Apple’s road to OSX 10.5 Leopard: Big things are coming
I think we’re on the verge of two things here. I can feel it.
- Learning more about what OSX Leopard will offer in full, and
- Getting a sense of its timing
Right now, we partially know what Leopard will offer. Jobs told us when he unveiled Leopard at WWDC 2006 that there were things he couldn’t show, features that remain “top secret.” Whether that was true or just shrewd salesmanship remains to be seen, but my hunch is that we’re going to learn more about Leopard, and what we don’t know will be more impressive than what we do. And this will start happening soon.
Vista is out. Its launch is over. Many Apple blogs speculated that Jobs would finalize Leopard’s announcement on top of Vista, to take away from its buzz. I never liked that idea, as Hollywoodian as it seemed. Drama like that doesn’t often find a home in real-world business.
No. Instead, Jobs played it smart: he let Vista have its moment in the limelight, taking a calculated risk that it wouldn’t wow the tech world (it’s not), that the hype cycle wouldn’t be too much (ditto). After all, people can only consume so much news these days: there’s so much to read and understand and not hardly enough time. Human attention bandwidth is far outstripped by that of information delivery.
Instead, Jobs didn’t want to muddy Leopard’s signal with Vista’s noise. He doesn’t want Leopard to have to raise its voice above the Vista din. It’s maybe not as dramatic as Leopard coming out of the sky, sword drawn, and bloodying Vista in Vista’s big moment, but it’s certainly more pragmatic.
I think that over the next week or three we will be hearing more about Leopard and what it will be in its entirety. Among the finishing touches I predict:
- A new, refined look and feel. Call this Aqua’s successor. I don’t think it will be dramatic, as some blogs have speculated, but rather a subtle move towards a more quietly professional look. Vista is nice, but overdone with transparency and color; I think Jobs will move away from this to keep Windows looking as cluttered and toy-ish as he can. If you like what iTunes 7 looks like, I think you can expect more of that. Also expect more black/gray transparency overlays, a la Aperture or iPhoto 7’s full-screen editing mode.
- A clear message with respect to Boot Camp and virtualization. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that Leopard will natively allow OSX and Windows apps to live side-by-side, probably booting off an existing Boot Camp partition, a la Parallels’ “coherence mode.” This would be the coup de grace for Apple: users could use software from either side of the world from OSX as a main environment. In this sense, Windows becomes the new Classic. What this would mean for Parallels, short of them being acquired by the Apple mothership, is unclear. I suspect they’re already in cahoots with one another.
I think there are a few more things, but honestly, I don’t want to go on record with them. I’ve heard things like an introduction to gaming via integration/partnership with Nintendo, but that just seems too improbable to me to give it any real consideration. So I won’t.
As for timing, well, that’s a bit less clear. I think we’ll be hearing more about Leopard as soon as next week and up to three weeks out. When we get the rest of the scoop on Leopard, we will know its GA (general availability) timing. If I had to guess, I’d say we’ll be able to get our hands on Leopard sometime in mid-April. I’ve seen a March 24 date, but my gut tells me that’s too soon. I’d like to be wrong, of course, provided the release is high-quality and no glaring bugs exist. Apple can’t afford to botch this release.
So the countdown begins. I’ll be following the Leopard story closely over the next few weeks. We’re on the road to Leopard’s launch, and we have some more to learn, some more to see, some more salesmanship to be injected into our eyeballs by Jobs. Now that Vista’s out of the way, everyone is looking to Cupertino to see what its offering into the next-gen OS market will really be.
And, if my hunch is right, Vista’s time on the hype stage will be coming to an end very quickly.
Technorati Tags: apple, osx, leopard, windows, vista, microsoft
Couple things:
1. I can’t find the articles right now, but Apple has categorically denied any sort of virtualization in Leopard. Unless they’ve changed their mind, which I doubt. Parallels (and soon VMWare) are great solutions for virtualization, I doubt Apple will want to duplicate their efforts.
2. If you look at the date this year for WWDC (June 11th-15th) that seems like a very big clue as to the release date of Leopard. Apple’s been saying “Spring 2007″ lately, and that week is still Spring.
3. I’m keeping my expectations very low as to what the “secret features” may be. Too many Mac sites are assuming it’s going to be something blockbuster (new GUI, entirely new apps, etc.). My thought is that the secret features will be a bunch of little stuff which aren’t real sexy, but will lay the groundwork for OS X advances for the next couple years.
I do not expect to see anything revolutionary. IMHO, what Apple does is take existing technology and integrate and execute it in some way that make computing work flows easier and less time consuming.
drengy — when I predict “new GUI,” I mean the subtle type of shift that we saw from striped Aqua to almost-stripeless Aqua. Nothing massive.
Apple will understate the OS more, leaving Vista, by comparison, garish and flashy. IMHO.
drengy, just because Apple has “denied any sort of virtualization in Leopard” does not mean they are not working on a different technology that has a parallel effect (no pun intended, OK, why not?) but which they call something different.
Having owned a Mac now for two years (well, almost) I am getting used to the over hype that surrounds Apple eg iTV not capable of 1080p, and so I think Jeff’s wise not to say more than we already know, and to keep things quiet.
I prefer to underpromise and over deliver than the other way around.
fifthdecade: there *isn’t* another technology. There are two ways to go: emulation, in which the guest OS would be run mostly by an interpreter in software, and virtualization, in which the guest OS runs mostly on the native CPU.
All I know is the Macs rock! I tried the new Vista and it’s just a shiny XP—there’s nothing really new or amazing. They moved Office all around to confuse the sheezy out of everyone… and it’s a memory hog at 500MB of RAM for the top-o-the-line verson.
Apple and M$ are in the limelight as hardcore competitors just like in the 80’s. We just have to wait and see if Apple is going to make the same mistake it made back then and just sit back while the tech world goes running by. And, for the record, I don’t think they will.
The rumorlessness of this site is refreshing. As an 18 month Mac user the rumor sites are nauseating. This is nice and speculative without making any wild claims. Good show.
Raphi — thank you. If you like me, you’ll also love Daring Fireball, one of the best Mac blogs anywhere. It, too, refrains from mindless rumormongering.
I can’t wait for Leopard! I’m really expecting it to be great, so an advance thumbs up as far as I’m concerned.
I dont own a Mac i wish i did. Right now i am try to get the money to do get one. My first experience with the Mac was it’s late eMacs on OS X 10.3 i think it was. The UI and the useability sold me on the Mac. Windows is really too flashy and it is not totally uniformed example some of teh pop up window dont have the full XP style looking more like Win 2000. I like features i can use like expose’ which i can see all my open windows at once. Not like stupid feature like Flip which is just pretty, and pretty useless. and after following Jobs for the past year on his future plans he i notice he always down plays his product until they actually ship.
What I’m really hoping for iLife ‘07 and iWork ‘07 to be bundled with the OS. People are going to get fed up with having to keep up. Vista is including an iPhoto-like app into the OS. Apple can take all this a step furthur bring the price of their OS from $129 to $149 and just throw in iLife and iWork ‘07 into the box. I just hope they see this as the opportunity I see it as, and they throw in those other disks.
You fan boys kill me. You talk like you know what’s going on in Steve’s head. You are full of crap. Here’s my prediction…OS 10.5 will be cool. Where’s my cookie?
I think we could do with a better finder and better launch tools from spotlight.
I use quicksilver, but Mac OS X already has had “services” since NeXT and it seems pretty logical to integrate those with a smart command line interface!
drengy –
Small point regarding your first point:
“…Apple has categorically denied any sort of virtualization in Leopard.”
Jobs categorically denied iPods would ever be sold anywhere but Apple stores and online. Apple categorically said they would never make a video iPod. They say they won’t do a lot of things, and then turn around and do them (to our benefit.)
Why would they have come out with Boot Camp? Dual-booting is a step to total virtualization.
I’m with the Leopard will be GA in June crowd. I think this release has to be as bug-free as possible because of the inevitable comparisons to Vista. And because of the veritable thud of Vista’s release, Apple can afford to wait.
There are several areas I think they still need to refine:
- Time Machine has to be bulletproof, period. No excuses. This probably paces the release.
- The announced focus on fixing critical bugs instead of adding new features in WebKit (www.webkit.org) which powers pretty much all of Mac OS X’s web functionality from Safari, to Mail, to Dashboard among others. There are hundreds of bugs between the P1 and P2 priorities. I think this is a push for Leopard stabilization.
- ZFS, though it will not be the default file system for Leopard, still needs some capabilities that are only now making it into the OpenSolaris source tree, unless they decide to yank it before Leopard release (I hope not).
Anyway, it takes time to integrate these things. But it takes a lot more time to test them.
Of course, I’d love to be proved wrong.
One last thought:
I think, moving forward, ZFS will turn out to be one of the most revolutionay features of Leopard. It won’t see its full fruition until the next major OS X release when it becomes the default FS. But, without going into too much detail, I believe it will enable true plug-and-play, robust maintenance-free distributed storage for the consumer. Xgrid already forms the basis for the distributed computing part though it is not exploited much yet.
drengy – since when was the week of june 11-15 in spring
hey…Apple fan boy, stop deleting my comments
The thing is, I really can’t take any of you seriously on the Vista bashing. How many people here have used it for a week or more? I bet most of you not at all. I really wish we could all just stop bashing Microsoft and start talking about how good Apple is. No offense, but Apple has never provided much market competition to Microsoft until now, so any comparisons to the past are just nonsense. Now that the ‘little guy’ is becoming the ‘big guy’, we’ll see how Apple handles it. And to those of you above who are claiming that Vista’s graphics engine is all show with no substance (and it’s not all about flip…it’s about the engine’s capabilities) should look yourselves in the mirror. Many of you have been spending the last several years saying how much better the Apple graphics engine is over Windows XP (vector graphics, big icons, etc.). Now that Windows levels the playing field graphically, you might want to change your tune and talk about something that really is better on the Apple, such as reliability and hardware quality. Bitching about how the GDI is useless just makes you look like a fanboy instead of a critical thinker.
Spring is officially over around June 21st.
@JBS
I agree with your comments. This platform bashing is childish. They are, after all, just operating systems. You probably need to get yourself a girlfriend if you haven’t figured that out yet.
I wish MS were pushing the envelope enough that Apple and everyone else would have more to copy. It would only serve to accelerate progress for everyone. I expect MS to copy Apple just as I expect Apple to copy MS when warranted. Good for everybody.
I think you’re on the money with most of your comments except virtualization: I don’t think – I would hope not, anyway – that Apple would seek to reinvent the wheel there, particularly as Parallels have done such a great job.
Also would tend to agree with JBS on judging Vista without having used to it. I still haven’t but I’m very keen to try it..
Thanks for posting
Just one look is enough to convince me Windows and Linux a copying Mac OS X as fast as they can. Some Linux folks are already complaining about the ‘eye-candy’ that has made it’s way to Linux too.
Even Jim Allchin himself has admitted Microsoft tried to copy Mac OS X to Windows XP, but faild. Vista is Microsoft’s second attempt to copy Mac OS X and this time they have a better success.
On Dtrace and ZFS I think it’s a good thing Apple has gotten rid of this ‘not invented here’ syndrome. Why invent a new file system when a good one already exists? ZFS is a good match to NTFS.
Brendan: you won’t see iLife bundled with the OS. No chance. What included with Vista is nowhere near what iPhoto offers — it’s more along the lines of what the current Mac Preview offers. I think you’ll see Preview enhanced for Leopard, but as for seeing iLife bundled, I don’t think it will happen.
I’d love to be wrong, obviously.
Micah : I think you’ll get your better Finder (I do, really), but it might not be as dramatic as you (or I) want.
I don’t think you’ll see a keyboard/command-line launcher built into OSX. I can see Jobs thinking that to be too complicated.
Although I’m with you: I find Quicksilver to be indispensable.
Aaron: I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple acquire Parallels’ technology. I don’t think Apple would build its own organically.
In any event, I see Boot Camp as a step *leading to* somewhere, not the somewhere itself.
Anonymous: great comments. Let me add some.
1. I agree that Time Machine is critical path for this release — at least it seems that way. Users won’t tolerate a backup program that’s ineffective, inefficient or that corrupts otherwise good data. Apple’s seen that sort of catastrophic bug before (Firewire drives getting deleted), so yes, Time Machine needs to be bulletproof.
2. Good point regarding WebKit. From my perspective, Safari is just too behind to be considered a viable browser anymore, at least for what I do. The controls don’t manifest properly with WordPress, Gmail controls aren’t as rich, etc. I use FF2 exclusively and I’d love to be able to use Safari. I hope WebKit gets refreshed so that some of these issues are taken care of. Given the new HTML mail templates we’ll be seeing in Leopard, I bet you’re right: WebKit’s probably getting a huge overhaul. I hope so.
As for ZFS, we’ll have to see if that ever makes its way into OSX as the default FS. I have my doubts, but at the same time it wouldn’t surprise me too much.
Good comments.
I don’t think Apple will give us an application virtualization layer yet. Running Windows apps seamless within OS X would make the PowerPC based Macs completely obsolete. I don’t think Apple can do that at this moment.
Microsoft’s Photo Gallery is not completely up-to-par with iPhoto, but it’s neither comparable to Preview. That being said, I do agree we won’t find iLife bundled with Leopard. That’s asking for problems with legislators around the world, particularly in Europe (where Apple is losing friends fast with the iTMS DRM schemes).
So in the end I expect Leopard to be the next step in the OS X line-up, without dramatic changes. Some for the better, some not. We do need a better Finder/Spotlight, I like what Microsoft did with that and wouldn’t mind Apple copying that. BTW, I think the new iLife will make more heads turn than Leopard, just like Office did in regard to Vista.
smokingun — good post about the virtualization layer. It’s easy to forget there are hordes of PPC Macs out there, and regardless of how well the Intel Macs handle virtualization, there’s no equally-viable solution for PPC machines. So maybe Apple just continues to endorse Parallels as it has been and lets that ride for another few years. Maybe we’re both wrong: Boot Camp is out there for Intel Macs only, so in that vein I can see Apple growing the divide between PPC and Intel Macs. As I’ve said before, PPC is dead and the problem it poses now is one of marketing and relationship management, NOT one of technology.
Wouldn’t surprise me to see Apple keep moving forward on the Intel side with respect to virtualization. You raise good points, but Apple’s gonna be Apple. More Intel capability also means more migration to new machines, which translates to unit sales and a happier PPC-to-Intel migration number.
We shall see.
As for your Spotlight comment, we are getting a much-improved Spotlight in Leopard, or so it seems.
Jeff, you might be right and evidence can be found in the announcement of Adobe to deliver the Production Studio as Intel-only. This clearly sends a message that the Mac Pro is the way to go for video and audio editing and to get rid of your PowerMac G5.
I don’t have the numbers, but I guess that most production machines are still PPC G5. The Mac Pro is great, but most people I know are waiting for the next line of models. Releasing these models along with Leopard, combined with a neat virtualization layer, may be an answer for Apple in getting their consumers on Intel Macs.
But you’re right, we’ll have to wait to see what Apple brings us next.
Not to throw stones, man, but this article is the closest thing to a non-article I’ve seen in a long time. No actual information at all. Nice try.
I just converted to a nice new shiny iMac these last two weeks and I would just like to say to Jeff, thanks for writing such well informed and constructive content. Anything written in a blog that attracts a debate is healthy isn’t it? I’m a mac newbie so it’s refreshing to read this blog without sifting through an overload of techno babble so to speak! Keep it up!
Just like to add (I may be wrong) I am sure I read someplace that bootcamp, will be bundled with Leopard? Is it true that the current version of Bootcamp is only available for a limited period?
Sorry If I have asked daft questions!
I run Parallels as I need it to run software for a university course I am studying. It’s a fine piece of software and easy to set up. I only ‘dip’ into XP now and again to access the universities on line forums (it’s a distance learning course) and the client that enables access to the forum runs as smooth as butter.
Interesting point mentioned above, about Apple maybe one day acquiring parallels. Could this one day be a part and parcel application of a future operating system beyond Leopard? Only time will tell!!
alansky: seeing how we’re *speculating* and having some fun trying to *predict* what will happen above and beyond what everyone already knows, you’re not going to get anymore “real information” at this time. If you’d like yet another rumor rehash about what Leopard will be, there are zillions of blogs out there with “new” Leopard features that are just rehashes of what’s already been reported.
Yeah, good like trying to predict what Apple will do. I’m with smokingun, Leopard will be the best X yet, just like Vista is the best Win yet. Probably not much drama …
good LUCK that is …
Vista is a nightmare. I have been swiching our labs over to vista and it has caused me nothing but problems. I’m not Vista bashing but, there are no drivers and no application support. When I updated our Mac lab to Tiger, it was quick and painless.
If any new Apple OS eventually does incorporate some sort of joint OS X / Windows useage, my money is on them calling it “Lynx” – for obvious reasons, of course…!
Let Dance Together and wait LEOPARD Released
I’m hopeful that the family plan…the 5 licenses is still pretty cheap. Having 3 mac’s myself, I really hope it’s a gr.eat improvement
*rubs hands together*
I can’t wait until Leopard comes out!!! It’s going to be SO AWESOME!!!
Any chance Leopard will be able to read all the data on my hundreds of multi-session CDs that my brand new Mac Mini (better than Windows?) only will show one of the sessions on? Or will we have to wait for Antelope or Dinosaur or Cyclops for my Mac to read multi-session CDs? I await with baited breath. Until then I am forced to read them in my Windows machine and ethernet the files to my mac. Holy cow, Batman. I thought my Mac was supposed to be better than Windows. Pardon my sarcasm. I do not like Windows. I will cut off my ear first before I will upgrade beyond my Win98SE. I run it when I have to. I have a Linux box and am building another. I may build a BSD box. BUT – I am truly disillusioned by my new Mac – better than Windows – machine that – so it turns out – will not read my hundreds of archived CDs that were recorded multi-session. Perhaps I am asking too much?
I can’t help but be amazed by how “fair and balanced” this blog and many of it’s comments are. I was especially pleased to see a “M$” thrown in there for good measure. . What about MacO$? Anyone who thinks that Apple would prefer NOT to take Microsoft’s place monetarily hasn’t got a clue.
Another interesting example of hypocracy was how Leopard might sport a new, classier, more professional UI. After this statement is made, Vista’s new apperance is disregarded as toy-like or childish. Either everyone has forgotten the idiotic hype surrounding Cheetah and Quartz, or pointless UI fluff is only acceptable when it comes from Apple. To be honest however, Vista’s UI effects are quite the opposite of flashy. While DWM is quite capable of effects similar those in MacOS, beryl or compiz, Microsoft opted for the more subdued approach, as they always do. However Microsoft is damned if they do and damned if they don’t, right? If they added Windows bursting into flames upon being closed, the effect would be regarded as childish. With the simplistic and subdued approach they took, some MacOS and *nix users have gloated as to how much more complex the UI effects are in their OS of choice. The *nix crowd is especially funny, as while they have videos showing all of those nice effects, what they don’t show is how raw and unstable beryl and compiz are. Best foot forward I suppose, but still I find myself entertained.
My two cents.
Pardon me, the small charged particle here again. Does anyone know how to read mutisession CDs on my brand new Mac? (10.4.7 on intel mobo) Pretty pictures are great but this is 2007. If I can’t have both pretty pictures and multi-session reads I’ll trade multisession read for a stunning UI in a clock cycle. And, multisession is not experimental technology. After all, MS has been doing multisession reads (successfully) for quite awhile. They consider it basic, elemental. Doesn’t Apple? Linux does multisession reads. What gives? Hey Steve, did your memo to include multisession read somehow get lost? I am trying to be polite about this but this is ludicrous. Perhaps there’s a switch somewhere on the underside of my machine. A secret button on my truly groovy looking IR remote. Did the marketing department tell engineering to drop multisession in order to afford the white chassis color?
OS X is capable of both reading and burning multi-session CD’s. Not sure what problems you are having? Could it be some proprietary multi-session scheme was used to burn the CD’s originally? What did you use to burn them?
Did you go to the Disk Utility application and see if the system can see the other sessions? They may not be setup to auto-mount and you may have to mount them manually within Disk Utility.
Apple has a support website, you might want to try posting your question there. And a suggestion, instead of your ignorant bashing, you may want to spend that time explaining the details of your problem. You might find that people would be more inclined to help.
Peace Out
Small charge… Apple OS X *DOES* support multisession discs. You might want to bookmark:
discussions.apple.com it’s a very good resourec for this kind of thing and then visit
docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107240
where it details how to create a multisession disc with the stock tools (ie. without having to buy Toast).
Cheers, gWH!Z