Earlier this month, we reported that The Unofficial Apple Weblog's as well as Ars Technica's sources said that Apple was working on the next version of Mac OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard. The news was that the new release wouldn't focus on new features, but on performance. During yesterday's WWDC 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs confirmed this rumour, and now Apple has published a preview page.
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Member since:2008-06-03
evangs,
Your telling me about Productivity??
It takes me the same amount of time in Leopard as it did in Tiger to convert the RAWs, manipulate/retouch in Photoshop, import to Corel Painter and paint over it, import back to Photoshop to sharpen and touch-up, open Genuine Fractals to interpolate, load profile and print on my Epson. I also produce the same quality prints regardless of OS version.
Eyecandy means nothing to me if it interferes with my workflow. Would Snow Leopard really make me a better Photographer/Artist/Fine-Art Printer?
Leopard runs well on my current Mac Pro, but I can't help feeling it's really bloated. Using Vector (or any other Xfce distro) as an example.... programs open with the same speed (or faster) on a low-end laptop as it does with a Mac Pro that costs 6-8 times more. Of course, I can't do Photoshop benchmarks coz Adobe don't make a Linux version.... but you get my drift.
What I'm trying to say is:
Apple seem to tout the words 'Speed' and 'Stability' with this new release. I'm all for those two qualities, but paying someone to remove bloat that shouldn't have been there in the first place is bit too much in my opinion. Of course, it's better than paying someone like Microsoft to add bloat.
I'll definitely continue using Macs coz, 1. Adobe, Corel....atc don't make software that runs natively in Linux and I don't have the time to re-learn the open source equivalents like Gimp, and 2. Colour Management in Linux is a bitch, even for seasoned users.
Perhaps I've become cheap since I started using free software.. 
Just my 2 cents.
Member since:2005-07-07
It takes me the same amount of time in Leopard as it did in Tiger to convert the RAWs, manipulate/retouch in Photoshop, import to Corel Painter and paint over it, import back to Photoshop to sharpen and touch-up, open Genuine Fractals to interpolate, load profile and print on my Epson. I also produce the same quality prints regardless of OS version.
So you compare what are essentially CPU bound operations on applications that are not written by Apple and you say that you gain no productivity?
Some of the things that I've found impossible to live without in Leopard are:
1) The new improved spotlight. It finds things instantly, instead of waiting ~3 seconds. I access spotlight loads during the day and that is a productivity gain.
2) Spaces. Depends on what I'm doing, but typically I'll have Xcode open with a few projects up. Without spaces, this task is a nightmare.
YMMV of course.
Member since:2006-12-17
"paying someone to remove bloat that shouldn't have been there in the first place is bit too much in my opinion."
Would you rather be running MacOS X 10.3 while Apple perfects the ultimate release? Apple's release schedule has been pretty impressive, and the fact that each version is no slower (often faster) than the last is pretty impressive. It sounds like the next version is going to take multiprocessing to heart, so should take better advantage of the multiple cores on your Pro. Which is probably worth money to you.
If it's not worth the money to you, then don't buy it.
Member since:
2005-07-07
That's like buying a Bugatti Veyron so you can run it on Diesel.
That's exactly my point.
If Vector Linux is so good and is Teh Snappiez and that's what's important to you, why not run it on the Mac Pro and stop complaining about Mac OS X being slow?
If you're using a Mac Pro, it's most likely because you are using Mac apps that have no equivalent on Linux. If that's the case, an OS upgrade that makes your machine run faster which in turn makes you complete tasks faster will boost your productivity. When productivity increases, $$$ flowing into your pocket increases.
Even if the upgrade costs full price at £80 (dunno what it is elsewhere), you'll more than likely get a significant return on that small investment.