Apple this week delivered to developers Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard build 9A303, the latest in an extremely limited series of pre-release builds of its next-generation operating system. People familiar with the new distribution of the software, labeled Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard build 9A303, say one of its primary objectives of the release is to knock out several ‘performance related bugs’ that were present in 9A283.
Microsoft can learn a thing or two from Apple. Unlike Microsoft, it does not take Apple half a decade to release a new version of their operating system. And unlike Microsoft’s pathetic security-fixing service packs that only come out every two years, Apple releases regular point upgrades.
Unlike Microsoft, it does not take Apple half a decade to release a new version of their operating system.
No. They release 4 upgrades over 5 years trying to get it right and charge you 129$ for each one.
Microsoft of course released Windows 2003 server, Windows 2003 Server R2, MCE 2004 and MCE 2005 and XP SP2 that was the equivalent (more actually) of an OS X point release.
I think were a couple of Windows mobile releases in there as well …
No reason to mod down NotParker for that. He _is_ right on this one, you know.
Some of the OS X releases have added no more than what a SP for Windows would add, and yet Apple has charged for these. Not to mention that the first couple releases of OS X were basically public betas.
wot rot! Tiger added Core Video and Core Image, massively powerful hardware renderers equal to Windows Vista’s Avalon (WPF/WinFX/Net3.0) as well as a wealth of other major changes. Educate yourself http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/over200.html
I said “some of the releases” – not ALL releases.
Microsoft of course released Windows 2003 server, Windows 2003 Server R2, MCE 2004 and MCE 2005 and XP SP2 that was the equivalent (more actually) of an OS X point release.
All of which are point releases of windows 2000. Open a terminal and check the version they are all point releases of version 5.x.
XP was a point release update over 2000.
It doesn’t matter what MS marketing calls it.
You’re absolutely right!
It took them ten years and millions of dollars to realise that they couldn’t build an OS, and so they went out and bought one. Since then, we have loads of paid for releases, that haven’t added much apart from Dashboard (something copied from someone else) and Spotlight (something else copied from a loyal Mac developer, which Apple barely acknowledged)
I wasn’t surprised to see the latest whiz-bang feature that’ll have folk shelling out for Leopard, was little more than a glorified backup. Who the hell ships an OS without a backup app?
Fascinating. MS adds versioning, they mention it in a blog. Apple adds versioning; they hold a convention.
“It took them ten years and millions of dollars to realise that they couldn’t build an OS, and so they went out and bought one.”
Criticize Apple if you want; the fact is, MSFT has done nothing substantive since copying the Mac in 1985. Even Vista still isn’t UNIX. At least Apple, when they ran into trouble, called in some help.
Well, Windows got Instant Desktop Search years before OS X did. Turned off by default, and difficult to use for newbies, but none the less it’s been around since NT4.
Apple copied a lot, too. Take a look at the history of mankind and you’ll see this: Every innovation is based on an earlier innovation.
BTW: OS X isn’t Unix either. It’s posix-compatible, but it is _not_ Unix.
Who the hell ships an OS without a backup app?
What about Backup.app? You do have to download it but it’s free…
What about Backup.app? You do have to download it but it’s free…
You need a .Mac account in order to use it and these are pretty expensive.
However, you can make reliable backups using hdiutil and asr. You can even split the dmg file into segments to be burned on DVDs.
You need a .Mac account in order to use it and these are pretty expensive.
No you don’t. It backs up to firewire or other attached drives and DVD’s
No you don’t. It backs up to firewire or other attached drives and DVD’s
Technically, you don’t need the account, but Backup.app comes as part of the .Mac package.
Apple provides an environment for development which makes their devs happy. Microsoft ships .net, holds dozens of conferences, and then doesn’t ship the latest version of it as an update out to users.
Every company makes a big fanfare when it does something people might like. It’s called “marketing.” The question is how much of it is lies, and how many of those lies do they actually expect people to believe.
Apple definitely lies a lot though. IMO, the Intel switch brought a lot of it out. One day the G4 was amazing, and Intel chips were pathetic. The next day the G4 is old crap that takes too much power to do too little, and you need an Intel chip.
If I upgrade to Leopard (I probably will) it’ll be for virtual workspaces
. That’s not whiz-bang, it’s just necessary 
.
If I upgrade to Leopard (I probably will) it’ll be for virtual workspaces
. That’s not whiz-bang, it’s just necessary 
.
Or you can just install VirtueDesktops today. Spaces is probably the most underwhelming feature (on par with Mail.app stationary) presented in WWDC 2006.
Edited 2006-11-10 23:09
Since then, we have loads of paid for releases, that haven’t added much apart from Dashboard (something copied from someone else) and Spotlight (something else copied from a loyal Mac developer, which Apple barely acknowledged)
That’s just 2 out of 200+ new features in Tiger.
Here is a partial list of them: http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/over200.html
Note that many of these new features are not trivial to implement at all. Tiger added many new APIs, such as CoreImage, CoreVideo, CoreData and QTKit. There are also improvements to the kernel, such as fine grained kernel locking and the KPI. Quicktime was also rewritten to take advantage of CoreVideo.
Fascinating. MS adds versioning, they mention it in a blog. Apple adds versioning; they hold a convention.
However Volume Shadow Copy won’t work as backup. You are still screwed if your HD dies. Apple’s Time Machine, on the other hand, is a proper form of backup, which can also be used to retrieve previous versions of a file.
Not to mention that VSC is not available on either Home versions of Vista.
Who the hell ships an OS without a backup app?
OS X has hdiutil + asr for reliable backup.
Edited 2006-11-10 23:15
LOL
Apple also “took” the XP’s open/save window and made it their finder window.
“It’s good marketing on Apple’s part.” – Jobs
> Spotlight (something else copied from a loyal Mac
> developer, which Apple barely acknowledged)
Well, Spotlight owes a lot to BeOS and BFS. Domonic Giampaolo was a developer on both projects.
“”Apple definitely lies a lot though. IMO, the Intel switch brought a lot of it out. One day the G4 was amazing, and Intel chips were pathetic. The next day the G4 is old crap that takes too much power to do too little, and you need an Intel chip. “”
are you taking cues from politics or somthing? jesus man…. keep the distortions to a minmum!!!!
all companies advocate there own technologies! hell MS has been “lieing” about there stuff for years and people have generaly bought in to it. “MS Publisher…. the number 1 layout out program for Business” or “Win 2k the more secure business OS” both lies!
going back to the time when the G4 was apple darling…. it WAS bettet than the intel chips… for a little while any way! but that was like 5+ years ago!!!! now INTEL chips ARE clearly the better choice! so dont blow this whole thing out of perportion by saying “now the next day….bla bla bla”
do you expect apple to continue to “lie” or would you expect them to elvolve and grow as a company?
They’re operating systems, not religions.
I’m not even sure it matters who was first anymore since there is so much copying on all platforms.
1) NeXTStep was considered UNIX and their own team helped update it to create Rhapsody, then Mac OS X. A lot had to be added to it to really make it an operating system anyone would be comfortable using and to make it compatible. Yes, it took a long time for Apple to get to that point–about 3-4 years. Mac OS X version 10.3 was actually quite usable.
2) For the $129 USD, you get a lot of free updates and they’re not just security fixes. There have been several performance upgrades along the way. Still, $129 is a lot of money, even though the price is being subsidised by hardware purchases.
3) Apple hasn’t shown much of consequence for the end user in Leopard. That says to me that they’re still trying to figure out what they can do. Time Machine, however, has gotten much acclaim for its simplicity in restoring missing data.
4) It’s about time Microsoft got Vista out the door. Apple need to look as if they have some competition.
5) Apple lovers hated me for being disappointed at the G3 and G4 processors. The 604 and 604e were so far ahead of the competition in raw power and also in heat dissipation. I really think Motorola should have worked better with IBM on chip design. They obviously weren’t concerned about Apple and Apple went along with it anyway.
6) John Sculley still stinks as a leader of a technology company. His work at Apple almost killed the company.
For the old G3 iMac DV400 SE, Tiger will do it for me. No use upgrading op-systems for this old thing anymore. I still cannot decide between a core2 duo iMac or MacBook. Can only be one or the other.