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Mac OS X Tiger Goes Gold

bonch writes "Following up yesterday's story, AppleInsider now reports that Tiger build 8A428 has been deemed the Gold Master for shipping. Sources expect an announcement of Tiger's completion sometime tomorrow." There are far better days to make a product announcement, should a company wish to be taken seriously, but it worked for Gmail!

73 of 562 comments (clear)

  1. Let's not forget by Bones3D_mac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple was founded on an April Fools Day, so this would really be an anniversary event.

    --


    8==8 Bones 8==8
    1. Re:Let's not forget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Apple was founded on an April Fools Day

      Ha! Finally it occured to you!

      Had you fooled for quite some time, huh?

      You forgot the quotes around "founded", though.

      Obviously, we're just a division of Microsoft and no company, so now you know where the money you buy Mac's for goes.

      I must say I thought it was apparent to you guys though... Mac's and OS X users usually serve as a testbed for new technologies we at Microsoft are coming up with, that we can later choose to incorporate in our flagship product Windows if the Mac users like them.

      And you always thought it was two completely different companies, one often "ripping off" the other.

      Ha ha.

      Steve Jobs
      *cough* CEO, Apple *giggle*

  2. expect... by igny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    shortage of mac minis in the coming weeks

    --
    In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
    1. Re:expect... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are people that have been waiting for Tiger before ordering a mini. It seems that the Apple Store has caught up on the 1.25GHz mini orders (ships same business day), the 1.42GHz minis are still 5-7 days to shipping.

    2. Re:expect... by jericho4.0 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      It might not move as many as you think. The people in the market for a mini (the archtypical 'switcher') don't really follow OS releases.

      OTOH, I've had 'wait until Tiger' in the back of my head when thinking about getting a Mac.

      --
      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
    3. Re:expect... by yuriismaster · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think I can answer that for him...

      While this list may answer your questions, I seriously reccomend viewing the '05 Keynote from San Fransico

      http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf05/

      1. Spotlight: I'm sure you probably know about it by now. Super-quick searching of everything evar!

      2. Dashboard: Quick lookup-info and go thing. Try something remarkably similar at http://www.konfabulator.com/ but think of Dashboard as faster.

      3. Automator: Like writing small shell scripts to replace you, but way better/gui'fied. Application developers can use AppleScripts to create more robust workflows. (Save your pr0n images faster than ever before!)

      4. More optimization: Like most .upgrades, things are looking a lot faster.

      Visit http://www.apple.com/macosx/ for more info

    4. Re:expect... by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, any product that's listed as "same day" is over stocked. Apple's supply-chain management is very tight. The company does not intend for products to sit on shelves waiting for orders to come in. A 2-3 day shipping window is what the company shoots for. If the product can ship the same day, that means orders have been slower than anticipated.

      I ... um ... have no idea what relevance this might have on anything. But I thought you might find it interesting.

    5. Re:expect... by lamz · · Score: 4, Informative

      I am one of those people. OS X 10.4, new Quicken and new iLife, purchased separately, would cost almost as much as a Mac mini.

      As soon as Mac mini's are shipping with OS X 10.4, I'm ordering one. And if they're shipping with a coupon, or OS X 10.3 on the HD with a 10.4 updater, even better! It will make it easier to install 10.4 on my other Macs.

      I managed to pull that one off a few years ago when I bought my iMac G4 17". It had 10.1 on the HD with a 10.2 updater disc in the box.

      --

      Mike van Lammeren
      It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.

    6. Re:expect... by LadyLucky · · Score: 3, Informative
      Gah, speak for yourself. My Mac Mini has been on order for 2 months.

      That seems to be what happens when you are low priority - Apple New Zealand sources from Apple Australia, which itself can't satisfy its own demand.

      --
      dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
    7. Re:expect... by robbieduncan · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is a common mistake. Some Macs are assembled in Ireland, normally PowerMacs, but it's mostly a depot/warehouse. All Mac Minis are made in China.

    8. Re:expect... by eclectic4 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Interesting. I would want the full version CDs, no doubt. You should do an "archive and install" when doing this update anyway, and, if you ever need to reinstall the OS to the machines in the future, you would have to first install 10.3, and then the updater again. With the full install you wouldn't have to do so.

      No, having the full install is by far the better option IMO, but, that's just me...

      --

      "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
    9. Re:expect... by shotfeel · · Score: 4, Informative

      AFAIK, Apple has never shipped "just an updater" for a paid update (of course my memory gets fuzzy when you get back before System 7). Its always been the full OS (which comes on DVD these days). That was always a nice touch as apposed to the install DOS-install Win 3.1-Upgrade to Win 95... process involved with a certain other company.

      Even with the "free" ($20) upgrades some have gotten in the past, Apple has shipped the entire OS on the CD(s). Its just that the installer checked to make sure you have the previous version before starting the installation process (you could still do a full archive and install). In fact, it didn't take long for people to figure out the trick and image the upgrade CD to disk, remove the bit that checked for the previous system, then burn the "fixed" image to another CD.

    10. Re:expect... by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You do realize that Apple's not a distributor, right? We're a manufacturer. We don't have to worry about losing a sale because of a 2-day shipping delay, because we make what we sell. You can't get a Mac unless you get it from us. Sure, if we can't ship it to you quickly enough you might pick up the phone and call one of our other customers -- like CDW, say -- and get it from them, but that's irrelevant to us. We've already sold it at that point.

      Your goal, as a reseller, is to have inventory sitting on the shelf so you can fill orders quickly in order to compete with other resellers. That's how you do business.

      Our goal, as a manufacturer, is to never build a single thing unless it's already sold. We can't do that, practically, because we can't sell something unless we've already built it, but we try to get as close to that as possible. We don't have warehouses. We don't sit on inventory waiting for the phone to ring. We don't pride ourselves on having things in stock. Just the opposite.

      Our two companies live in completely different universes. You're silly to try to compare them.

  3. Fast! by CypherXero · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yesterday:
    Apple will sometimes seed several final candidate builds before one is declared gold master...'"

    Today:
    Tiger build 8A428 has been deemed the Gold Master for shipping

    Damn that was fast! I can't believe I miss those builds!

    1. Re:Fast! by maxjenius22 · · Score: 4, Funny

      There can be only one.

  4. Aprilfools! by binder520 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It would be the best joke on Microsoft if Apple costumed TIGER as Longhorn.

    1. Re:Aprilfools! by mOoZik · · Score: 4, Funny

      It would be funnier if TIGER had a LONGHORN! *wink nudge*

  5. April 1st announcement by RustNeverSleeps · · Score: 4, Informative

    An April 1 announcement from Apple actually sort of makes sense, because Apple was incorporated on April 1, 1976. That makes tomorrow Apple's 29th "birthday."

    It's good to see that Apple is delivering Tiger on time. Some might even say it's early.

    1. Re:April 1st announcement by buckhead_buddy · · Score: 4, Funny
      RustNeverSleeps wrote:
      An April 1 announcement from Apple actually sort of makes sense, because Apple was incorporated on April 1, 1976. That makes tomorrow Apple's 29th "birthday."
      This overlooks that slashdot is a geek website. :-)
      Tomorrow will be Apple's 30th birthday (since birthday counting is zero based)
      though it is only the 29th anniversary of Apple's birthday (which is what most people who haven't had to debug overflow and off-by-one errors celebrate.
    2. Re:April 1st announcement by StikyPad · · Score: 5, Funny

      B.S.

      I was born in '76, and my 30th birthday isn't for another year damnit. Don't steal what little youth I have left.

  6. Cheap updates? by antizeus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is there any word about whether they'll offer cheap updates to people who recently bought a Mac? I've heard that they've done so in the past, and I hope that they do again, because I just got my iBook yesterday.

    --
    -- $SIGNATURE
    1. Re:Cheap updates? by Finque · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's usually something available.... if memory serves, you only pay $25.
      I could just be talking out of my ass on that value though.

    2. Re:Cheap updates? by Nermal6693 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just to clarify: 2000 was NT 5.0 and XP is 5.1. So 2000 -> XP and Panther -> Tiger are both +0.1 upgrades.

    3. Re:Cheap updates? by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Okay, let's squash a couple of pieces of misinformation.

      One: You're not thinking of Core Video. You're thinking of Core Image.

      Two: Core Image has no requirements at all. Any computer that can run Tiger can run Core Image code.

      Three: Core Image will take advantage of hardware acceleration if it's available. But it's also smart enough not to take advantage of hardware acceleration if the CPU is faster. For instance if you run a Core image application on a 2 x 2.5 GHz G5 with a GeForce 5200 card, nearly all Core Image functions will be executed in the CPU. Because it's faster.

      Four: Motion does not use Core Image. Rather, Core Image is derived from some of the work that was done for Motion, with significant portability enhancements. Whether or not you can run Motion has nothing to do with Core Image.

  7. pearpc by Anonymouse+Cownerd · · Score: 4, Funny

    now if only if i had a computer fast enough to make pearpc usable...

    --
    http://www.rayn.net . Funny. Stuff.
    1. Re:pearpc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's okay, you can still use CherryOS!

  8. They can't go on like this, can they? by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 4, Funny

    So when is Ocelot coming out? And how many big cats are left? Lion, lynx... lynx is overused and probably won't be picked... Any other names?

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
    1. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by superrcat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Garfield.

    2. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by superrcat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're using the codenames to make a better distinction between the upgrades. "Mac OS X" has become a brand like "Pentium" and if they just market it as 10.3 to 10.4, most people would consider it a minor update rather than an entire overhaul.

    3. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by superrcat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fine...Pussy Galore.

    4. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by kevcol · · Score: 4, Funny

      So when is Ocelot coming out?

      How do you titillate an ocelot?

      You oscillate it's tit a lot.

    5. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by ztirffritz · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm holding out for Egyptian Hairless. Once they have mac mini with Egyptian Hairless installed, I'm buying 2!

      --
      Why doesn't anything interesting happen when I have mod points?
    6. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by ArsonPanda · · Score: 5, Funny

      +5 Funny?
      only time Garfield has *ever* been funny.

      --

      --I don't want the world, I just want your half.
    7. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 4, Informative

      Puma was used too. The names of the releases were Cheetah (marketed as 10.0), Puma (marketed as 10.1), Jaguar (marketed as 10.2), Panther (marketed as 10.3) and Tiger (marketed as 10.4).

    8. Re:They can't go on like this, can they? by beowulfcluster · · Score: 3, Funny

      When they release OS X Catbert you know it's time to start looking somewhere else.

  9. Yeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!! by rokzy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've just been looking at the Tiger preview stuff on Apple's website. it's been there for ages but I never bothered with it until now.

    I knew the features were cool but there were a few extra surprises, like in Dashboard there's a language translator that translates your words as you're typing. it looked really cool - he was typing "French fries" which was dynamically translated frenc->francais->pommes frites as more letters were typed. I didn't notice a USA ("Freedom fries") option in the language list though.

    Automator looked far cooler than I'd imagined too.

    I must say I don't like the new look of the email app though. I love the current skin.

    1. Re:Yeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!! by MasonMcD · · Score: 5, Funny

      I love the current skin

      Skin? SKIN?!!! OK, you gnome/KDE hippie. Apple doesn't make "skins". They produce "human interface guidelines" and bond the UI onto an app so tight it'll make your anus pucker.

      Unless you're talking about human skin from any "trade dress" lawsuit. In which case, they make lovely lampshades.

  10. OSX is grrrrrreat! by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You know, I am so glad that Tiger is finally being released. I have been using Panther for a while, and it is SO GOOD as far as operating systems go. Yes, I used to enjoy tinkering with all the settings in Linux and FreeBSD over the years, setting up desktop and laptop systems exactly the way I wanted them, but there were always problems and things that I couldn't get working properly. With OSX, everything Just Works (tm), obviously because the same people who make OSX make the hardware it runs on.

    And Tiger is going to be a beautiful release. There are features in it, especially the searching and process automation, that I've been dreaming about for years. The searching technology first appeared in BeOS with its attribute-based filesystem, but the process automation is actually something that a company I worked for ten years ago tried to invent and couldn't get it working properly. When I saw it on Apple's demo page for Tiger, I basically saw exactly the same thing that we tried to do...

    All I'm trying to say is that I thoroughly understand the depth of Apple's success with this software, and the technical achievement they made. This is a UNIX that can do so darn much.

    1. Re:OSX is grrrrrreat! by MochaMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      Stop surfing slashdot and get back to work, Steve! Aren't you supposed to be writing the press release right now?

  11. Re:Great! by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    actually, apple's been really good with supporting old hardware provided you stuff it with enough ram.

    my G4-450 tower is over 6 years old, and works great with the latest version of OS X Panther -- everything is just as snappy as it is on my fairly new powerbook (as far as the os is concerned...). I've been using the latest release of final cut pro on it without a problem for the past few weeks.

    can you say that you can use a 6-year old PC without any siginificant upgrades and still run the latest OS and software and be productive with it? Paying $2000 for a machine that will last 6 years is definitely justifiable compared to paying $1000 for a mediocre machine that lasts 2.5 years.

    --
    -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  12. A cunning strategm by xenocide2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Announce on April Fool's day, and then just mine the April Fool's posts on slashdot for good ideas!

    --
    I Browse at +4 Flamebait

    Open Source Sysadmin

  13. and it's already a bestseller... by QuantGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...acccording to Amazon. It's the top Amazon software and electronics item, which is pretty amazing considering it's outselling TurboTax and the iPod.

    I ordered mine already, of course...

    1. Re:and it's already a bestseller... by JQuick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. It's amazing considering Apple only has ~3 percent market share.

      That number is incredibly misleading. It underestimates real users since, lumped into the Microsoft share, are the majority of the Intel PCs used as Point of Sale terminals, ATMs, informatioin kiosks, etc.

      It also fails to account for the fact that Mac owners tend to keep their systems for several years longer than PC users. Thus the percentage of home users of Macs is probably somewhere between %8-%12, not the oft quoted 3%.

    2. Re:and it's already a bestseller... by ErikZ · · Score: 3, Funny

      "It also fails to account for the fact that Mac owners tend to keep their systems for several years longer than PC users."

      I don't see why keeping your old mac in the closet would qualify you as a "user".

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
  14. 8A428 slashdotted, mirrors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apples site already slashdotted - somebody please setup mirror for tiger 8A428.

    ;)

  15. Apple's OS upgrade past performance by amichalo · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the past, when Apple has upgraded their OS versions, they have done the following:
    (1) customers who purchased a new Mac 30 days (the exchange peroid) before the announcement get a free upgrade CD in the mail (or at an Apple Store perhaps?)
    (2) new Macs being built come with the new OS on the hard drive image from the factory.
    (3) computers in inventory get their boxes sliced open and a new OS upgrade CD (DVD?) dropped in. This disk requires the install drive to have an OS on it already, so it is not the same as what comes on the boxed OS CD.

    I have also read other reports from people who got a free iLife upgrade because of (1) having that CD dropped in their Macs as a separate disk, not the OS and iLife on a single disk.

    This may usher in the era of Mac OS missing iTunes/iPhoto/iMovie/iDVD/Garageband on the same CD - thus reinforcing the concept of iLife as an application suite and the OS as a standalone product. Don't look for these new iLife apps on the Tiger install CDs purchased from the store. (But as always, new Macs come with Mac OS and iLife as well as Quicken.)

    --
    I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
  16. Re:Great! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    New releases of OS X generally run faster than older ones because the OS is relatively new and optimizations are keeping pace with feature adds.

    The one thing you'll want is a decent amount of memory. 128 mb hasn't been enough for any previous version, and it's doubtful it'll be enough for 10.4.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  17. OS XI by thundercatslair · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will apple ever upgarde the name to mac OS 11? I know that apple OS X name is pretty much like microsoft windows, but hasn't there been enough upgrades to warrent the version name upgrade, or a better question would be how is it they even decided to upgrade the version name by 1?

    1. Re:OS XI by damiam · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Version numbers are completely arbitrary. The differences between point versions of OSX are at least as significant as the differences bewteen major versions of Classic OSs. So it makes perfect sense to consider them as OSs 11, 12, 13, 14 if you like. No one said there has to be a "complete overhaul" between major version number bumps, as shown by the original Mac OS, which went for twenty years and 9 major version without a complete overhaul.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  18. Beware this 'Tiger' release! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    **** THE PROOF THAT TIGER IS EVIL ****

    T I G E R
    84 73 71 69 82 - as ASCII values
    3 1 8 6 1 - digits added
    \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/
    3 1 8 6 1 - digits added

    Thus, "TIGER" is 31861.

    Subtract 97 from the number - this is the year Vesuvius erupted, written backwards. It gives 31764.

    Add 0791 to it - this is the year IBM announced S/370, written backwards - you will get 32555.

    Subtract 38, the symbol of slavery. The result will be 32517.

    Add 1983, the year Microsoft introduced Windows 1.0 - the result is 34500.

    Turn the number backwards, and add 1778 - the year Oliver Pollock invented '$', the symbol of exploitation, suffering and injustice. The number is now 2321.

    This, when read backwards, gives 1232. This is 666 in octal, the number of the Beast...

    Evil, QED.

    ( http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/evilfinder/ef.shtml )

  19. Automator by jay-be-em · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Automator has to be one of the coolest things I've seen in a gui.. ever.

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/automator.html

    It looks like Apple has finally found an elegant way to make a GUI accomplish tasks like these faster than I could at a bash prompt.

    --
    "Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
    1. Re:Automator by 10Ghz · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I was responding to the claim that Automator was an efficient replacement for bash programming


      For my wife it would be. She would be infinitely more productive with Automator than with Bash-programming ;).

      non-experts generally don't have any more trouble learning well-designed scripting languages than graphical environments.


      I beg to differ. With tools like Automator they would get instant visual cues as to what the system does. The system would just make sense. They just set each step accordingly, by choosing from drop-down boxes (with descripitve names of apps and actions) and the like, and it does the rest. It even has nice arrows point that "when this is done, I will move on to this step here". But let's look at your example:

      wget -nd -r -l 1 -A jpg http://somehost.com/ [somehost.com] zip out.zip *.jpg

      Huh? What is "wget"? What the hell are -nd -r -l 1 -A? How do those tell the user what it's doing? The user would have to spend time going through obscure manuals. With Automator, they could simply tell the system "fetch images from this website, and make an archive out of them".

      Of course, if you have the commands memorized, then typing that command is propably faster than doing the same with Automator. But ask regural user who does NOT have that knowledge to do the same with Bash and with Automator. Which will be faster? Which of them will he rather use? If you answer "Bash", you are deluding yourself.
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  20. Re:Apple... by superrcat · · Score: 4, Funny

    You paid $100 for an operating system that is already 2 versions old? I have some copies of Windows Me I'll sell you for $80.

  21. Re:Apple... by Redshift · · Score: 3, Funny

    Miserable troll. You bought JAGUAR? For a hundred dollars? Where exactly? eBay? If you are not a troll you are just plain dumb.

    Panther is 10.3.

    Jaguar was 10.2.

    Tiger will be 10.4.

  22. One significant upgrade... by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 4, Informative

    The machine I'm typing this on had one significant upgrade since I got it in high school. (I finished grad school a few months ago.) That was my 300MHz to 750MHz CPU upgrade. Man, I was livin' large back then, telling myself I'd just get a doubled CPU speed every year and a half. That kinda stopped when I didn't have the spare cash, and hasn't started up since.

    Well, and that 20GB hard drive I splurged on. My root partition is still on the original 2GB, though.

    I'd like to have a few new things, like USB 2.0 (though I could just get a card for that) or Serial ATA so I never have to see a fucking ribbon cable again. I may not play World of Warcraft on it, but it does the same thing it did years ago---runs Opera, runs my little perl programs, and runs gaim. Old gaim.

    Though, because PCs are so modular, you get into a "best axe I ever had, three new handles, five new blades" thing. If you upgrade the RAM, the video card, the CPU and the disks, it's not really the same machine that it was. I doubt I'll buy an entirely new machine in the foreseeable future. So you could consider $2000 in parts spent over six years to be the cost of keeping the machine stocked with quality upgrades. I think it all works out evenly.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  23. Re:If this isn't a joke, it means Java 1.5 arrives by Redshift · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, Apple's Tiger 10.4 will contain Sun's Tiger 1.5.

    http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=523

  24. Re:Great! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "can you say that you can use a 6-year old PC without any siginificant upgrades and still run the latest OS and software and be productive with it?

    Sure. As long as you're not married to Windows.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  25. Tiger by Alien+Venom · · Score: 3, Funny

    TIIIIIIIIIGER UPERCUT?

  26. Re:expect... No, they DO ask it all the time by dirkstoop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Au contraire,

    The number one question asked by 'the archetypical mini-buyer' - and of course the tons of other people that ask for a mini who sometimes have some similarity with this mythical person - is 'Will I get Tiger for free when I but my mini now?'

    The archetypical mac-mini switcher (subset of a-mm-buyer) is not the complete computer-n00b we would all love to go out and buy a mac, only because then we might actually get to benchmarks the actual stand-by time of our mobile phones, that type of user still uses the windows pc they've had for years because they don't care about computers, don't read the articles about them in the press, skip conversations about computers in social events because they're biased to think they won't understand any of it anyway and are thereby still highly unaware of the other options out there besides using their windows 95 OSR 2 box with 16 megs of ram till death.

    The typical switcher we get - I work in a big Apple Centre in the Netherlands - is the slightly geeky guy on a budget. The type that cares a bit above average about computers, never used Linux because they couldn't figure out how to install it in the amount of time they wanted to commit themselves to it and besides that just mature enough to be tempted by the idea that *it* might JustWork(TM)

    -- above passage not intended as linux-is-too-difficult-for-'normal'-people-flame-b ait but merely to describe the type of user whe're talking about here--

    The second most important typical mini-buyer is the user that already has -at least one- mac, looking for an extra machine to fulfill some specific task(s) , or unable to resist the mac mini coolness factor and getting one while not having the faintest clue why they would need it, or to replace for instance a dying iMac they've been using as a file- and print-server on a budget or likewise

    Besides that, all the linux-geeks I know either want one, already have one or don't need one since they've gotten themselves an iBook. but that's not such a large part of the people we get in our store.

    All of those categories of customers actually care *a lot* about whether or not Tiger will be included with their minimac.

    PS: I'm not in sales but in tech support, so I might miss a few of those potential customers..

    --
    (may read 'IMHO' wherever omitted from above text)
  27. Re:expect... No, they DO ask it all the time by rnelsonee · · Score: 3, Informative
    I just want to say that I agree with you - a lot of Mini buyers do know what Tiger is, and knew it was coming out soon. I should know, becase I'm one of them. And you hit it on the head "slightly geeky guy on a budget". For me, I'm a bit more than 'slightly' geeky, but at the same time, I wasn't really in the market for a new computer, I just got the Mini cause I always wanted to try OS X.

    I'm basing some of this off of the fact I have seen zero Mac Mini commercials - most Mini buyers (in the eastern US anyway) probably heard about it by word of mouth (and internet) rather than a traditional media campaign - so they know at least a thing or two about OS X and what the releases mean.

  28. Re:Great! by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Funny you should bring this up. I just finished -- and I mean just finished, like ten minutes ago -- a weekly column that I write. I loaned my PowerBook for a few days to someone who needed it more than I did, so I wrote it on a six-year-old iBook with a 300 MHz G3 processor and 256 MB of RAM.

    This computer runs 10.3.8, and the application I used was Adobe InCopy 3.

    It worked perfectly. Zero complaints. The only way I could tell the difference between the iBook and my PowerBook is the size of the screen. Of course, I wasn't running any other applications at the time; if I had been, I would have run out of RAM. But apart from that one constraint, I used it in exactly the same way I normally use my laptop, and noticed no difference in functionality or speed.

  29. Build numbers by warkda+rrior · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Tiger build 8A428...

    Think about this: if the build number is in hex (i.e. 0x8A428), this is the 566,312nd build of Tiger.

    Now, about 18 months passed since the release of OSX 10.3. This means that Apple built OSX Tiger about 42 times per hour, without stop since Oct. 2003 (OSX 10.3 release time)!

    --
    You need to install an RTFM interface.
    1. Re:Build numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The build numbers don't work that way. Here's a little table with some examples:

      MacOS X version Darwin kernel version Build
      10.2.0 6.0.0 6Annn
      10.2.1 6.1.0
      10.3.0 7.0.0 7Annn
      10.3.8 7.8.0 7U16 (what I'm running right now)
      10.4.0 8.0.0 8A428

      The first digit of the build number is always equal to the Darwin kernel's major version number. The next position is a single alpha character which Apple uses to distinguish different lines of development on that major revision of the OS. The first release will always be an 'A'. If the first branch they make is to add drivers for a new computer, that build series will get 'B', the next branch gets 'C' and so forth. The two major kinds of branch that I know about are for updates (10.3.0 -> 10.3.1 etc.) and for new hardware support.

      Finally you get to the actual build number, which is simply a boring old decimal number.

      So 8A428 actually means it's the first (and probably currently only) branch of 10.4 with 8.x.x series Darwin kernels, and it's at its 428th build.

  30. Re:If this isn't a joke, it means Java 1.5 arrives by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just so you know, the reason Apple doesn't invest very much time or effort into Java is because there's zero demand for Java client applications on the Mac. And the reason there's zero demand for it is because Java applications that are ported to the Mac have so far been done very sloppily, resulting in a bad user experience all around.

    If you want Java support for the Mac, do two things. First, sign up with ADC and express your opinion. Second, start writing good Java applications for the Mac.

  31. 10.4 Went Gold! by espek · · Score: 3, Funny
    Seems snappier!

    Updated permissions, everything seems ok.

  32. Re:expect... No, they DO ask it all the time by jargoone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The typical switcher we get - I work in a big Apple Centre in the Netherlands - is the slightly geeky guy on a budget. The type that cares a bit above average about computers, never used Linux because they couldn't figure out how to install it in the amount of time they wanted to commit themselves to it and besides that just mature enough to be tempted by the idea that *it* might JustWork(TM)

    You have a good view, but let me give you a data point. I'm a Linux sysadmin by day. My "server" at home runs Linux. My desktops at home run sort of Windows by necessity: one is for my wife, the other is my laptop that I need to use with a Centrino wireless card, and VPN for work. I know that I could "train" my wife to use Linux. I also know that I could get my finicky laptop to work. Point is, I don't want to. By the time I get home, I don't feel like it.

    From reading (mostly on /.), I'm about to switch. I want a machine that will allow my wife and I to use with sessions running simultaneously. I want mail and printing and scanning to work right. I want Bluetooth syncing to our phones and my wife's Tungsten to work. I want to be able to use my iPod, and my digital camera, and edit videos. I want it to all be integrated, and I want it to, yes, "just work".

    I mess around with things enough at work and home. When I want to play, I have plenty of things to play with. But I want something that I don't have to think about unless I want to. I don't want to have to edit a single god damn configuration file to accomplish the above tasks. Is the Mac the right answer? I think it might be. But if it's not, that's okay. I can go back to the old way, and when I do, I'll sell the Mac for damn near what I paid for it.

    I never thought I would be this way. But I've reached a time in my life where I have less patience and willingness to sacrifice free time. I also have lots more money. That's why I'm giving it a shot.

  33. Re:What version of GCC? by bonch · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/xcode.html

    "At the heart of Xcode 2.0 is Apple's version of gcc 4.0, the next generation of the industry-standard gcc compiler. The new compiler helps you get more performance from your existing code by using a number of advanced optimization techniques. Auto-vectorization, a technique borrowed from the world of supercomputing, helps you to unlock the power of the Velocity Engine in every PowerPC G4 and G5 system without writing vectorized code. Other optimization tools include support for feedback-directed optimization and inter-module analysis."

  34. Re:How big is the time window for an OSX replaceme by earthtoandy · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you purchased a computer within 14 days of the anouncement of release you are entitled to a $20 upgrade. This is how Apple has done it in the past.As far as buying Panther on its own there is no upgrade.

  35. Oh I don't know by mcc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Have you ever seen what happens when you put a tiger and a longhorn steer in the same room?

    Now THAT'S funny

  36. Re:What version of GCC? by jimmyharris · · Score: 4, Informative

    The pre-release builds are including both gcc 3.3 and gcc 4.0 with 4.0 being the default.

    You can switch between them using the

    /usr/sbin/gcc_select
    command.
  37. Re:Great! by Anonymous+Writer · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you're on a Mac running Safari right now, you can right-click or ctrl-click on the "comment" field for slashdot submissions and tick "Spelling -> Check Spelling as you Type". The word "resurection" would be underlined in red and you could right-click or ctrl-click on it to correct it. I'm not nitpicking about spelling, but I actually think it's a neat feature that not many Mac users are aware of for posting on the net. It's a system-wide feature for text fields in OS X, just a neat little insight into the design quality of what goes on under the hood.

  38. Re:If this isn't a joke, it means Java 1.5 arrives by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I couldn't have said it better. Although I think it's worth making clear that what you said about the menu bar is just one example of how developers can piss off users by assuming that Java applications should be run unmodified on the Mac.

    Drag and drop is a vital part of the Macintosh user interface. Java developers often neglect to implement it. Same with packaging and application metadata, application services, even the dock menu. Java developers often -- I'll go so far as to say "almost always" --completely ignore these important parts of the Mac operating environment, either blithely unaware of them or under the sadly mistake impression that users just won't miss them.

    Like I said, if developers want Apple to give a shit about Java, they're going to need to start giving a shit about Apple.

  39. Re:expect... No, they DO ask it all the time by ickoonite · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hear hear!

    I was in a vaguely similar boat, though I can't ever claim to have been a Linux sysadmin - certainly not outside the home anyway. All our machines at home were Windows XP, mostly self-built, and we had Linux for NAT, etc. But all the machines were a constant hassle. The only thing I can be thankful for is that this was before spyware and its ilk got really big, so I never had to deal with much of that.

    Anyway, I got an iBook in 2002, after playing around on a very sexy PowerMac G4 server (it had 1.25GB RAM, which was not unimpressive at the time). Looking back now, it was quite crude - Internet Explorer for the web browser, no X11, no Quartz Extreme - but I still switched, and haven't looked back.

    Granted, it's a little weird if you're coming from a Linux-centric background - each UNIX has its own ways of doing things and Darwin is no different in this respect - but you can still get down to the nitty-gritty and write your own ipfw configuration if it floats your boat. And, though Fink seems slightly stagnated of late, running KDE on your Mac is just plain cool (from a "because you can" point of view, anyway).

    Keep an open mind - I know a friend of mine was a little upset at first because he couldn't start Apache with apachectl start. I was a little terse with him in reply, pointing out that Apple, champion of the GUI, could hardly expect a horde of headstrong OS9 GUI diehards to open up a Terminal to start a web server. Once I pointed him towards the Sharing tab, all was fine.

    The wireless implementation is unparalleled. Having taken my first steps in the WiFi world on a Mac, it pains me to use Windows' or Linux efforts (the latter I am having particular trouble with at home). Bluetooth is beautiful - you will, I am sure, find BluePhoneElite and Salling Clicker amusing if not essential toys. iPhoto is really, really nice; iMovie HD is just totally cool...

    You almost take it for granted in fact. I installed iTunes on a friend's Windows XP machine the other day, and she was almost bowled over (she has rather poor balance) by the simplicity of iTunes. I now think of it as nothing special, but to someone who has suffered under WiMP for so long, it is truly refreshing.

    In the end, all the machines at home now are Macs, save for one Linux server which still does NAT, mostly for my amusement so that I can continue to hack when I want. But I really think you hit the nail on the head with this...

    I mess around with things enough at work and home. When I want to play, I have plenty of things to play with. But I want something that I don't have to think about unless I want to. I don't want to have to edit a single god damn configuration file to accomplish the above tasks.

    I think I can sum it up succinctly with a line that is sure to appeal to at least the more mature and competent (i.e. less l33t t33n h4x0r) type that reads /. "Hack 'cause you want, not 'cause you have to." Hacking actually becomes fun again. And surely that's something quite hard to put a price on?

    iqu :)