“A first-hand evaluation of the latest Mac OS X 10.5 build provided to developers reveals steady progress has been made with the operating system in the past number of months, but significant stability issues persist, all but arresting any hopes for an early release at or around Macworld Expo San Francisco next month,” Ryan Katz reports for Think Secret.
“The new build, 9A321, is the first to feature an updated installer as well as images during the installation process touting Leopard’s new features,” Katz reports. “New to build 9A321 is support for Sun’s ZFS file system, a 128-bit open source file system introduced with Solaris 10 that offers support for vastly larger drives and arrays than 64-bit file systems. ZFS also delivers additional options for administrators.”
“Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is expected to have a large presence at Macworld Expo San Francisco, which begins January 9, 2007,” katz reports.
A link to screen shots of Leopard in Think Secret’s galleries of build 9A241 and 9A283 here.
already blown up…
…aaah, there we go!
Of course we don’t know what the final UI will look like, but the screenshot make me think that Apple is developing a “Platinum” look for OS X.
Umm… Awesome
“an updated installer as well as images during the installation process touting Leopard’s new features”
Wow, what innovation. I haven’t seen that since 2001 when I first installed windows XP and it too, surprise, showed what’s new in the OS while installing. I hope they can do better than this.
I’d like to know what all these secret features are the were announced at the developer conference. Shouldn’t the seeds to developers include some of these features so they can be appropriately tested? If so wouldn’t you think some of those features would have been leaked? I’m beginning to think the best thing about Leopard is going to be Time Machine.
Nobody with any sense thought it was going to be released before Q2 2007 anyway, so no big deal.
Steve would not have said something big was coming unless something big was coming. There’s enough hype already. The last thing he’d want to do is tout a really cool OS release and then underwhelm everyone.
O, ye of little faith.
Hey, “Don’t pass the koolaid”,
What type of computer are you forced to use, or the only one you can afford?
Actually, that whole “afford” argument is nonsense because on a Windows platform, it’s possible to keep the computer running tickety-boo at a very high cost in time, if not money.
Looking for my Leopard
Now there’s a new phrase I hadn’t heard before – “tickety-boo”
Will have to find a way to incorporate that into all the “mandatory fun” holiday parties I’ll be attending in the next week or so.
Coolfactor: The computer ‘I built’ runs just fine and it was made with good parts. So, take your ‘wallet is bigger than my wallet’ argument and shove it up your ass.
By the way, that little sliding thing that comes out of your computer isn’t a cup holder and the mouse goes under your hand and not your foot. Just thought you should know.
Did ThinkSecret actually think it was going to be out for MacWorld? You can’t overshadow Leopard with the iPod Phone (can’t use iPhone anymore…).
Though I think most mac users would like to see Leopard overshadow the phone…
Why would a phone be released at a developer’s conference? Answer: it won’t be.
Can someone explain to me why I should be excited about the next-gen OSX? What about it is supposed to be so revolutionary. All I see is bells and whistles I don’t necessarily need. Unless they redo the way we organize and launch apps (like Windows START menu) and do something about the abysmal dock and make it look different and make Windows lauch within OSX with native performance, I can’t get too excited.
Change of Subject…
I just got off the phone with Apple Customer Support. I had ordered my Mom a Nano for Christmas last night and bone-headed me shipped it to myself instead of her. I called in this morning and was told, call back when you get the shipment notification in you email, ask for a manager, and that person can do a “re-route” of your shipment.
I received the shipment email just a few minutes ago, called back, was escalated to a manager named Greg and he did even better. He offered to ship a complete new Nano to my mom and send me some return labels at Apples expense to make sure she got it by Christmas.
When you look up Customer Service up in the encyclopedia, it should have the Apple logo next to the description. Simply an amazing company.
I suspect all those of you who are underwhelmed at the lack of surprises in the builds released so far will be wowed at MacWorld. Steve will, I’ll guess, preview all the new features at that time, given that Vista has been released, and then release OS X in mid to late March.
Why would you want someone to convince you of something? Make up your mind and enjoy. Life is simpler that way.
Listen up, morons! Get a clue. If the only improvement was the inclusion of ZFS it would be worth the price of admission. Can you begin to the implications of a 128 bit file system, and what that means in a world where we’re trying to figure out how to handle massive amounts of massive media files? Just because YOU don’t understand something it doesn’t mean it has no value. Go back to building your homemade PCs with the Bionicle themed cases. They’ll acquire viruses and malware at the same semi-blazing pace they run Halo. While you’re obliterating your bazillionth monster I’ll be doing something creative and NOT worrying about security.
DAMN!!! Redmond…. is clogging up the site with all those software people photocoping the images!!!
Nice come-back “Koolaid”, but my Mac doesn’t have an antique “cup-holder” CD tray like your shitbox PC does. Mine is a sweet slot of glory. Get with the times, my friend.
iMaki,
Go buy a Dell if you want Windows that bad.
Question for any developers out there – Assuming Steve wasn’t blowing smoke that new features still need to be unveiled… What sort of things could be held back that developers wouldn’t need plenty of time to play with? Wouldn’t even changes to the UI need plenty of testing with 3rd party software?
“Sweet slot of glory”? Yuck!
My guess is that developers won’t see those “secret” new features until Steve reveals them in his presentation. Then the developers will pick up their copies so they can begin working/playing with them. To bundle them now would spoil the surprise.
As to the Dell alternative, I just this morning setup a Dell GX620 small form factor box. It’s not *that* bad, but it’s typical Dell “factory ugly”, its optical drive still uses a flimsy cup-holder tray, and the whole drive sits loose and cheap in its bay. Like Steve said years ago about Microsoft, “No style”.