Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard and the Vista-compatibility delay myth

Apple Store“When is Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard arriving? The rumor mill has lately consumed itself with reporting a flurry of dates,” Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted. “Most recently, it has invented the absurd idea the Leopard is hung up on Vista compatibility. Why make crazy stuff up when the truth is so much simpler?”

“The first time Apple made any significant comment about Leopard was at last year’s WWDC, when it was stated Leopard would ship in the middle of 2007,” Eran writes. “It has been nearly nine months since Apple released the Leopard preview at WWDC, and the company is still targeting “spring 2007″ as its release date on its Leopard web site.”

Eran writes, “Vista sales have been a big disappointment. Throughout 2006, market analysts stated that PC sales were being ‘held back’ because consumers were waiting on Vista, but that turned out to be wrong… Given the absolute lack of any interest in Vista, this latest meme to jump off the web is patently absurd. Apple’s Leopard is being held up, they claim, because Apple is scrambling to support Vista in Boot Camp.”

“Apple didn’t exactly scramble to get iTunes working on Vista, and iTunes is an important part of Apple’s business. That being the case, will Apple hold up the release of Leopard for months in order to support Vista in Boot Camp, a product that Apple makes no money in providing? The story is so absurd on so many levels that it’s hard to find a place to start pointing out why its so stupid,” Eran writes.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bev M” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Apple to delay Leopard? Digitimes.com’s poor Apple rumor accuracy – March 23, 2007
Apple to postpone Mac OS X Leopard until October in order to support Windows Vista? – March 23, 2007

38 Comments

  1. Agreed, waiting for Vista makes no sense. The hope is that Leopard prevents someone from buying a new PC with Vista on it. They can probably use their existing Windows XP cds to install XP on their new mac (via Bootcamp or Parallels)

    Once someone buys Vista its pretty much a lost opportunity for Apple. Unless the user has some really bad buyer’s remorse.

  2. Let’s show the world that Macs are growing in installed base. Currently, a small percentage of distributed computing is done by Macs – somewhere on the order of 2.6%. I know the market share of Macs is higher than that, so let’s show them that we are not as stingy as we currently appear to be.

    Register, download, install and run it at:
    http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do

    I have setup a team here called “Mac Daily News.”

    You can join multiple projects at a time. Donate your spare CPU cycles and show the world the power of the Mac. Currently, we are looking very meager, which makes us look smug to the rest of the world. Show the world that we aren’t.

  3. Uh…Vista already does work in Boot Camp. There are some minor driver issues, but I found Vista running better on my MacBook Pro than any PC I tried upgrading. Even if full support for Vista was necessary (and it isn’t) Apple could provide driver updates in very little time.

  4. Quevar,

    What does that tell you in regards to unused CPU cycles being more dominate on the PC side than market share or installed based figures would indicate?

    As I type this, my MacBook is encoding a list of videos, and I’m listening to iTunes.

    Somewhere, there are a dozen PCs to match my Mac use, but they’re just generate heat.

  5. The reason there is no interest in Vista and the new forced hardware upgrade required to run it, is because the chief US market is headed for a post real estate bubble recession.

    Apple is delaying the release of Lepoard until the market is favorable again, thus not to appear as to have unfavorable sales like Vista has.

    The AppleTV had to be released because the hardware was backing up in channels.

    Software doesn’t suffer the same problems due to it’s small size.

    Let’s face it, Lepoard will be like the other updates. It won’t have all that much advancement over the previous versions of OS X.

    Apple could release it and then two weeks later we will be expecting the next version.

  6. Oh God, the actual article has a photo of Rob “Intelligent Design? I don’t think so!” Enderle.

    What is it with Rob and his quarter-assed opinions that drives me so nuts? Why do I want hunt him and his doubtless equally stupid wife down with a crossbow and a mallet?

    How can one man be such an asshat and not fall down more?

    Answers at 11.

  7. @Wiseguy said: “Apple is delaying the release of Lepoard until the market is favorable again…”

    First, it’s not appropriate to say that “Apple is delaying the release of Leopard” until Apple delays the release of Leopard. Apple said it would be released in the Spring of 2007. Spring won’t be over until June 2007. Apple has denied that it will be released late. There have been no sources for the rumors that Apple will release late – just blogges citing other bloggers.

    Second, your argument that “Apple is delaying the release of Leopard until the market is favoable” – well, I don’t know how to say this politely. A recession is defined as: “a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters”.

    http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscycles/a/depressions.htm

    “The average recession during the past fifty years lasted eleven months…”

    http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Enc/Recessions.html

    Since a recession hasn’t officially started yet are you suggesting that Apple is going to delay the release of Leopard for 14 months – until August 2008?

  8. “Vista sales have been a big disappointment. Throughout 2006, market analysts stated that PC sales were being ‘held back’ because consumers were waiting on Vista, but that turned out to be wrong.”

    I think that’s the most beautiful sentence I’ve read all day. =)

    {dodges flying chair}

    -c

  9. @Falkirk

    Good point, touché

    @ Quevar

    Sorry, because of our still rather small market share, most Mac users contribute to Folding at Home for Stanford University to help cure serious diseases.

    In fact Team Mac OS X #1971 is currently #10 in the world. Google them, good people.

  10. “Let’s face it, Lepoard will be like the other updates. It won’t have all that much advancement over the previous versions of OS X” -wiseguy

    omg that statement is dumb.

    Leopard be a major change, will come out on time and ship along with revolutionary new hardware.

    30th anniversary. Remember the splash page?

    This is the year it all comes together for the Mac.

  11. Apple said Spring 2007 release for Leopard …that gives them until June…funny, isn’t June when iPhone is supposed to ship? Could it be that there’ll be a few new Apple products in June???

    Sheesh, how simple is it? Delayed because of Vista compatibility…truly absurd

  12. THIS rumor is the FIRST Macintosh virus!
    It’s a good thing we don’t need MacAfee or Symantec to deal with it!

    Some Microsoft shill obviously made this one up.

    Actually, Vista is delayed until the release of the REAL Vista… that is, the Vista that was promised 5 years ago, but 80% of which ended in the trash heap.

    I think I just gave myself a headache…

  13. I don’t care whether or not the rumor is true… rumors are rumors – who knows unless it comes from a reliable source.

    But as far as this quote from the article goes, “That being the case, will Apple hold up the release of Leopard for months in order to support Vista in Boot Camp, a product that Apple makes no money in providing?”

    Apple definitely makes money off of this tool – even if its indirectly. It may be difficult to put a monetary value on it because it is included with the rest of the suite of software included with the OS… but think about how many people may purchase their first MAC because it has the ability to run both Vista (XP or whatever your flavor of choice is) & Mac OS.

    Just because the software itself is free doesn’t mean they don’t make money from it.

  14. Apple ain’t late…who started that lie? If it was so important to run Vista on their hardware, then why even develop Leopard?? Doh! I think there is some tie-in with Leopard and the iPhone and/or telephony iChat stuff. Being late would hurt Apple as the media darling at the moment, and I don’t think Jobs is gonna be late.

  15. Somebody got paid quite a bit to write that tripe about Vista support.

    I realize that it worries some people about the length of time it is taking to finalize Leopard for release. let’s not forget that Apple wants to get it as close to perfect as they can.

  16. @Toolate

    How interesting. You never know WHAT you are going to learn on here…

    irregardless
    Irregardless is a term that has caused controversy since it first appeared in the early twentieth century. It is generally listed in dictionaries as “non-standard”.

    http://www.answers.com/topic/irregardless

    Origin

    The origin of irregardless is not known for certain, but the consensus among references is that it is a portmanteau of irrespective and regardless, both of which are commonly accepted standard English words. By blending these words, an illogical word is created. “Since the prefix ir- means ‘not’ (as it does with irrespective), and the suffix -less means ‘without,’ irregardless is a double negative.”[1]. (Cf. inflammable, flammable.)

    Irregardless is primarily found in North America, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and was first acknowledged in 1912 by the Wentworth American Dialect Dictionary as originating from western Indiana. Barely a decade later, the usage dispute over irregardless was such that, in 1923, Literary Digest published an article entitled “Is There Such a Word as Irregardless in the English Language?”[2]

    Definition

    The word is used interchangeably with regardless.

    —

    it just goes to show that English really is a living language…

  17. @Wiseguy

    The reason there is no interest in Vista (upgrades) is that it offers very little, costs quite a lot, and won’t run on most of the hardware currently out there…

    The reason there is no interest in Vista (new machines) is that it offers very little, introduces new usability issues related to the security (You are coming to a sad realisation, cancel or allow) changes, requires high end hardware, costs a lot, and won’t run on most of the hardware out there…

    Presumably most people buying a new machine have no option but to accept Vista (You have done your money – you might as well accept it, Cancel or Allow) but the horror stories are making people hold back.

    No wonder Dell is talking about bundling Linux… The vendors were all hoping for a sales kick when Vista finally got here. But its not happening… perhaps that is WHY the US is headed into recession ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    (no im not serious – i dont want 50 million responses telling me that its Bush who is responsible for the recession, not Vista…)

  18. ” Eran writes. ‘It has been …’.”

    That’s his middle name. He’s called Daniel Eran Dilger.

    As he says, it’s still says “spring” on Apple’s website, and there’s no good reason to imagine any different.

    It just goes to show: It only takes one idiot to write a lot of nonsense, and all the other idiots on the web repeat it.

  19. @Quevar

    Jumped in last December. My spare CPU cycles are doing cancer research. 39,200 points returning 89 completed results so far. If I join your group does that wipe my own points? Do I have to change the research I am dedicated to?

  20. “WWDC people. why do you think its 2 months earlier this year than it was last year? WWDC will see both leopard and the iphone finally announced for shipping.”

    Um… WWDC is the same month this year as all other years. They’ve been in June for as long as I can remember.

    MW: then – They were in June back then and it is in June this year as well.

  21. dd: WWDC was August 7-11th, 2006 last year. But most of them have actually been in May.

    (from Wikipedia)
    Locations and dates of recent WWDCs:
    1990, San Jose, May 7 – May 11
    1991, San Jose, May 13 – May 17
    1992, San Jose, May 11 – May 15
    1993, San Jose, May 10 – May 14
    1994, San Jose, May 16 – May 20
    1995, San Jose, May 8 – May 12
    1996, San Jose, May 13 – May 17
    1997, San Jose, May 13 – May 16
    1998, San Jose, May 11 – May 15
    1999, San Jose, May 10 – May 14
    2000, San Jose, May 15 – May 19
    2001, San Jose, May 21 – May 25
    2002, San Jose, May 6 – May 10
    2003, San Francisco, June 23 – June 27
    2004, San Francisco, June 28 – July 2
    2005, San Francisco, June 6 – June 10
    2006, San Francisco, August 7 – August 11
    2007, San Francisco, June 11 – June 15

  22. Keep it up, Quevar!!!

    I believe strongly in distributed computing and in the Folding@Home project, specifically. For the uninitiated, the Folding@Home project seeks to take the Human Genome project to the next level. The Human Genome project gave us the physical sequence of base pairs in our DNA. The Folding@Home project seeks to translate this long string of A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s into the amino acids (and hence, proteins) that they encode for.

    Think of it as volunteer work for your computer.

    Cubert

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