notice, in the projections given in the story here, and on other more reliable sites doing the same kind of reporting, all of these performance enhancements to the underlying OS code are platform agnostic – system level multi-threading, simultaneous virtualization, offloading even more of the GUI duties to the GPU, etc … all of it could be done on with any CPU. I’m sure exceptions will be made for the PowerMac models, as professional users will have something to say to Apple otherwise. But by and large, the end – while being engineered by human hands – is niegh for PPC based Macs.
At least as far as Apple is concerned.
I sure hope they optimize Leopard as much as possible with single core PPC computers!
It doesn’t make sense to not to.
No matter how much they optimize PPC they will be still a single core, and folks will still be yearning for something that does more as always.
But leaving their LARGE PPC base in the dust would be VERY UNWISE, IMHO.