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Tiger Early Start Kit

EccentricAnomaly writes "If you can't wait until next spring for the official release of next version of Mac OS X, Apple is offering a Tiger Early Start Kit to those willing to pay $500 for an Apple Developer Select Membership. And if you don't want to spend the money, they've also added a developer overview page describing some of the guts of Mac OS X v10.4."

18 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Quartz/JavaScript support? by kngthdn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The advanced drawing capabilities of Quartz are exposed to the Web Kit environment through a set of modular extensions to HTML. This will let you draw beautiful user interfaces using JavaScript.

    This has got to be the coolest new feature, considering how weak DHTML currently is. I could be wrong, but adding support for other APIs doesn't seem like it would be too hard. I'd love to finally be able to ditch Win32.

    1. Re:Quartz/JavaScript support? by cyfer2000 · · Score: 3, Informative

      doesn't this look like XUL?

      I bet there will be a website like Mozilla update's extension portion, and provide free downloading of millions, ah... sorry, maybe thousands, ah... maybe hundreds, never mind, of open source small applications! Brillian days of Apple are coming via these small applications! Maybe.

      Doesn't MS is also doing something alike named XAML?

      I'd like to buy some stock of Macromedia, dreamweaver may become a major developing tool in next ten years.

      --
      There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
  2. Re:cheers by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here's hoping the G5 powerbook comes out at the same time as Tiger. That is a mac fans wet dream.

    Sorry, but until they have some new lower-power and cooler G5 chip it will never be in a Powerbook. Even the new iMac has big fans in it.

  3. Re:$500 to Beta Test! by boredMDer · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually:

    $500 gets you select ADC membership +
    • Pre-release versions of Mac OS X v10.4 tiger and Xcode 2.0
    • Exclusive access to the latest tiger documentation
    • Direct, one-on-one access to tiger support engineers
    • Special developer discount on the latest Apple hardware
    • GM versions of Mac OS X v10.4 and Xcode 2.0 when available
    http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11632974~mo de=flat
  4. Re:Marketing by ColMustard · · Score: 5, Informative

    Only Apple releases security patches for Jaguar, so your argument makes no sense. You're not paying for security, you pay for features. If you don't care about the new features then you obviously have no incentive to upgrade and you can keep your money. Not hard.

    --
    Moof.
  5. No. $500 for ADC membership that comes with extras by Rascasse · · Score: 4, Informative

    You get an ADC membership. This entitles you to an Apple hardware discount, some programming technical support, access to pre-release software and some other niceties. Moreover, this particular deal comes with the WWDC 2004 videos DVD that has already been distributed amongst ADC members. You also get the Tiger beta that developers received at WWDC 2004 (though it's probably a more recent build). The WWDC tutorials are great resources and I'd be more attracted to this offer because of that. One can argue as to whether charging developers for assistance in making software for their platform is a good strategy or not for Apple. But this isn't merely a "$500 for the privilege of beta testing" rip-off.

  6. Re:DRM'ed? by burns210 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple doesn't DRM their OSes... You do not receive(nor required to enter on install or later) a activation/product key.. I believe you are given an optional 'registration' type mini-survey that gets sent to Apple, but no personal information is sent, nor is it required.

    Apple doesn't care if you pirate it. They want you to buy it, they make multi-licenses and such a sweet deal and make it worth the money for single licenses. However, Apple makes money on the hardware, and the more users on the latest version of their OS, the less they have to support the old version and the more they can move forward.

  7. Re:Huh? by SamBaughman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Let me get this? $500 to be a developer on an OS that is even more marginal than Linux. I guess it's part of the whole Apple mystique to pay for everything.

    Apple gives away their development tools with the OS. The $500 gets you a one-year membership in the developer program, which gets you advance access to OS releases. This is similar to Microsoft's MSDN subscriptions. As compared to an MSDN subscription, I think it's a bargain. Microsoft's MSDN Operating Systems subscription (access just to Microsoft's OSs) is $699 the first year, and $499 thereafter. Want Visual Studio with that? $1,199 for the first year, $899 thereafter. (And, of course, the even higher-level subscriptions with all of Microsoft's server & desktop apps...)

    Oh, and Apple lets you buy one system per year at discount when you're in the developer program. If you're looking for the high-end PowerMac G5 and a Cinema Display, you can save several hundred dollars when you buy the system.

  8. Re:$500 to Beta Test! by GeorgeMcBay · · Score: 5, Informative


    So, like the first guy said, $500 to beta test. No thank you. Why people fall for this I will never understand-if you want to invest in the company, buy stock.


    You seem to be missing the point -- but then, so do most of the people posting here, so maybe it is the fault of the misleading, biased copy in the Slashdot writeup.

    This program is for DEVELOPERS. You know, people who write software that will run on Apple's OSes. Getting early access to developer tools and upcoming OS releases is *easily worth* $500. I pay about three times more to Microsoft for MSDN for the same purpose -- to get a first look at the operating systems and tools. Not because I want to be first on my block for bragging rights, but because I may want to be first to market with an application that makes use of services in the new OS.

  9. Re:64bit OS by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Apple went from a pascal based operating system (OS9) to a fully functional, hyper powerful OS in less than 10 years.
    Well, to be fair, though Apple did originally design the Mac OS with Pascal in mind as the primary programming language, Pascal had already been obsoleted in Apple's MPW compiler architecture by 1995, in favor of C/C++. You could still buy all the programming references with examples written in Pascal and the C headers all specified Pascal parameter-passing convetions, but the Mac OS world had pretty much transitioned to C by the time the PowerPC showed up. By the time Mac OS 9 shipped, you could hardly say it was a "Pascal based" operating system (in fact, I'm not even really sure what that phrase means).
    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  10. Re:GCC 4? by k98sven · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, the next GCC release will be 4.0.0 (previously known as 3.5.0).

    It's currently in "stage 3" which is basically the GCC equivalent of 'feature freeze', where only documentation and bugfixes can be added, but not features.

    The actual release is expected to be in early next year.

  11. Re:$500 to Beta Test! by FosterKanig · · Score: 4, Informative

    Special developer discount on the latest Apple hardware
    And that is how much? 5% off on some stuff that I don't need?

    $600 off a dual 2.5 gig machine.
    $500 off a dual 2.0 gig machine.

  12. Already stays fullscreen when inactive by Cadre · · Score: 3, Informative

    The latest DVD Player.app does this. Go into preferences and click on the Full Screen widget then look for the "Remain in full screen when DVD Player is inactive".

    Now only if they would add this feature to iChat for video conferencing. :-)

    --
    All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
  13. Re:Marketing by EvilNTUser · · Score: 4, Informative

    More precisely:

    95 = Windows 4.0
    98 = Windows 4.1
    ME = Windows 4.9

    NT = Windows NT 3.1 - 4.0
    2k = Windows NT 5.0
    XP = Windows NT 5.1
    2003 = Windows NT 5.2

    --
    My Sig: SEGV
  14. Re:$500 to Beta Test! by MoneyT · · Score: 5, Informative

    That $500 gets you the following:

    OS X current version full install

    OS X Sever current version full install

    Beta access

    Free copies of OS X for every new release, on disc sent in the mail for a year. This includes a disc copy for the free point releases (i.e. 10.3.X)

    Discounts for exhibit hardware

    Discounts for hardware in general (roughly 15-20%)

    Access to the compatability labs (go to apple to test your software on all their machines)

    Developer tech support

    and various other minor discounts and benefits.

    --
    T Money
    World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
  15. Re:DRM'ed? by ps_inkling · · Score: 3, Informative
    For Mac OS X, you are correct that there is no serial number, just the survey questions. However, for Mac OS X Server, you are required to enter a serial number. There are two versions of OS X Server, the serial number activates / deactivates the 10 simultaneous file sharing client restrictions.

    Without the serial number, OS X Server doesn't install. Now, if you buy the $500 ADC membership, you get a (limited) OS X Server serial number, and access to OS X Server software for testing purposes.

    If you want the server version of OS X, should you get OS X Server (10 client) for $499.95, OS X Server (unlimited) for $999.95, or ADC Select membership for $500 and get OS X Server (10 client) (for testing purposes) and the latest OS X releases for one year? Not a hard decision.

  16. Re:cheers by pyite · · Score: 3, Informative

    Powerbooks (at least my TiBook) already have boiling liquid in them. How do you think heat pipes work?

    --

    "Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

  17. The difference by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dashboard is not a browser, nor is it going to be built into the browser. If you browse to one of these Widgets the browser would not know what to do.

    Instead, it is an application that makes use of a very widley used and understodd programming language to let you create these little Widgets. So it really is nothing like ActiveX at all, in that it is contained.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley