Jaguar Reviewed

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by pudge on Wednesday May 8, 2002 @05:02AM from the my-mac-only-has-16mb-ddr-anyway dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "A review with a lot of screenshots of the latest beta seed (6C37) has been posted. The latest advancements look pretty promising. I, like everyone else, am itching for a release." I don't know if it is more pretty, or more promising, but it does look cool. Dock improvements, iChat, search the disk from Finder windows, QuickTime 6, Digital Hub section of System Preferences, Firewall preferences, major Speech improvements ...

21 of 64 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Were in trouble... by zulux · 2002-05-08 05:10 · Score: 4, Funny

If Apple continues to name their releases after failed video game consoles, then by the time they get to 3DO, we're screwed.

--
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
1. Re:Were in trouble... by Melantha_Bacchae · 2002-05-08 06:01 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  zulux wrote:
  
  > If Apple continues to name their releases after failed video game
  > consoles,
  
  The next version of Windows is codenamed "Longhorn". It is a kind of cow.
  
  The jaguar is the biggest feline predator in the Americas. It kills by biting thru the skull of its prey (unless the prey is small enough that a smack in the face from one of its paws can kill it). It will eat just about anything, large or small (including cows). It is a very beautiful, very powerful animal that can make its home in nearly any terrain. It loves water.
  
  Apple is basically saying here: "Microsoft, my OS can crush your OS' skull and eat it for lunch. It can certainly chomp off large chunks of your monopoly."
  
  Does anyone have any doubts left as to what Apple's new relationship with Microsoft will be for the next five years? ;)
  
  Good.
  
  "Mothra's attack is working."
  -- Shouta, "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
Mirror of 10.2 Screenshot by debugdave · 2002-05-08 05:10 · Score: 5, Informative

Is Avaliable at http://www.apple.com/macosx/
1. Re:Mirror of 10.2 Screenshot by TRACK-YOUR-POSITION · 2002-05-08 05:38 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Heh heh, slashdoted by the Apple section of Slashdot!
  okay, maybe it wasn't just us...
NDA? we don't need no steenkin' NDA. by ubiquitin · 2002-05-08 05:11 · Score: 4, Informative

Apparently not. Even though Apple made a big deal about ushering the press out after the WWDC keynote, they never signed NDA's. Developers, on the other hand, did. It is part of being an ADC member, if I remember correctly. So I can neither confirm nor deny that the screenshots at the macthis.org site look just exactly like Jaguar. With all those screenshots, that site is going down in a heartbeat... reload...... already flatlined. :)

--
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Re:please tell me... by Strog · 2002-05-08 05:28 · Score: 3, Informative

Quartz Extreme
Jaguar dramatically improves the performance of Mac OS X with Quartz Extreme hardware-based graphics acceleration. Quartz Extreme takes advantage of the OpenGL 3D graphics engine to make the entire desktop a fully accelerated OpenGL scene. A supported* video card can then render the drawing of the desktop, just like it would a 3D game. The main CPU chip(s) can then focus on application-specific needs, making the whole system faster and more responsive.

That means your shadows will drop quickly, your genies will appear slicker and your transparencies will layer faster -- and Mac OS X can do more processing in the background while you move the foreground
*nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance.
Re:Free as in upgrade or free is in not-free? by foobar104 · 2002-05-08 05:48 · Score: 2

I wouldn't be surprised if 10.2 was handled just like 10.1: buy the whole OS including the developer tools on CD and stuff for over $100, or buy just the upgrade on CD for $30 or so.

Or, if you prefer, go to an Apple retail store, where they were quietly and without any announcement handing them out to everybody for free. Which was pretty damn cool, if you ask me.
Re:Free as in upgrade or free is in not-free? by RevAaron · 2002-05-08 05:52 · Score: 2

They were giving out 10.2 quietly for free, or are you talking about 10.1? They announced that 10.1 would be available in the retail stores, but if you're talking about 10.2, I find that hard to imagine, as I've not heard about anyone else picking one up there!

--

Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Re:Free as in upgrade or free is in not-free? by foobar104 · 2002-05-08 06:05 · Score: 2

What? I thought my post was clear: you could get 10.1 in one of three ways, including getting it for free at an Apple Store. I imagine 10.2 will be available through the same channels.
Re:Quartz Extreme mobile support by CottonEyedJoe · 2002-05-08 06:06 · Score: 3, Informative

The TiBook has AGP video so yeah it ought to be supported assuming it isnt one of the first generation TiBook's with the ATI 128 (also AGP but the chipset dosent appear to be supported).
Hmmm by Auckerman · 2002-05-08 06:10 · Score: 3, Informative

1. macthis.org has no dns entry
2. google has no idea who "mac this", mac.this, or macthis is/are.
3. Do the editors even click on the links before posting?

--

Burn Hollywood Burn
Longhorn, Whistler, and Blackcomb by cpeterso · 2002-05-08 06:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

The next version of Windows is codenamed "Longhorn". It is a kind of cow.

Longhorn is a bar at the Whistler ski resort north of Vancouver, BC (just a few hours drive from Microsoft's Redmond campus). The two mountains there are Whistler and Blackcomb. Whistler was the codename for Windows XP and Blackcomb is/was the codename for Windows .NET Server. See, it all makes sense..

--
cpeterso
Screenshots by ekalb · 2002-05-08 06:26 · Score: 4, Informative

Spymac has lots of screenshots of Jaguar from the WWDC here. Guess NDAs don't bother some people ;)
Quartz Extreme by thatguywhoiam · 2002-05-08 06:59 · Score: 4, Interesting

I hear this vast sucking sound; it's coming from a massive lack of information about the one thing most of us are craving on OS X: speed. If others could chime in on this thread maybe we can figure some things out.
From what I've gleaned so far we know the following:
- QE is said to need a "nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance."
- The wording on the above statement may or may not be read as "requires", depending on whom you ask.
- The tech involved in such a feat described (single pipeline of composited video) is really advanced and interesting, and raises questions; i.e. what does it mean for OS X when the entire drawing system is offloaded to custom chips? (or on a completely side note: what does it mean when you have standardized hardware-accel. video for your OS, and the Finder is now utterly replaceable? Things like this?)
- The tech involved in QE may have come from Raycer, a company Apple acquired in early 2000. Raycer developed high-performance 3D visualization solutions using OpenGL. Apple consequently has a patent (lost the #, sorry) on vague things like 'large-scale grid transformations' (paraphrasing).
- A lot of us iBook owners, and other Rage128-based Mac owners, would like to know if QE will work partially, or at all, on this hardware.
So who can comment intelligently on what's happening here?

--
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
1. Re:Quartz Extreme by Hadlock · 2002-05-08 08:24 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  "A lot of us iBook owners, and other Rage128-based Mac owners, would like to know if QE will work partially, or at all, on this hardware."
  
  in short - You're Phucked.
  
  quarts extreme is going to be the "killer app" to get everyone to upgrade from their "legacy" hardware, to the new ibooks and whatnot that you'll see comming out @ macworld NY. i'd suggest selling your ibook now, or at least get someone with cash in hand lined up for it, as it's about to devalue by about $300 :)
  
  it's no coincidence that the new tibook came out with a 32 meg ati radeon 7500 a week before they released the minimum "optimal performance" specs for quartz extreme. so far the only laptops capable of quartz extreme is the rev. b & c tibooks. all ibooks, crt imacs, and g3 powerbooks are Phucked.
  
  --
  moox. for a new generation.
2. Re:Quartz Extreme by Srsen · 2002-05-08 09:10 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The requirements for QE are based on the video chip architecture, not the amount of VRAM on the card. 32MB is recommended the same way that OSX has 192 MB of installed RAM recommended. That's what you need for optimum performance under heavy loads, but it will work OK with half of that amount.
  
  The graphics accelerators will still work on all Rage128 Macs, they just won't pipe the 2D, 3D, and video all through the chip like QE.
Re:Audio!! ?? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-05-08 17:06 · Score: 2, Interesting

Just a tidbit: if you look at the SpyMac pics of Jaguar, there seems to be a 'MIDI Setup' app; it has a pair of XLRs for an icon. Seems promising.
Quartz Extreme by owenc · 2002-05-09 03:38 · Score: 3, Interesting

If anyone is wondering exactly what Quartz Extreme could do, here's a screenshot.
There's a DVD playing. The teacups are floating around from a different application. They are chrome.
They are reflecting in real time what the movie is playing.
(probably why it won't work on my Rage 128)
Re:Audio!! ?? by SPYvSPY · 2002-05-11 01:58 · Score: 2

Right. And audio is totally fucked on all DP G4 Quicksilvers in 10.1. Have a look at the OSX-->Using Audio forum under Apple's support pages for more detail, if you like.
jaw...on...floor... by Doktor+Memory · 2002-05-11 10:23 · Score: 2

Okay, suddenly the whole "32MB GPU RAM, 2X AGP required" thing makes a whole lot more sense. Dear god in heaven that's badass...

--
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
Re:Don't bother--screenshots gone. by phyxeld · 2002-05-12 16:54 · Score: 2

They're hosted on someone's Mac.com homepage, and the bandwidth limit has been exceeded. Too bad.

I guess mac.com is the place to host forbidden apple images - saves apple legal the trouble of writing you a cease and desist letter!
(if the bandwidth limit doesn't stop you, surely the AUP you agreed to with your mac.com account will...)

--
__
Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall