Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 4th Jun 2008 19:04 UTC
Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard, may only be six months old, but rumours are already abound as to the next update to Apple's operating system. According to several sources, it's going to be called Snow Leopard, it won't contain any major new features, and is planned to go gold master December 2008, available a month later. The big rumour: it's going to be available for 64bit Intel machines only.
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Doubt it
by thecwin on Wed 4th Jun 2008 19:39 UTC
thecwin
Member since:
2006-01-04

Mac OS X major releases always have significant new features. That's what differentiates them from the minor releases, which tend to include speed, stability and security updates or the odd minor features.

Particularly the 64bit Intel rumour. Intel only maybe, but the last 32bit only Intels were sold until late 2006, around WWDC. That's less than 2 years ago. I know Apple like pushing new stuff but I doubt they'd deprecate hardware that new.

I can't see anyone paying $100 for updates without any new features.

v RE: Doubt it
by Kroc on Wed 4th Jun 2008 19:47 in reply to "Doubt it"
RE[2]: Doubt it
by Thom_Holwerda on Wed 4th Jun 2008 19:59 in reply to "RE: Doubt it"
Thom_Holwerda Member since:
2005-06-29

Don't be so smug, Kroc.

A LOT of Mac users battle with OS updates just as much as Windows users do - in fact, the recent 10.5.3 update caused quite some problems for people. The major upgrades cause enough problems too. They're all just less visible because, well, 90% or 5%, it's a major difference. I'd love to see the Mac OS do as well as Windows when it comes to upgrades on all those different configurations out there. The Mac OS will curl up in foetal position and cry in the corner at the mere thought of it.

I'm a Mac user most of the time, but I don't want to share in your smugness.

And yes, this news DOES piss Mac users off- like me. I have a 2004 PowerBook that won't be able to run this new operating system. I won't benefit from all the optimisations, even though my machine is only 4 years old.

The funny thing? My 2001 x86 desktop runs Vista blazing fast, thanks to a 60 USD memory upgrade. It uses a processor and motherboard from 2001 (Athlon XP 1600+ at 1400Mhz, 1.2GB of mem). If Apple axes PPC and early Intel Mac support with this new release, Apple is going to be a million times worse than Microsoft and Vista.

Assuming this rumour is true, of course.

Edited 2008-06-04 20:01 UTC

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 12

RE[2]: Doubt it
by polaris20 on Wed 4th Jun 2008 20:15 in reply to "RE: Doubt it"
polaris20 Member since:
2005-07-06

Don't underestimate us,
We Mac users *love* updates.
We even blog about them everytime a minor update appears in Software Update.

This mindset doesn't exist on Windows where you have to battle with your OS constantly, trying to overpower the machine's will. "Hi, I just sent your personal details and bios hash to Microsoft, do you want to restart? No? Okay, I'll just remind you every fifteen minutes with a popup that will catch you out as you type and cause your app to terminate, losing your work"


Thanks for the ridiculous broad generalization about Windows and its users. We'll continue to hold our broad generalizations and stereotypes about Mac users as well. How do you like your overpriced hardware, anyway? ;)

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 8

RE[2]: Doubt it
by BluenoseJake on Wed 4th Jun 2008 21:17 in reply to "RE: Doubt it"
BluenoseJake Member since:
2005-08-11

"This mindset doesn't exist on Windows where you have to battle with your OS constantly, trying to overpower the machine's will"

I have never battled with my OS constantly since Windows 98. Stop spouting 10 year old, outdated, false and useless facts. It's just annoying. Most of the reasons that Windows users have problems these days is malware, and that problem is receding into the past since XP SP2.

I primarily use Debian at this point, but it's not because of stability or security, but mostly boredom. Your type of rhetoric is getting just as boring

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 7

RE[2]: Doubt it
by r_a_trip on Wed 4th Jun 2008 22:34 in reply to "RE: Doubt it"
r_a_trip Member since:
2005-07-06

At least MS keeps the hardware upgrade mill moderate...

Either way, upgrade policies of MS or Apple don't affect me...

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1

RE[2]: Doubt it
by thecwin on Wed 4th Jun 2008 23:23 in reply to "RE: Doubt it"
thecwin Member since:
2006-01-04

I am a Mac user, and I am writing this from my MacBook Pro with OS X 10.5.3 installed. While they might download an update like this 10.6 is rumoured to be, I can't imagine many people buy it. A lot of people I know are still using Tiger because it's fine for their purposes and Leopard doesn't offer them much.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5

RE: Doubt it
by aliquis on Sun 8th Jun 2008 11:42 in reply to "Doubt it"
aliquis Member since:
2005-07-23

Only significant new feature in 10.5 was timemachine, everything else was just unintresting.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2