“The reviews for Apple’s latest Operating System, OS X Snow Leopard, have been written. And, well, they’ve missed the point,” Brian Caulfield writes for Forbes. “Most have noted that Snow Leopard offers a few new features, performs a little quicker and then go on to spend a few hundred words delivering the written equivalent of a shrug. ‘It isn’t a big breakthrough for average users,’ The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg writes.
Caulfield writes, “Here’s the breakthrough: Apple’s OS X, Snow Leopard, which goes on sale Friday, uses less code than its predecessor to do the same job. It’s a remarkable act of discipline that has broken a decades-long trend toward ever more bloated operating system software… [Plus] the user experience has also been refined in scores of small ways that users will be stumbling upon for months.”
Caulfield reports, “‘There are a lot of users who wish vendors would perfect the gazillion features that are in an operating system rather than adding more features that they won’t use,’ says Michael Silver, an analyst with market research firm Gartner. Wish granted.”
Full article here.
“Why Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is truly disruptive?”
Because it broke all my contextual menu plug-ins?
That extra 7 GB of hard drive space is nice and all, but I imagine it will only take a few months to fill it up with Apple’s continuous updates.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Disruptive? Only to the extent that it challenges the presumption that every upgrade will be larger and more demanding of resources.
That *has* been the general rule to date. I recall beta testing AT&T;’s “Destiny” release of UNIX – System V R 4.2 – back in ’92 or thereabouts. Full GUI interface and networking. I was testing it on a 386 25 MHz PC – yes, you read that right – with only 10 MB of RAM and a 100 MB disk. Try that with *any* OS today.
That said, what Apple has done is taken an OS far more sophisticated than anything even envisioned in ’92 – and thus inevitably larger – and optimized it about as much as possible. But this trimming down won’t generally be repeatable once it’s already down to its new fighting weight.
@ MacMan:
“The reason Snow Leopard is 7 GB smaller than Leopard is because it no longer needs to support PPC (non-Intel) machines. I don’t think it’s so hard to reduce the size of an OS when you remove that kind of compatibility.”
I can’t believe how many posters like you like to spread the same misinformation about details you obviously know nothing about and are simply speaking on assumptions.
Your misinformation is repeated over and over on so many forums. I will tell you what I have posted elsewhere:
Apple has clearly stated that whatever loss of code there is in Snow Leopard due to the dropping of PPC code was replaced by the addition of more 64-bit code. Though Leopard was fully 64-bit compatible, in Snow Leopard Apple has rewritten the kernel to be 64-bit and rewritten its main applications (the Finder, Mail, Safari, etc.) to be 64-bit. So this is all additional 64-bit code that is added to the existing 32-bit code base for the kernel and applications.
Apple has clearly stated that the loss of PPC code but the addition of more 64-bit code was a virtual trade-off that did not cause Snow Leopard to have a smaller footprint.
Apple has clearly stated that the reason Snow Leopard now commands a smaller footprint is because of compression techniques being used for older not-frequently-accessed code, the removal of a multitude of printer drivers, and because of optimization of the entire code base throughout the OS.
Subtleties will always be lost on the ignorant masses. Why do you think so many people use Windoze? Most people couldn’t recognize elegance if it hit then on the face. Diehard Windoze fans even have a revulsion towards it. Some engineers (of whatever ilk) even seem to be threatened by elegant designs.
@Arriving: I’ll likely do the same; install on my MacBook, play with it a bit, then install on the household iMac that my husband mostly uses, to make sure there are no major issues.
sucks it wont work on my 12″ g4 pb, that’s my pron/test machine, to avoid screwing up my main machines.
Thank you, @ since1985
So where is the puck going? As handheld hardware gets more powerful is the endgame to fit a full version of OS X into an iPhone sized device? Are iLife & iWork next to get smaller footprints?
Brian Caulfield … Damn Good Catch™
Simple and Elegant™ is how to Say the Most with the Least™
Apple won’t write Novels, or bloated essays with footnotes
Apple is a Poet
Think Different™ … Change The World™ …
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cool smile” style=”border:0;” />
BC
And Brian, any relation to Holden ?
Wow! Talk about snappier. SL is greaaaat!
I paid a lot of money to buy my favorite Apple G5 desktop before Apple Intel G5 was brought up for a new computer.
Now, I was told that I really cannot run an Adobe CS3 & 4 and some other software on my G5 because of the Intel requirement.
What is really matter with Steve Job? He hurt many of us, and he robbed our money. I love Apple computers, but I just can’t believe that he did it on purpose. I am sorry that I have to say that Steve Jobs is a criminal.
SL uses less code because the dropped PowerPC and a gillion printer drivers. Put those back in, and it’s the same size.
webworld
OMG your machine is old and the new software won’t run on it. Who do you cry to when your car needs a brake job? Get a life.
Uses less code to do the same job? Snow Leopard is designed exclusively for Intel-based machines meaning of course it has less code than Leopard which supported both PPC and Intel machines.
danthemason
OMG, your computer is also so old! I just got my G7 today. Yours is yesterday. That’s exactly how you feel about that. Please grow up and respect us.
Nothing is free nowadays, and even no better price – just like buying a nice watch for 40 dollars for example, and next year the same model you have that would cost 80 dollars in one year. No one is interested to buy your used watch. Oh, I forgot, somebody will not buy your old computer. That’s how you feel to be a sucker. Loosing your job that could be your nightmare especially if you have a house mortgage, and it’s not funny for anyone to talk about it.
It would be nice for some of us to buy a card port (daughterboard) that runs an Intel on our Apple G5 desktop. But, there is none that I found on the internet.
@ since1985,
Well said. Thank you.
OMG, your computer is also so old! I just got my G7 today. Yours is yesterday. That’s exactly how you feel about that. Please grow up and respect us.
webworld, your posts hurt my head. Yes you have a computer that does not run Snow Leopard, but Leopard came out at or just after you got your computer so it has nearly all the same features as Snow Leopard minus ones that are Intel specific. If you earn money on your computer and *need* those new features you can afford to upgrade your machine. If you can’t, then you can make due with that you already have that has a very capable operating system and very capable software.
Whining about what you can’t or don’t have is juvenile and painful to listen to.
Sorry, folks–I really am. I’m just disappointed at myself for being cheap. I’ll buy a new Mac (I’ve been wanting to for a while) and I’ll get over myself.