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Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" Preview at WWDC
hype7 writes "Apple just announced that it will kick off WWDC 2004 with a preview of the next iteration of Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, in a Steve Jobs keynote. This version of Mac OS X, 10.4, has been code named 'Tiger.' As usual, Apple is being incredibly tight lipped about what's going to be added; there hasn't even been that much speculation of new features on the rumor sites. WWDC is scheduled to begin on the 28th of June."
none of apples upgrades have cost 200 dollars
Um, neither have Microsoft's upgrades. And by my math, multiple $99 or $129 Apple upgrades are going to cost more than one $99 or $129 Microsoft upgrade
better yet I would rather fork out 120 (I actually pay the student fee so its less) than pay 50 here for something and 50 there for another package just to buy third party products because it takes 6 years for Windows to develop a new OS or update its current one (critical patches DONT count as adding usability)
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They do for the Server editions; I'm not sure it makes so much sense for the clients but if they get enough people asking then I'm sure that they will. The fact is it's possible to get away with an earlier edition (I'm using OS X Server 1.2, Rhapsody DR2, 10.2 Jaguar and NeXTSTEP 3.3 :-) but that many - not all, but a significant minority - of Mac users will upgrade at the drop of a hat. One problem is that often the newer versions aren't binary or library compatible with the old versions, so if a developer upgrades to 10.4 and forgets to click the 'GCC 2.95' box in XCode then their software won't work on previous versions :-(.
And the only major improvements in 10.3 were iChat AV, FileVault, Expose, and a prettier GUI. All of which, except for Expose, you could get as add-ons for 10.2 (iChat AV is available for $30, FileVault equivalents can be found from third parties, and a prettier GUI that is fully customizable can be found from third parties).
For a supposed Geek crowd, Apple's numbering scheme sure get them confused. .x revisions are major releases. .xy releases are service packs. It's only been this way for three years, now, so what's your excuse for not getting it yet?
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Welcome to the family, friend. I'm sure you'll like it here. (Here's a little tip, though: When you get your Mac, wipe it and reinstall without the language packs but make sure to include X11 and XCode. You'll save HD space and get X11 functionality and a great dev environment.)
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Or, compare this to Windows. I have a copy of Windows 2000 from early 2000, as in right around when they released it. Retailed for $300 (OEMed for about $180, if I remember right). And that's right about the time of OS 10.0 (a little before, actually). So for $300 for 2000, and another $200 for XP Pro (the actually comparable upgrade) in that span, I would really have gained very little.
2000's updates were mostly security issues, a few Direct X upgrades (not something I consider an added value, but definitely important for games), Windows Media 9 which I actively work to keep away from everything, and some Journal Reader add-ins.
Had I decided to upgrade to XP, I would've gained an eye-bleed inducing green and blue color scheme by default, system restore, and...? As far as I can tell, with the exception of some bluetooth products and a few system hack-type programs (stuff to change the UI and so forth), XP would've been 2000 pretty edition (hence the NT 5.1). So in these accumulated 4 years and some change, I'd have paid somewhere between $350 and $500, depending on how I valued support and whether I felt it necessary to upgrade to XP (I don't). I'm sure some harder-core windows historians could tell me a few of the other things introduced, so feel free.
On my macs, I got 10.0 included with an iMac, and 10.1 for free (the free upgrade offer), but we'll call it $150 there to be fair (assuming that I bought 10.1 retail). I paid $129 for 10.2 and $129 for 10.3, which puts me in essentially the same price category. I've seen substantial speed improvements, particularly on my older hardware (a 450mhz g3 iMac and a 500mhz iBook), which alone makes upgrading even more worthwhile (in stark contrast to XP's potnetial to run slower on a given system out of the box). I've seen quartz extreme, encrypted filesystems, easier integration of X11, fast user switching, and expose all introduced in that span, as well.
Honestly, to me, it's worth the cash. I'll need to see what Tiger brings to the forefront, although I suspect that theories about heavy G5 optimizations are probably true. If it turns out that people start noticing it running faster on their older hardware, which is entirely possible given the track record, I'll drop my $129 again.
Tiger will include Spoken Interface. The integration of aural tools into the OS (instead of tacking on screen readers) will be a major improvement over both the current Mac and Windows systems and a huge boon to users with a visual handicap or motor skill impairment.
Since when do the service packs add real functionality?
And, if you want to count server OS's:
Cheetah (10.0) (Not sure if it had server with it)
Puma (10.1) (Again, not sure, playing on the safe side)
Jaguar (10.2)
Jaguar Server
Panther (10.3)
Panther Server
And you want to count service packs anyways?
Just from memory:
10.2.1-10.2.8 is 8 upgrades (all adding FUNCTIONALIY, albeit small steps)
10.3.1-10.3.3 (10.3.4 is seeded to developers right now).
You count.
On Apple Input Peripherals: They're okay, I guess, but I was really hoping for a one-key keyboard and a 109-button mouse
Apple doesn't sell upgrades. That $129 gets you a full version of the OS. You can sell your old version on ebay if you want; you won't need it to install 10.4
What else Apple doesn't give you: Product Activation. They don't even require a serial number or product key. Just put the CD in the drive and go.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
I'm afraid you're reading a bit too much into autorelease pools. Autorelease is nothing more than a delayed messaging mechanism. It's not a GC.
Cocoa uses manual reference counting, and autorelease provides a way for you to return an object to a caller without making the caller necessarily responsible for freeing it.
Now, the fact that the kit has many methods that we call "convenience constructors" means that you can often not worry about memory management.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Actually WPA auth works well with 10.2. I think the Airport 3.3 update added this functionality.
-matt
http://thewonderllama.com