Earlier this week, Apple released the first developer preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. At the same time, Apple listed a number of new features we hadn’t yet heard about, which are quite interesting. There are two themes: bringing iOS to Mac OS X, and adding features other operating systems have had for ages – except in such a way that you can actually use them. Update: Fixed that scrolling thing. It’s the other way around of course.
First, let’s begin with bad news: the developer preview’s minimum system requirements. Lion demands at least a Core 2 Duo processor, which means Macs with Core Solo and Core Duo processors are out. These machines were sold as late as 2007, making this move rather… Unfortunate. It’s clearly a case of Apple trying to get you to upgrade; Windows 7 runs just fine on machines over 8 years old (my media centre is a Pentium IV from 2002; it does full HD without a hitch), and I’m pretty sure Lion would run just fine on Core Duo machines as well (Core Solo might be problematic).
Another casualty is less dramatic, and that’s the complete removal of Rosetta, the PowerPC emulation layer built into Mac OS X. You can use System Profiler to find out if you’re still running PowerPC code, but my guess is you peobably don’t, and on the odd chance you do, it’s most likely an application you haven’t updated in a while.
Mail.app has been overhauled, and finally gets the vertical preview pane layout I’ve been adding to Mail.app using a plugin for years now. People tend to call it the iPad mail layout, but that’s incorrect; the vertical preview pane layout was first introduced (as a default at least) by Outlook 2003. I’m sure someone else actually was the first to get it, but of the major clients, Outlook 2003 was the first. It makes much more sense in this day and age of widescreen displays. Apple maintained the classic, horizontal preview pane as an option.
Did you know Windows Vista and up have file versioning built right into the file system and operating system? Just click on any file or folder, and select the previous versions tab. Big chance you had no idea this was in there (I’m not entirely sure if Home editions have it – I think it’s Pro and up). Well, Apple is introducing the exact same feature in Lion, except here, it works like Time Machine does. While Time Machine is crude at an implementation-level, the interface is – while overly flashy – quite usable, and makes backing up something easy.
Versions is part of the new Auto Save feature. Lion saves your document every time you open it, as well as every 60 minutes. You can also click “Save as a version” to do so manually. All these saves can then be browsed per-file in a Time Machine-esque interface. Files can be locked, too, in case you don’t want Auto Save to mess with your document. Whether this happens at the file system level, or requires Time Machine, I don’t know.
It also ties in with the resume feature, which works on an operating system level as well as on the application level. Like applications on iOS that makes use of it, applications can save state in Lion. The operating system itself does this as well, so after applying updates, for instance, you can be back right where you left off. This feature has been available on other operating systems for a long time (on the OS level, at least).
Applications need to be specifically designed for Lion to make use of these features. In other words, we’ll see support for it in Microsoft Office:Mac 2023 and iTunes will never get it.
Apple also added a recovery partition to its operating system, where it installs a number of tools so you can service your Mac in case Mac OS X decides to throw a fit. I’m not entirely sure if this includes the entire installation DVD (so you can perform re-installations), but it’s a welcome, if somewhat dated and long-overdue, feature nonetheless.
Other gems that have been dug up are TRIM support for SSDs, overlay scrollbars (those things that disappear when you’re not using them), and iOS-like scrolling. iOS-like scrolling feels like something that’s going to cause considerable headaches at first: you’ll now have to move your fingers down on the touchpad to scroll up, and move them up on the touchpad to scroll down. This is the exact opposite of how it is today on, well, any computer. This is going to be quite frustrating at first.
The Finder has also received an overhaul, but whether this is overhaul is skin-deep or if it will finally cure it of the severe case of split personality-disorder remains to be seen. It looks nice at least. Note that Apple has been sending takedown request for these videos, so it may cease to work shortly.
Also of note is that Mac OS X Server is no longer a separate product; it’s all become part of Mac OS X client. This means you can set up any Mac you already own as a server, without having to buy a separate package.
I wonder if saving files every hour isn’t a bit of overkill, though.
Especially taking into account the fact that SSD lives are measured in writes.
Anyway, hats off to Apple for several of these features.
Edited 2011-02-27 20:39 UTC
Word autosaves every 10 minutes. However, the extra versions Apple are proposing aren’t likely to cause a whole lot of extra wear on SSDs – most writes aren’t simple user data anymore. A single 100Mb update balances 1,000 hours of editing a 100Kb word document, for example.
Depends on what SSD manufacturers call a “write”. If touching a block (even slightly) is a write, then a 100MB update could not be so far away from a 100kB word document, depending on block size.
In principle this is true, although it’s nowhere near this extreme. NTFS needs to write to six places to create a new file – assuming a 256Kb block size, that’s 1.5Mb. Note (for fair comparison) that a 100Mb (to download) update will expand into a much larger 300-400Mb set of writes to multiple files. Assuming the average file size being replaced is 2Mb, we’d have (400Mb / 2Mb) * (2Mb + 1.25Mb), or 650Mb of block writes. So the single 100Mb (to download) update is still 433 word saves.
You’ve got a point. Thought about it after writing this comment : OS updates tend to often spread into lots of small files, so they keep a much worse effect than periodically rewriting a small file.
If your numbers about the block size are realistic, this “auto-save” feature needs some tuning before HD movie editing kills an SSD in a year, though.
Oh, well, guess I need a bit of sleep, which I’m going to take now.
Dropping support for 32-bit chips was inevitable at some point. I never understood why Apple shipped one generation of 32-bit only chips, when it would clearly require yet another transition only a few years down the road to 64-bit.
Trim support will be great, although it’s a shame Apple took so long to implement this one. It’s in Win7, and dramatically improves the useability of SSDs.
Personally, I still have some PPC code, and losing Rosetta’s going to be a big PITA.
Previous versions in Vista+ is a little different. Those are snapshots generated periodically (IIRC daily in Vista, weekly in Win7.) In Vista+ snapshots are taken on all editions, but the interface to access previous versions requires Business/Pro/Ultimate. What Apple are referring to is backup copies that are generated in response to activity, not a fixed schedule, which is probably more useful.
Losing PPC apps? I’m still struggling with not being able to run my classic mac apps anymore.
I kept my G5 for running classic and my G3 for native booting OS9
. You never know when you’ll want to run Netscape 4…
KILL ME NOW.
Or don’t… if they provide an option to flip the axis.
In this case it isn’t people are being backward by not liking it, it is what makes most sense IF you’re not manipulating the objects on a screen directly like in tablets. After years of scrolling pretty much everybody is hardwired to use touchpads in a certain way. I completely fail to see the reasoning behind it.
To ease the transition to iOS on all platforms, whether you like it or not.
They’re the most evil company in tech, because they’re actually attacking the most important think involved: the minds of ‘users’ and programmers.
*insert horrible, possibly disgusting comment about Steve Jobs*
You shouldn’t be mocking people who could be dead in a few weeks.
Uhhh that made no sense. A person’s state of health have no bearing on the kind of person he is. He is an evil person, it doesn’t matter that he will keel over in days/weeks.
Depends whether your view of history is based on individuals or groups of people, I guess
I’ve got several things against Jobs and his company on my side, but not enough to wish him to die. I rather see him as a good foe : sure, I couldn’t agree with most of his design decisions, but life of the tech world will be incredibly dull without him locking down the wheel and putting a shiny coat of paint on it every year or so.
It’d be like a world where reference manuals would be 100 pages long and perfectly clear : what would be the achievement of managing to read them anymore ?
I care more about freedom and utility than ‘shiny’.
“Shiny” would be a good name for the brand of brain-soap he sells.
oh, i must of missed the wish him to die comment, my apologies. I didn’t see that reference
I didn’t say that, for the record.
I was going to comment about if ‘shiny’ was worth the damage done, comparing him to a vampire who consumes human flesh. I held back, but people seem to like to inferring things…
Evil? He may be a lot of things but I don’t think he ranks up there with Harold Shipman, Idi Amin, Josef Mengele, Vlad the Impaler or any of the other “evils” out there.
I think you need to get away from the computer – read a newspaper or something, take a walk in the woods, get a sense of perspective…
4FS.
It’s a product – if you don’t like it – don’t buy it. Welcome to the free west comrade.
Ah, another person who sees in black-and-white.
It’s a gradient. A relative term.
He’s doing awful, malicious, power-hungry things.
Sounds evil to me.
“oh, but he’s not as evil as mass murderers!”
Yeah, well arguably neither are child abusers, but it’s not a meaningful argument.
Evil = bad, but it’s not a “worst or best” situation.
Jeez… If you actually think this way, stop thinking. Seriously.
If you don’t actually think that way, stop being spiteful and trolling.
Furthermore, you right-wing <insert insult>, lobbyists (read: legalised bribery) and armies of crooked lawyers who think of it as a game are forcing that ‘invisible’ (not hard to see what’s moving it: rich people doing their best to stay that way) hand of the market.
It’s not a product, any more. It’s a collection of trivial concepts, patented. “THIS REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING SOMEONE WHO WORKED FOR US THOUGHT OF ONCE!!! SICK THE LAWYERS!!!” Never mind the fact that all the ideas had been implemented years ago. They just patented “encrypted off-site backup, with an icon on your desktop”.
Whether or not I buy it, they’re doing their best to bend me, you, and every other person who ever uses a computer over.
Edited 2011-02-28 09:29 UTC
Excuse me?
I couple of points…
Firstly, anyone who replies, that quickly, with that diatribe needs to get away from their computer, away from the internet and re-find their perspective.
Lastly, I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic, trolling, delusional or… well… too many possibilities. But, SERIOUSLY, this is NOT life and death. It is not good vs evil. He is not fucking with your mind. It is just a product.
Go away, calm down and then come back. I am actually worried about your state of being.
I WILL NOT REPLY.
Why is RMS allowed on this site?
Most people consider Evil and Bad to be two different words with different connotations. Evil, *should* be used with great caution and be something that is almost obvious like the mass murderer/ child abuser example. Bad is shades of grey.
So there’s a line, but it’s unclear where it begins… Ok, so at the top we have the people that ran/run the various concentration camps around the world throughout history, but where’s the bottom of “evil”. You’re being pedantic in a weird way.
Please acquire and learn to enjoy the pleasures of a woman, its so obvious you need some.
That’s a sexist, inflammatory, presumptive and rude comment that’s utterly meaningless.
“Ah, another person who sees in black-and-white.
It’s a gradient. A relative term.
He’s doing awful, malicious, power-hungry things.
Sounds evil to me.”
and then
“Yeah, well neither are child abusers, but it’s not a meaningful argument.”
That’s very funny. You know, someone who takes a pen from work is a thief – and I’d now go so far as to say evil. Or is that OK? Because seemingly if you run a big company and have to have lawyers, you’re evil. Actually a bad person. I get it – you know him well, and he’s malicious, right? Some would reserve that for a person who orders executions or dissidents, torture, others – maybe 1 USB port too few? No DVD drive? It’s all shades of gray, so if it isn’t white, it’s black. Welcome to the amazing patented TheGZeus Gradient of Guilt.
I guess the good news for the world is that we have your success to light our way and no longer have to bend over to the nice consumer products that are stealing our souls.
Evil has more to do with attitude and intent, then carrying out actions intended to reach that intent.
Thus, not just bad, but _malicious_.
If you’re stealing pens in order to ruin the day for someone so they lose a contract and thus their job, then it’s evil.
If you steal a pen because your boss was being a jerk and you just want his pen, you’re just… a wanker.
Trolling for the sake of trolling?
Congrats!
In general – tone it down dude. You’ve been a bit on an… Unpleasant commenting streak as of late. Please tone it down, kthnxbi.
The industry has been on a depressing streak, too.
To para-quote Henry Rollins “…and no one seems to be going after them in the intense, aggro, no-holds barred fashion I think is necessary! So I’ve taken it upon myself! …There is a line in the sand. You’re the vampire, I’m the vampire killer! Let’s get it on!”
I don’t know – or care – whatever that means, but as long as you tone it down, I’m happy.
Carry on.
Most likely. A lot of us have been predicting a convergence of iOS/OS X since the iPad was released.
That’s a bit extreme, and I can definitely think of a couple of other companies that better qualify for “most evil in tech”. Apple isn’t trying to single-handedly destroy GNU/Linux as one certain company tried a few years ago, for example.
Besides, they aren’t attacking anything. Ask a Windows 7 or GNU/Linux or BSD user if they feel like their mind is being attacked by Apple, and most will probably call the guys in white coats to strap you down and take you away.
In other words, if you don’t like what Apple is doing with Lion and future releases, please move on to another platform. There are quite a few that will run on your existing Apple hardware just fine, from Windows 7 to Linux and beyond if you don’t mind a little legwork. Or, you could sell your Apple computers, buy some generic but more than adequate replacements, and probably have some cash left over.
THAT was a perfect example of possible evil, on your part. I say “possible” because you didn’t specify the horrible and disgusting comment, but given his current state I can wager a guess. Not cool, dude.
Isn’t the story also wrong. The story say you have to move the finger DOWN to scroll DOWN, which is how it works today on every desktop OS. On a touch interface though, you have move your finger UP to scroll DOWN.
Btw. what is the bug purpose of uniting the two? Is there really a case where the app can’t tell the difference between TOUCH and MOVE, and SCROLL. Only a desktop peripherial would send SCROLL events, a touch interface should send TOUCH and MOVE events.
BTW, I hear there’s an option to disable the inverted scrolling. In Sys Prefs->Trackpad->”When using gestures to scroll or navigate, move content in the direction of finger movement”. But I can’t confirm because I might be subject to NDAs
Actually I heard through the grapevine that the option might be under System Preferences, Mouse…not Trackapad.
But that’s just speculation of course due to NDA.
Huh. You’re right. But so am I. It’s actually in both places.
Options? On MacOS? You obviously have not been given enough indoctrination into the Cult of Steve, yet.
im surprised finder wasn’t mentioned as it has been really upgraded from the videos posted to the net. It looks and is described as being a lot faster and easier to control.
Pleased to see the move to 64bit, i agree with the other post that this is something that should have been done with the move to intel, as we are left with a generation stuck in the middle. I have a Macbook 32bit, i don’t mind about the move, snow leopard runs incredibly fast on it and it will continue to do so for years to come. However it seems like just a cludge.
The other features look good, i like mission control, i have a lot of running window’s running from a few apps (i.e. likes to safari tabs, lots of word docs). The launch pad im not too worried about as i use a set number of apps so i find the combination of the dock and app folder fine.
I hope that the improvements haven’t come at the cost of too much memory, i would hate to start to see MacOSX become bloated, i don’t have too much to worry about as SL really tuned the OS.
I really dont have too much to complain about as i find that the features i need are in the OS and i love working in MacOSX over MS Windows or Linux, which is not to say anything bad it’s just a personal preference. The real issue i have with MacOSX is finder, it needs to really work in a separate process model or if it does it needs a better implementation. A disconnected network / external drive will lock up finder and thus Mac OSX requiring either a 30min wait for it to time out and sort itself out or a hard reset. They need to improve the speed and for the love of god bring in Cut, as well as copy and paste. It’s the feature i really miss from Windows and Linux.
The Finder IS in the article.
sorry not in the article as it’s a good overview, but the Apple web site the article points too. I thought apple might have made a little more noise about it on the list of features.
I still use my macmini G4. It has a SSD disk inn it and works as a TV computer for movies and som surfing.
No, it can’t do HD-movies.
But I have been thinking about replasing it with a new macmini server. So mabye when I have the money I can get a new macmini and a new OS.
As I understand all the server programs will now be inn the new OS.
Espen
If you weren’t wasting money on SSD disks, you could afford a 64bit Intel Mac mini already.
Too bad they are taking Rosetta out. How am I going to play Diablo II anymore?
Blizzard has been awesome, making new content patches as late as 2010, but I doubt they will be rewriting an 11 year old game.
Please Apple, please…..
I’ve been using Lion for the past couple of days and it’s very nice. There are some features that I’m not that taken with yet (if ever) such as the launchpad, it looks great, but is basically useless. Starting apps from the Dock or folder in the Dock works more easily for me. For my friends, Spotlight is there “go to” option.
I love a lot of the subtle enhancements.
* Finder feels more polished now
* Full screen mode is a welcome feature, though struggles when running with multiple monitors (I am hoping that will be fixed). Basically, when you go full screen, the app takes up the entire “main” monitor, and takes control of your other monitor (I’m guessing all other monitors, I only have 1 extra) by putting a dark grey textured background there. It would be nice if you could specify which monitor your app will go full screen on and leave the other one untouched.
* I noticed the “aqua” blue colour in progress bars etc. is a lighter blue, not sure if I like it or not, but it’s there.
* At the moment, shutting down takes forever as it goes off saving state and so on.
* Mail is really nice, but I don’t think the new layout really changes the world that much, probably just a personal preference
* Subtle changes to bring some of the iOS gui to OS X. I don’t think they are trying to make it iOS anytime soon, just taking UI ideas. I’m sure iOS gets a lot of ideas from Snow Leopard and Lion as well.
* One of the iOS changes is the autocomplete word feature in iOS. That has made it’s way to Lion too. Again, not sure how useful that is, but it’s there.
Right now, Lion feels like the same upgrade step as Snow Leopard was from Leopard. It’s really nice and all, but not a huge move away from what we already have. I am guessing Apple will be introducing some “got to haves” before we get to June/July release.
Lion seems very stable however, if I could run XCode 3 on it, it would be my main OS right now (hoping XCode 4 is released very soon (you can’t submit apps from XCode 4 beta currently)) 🙂
This:
Is probably due to this:
Comparatively little changes generally mean a lot less breakage.
Edited 2011-02-27 23:12 UTC
Since writing my comment, I have noticed that others are saying how much it crashes.
Again, I haven’t had that problem, and I am running on a iMac 2.16GHz 24″ from 2006. I have noticed that it is slower than you’d expect from a release version, and there seems to be a lot of accessing of the HD. I haven’t investigated why that is (yet). Developer releases are always slower, but I cant remember them accessing the HD this much before. It might be something to do with “Versions” perhaps.
Due to the age and speed of my machine perhaps, plus the fact that it’s a developers release, but I have noted that OpenGL seems blisteringly slow ;-). My favourite test is to run the Arabesque screensaver. I run this because it was fine up until 10.6. Under 10.6 it stammers along, but under 10.7 it crawls. I’m sure this will speed up around GM (I hope).
I didn’t mention some other nice little changes. iChat now has Yahoo incorporated into it (including video). As Yahoo rarely updates their messenger, this is a good thing. They have also added a Internet Management control panel (can’t remember exactly what it’s called), but from there you can set up all your internet accounts, Google, Yahoo, Mobile Me etc.
Address Book looks a lot like what the iPad has, and iCal has some very nice features added too.
I was messing around with Spaces, using the swipe on the magic mouse and finding it works very well. I miss a lot of the new features coming back to SL.
So many more things to look at, but as I only have it running a few hours each day, I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to really get a good feel for it.
Hmm, where do those versions go then? Is this now built into the filesystem like how it is done on ZFS or Btrfs?
What will it show if I do “ls” on the command-line?
Believe it or not, but Macs are huge in bioinformatics and academia. Anything that breaks the 1:1 correspondence between what is shown in the Finder and on the CLI will cause major headaches when people try to use the UNIX aspects of the system.
Does anyone have any more details about this?
If they not drop their “UNIX-ness” and they still provide me all tools I like in the same open way (as it is until now), I will welcome any eye-candy feature on top of this.
I’m not criticising _you_ (I hate how everything has to be explicitly stated because people infer whatever they want on the Internet), but if UNIX tools are your primary interest, what’s the main draw over setting up a BSD?
Specialty third party applications?
I’ve been on Linux/BSD for a few years now, and I don’t think I’ve installed anything from outside the archives in 2 years. (Well, some old video games, but that’s just data files in my home directory, using engines from the archives…)
Again, I just get curious when someone who’s seriously into *nix tools and programming uses OS X as their primary OS. It’s really common in the Common Lisp world, but that’s largely a historical oddity (there were/are a number of very good commercial/free implementations for Mac OS/OS X).
The answer is simple: I use Gentoo and NetBSD in my boxes at home (at work everything is Windows), but my laptop is a mac: And the beauty of the mac is that while you still have a unix box, you also have a nice UI on top of it (though KDE is also beautiful) and, the most important thing: every device, monitor, printer, etc. etc. that gets connected to your mac, simply works out of the box and installing/configuring it is quite simpler than in a Linux or BSD box.
Edited 2011-02-28 14:34 UTC
There are too many proprietary apps not available for Linux/BSD to use it as a main desktop for me. You’ll never get around that, until the major software developers recognize Linux or BSD as worthwhile.
For example?
Adium!
Sorry, Adium is not proprietary
TextWrangler then
C’mon. There is not exactly a shortage of text editors on Free *NIX systems 😀
For me, it’s “Logic Express” for example.
Sure there is some audio production software available for Linux, but it is not at the same level as Logic, Cubase or Ableton.
I like the UI the way it is now, just wish Apple would do some low level improvements. I’d like to see:
1: A decent file system. HFS+ performance is not all that spectacular compared with most ‘modern’ file systems. Would really like to see either XFS from SGI, or BFS from Haiku. Both are available I think under a compatible open source license. While Solaris’s ZFS is an impressive file system, I don’t think it makes much sense on desktop computers.
2: A decent virtual memory manager. OSX’s VMM is pretty grim compared to Linux or Solaris especially when large amounts of swapping are involved.
Actually, what would be perfect is Apple took Solaris and just grafted the OSX UI on top.
I’d love to sit in while you try convincing Oracle to let Apple do that.
I can’t disagree though, that’d be one hell of a system if Solaris and OS X merged. Low-level stuff is boring though. Why bother with such things when they can get everybody drooling over something shiny?
Yeh, I doubt that will happen in the near future. Especially with Solaris no-longer open source or no longer fully open source (don’t really understand new status of Solaris).
I really would have liked to see Apple buy Sun. That would have been a great combination. Even with all the anti-Apple sentiment around here, I think its fair to say that Apple is a LOT better towards open-source community than Oracle.
I agree 100% with your comment on the hfs+ file system. It’s the weakest point in macosx. I’ve suffered two data corruption situations in which the file system become corrupted and the data was lost. Nothing wrong with the hardware it was the file system which had given up the ghost. This is where I find one of Windows strong points, NTFS is incredibly resilient and I’ve yet to see a whole disk go bad through the fault of NTFS, even with bad sectiors NTFS performs well. I really hope that as you have commented apple either purchases/licence a new Filesystem, as hfs+ just cannot keep up and it’s not something I like worrying about when storing large amounts of data on a hfs+ drive.
Another article full of prejudice, hostility, lacking facts and context.
Keep it up osnews.
You’re sinking more and more by the day.
Care to provide some evidence to back up your claims?
Or should we just leave it as a wild subjective rant?
Ah, another comment full of prejudice, hostility, lacking facts and context.
Just like to post a big thumbs up to Apple for finally coming round to my way of thinking regarding the state of the Y Axis.
Every time I start a game, the first thing I do is check the “Invert Y Axis” checkbox.
I was always of the impression that since I have to do this in every game I play, my preference clearly isn’t the default, and I would never see it become mainstream.
Guess I was wrong.
Hysterically at the “full screen” part — hey Apple, nothing like twenty years late to the party?
That’s actually been one of my long-standing gripes about the apple UI, that there is no such thing as maximize, the closest you have being “this is how big Apple thinks you need it” — yeah, real useful.
Of course that — as noted by another poster, it’s completely broken/annoyingly useless on multi-monitor systems. Funny how the OS who used to do multiple displays best has been lagging behind Win on that front since 1998.
Also laughing at conversations and airdrop, the former being something no e-mail client has EVER gotten right so I’m not real hopeful on that being useful, and the latter being “ooh look, the functionality of AIM circa 1997” — actually that’s not fair — AIM and most messaging clients let you send files to anyone ANYWHERE, not just because they happen to be wireless and nearby… Of course am I the only one who smells security HELL?
… and who can forget mission control — Expose on steroids and STILL lacking the usefulness of the simplest of desktop interfaces; the taskbar — which I’ll stack up against the dock and all these idiotic animated crap where you can’t tell any of the thumbnails apart any day. But that’s why when I’m stuck on a quackintosh for any amount of time (like 3-4 hours a week) the first thing I do is make sure Fantasktik is installed. Now if I could just get a portrait mode taskbar on the right-most display with none of that ‘grouping’ nonsense.
Now if they could just stop screwing around with goofy filesystem navigation techniques that make windows 3.1’s file manager look robust. (but I say the same thing about most *nix WM’s file management — for **** sake, just show me a file tree… praise be for unixTree)
Edited 2011-02-28 10:56 UTC
Laughing – me too. Anyone that would pick the Taskbar over the Dock makes me laugh.
I HATE that you can’t have the exact same programs in the exact same places each and every time you run the OS. Oh, sure you can in Windows if you open up the apps in the exact same order each time AND Explorer doesn’t hang/crash.
I’ve used over a dozen unique OSs since 1979 and I would NOT pick the Taskbar.
Well to be fair, they kind of fixed this behavior in Windows 7. Its very much like the Dock in certain ways. in some ways it might be better. I still prefer the OSX Dock, despite its shortcomings.
Windows 7 has finally solved this, it was a big bugbear for me too, I used to hate having to call up the apps in order and then when one crashed it messed the whole thing up. However the task bar in windows 7 has taken on a lot of dock like qualities and really extends Windows into a more productive platform. It’s the small things
So menu, quick launch AND desktop are not “the same place every time”?!? Since when?
Ah yes, the mythical “explorer crashing” that I’ve never once seen… Of course that a PROPER taskbar arrangement orders them by program is SUCH a drawback..
While I would NOT pick the dock as it’s USELESS in terms of seeing what programs are open (yeah that crappy little triangle is SO visible), what files are open in said programs (stacks kind-of helped that, but not really)…
Though to be honest I have to make a lot of changes even in windows to make the taskbar USEFUL, or should I say, dial it back to windows 98 to make it useful. 98 was the pinnacle of UI design, and everything since has been bloated useless crippled rubbish — at least windows let’s you roll back the clock.
Turn off that “personalized menu” crap, since I thought the point of a menu was to show me ALL the options, not the ones I happen to have used lately, disable the “grouping” as I want to see what files are ACTUALLY open, not just what programs (in fact I consider what program is open to be less important than the FILE), move it to portrait mode on one of my side displays so I have all sorts of room not just for programs to be listed, but also for a quick launch (which they took away but you can still re-create in 7), remove all that ‘sticky launcher’ crap that works like the dock. (Good for small screens, useless trash for large screens), tell it to NOT hide the icons of programs running, tell it NOT to hide file extensions (because that was SUCH a good idea, right Anna Kournikova?), etc, etc, etc..
Of course my liking the taskbar in portrait on one side comes from my time using BeOS… which did a whole bunch of things right.
The OS all suck in different ways, but at least windows lets you change **** you don’t like… While with OSux you can’t change the OS font sizes to something legible, you can’t change ANY of the UI behaviors in a meaningful fashion, the user controls for multi-tasking are next to useless… Though at least it has the best handling of installing/removing software I’ve ever seen — at least right up until I tried to get SDL working in xCode.
Of course, when the development API is larger than the OS is (once you strip out the multi-gigabyte printer driver nonsense) there has to be SOMETHING wrong with it.
After 30 years of using everything from a Cosmac Elf to the latest and greatest… So far as utility for seeing what is actually running on a computer, OSX (and MacOS before it) are so horribly uselessly crippled it’s a miracle anyone gets any actually work done on them — /onion/ Instead of just dicking around /onion/
I develop cross-platform software — Linsux? NO PROBLEM! Windblows? It’s BUILT for developers, developers, developers, developers — OSSux? Not so much. Every time I have to deal with it I feel the overwhelming urge to go throw the machine out the window from the uselessly convoluted API and development environment (people actually LIKE xCode?!?), uselessly crippled user interface, total lack of ability to scale ANYTHING (But then I’ve been using Large fonts/120dpi on Win since it was called 8514)
But to put that in perspective I’m the guy who considers tabs in a IDE/Editor a step BACKWARDS, since how are you supposed to have your files open on separate displays or side-by-side when they’re stuck in a single crappy window?
Which again, is “welcome to 1984” — actually, not true, in 1984 I was running a MDA side by side with a CGA for code debugging.
Edited 2011-03-01 05:57 UTC
Jesus, you really need to learn how to use words more judiciously.
Every post you make is like… Hamlet, but without the eloquence.
You obviously don’t get ‘full screen’. Hint: It’s not the same as maximize.
We’re talking about a beta.
Hardly. From personal experience I can assure you that concerning usability, WinXP didn’t even get close to MacOs (I don’t know about Win7, but knowing MS’ idea of “usability”, they’re probably still stuck with message boxes overlapping monitor borders ..)
You need AIM for something trivial as moving files in a local network? *irks*
(but of course you can do that on a Mac, too, if you have to)
Apart from MacOS having file tree view since around System 6: this is an inefficient view for daily work most of the time. Power users I know abandoned Explorer long ago and went for something like Total Commander or use a good assortment of links (because most of the time people visit the same few places in the filesystem anyway, so why bother scrolling and searching in a tree).
Personally, I always get nervous when I have to watch people inefficiently scrolling and clicking in the FS tree to move from one place to another even though they use the same few spots in the FS all day long, not getting the idea that opening a second window would be far faster and easier than moving to-and-fro. But alas ..
Ok, that “kill me now with this scrolling” guy exaggerates a *lot*
But, he has a valid point. Apple, before iPhone at least, always liked to please their consumer base. Could the iPhone success blind them to the actual reason of their success?
Are we Mac users so irrelevant to them now, compared to iPhone users they *think* they can convert to Mac users?
One more thing, I remember when I had no money to buy Macs, I always admired that colored machines who last years and years. Now you are saying they won’t support 3 years old machines? That’s a little nasty. It’s like the iPhone again, I bought that piece of sh** thinking I could use it for years, now one year later most apps run like crap, including Apple’s ones.
Erm…exaggeration as an exclamation for comedic intent? Learn Internet Sarcasm eh? Nobody in their right mind makes a *serious* point in caps anymore…
I for one like the fact that they are dumping 32bit systems to the curb. Anybody with a little foresight could see the outcome for the first core Macs would be this eventually.
What I do find sad is how there are some macs have cpus that are 64bit capable but not supported by efi.
The price you pay for buying from Apple. I have a MBP but it doesn’t bother me that much as MBPs predate the Apples notion of disposable appliances…
Edited 2011-02-28 13:10 UTC
Oh, sorry, I confused you with that angry guy who commented you. Sorry..
But about the MPB and iPhones, how long before they win so much money with iOS devices that they start giving the finger to Mac users?
I always liked Apple, but after owning an iPhone, I want they to go down!
I’d be happier if they just fixed the crazy mouse acceleration curve… Or at least added an option to set it.
Is it in the Mac genes to let users configure things? I remember that when I used to use a Mac at work, I vowed to never buy a Mac as long as one can’t change the **size** of the system font. That’s a deal breaker for me. I had to use Onyx to show hidden files, which, everywhere else is readily possible. The resistance against a “Cut” command in the Finder is another thing I don’t get.
I think that you’ll be happy to hear that you can now resize windows by dragging any of their edges. Some things do change – very slowly.
Yes indeed. I don’t have that MacBookPro any longer but yes, it’s good news.
You have always been able to use Mac OS X as a server. The server edition simply came with GUI tools to configure it all.
Lol… Apple is like the mobile phone companies.
They sell you something locked down and sell you access your own hardware.
What the hell is a “server” nowadays anyway vs. a client on a Unix based OS? What does the “server” package give you? Do you have to pay Apple $50 to open port 80?
The only thing Apple was selling as its gui tools for server administration, which no self respecting unix admin would bother using anyway. Plain ol Mac OSX can run as a server, no problem. You just have to know what you are doing. Other thana a few included packages which you could download an compile yourself anyway, its not really anything to write home about. Apple didn’t lock anything down, unlike MS with Windows Home and Professional/ultimate. I mean if you are going to get on Apple get on Microsoft too.
Lol. Yep, they’ve certainly never had a ‘we’ll only unlock a few of your CPU cores unless you pay more for the more expensive OS’ crud anyway. (Ditto filesystem versioning features, encryption, etc.)
As for is there anything worth paying for – sounds like you don’t have to, you just don’t turn on / install some extra admin tools if you’re not going to need them. That’s fine.
Or don’t… if they provide an option to flip the axis.
In this case it isn’t people are being backward by not liking it, it is what makes most sense IF you’re not manipulating the objects on a screen directly like in tablets. After years of scrolling pretty much everybody is hardwired to use touchpads in a certain way. I completely fail to see the reasoning behind it.
You better do good things to 32bit users.. before you end up… atleast 32bit users will thank you.
They’re not interested in “thank you”‘s.
So after “reviewing” comments from “others” regarding the new OS X UI, I have a few of my own “concerns” about translating the iPhone/iPad launching functionality to OS X’s Launchpad.
1) There should be “stops” at the end of multiple-screen/panel scrolls. The iOS doesn’t “wrap” and Launchpad shouldn’t either. This could get very confusing for novices and experienced users as well.
2) iOS and Lion should have some sorting capabilities for the launch pads on the devices. Sort by Name for example. Manually organizing 50 or so desktop applications could get very frustrating for a user who wants to organize their applications into panels alphabetically. This would be nice for the iPhone/iPad as well.
3) There should be “rubber band” capabilities for Launchpad (and again it would be nice on the iPhone and iPad as well) and at least for Launchpad on Lion the ability to multi-select to ease organizing, moving applications between screens when you’d want to manually organize the order of applications on different panels.
4) A little intelligence would be nice too…maybe a tool that tracks program usage and places those programs on the first screen and subsequent screens based on use.
5) If applications in the “Programs” folder on Lion are organized into folders, it would be nice if Launchpad could organize the different panels based on the folders. Screen one is the first folder, maybe named Accessories, then Apps, then Multimedia, for example.
6) Using a mouse to navigate Launch pad might be difficult particularly if Apple uses the default scroll wheels to rotate between panels. A left click on the desktop might click one screen left and a right click one screen right. My “understanding” is there is NO right clicking functionality even built into Launchpad and that’s a shame. Left click yes but only for launching an application’s icon, nothing on the desktop except to close the Launchpad window “I hear”.
7) Also, I hear people have struggled to find the “application” that is Launchpad which makes it difficult to assign mouse buttons to automatically launch launch pad from a middle mouse button click for example…I speculate.
8) Any “preferences” for Launch Pad should be accessible from the System Preferences and ideally by right clicking on the launch pad icon.
9) And maybe some people are missing things but if Launchpad is going to be the “launch pad” then integration with Expose, Spaces and Dashboard ought to be incorporated into one function.
Now I suspect that I may be “misinterpreting things” maybe because some have installed Lion over an existing install and thus it’s not a “pure” install and of course applications and probably more OS X utilities, desktop accessories, dashboard items, etc. need to be re-written or written.
But it’s this “reporter’s” opinion that there’s a long way to go before I’d use the Launchpad functionality as my primary launcher…based on what I’ve “heard” to date.
I’d much rather see ios copy from mac os x (Dashboard widgets for example0 than the other way around
“It’s clearly a case of Apple trying to get you to upgrade;”
Oh come on, this is just stupid. There is a clear TECHNICAL reason that Apple is doing this — they want the entire OS stack, OS proper and UI parts, to be 64-bit only. And who can blame them — they’ve had to piss away large parts of the 2000s trying to keep the OS running, rather than adding new features, as they had to add compatibility for first PPC-64, then x86, then x86-64, then ARM. They’re desperate to try to get things under control, so that they can spend time adding actual NEW FEATURES rather than just making old things work on a new processor.
By dropping x86-32 they not only simplify their support burden — now down to two OSs — they can, just like Snow Leopard, ship a Lion that is both more powerful than its predecessor AND takes up less space. They can concentrate their compiler efforts on schemes that will work on a 16 register chip, rather than having to worry about 8 register x86-32 compatibility.
Any SIMD code they ship still has to deal with a plethora of the various add-ons Intel ships with each new chip, but at least the number of variations is down slightly. etc etc etc.
Look, this is no surprise — Apple has operated this way for twenty years. Most of their customers understand, accept it, and are willing to put up with the minor hassle for the perceived benefits. If it affronts your sense of the way things ought to be, I’m sorry, but they are NOT doing it just to “force you to upgrade”.