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OS X Leopard Ships On October 26th

David in AZ writes "According to the Apple website, Mac OS X Leopard will start shipping on October 26! From their blurb: 'Packed with more than 300 new features, Mac OS X Leopard goes on sale Friday, October 26, at 6:00 p.m. at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, Apple announced today. And, beginning today, customers can place pre-orders on Apple's online store. "Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we've ever released," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.""

762 comments

  1. The student edition is now $47 more by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Informative

    It used to be that for software anyway, the student discounts represented a significant savings, which was great for poor college students. But starting with iWork and iLife it seems that the student discount is only about 10%. So whereas Tiger cost $69 for the edu version, Leopard costs $116.....

    1. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you're a poor student consider opting for the "Bittorrent Edition" instead.

    2. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by mc+moss · · Score: 0

      Those education discounts were very helpful and were the reason why I bought some apple products. However, they discounts are becoming smaller and smaller throughout the years. My guess is that shareholders are probably complaining about the steep discounts that apple offered as it became more prominent.

    3. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by smilindog2000 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Gee... I already have most of those cool new features, and ever time my OS ships "The greatest upgrade ever", it costs me nothing... man, I love linux, and Ubuntu/Debian in particular.

      --
      Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.
    4. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by sribe · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Hey somebody, please mod this up! Parent post is not true! Anybody can go to Apple's web site right now, navigate to the education store, pick their (or any random) school, and verify that the education price is $69. I hesitate to accuse someone of deliberately lying, but I do wonder, because an essentially identical post was made about Tiger the day it was announced, and of course turned out to be false.

    5. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Crizp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If that works for you; fine. Some of us, though, have grown tired of fucking around with flaky wireless drivers, bad 3D support for new gfx cards etc. But we still like to be able to go to the core via the command line when necessary. We just usually like to get work done.

      So get over yourself, it obviously isn't for you. And before the "Linux noob" comments come; my servers are Slackware and have been since at least ten years ago.

    6. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by VCAGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think it still is, though it appears that Apple has reduced the places where you can get those steep discounts at...their online "Education" store pricing is higher than it used to be, but since they don't bother with compliance checking, I think I can understand why. I attend UCF, and a quick check of our computer store's ordering page shows that Tiger (M9639Z) is $69, and that Leopard (MB021Z) will also be $69. iWork '08 cost me just $39...a quick check of a another Florida university's computer store showed the same pricing.

      --
      Q: "Why do sound techs say 'check 1, 2'?"
      A: "Cause if they could count any higher they'd be lighting techs."
    7. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by mc+moss · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unfortunately, it is true. I just went to the education site and the pricing is as follows for Leopard: single user - $116.00, family pack - $ 199.00

    8. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Applekid · · Score: 3, Funny

      I've never really understood the student discount thing. If they can afford to sell things significantly cheaper than full retail, why not just apply it across the board?

      I just can't separate that from price discrimination against those not in school.

      Ooh, wait.
      1) Create fake school.
      2) ???
      3) PROFIT

      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
    9. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by spud603 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I just did what you recommended and I get:
      Single User $116.00
      Maybe it depends on the school?

    10. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I already have most of those features

      Oh really? Please tell me what feature of Linux comes even close to Time Machine? No rush...I'll wait.
    11. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 1

      I just went to the Apple Education Store, looked at Leopard, and it is indeed showing up at the higher price of $116.00 for me.

      --
      R.Mo
    12. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, I just looked at the Apple Store Online (Education), and it's $116 there. So...mod parent down. Yay.

    13. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by RockoTDF · · Score: 2, Funny

      rsync.

      In all fairness, I love both Linux and OS X.

      --
      There is more to science than physics!

      www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
    14. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by necro81 · · Score: 1

      For what it's worth, if you know some people who could go in on it with you, there's the 5-license family pack for $199, or only $40/person. There's just one copy of the media, but there's nothing stopping you from duplicating it so you each have a copy.

      This is true of the single-license, too. There isn't anything like license validation, activation, or genuine advantage in OS X, so I guess there isn't anything preventing you from pirating the hell out of one single licensed copy; the extra price you pay in the family pack is for piece of mind (if you have an objection to outright piracy), and four extra "proof of purchase" coupons (whatever that's worth).

    15. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Helios1182 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Price discrimination is how the economy works. You try and get as many people as much as possible, then get those that didn't buy it at the original price to buy it for less, so on and so forth. That is why they release a $29 hardcover book, then a $15 paper back, and then a $10 reprint.

    16. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      it's a pity that anyone wishing to build their own Mac has to opt for the "Bittorrent Edition" as well... :(

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    17. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by peragrin · · Score: 1

      >>. There isn't anything like license validation, activation, or genuine advantage in OS X, so I guess there isn't anything preventing you from pirating the hell out of one single licensed copy;

      there is one thing and that really gets under slashdot nerves. OS X only runs on Apple hardware. So while you can pirate the software as much as you like it only runs on apple hardware which one has to buy from Apple anyways.

      For me that's fine, but Apple does have limited configuration choices, so people can't use cheap hardware like Dell does.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    18. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 0, Troll

      Screw those no good crack smoking peacenick hippy student layabouts! What is this communism?

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    19. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can use rsync. I can use rsync. My sister probably can't (and definitely won't) use rsync. She can use Time Machine, though.

      OSX has made *nix operating systems usable by non-computer experts, and that's something that Linux has yet to do (sorry Ubuntu fans).

    20. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hah, maybe you ought to check your facts before you post. Apple's education store shows that pre-ordering Leopard will cost you $116 and NOT $69. Its cheaper to go find five buddies and buy the family pack -- comes out to about $40 a person

    21. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      Haven't you heard, you can play Photoshop!!

      Seriously though before you say ANY games though, here's a small list:

      C&C 3
      Battlefield 2142
      Civ 4
      WOW
      Age of Empires
      ETQW (soon I think)

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    22. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by sribe · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just went to the Apple Education Store, looked at Leopard, and it is indeed showing up at the higher price of $116.00 for me.

      My apologies. I checked the institutional price, not the student/faculty price which does indeed show up as $116. I guess the Tiger troll left me hyper-sensitive!

    23. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by abigor · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Hahahahahahahaha! Thanks, humour is a great way to start the day off right! That, and a tasty, nutritious breakfast.

    24. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Ah, I can't tell others to do what I will do... But I could have given a clue.

      Anyway I have already bought the overpriced ridiculously speced hardware, and as George Bush puts it:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A

    25. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh really? Please tell me what feature of Linux comes even close to Time Machine? No rush...I'll wait.

      That's really funny, because when I read about how Time Machine worked I thought "wow, OS X is finally getting what UNIX/Linux users have had for ages." I mean, its fucking 2007 an OS X is finally getting a working automated incremental backup system? OS X has been out for what, 7 years? I am aware of third-party backup apps and there is only one that copies ALL of the data on your HFS+ partitions, and even that one (SuperDuper) doesn't really do incremental backups.

      Read about Time Machine and you'll find that they had to add the equivalent of hard links to the HFS+ filesystem to make it work. It has a fancy 3-D GUI, big fucking deal. The only thing truly innovative is that there is a way to integrate apps with it. I'll give them that much, but it just took way too fucking long to get such an essential tool to OS X so its hard to be impressed.

    26. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      How many home computer users are actually changing the video card in their mac? How many people with an imac, power book, mac mini, macbook, macbook pro actually change the video card? The mac pro (the big tower desktop) is the only model that the video card can be changed. Swapping out motherboard on laptop is not a simple thing to do. And I have not even heard of many people how even changing the mini pci video cards that some laptops have. So complaining about video cards on a mac is kind of pointless.

    27. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by varmittang · · Score: 1

      If my memory serves me right, the first few OS X releases were free for students at my College. But they later changed that to a few dollars to help pay for the CDs that the college employees had to had to burn for every student that wanted it. And these were professional CDs too, so they were not cheap either.

      --
      -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
      12345
      -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
    28. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by beelsebob · · Score: 1

      Rsync is a poor mans substitute -- Time machine keeps many previous versions. It's more comparable to svn with automatic checkins every hour.

    29. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Crizp · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'll bite.

      My "shitbox" (new iMac 20") has 4 GB RAM and a Radeon HD2600 Pro. Fine, it's likely underclocked, but I can still run relatively recent games in OK resolutions. It's certainly better than the x1650 I had a few weeks ago.

      I don't care if I can't run Biowhatever, I'm not a GAMER with need for dual 8800's. Most of us are not. As long as IL2 Sturmovik runs alright, I'm happy :)

    30. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by ThatDamnMurphyGuy · · Score: 1

      I love them both...at the same time. Viva la Parallels!

    31. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You can use rsync. I can use rsync. My sister probably can't (and definitely won't) use rsync. She can use Time Machine, though.

      OSX has made *nix operating systems usable by non-computer experts, and that's something that Linux has yet to do (sorry Ubuntu fans).


      The fact of the matter is that there wasn't a fully working incremental backup solution for OS X and HFS+ until Time Machine. That is pretty sad considering how OS X has been missing this considering how long its been out (6 or 7 years). The original AC said this:

      Oh really? Please tell me what feature of Linux comes even close to Time Machine? No rush...I'll wait.

      For all other UNIXes and Linux, incremental backup has been available, but OS X is so pathetically late to the game. If the AC wanted to actually make a point, he should have said "show me in Linux where automated incremental backup is easy for a non-techie to use." There are GUI's to do rsync backups, I haven't personal used any, so I couldn't comment on it.

      Time Machine integration with apps sounds pretty cool.

      In any case, rsync combined with other UNIX/Linux apps/utilities, is quite close to Time Machine and actually is more powerful than Time Machine in many ways (more fine-grained control of the schedule, tunneling over SSH, using a different UNIX OS as your backup server, etc).

      We can talk about how OS X is much more user friendly and is easy for a non-techie to use, but that's accepted as a given and I wouldn't argue that.

    32. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by ArAgost · · Score: 1

      Oh really? Please tell me what feature of Linux comes even close to Time Machine? No rush...I'll wait.

      "wow, OS X is finally getting what UNIX/Linux users have had for ages." . I'm sorry, could you mention one (1) solution for incremental backup that UNIX/Linux ages have had for ages and the Mac OS X users didn't?
    33. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by rucs_hack · · Score: 1

      it's a pity that anyone wishing to build their own Mac has to opt for the "Bittorrent Edition" as well... :(

      Why would anyone want to build a Mac?

    34. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by frankie · · Score: 1

      $116? $69? Thanks to a giant bulk contract for the past many years, my uni offers Mac OS (or Windows) for $25 + media charge. Have to wait a couple months for the latest version to make it through the bureaucracy though.

      Neener neener.

    35. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Stormwatch · · Score: 2, Informative

      OS X only runs on Apple hardware. So while you can pirate the software as much as you like it only runs on apple hardware which one has to buy from Apple anyways.
      Legally speaking, true. Technically speaking, well, there are workarounds...
    36. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Selfbain · · Score: 1

      Funny story.. it costs $115 in Canada for students. *rubs hands together in glee*

      --
      Well, it has never been successfully tested.
    37. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I, for one, get a different store accessing from my home IP address to when I access from a university IP address.

      I'm in the UK and it may be UK-specific but: The educational discount drops the price from £85 ($170) to $59 ($118) when accessed from a university IP address. I'm not sure off hand what it costs from a non-university IP address.

    38. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by rattler14 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Here's a suggestion...

      Find 4 friends, buy a family pack. 4 of my friends at school are doing the same. Thus, $40 apiece.

      yeah yeah yeah.. we're not "family", but we live on the same damn floor, so whatever. My department eventually gets a license and I get it for free 2-3 months later. But I'm happy to pay 40 for it right away.

      --
      my last sig was too controversial... now, a new and improved useless sig!
    39. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    40. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      to run any of the following:

      final cut pro
      final cut pro
      aperture
      soundtrack pro

      All of them absolutely kick arse, and cream the adobe equivalents. For photography/sound/video editing, you can't beat Mac software, and it unfortunately only runs on OSX

      It works out cheaper to build your own frankenmac using Core2 duos/quads than to buy a powermac. Meh

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    41. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      that was meant to be:

      final cut pro
      final cut studio
      aperture
      soundtrack pro

      not enough coffee apparently...

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    42. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      I'm showing $69 at the Apple Store for my local Community College. I find it highly unlikely that they're charging more or less depending upon what institution your are shopping from.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    43. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by tsa · · Score: 1

      There is only one game for the Mac that matters to me: Myst Online.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    44. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The educational price is $115 in Canada. $199 for the educational family pack.

    45. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by ukdmbfan · · Score: 0

      Please, please... Mac OS X and Linux arguing is like your cousins having a fight. We're all descended from the same grandparent. Now if only we could make peace and combine our awesomeness to take out the noisy neighbour across the street that's determined to undermine you and sleep with your sister.

      --
      "If you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all"
    46. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      > All of them absolutely kick arse

      Argh! Mixing British and American English.

      American: All of them absolutely kick ass.
      British : They are all the dog's bollocks.

      The average British expatriate in the USA has to be careful not the blurt out "All of them absolutely kicked the dog's bollocks", which would not be good for the dog.

      --
      Evil people are out to get you.
    47. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the following two articles to understand why the solutions that are available for UNIX/Linux don't completely work in Mac OS X:

      The State of Backup and Cloning Tools under Mac OS X/
      Mac Backup Software Harmful

      The simple fact of the matter is that rsync (for example) simply doesn't copy everything. It might be good enough for some backup purposes, but not for a complete backup that preserves everything.

      Add to the problem that HFS+ doesn't support any kind of hard link (pre-Tiger) so you can't use an HFS+ partition for incremental backups the way you can with a UNIX/Linux filesystem with hard links. Maybe you can with a UFS partition.

      I'm personally very happy that Apple is releasing Time Machine, so that I can finally feel as secure about my backups as I do on my Linux machine. I bet OS X admins are pretty happy, too. But I'm just not as impressed with Time Machine considering how long OS X has been missing an adequate incremental backup solution. It's nothing revolutionary, its just something that is essential that was missing before.

    48. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jellomizer · · Score: 0

      if they can afford to sell things significantly cheaper than full retail, why not just apply it across the board?

      Because they can't. Apple is a FOR PROFIT COMPANY, and they are publicly traded. So by Law they need to maximize profits. Students vs. the general public have a different degree of Elasticity towards prices. For students their price structure is more elastic being a small change in price will have stronger effect on the number of people who buy the product. While the general population it is more inelastic the change in cost will lesser effect their purchasing choice. Now that Apple Computers are become very common in Colleges it means the elasticity for Apple Products had decreased so Apple can charge more for the student version. Economics 101.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    49. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Darth_Tygershark · · Score: 1

      What's more, at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Windoze XP Professional and Vista Ultimate are available for $29 because of a deal worked out between M$ and the UT system. I've even heard the OSs are cheaper at different UT schools. I wish Apple would at least maintain the $69 price for educational users. The $119 price may make me wait or not buy at all. I'll just get Leopard with a new Mac sometime in the distant future and put it on my older machines then.

    50. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Altus · · Score: 1


      Im seeing the 119 number from a local school here. Maybe they have different deals with different schools.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    51. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by MsGeek · · Score: 1

      $116.00 at the custom Apple Store for Education for Woodbury University (Burbank, CA, US) students. :P

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    52. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Gee... I already have most of those cool new features

      You are delusional.

    53. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jargoone · · Score: 1

      rsync --link-dest

      Thanks for playing, though.

    54. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by ubrgeek · · Score: 1

      > For all other UNIXes and Linux, incremental backup has been available, but OS X is so pathetically late to the game.

      So they should pack up and go home? Not find a solution to the fact that they're late in the game? I don't get it (I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just trying to understand the comment.) Does Windows have an incremental backup solution that doesn't involve a third-party? I don't do Windows administration so I have no idea if it does or doesn't.

      --
      Bark less. Wag more.
    55. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The wireless on OSX at the moment is at best, flakey.

      My GF's macbook (not Pro) gets 100% network performance when plugged into power. Remove the power cable though and run on batteries and it gets major, terrible packet loss.

      There's lots of others with the same problems.

      I agree with your post, but MacOSX isn't without it's share of wireless problems too.

    56. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by RockoTDF · · Score: 1

      I was joking. I know full well that rsync is well beyond the capacity of most people.

      --
      There is more to science than physics!

      www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
    57. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey retard, rsync has been available on the Mac since day one, as is practically every piece of command-line Unix software out there. Time Machine is different. Please know what you're talking about next time before trying to sound like some huge Unix authority.

    58. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Space+cowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      What a load of tosh.

      Any utility you can get on Linux, you can get on OSX by a recompile. The most popular are as far away as 'sudo port install XXXX'. And you get rsync, tar, bzip2, ssh as standard anyway. As a technical OSX user, I've been using ssh/rsync for a while now, but it's way way over the head of my parents, and they want their digital photos (with which to bore their guests) just as much as I want my '~/src' directory.

      Not to mention that 'Apple Backup' has been around for ages. Does incremental/full backups, even off-site to .mac. Optionally uses spotlight to come up with what to back-up; Time-Machine is *still* far better because it's generational, and access to those generational copies is so easy.

      Some fact-checking required before you spout off about "the fact of the matter", methinks.

      Simon.

      --
      Physicists get Hadrons!
    59. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      Cheap hardware like Dell? My Dell laptop is actually lower specced than a Mac Book but cost the company more. If fact if you do a like for like you'll find the price difference is negligible.

    60. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Westacular · · Score: 2, Insightful

      bad 3D support for new gfx cards You're throwing stones from your glass house, inside which your pot and kettle are arguing over which is blacker.
    61. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poor college students? What bollocks. You have more money than most people and all you do is FUCKING WHINE. If I had my way you'd have to pay twice as much money as anyone else. Or correct that: your DADDY would have to pay.

    62. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Apiakun · · Score: 1

      Don't forget about Logic Pro!

    63. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by smenor · · Score: 1

      ...cheap hardware like Dell does.

      Funny thing about that... it's not really that much cheaper.

      Sure - you can go to Dell and put together a notebook for 500-bucks... but then you look at the bus, and the CPU speed, and the graphics card, and everything else and realize that the MacBooks and MacBook Pros come standard with things that are listed as options (if they're even available) for the Dells.

      Once you get the configurations closer to parity, that price difference that looked so huge ends up being pretty small - and for that small difference, you get something that's significantly better engineered (which you and I place some value in).

      About the only exception I'd make to that is memory - if you go to the default Apple Store, and add memory that way, you're pretty much guaranteed to get screwed (which is sad, especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the memory in Apple's notebooks yourself).

      I realize that's little comfort for someone who is looking to spend as little as possible on a computer, but if that's somebody's goal, then a Mac probably isn't really for them.

      One last thing - this is probably gonna sound stupid, but I would argue that the fact that there are so few configurations for Apple's notebooks is actually a Good Thing.

      If you go to price notebooks from Dell or HP or most other vendors, you have to figure out if you want a Vostro or a Latitude, or a Precision, or whateve, plus you have to pick a model number for each.... and (even after a side-by-side comparison), it can be difficult to work out exactly what's what. For people who value their time, it might actually be worth spending a few hundred bucks more just to be able to say "I want a 17-inch, so that means a MacBook Pro" and then just to quickly select the details of their configuration.

      People can complain that they want more choice, but having a bunch of nearly equivalent versions of hardware isn't about choice - it's about confusing the customer with the illusion of choice, and making it impossible (or, at least, arduous) for most people to figure out what the best deal is, so they'll end up spending more money on average (because most people aren't exactly going to use the simplex method when buying a computer).

    64. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Pope · · Score: 1

      So by Law they need to maximize profits.

      Which law is this? Please cite state and statue.
      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    65. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      It used to be that for software anyway, the student discounts represented a significant savings, which was great for poor college students.

      It used to be that Apple's education discounts were significant. Up until the early or mid '90s the discount was about 50%. A student, or the faculty and staff, could walk into the college bookstore and buy a Mac for half of what they sold for in commercial stores. Back then Apple had half the market share in education, then about the same tyme MS released Win95 Apple slashed the discount. Thereafter Apple lost it's market position. Now the only discounts Apple has that are significant, ie more than 10%, are through Apple Developer Connection.

      Falcon
    66. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by peragrin · · Score: 1

      Um it's why I own a powerbook and a Mac Mini. pound for pound they are a great value. I don't like the Macbook but that is only on an aesthetic level.

      Apple does have less configuration options than dell, there is one laptop line not 4, there is one desktop line not 8, there is one server line not "insert random number here"

      apple does have a limited selection. Note it is limited in quanity not quality.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    67. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      I've never really understood the student discount thing. If they can afford to sell things significantly cheaper than full retail, why not just apply it across the board?

      Education discounts serve the same purpose as when MS did little if anything to discourage pirates, the more a given software (or OS) is used the more the market share. Once people get used to it when they finally have to pay, or pay more, they're already hooked. It's similar with dumping. Manufacturer A makes product X then sells it low which drives out competition. Once the competition is out of business A can then raise prices.

      This doesn't explain all of it but it highlights some of the reasons for discounts.

      Falcon
    68. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by blantonl · · Score: 0

      Which law is this? Please cite state and statue. APPLE INC (NasdaqGS: AAPL)

      All States - It's called the law of economics.
      --
      Lindsay Blanton
      RadioReference.com
    69. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      Now that Apple Computers are become very common in Colleges it means the elasticity for Apple Products had decreased so Apple can charge more for the student version.

      At one tyme Apple had half the educational market share, and their educational discounts back then were 50%.

      Falcon
    70. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MIT is $116 and Harvard is $69.

    71. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jeez, it appears even technical OS X users are ignorant and "spout off" that I'm wrong without knowing what the hell they are talking about. YOU are the one who needs to do some fact-checking.

      Read my post here.

      There is no equivalent to rsync + cp w/ hard links on OS X prior to Tiger/Time Machine that actually backs up EVERYTHING.

    72. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by MistaE · · Score: 1

      EDU customers can still get Leopard for the traditional $69 price point. However, they have to purchase it from their INSTITUTION now, rather than flashing an EDU ID at Apple Stores.

      At least this is according to the MacRumors Article on Leopard Pricing options.

    73. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by ahdemus · · Score: 1

      The student edition is $69 if you buy it thru your school. If your school hasn't already pre-ordered, you can create a proposal thru the Apple Store website.

    74. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Since I have access to an Apple EDU store with official pricing:

      $69 -> Leopard
      $59 -> Leopard >= 10 seats
      $49 -> Leopard >= 100 seats
      $39 -> Leopard >= 1000 seats

      $249 -> Leopard Server 10-client (which is only applicable for file sharing)
      $249 -> Leopard Server 10-client to Unlimited license upgrade
      $499 -> Leopard Server Unlimited

      iWork & iLife '08 = $39 or $29 for more than 10 seats

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    75. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Balthisar · · Score: 1

      My employee program price is only $107.10 with the same free shipping.

      --
      --Jim (me)
    76. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Kadin2048 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'll just get Leopard with a new Mac sometime in the distant future and put it on my older machines then. This won't work. Although Apple doesn't do serialization or verification, the discs that come with a computer are different from the retail box versions of the OS. They're not the crummy 'software restore' discs like you get with some PCs -- they do have a regular OS installer on them -- but the installer is fixed so that it looks for the machine ID and refuses to run on a different model computer.

      The retail versions, by contrast, will run on any machine that's listed as capable of running the software. (Which sometimes is slightly different than the machines that are *actually* capable of running the software; Apple specs systems that are capable of running the OS comfortably, but some people have found acceptable results after forcing it onto older machines.)

      If you wait around until the next paid-upgrade OS release though, you can get the older version, in retail packaging, quite cheap. Either eBay or some of the used-Mac stores like Smalldog regularly have new-old-stock retail OS packages.
      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    77. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by netsphinx · · Score: 2, Informative

      Perhaps jellomizer is thinking of the fiduciary duty owed by Apple's directors' and company officers to stockholders of the company...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors. The SEC, which is a federal institution (created by Congress in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) regulates publicly traded companies. IANAL, but to the best of my understanding, Apple's directors and company officers might have to be making money for themselves at the expense of the stockholders for the SEC to step in and make a federal, criminal case of it. Incompetence or blindness, rather than venality, might open the directors up to civil suits by stockholders seeking compensation for their losses. I'm not at all sure that anyone would have a case against the directors for a strategy designed to maximize long-term profits over short-term ones. Short-sighted measures taken to meet or beat earnings expectations one year may well leave a company without the means to maintain long-term growth and value.

      Again, my lawyerness = 0. Caveat lector.

    78. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple does have less configuration options than dell, there is one laptop line not 4, there is one desktop line not 8, there is one server line not "insert random number here" Well, two laptops (Macbook, Macbook Pro) and 3 desktops (Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac).
    79. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by MetalPhalanx · · Score: 1

      In Canada mine comes up as $115 for the student edition.

    80. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      I'd suspect the hardware - on my old iBook G4, I have superior wireless performance to just about anything else. I regularly can use a signal too weak for anyone else's laptop.

      Maybe there is even some problem with newer Macs in general, I wouldn't know - but my experience with OSX and wireless has been very solid. My one beef is that anytime I decide to connect to a router called "Linksys", it saves this and attempts to connect to any router called "Linksys" from that point on...

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    81. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by sokoban · · Score: 3, Funny

      In Canada mine comes up as $115 for the student edition. So that's what, like $200 in US currency?
      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    82. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

      Humm. It seems like the $69 price for Leopard (desktop, single-seat) is only available at some EDUs. Lots of other people are going in and seeing significantly higher prices.

      I wonder what the basis for the difference is? Apparently some institutions are a little more equal than others. I wonder if it represents those that have big Apple site-licenses or something?

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    83. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      OSX not working on generic intel hardware is not a matter of artificial lock, like region coding on DVD. It would take a significant effort to achieve compatibility. If I were Jobs I'd not like people trying out an unlocked OSX on various hardware and dismissing because it "doesn't work". Linux shows people are unable to tell OS problems from drivers problems.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    84. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey retard, read my message here.

    85. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "It works out cheaper to build your own frankenmac using Core2 duos/quads than to buy a powermac. Meh"

      I've just been working on pricing out a Mac Pro...getting minimal stuff from Apple, and maxing out the ram, harddrives, video card and all from places like New Egg. For a box with 16G ram, 4x 740GB drives, dual quad, raid card, NVIdia Quadra fx 4500 and apple care...was about $7200 before shipping...will ship to a NH address and have my friend reship to me and get educational discount.

      That's not too bad for such a loaded monster of a machine. I also found a great monitor I'd like to get here.

      Could you build the whole thing like that for much less than that? Matching virtually spec for spec with the mac pro, starting out and adding on as I did?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    86. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      At that time only 10% of the students had computers. So only 5% of the college students had Apples...

      Today nearly 100% of the students have computers and 10% have Apple Computers. So that is twice as many Computers (assuming colleges had the same number of students, which I believe there are a lot more now.) Plus the margins on Computers were much higher. They could sell Apple IIs at a 50% discount and still make 15% margin on them. Today they are lucky if they can make 20% Margins now. So by cutting the price by 50% will be selling Apples at a loss.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    87. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "My one beef is that anytime I decide to connect to a router called "Linksys", it saves this and attempts to connect to any router called "Linksys" from that point on..."

      Funny, I just ran into this the other day...I accidentally clicked ok to a SSID of PUBLIC. Now..it tries to connect to any one named that.

      I was just about to start researching to see how you can 'remove' trusted wireless sites from the mac....mine is an old G3 800 Mhz...but, works great, and it too gets great wireless reception. It worked great when I used to have it dual boot into Gentoo too.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    88. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by dave562 · · Score: 1

      Excuse my stupidity because I'm a PC user, but how does Time Machine differ all that much from System Restore (jokes about preserving system eating zombie botnet code aside)? System Restore points are set every time an application is installed or deleted. Does Time Machine save user data too?

    89. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) Are you telling me that there haven't been FreeBSD equivalents to those for OS X all along?

      2) Are you telling me that any major Linux distro today comes with anything resembling Time Machine? (That is: truly *easy* to use by every single user, and not some third party N'Sync but integrated in the base installation.)

    90. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by dadragon · · Score: 1
      --
      God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
    91. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Macthorpe · · Score: 1

      Windows may not include a good backup solution Shadow Copy in Vista is pretty much Time Machine without the fancy front end.
      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    92. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Wdomburg · · Score: 1

      If you go to price notebooks from Dell or HP or most other vendors, you have to figure out if you want a Vostro or a Latitude, or a Precision, or whateve, plus you have to pick a model number for each.... and (even after a side-by-side comparison), it can be difficult to work out exactly what's what. For people who value their time, it might actually be worth spending a few hundred bucks more just to be able to say "I want a 17-inch, so that means a MacBook Pro" and then just to quickly select the details of their configuration.

      Choice is hard! Paying for only the features that you want is for suckers who don't value their time! ;)

    93. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Macthorpe · · Score: 1
      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    94. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Sancho · · Score: 1

      It's quite possible to find Dell laptops comparably priced to Apple laptops. It's also possible to find one or the other cheaper, depending on the week (Dell changes their discounts weekly, and sometimes you can find huge discounts.) The biggest difference, though, is that you can customize the Dell to be lower priced, whereas Apple's offered customizations can only increase the price (for laptops--you can actually get a cheaper Mac Pro than Apple's "Starts At" price.)

      The Macbook Pro is the obvious and easy example. You can have a Macbook Pro for $2000. You can get a Dell laptop computer for much less than that. Don't like that example? You can get a Macbook for $1100, and you can get a Dell laptop for $450. It doesn't matter that they aren't comparable specs--that Dell is going to do everything I want in a laptop except for running OS X. But there's no technological reason that it can't run OS X--there's just an artificial one created by Apple for vendor lock-in.

      The issue is choice, pure and simple. Apple doesn't offer lower-end models because they want exclusivity. Owning a Mac is like belonging to a club with a membership fee.

      I don't want to sound like I'm Apple-bashing--I'm really not meaning to. The computers are beautiful and the OS is fantastic, but there are reasons that they don't do low-end and that they keep OS X to themselves, and it has nothing to do with technology.

    95. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by francisstp · · Score: 1

      We have access to Vista for free, as well as a bunch of software from MS, like visio and project, through the MSDN Academic Alliance Program. I haven't heard of any Apple counterpart though.

    96. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      you go to the properties of the wireless card where you would normally add/change default and trusted networks. and click - instead of + this time.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    97. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's exactly it. It is price discrimination against those not in school. They figured out they could make more money selling to students at X/2, and everyone else at X than just picking one price and selling to everyone. Ideally, they would sell to everyone at the highest price they were willing to pay, but it's pretty hard to honestly get those numbers and prevent people from making money on resale.

    98. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      The features might be broken up into different programs on Linux but they are all there and quite useful for servers and technical users.

      Backup Manager
      rdup
      Areca Backup
      ESR Backup
      Cedar Backup
      duplicity (like rsync but secure backups)
      Taper
      Bontmia (this one is pretty nice)
      REOBack Backup Solution
      sync2cd (handy for home backups)
      ImageBackup (primarily for photo collections)
      Arnie
      KaTeker

      And if you use FreeBSD you have access to cool things like snapshots. Linux is close to having snapshots too, and I hope it shows up sooner rather than later. I think we'd have snapshots right now if Hans Reiser didn't get in trouble.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    99. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by powermacx · · Score: 1

      Yes

    100. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by BrainInAJar · · Score: 1

      # zfs snapshot mypool/myfs@date

      Time Machine wasn't modeled after rsync, it was modeled after ZFS

    101. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by spyfrog · · Score: 1

      Of course it is an artificial lock. Apple checks to see if the hardware is genuine Apple hardware and if it isn't, the software don't run. It don't have to do with the drivers or other things, its a lock pure and simple. You could build a computer with the exact same parts as Apple does and it would still not run legally. You can't blame driver or other issues if the hardware is identical.

      This is an artificial implemented lock.
      Don't make it out to be anything else.

    102. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by smenor · · Score: 1

      Choice is hard! Paying for only the features that you want is for suckers who don't value their time! ;)

      You only think you're kidding.

      If you like doing that sort of thing for fun, that's one thing, but if you're going to spend three hours deciding whether or not to get an option that costs a hundred buks, and you make more than 30 bucks an hour, you really are wasting your time (and even that's assuming you only value your free time as much as you're paid).

      Also, most of the "choice" you get with Dell isn't really real.

      They don't actually offer all that many more configurations than Apple. They just offer a bunch of configurations that look different but are almost indistinguishable.

      I could be wrong, but I suspect that their primary motivation is just muddle things and confuse people. They give you the illusion of choice so that you can feel good about how you picked out exactly the specs you wanted for a price that you can feel good about, but when you really get down to the meat of things, almost all of those choices don't make any tangible difference in terms of performance... or even cost (you may disagree, but if a few hundred bucks give or take on a purchase in the thousands is going to make or break you, you probably shouldn't be buying that thing in the first place).

    103. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can go to system preferences and tell it not to automatically add networks to your preferred networks list. And you can delete anything that's already been added.

    104. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by sokoban · · Score: 1

      Right, the joke was that canadian money used to be worth less than the U.S. dollar, but now it isn't. Reread my post.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
    105. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      With names like that I'm waiting for OS X Sherman.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    106. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Macthorpe · · Score: 1

      Gah, I need more sleep!

      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    107. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by doktor-hladnjak · · Score: 1

      The Corporate Employee Purchase Program price is even less than that at $107, which means that Microsoft employees even get a better price than some students!

    108. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by holt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you're going to do this, why not just pirate it outright? Either way you're violating the terms of the license agreement. Not that I'm advocating copyright infringement...

    109. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      Uhm, I'm Australian...

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    110. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You put the Queen on your money. You're British!"

        - Gregory House, M.D.

    111. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by jaxtherat · · Score: 1

      Well, the point I'm trying to make is if I DID have $7400 US to blow on an editing station, I'd do that. But since I don't, I can build a:

      1 x quad core $339 AUS
      1 x good mobo $180 AUS
      4 x 1 GB DDR2 $260 AUS
      1 x RAID card $200 AUS
      3 x 750 GB SATA 2 $690 AUS
      1 x vid card $300 AUS
      1 x sound card $100 AUS

      frankenmac for a total of: $2069 AUS or ~ $1779 US

      Considering that in terms of performance this is still leaps and bounds above the Macbook pro (core duo version) that we use for editing, I think I'll stick away from the highway robbery thanks.

      Point I'm trying to make is apple really need to make a middle ground PC that isn't a monitor with stuff attached.

      --
      http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
    112. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by skinfitz · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't recommend using rsync to backup anything important on OSX...

      Hint: Resource Forks.

    113. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Braino420 · · Score: 1

      I just can't separate that from price discrimination against those not in school.
      Hey take it easy! I'm a white male, that card is all I got!
      --
      They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
    114. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      Logic is available on Windows too. (Or is that Reason I'm thinking of?)

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    115. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      Well, at least you GET an educational discount. In our country, the Apple store charges $199 for OS X Leopard retail, and has no educational version at all.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    116. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Well, what I'd really like it to do is add preferred networks, but to use the station number instead of name. I know that this wouldn't work well in environments with more than one station - but that only happens once in a while for me. They could offer something like: add this station, add this network, don't add.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    117. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it depends on the school?
      Apparently. It is $69 at the Harvard UIS online store.
    118. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by pivo · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure there are incremental backup solutions for OSX (Retrospect, SuperDuper!, among others), not that I've used them. Maybe you meant free+included in OSX, if so, then I agree. In any case I don't think rsync holds a candle to TimeMachine, for one reason (and most importantly to me) Time Machine provides a versioned backup of your disk. Rsync just does incremental backups, there's no going back to a certain point in time as you will be able to do in Time machine.

    119. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by zranger · · Score: 1

      $69 is the educational institution price. That's how much it costs when you buy it at your university book store. It's $116 when you buy it directly from Apple.

    120. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Jeremi · · Score: 1
      You could build a computer with the exact same parts as Apple does and it would still not run legally. You can't blame driver or other issues if the hardware is identical.


      If the hardware is identical, how would Apple's installer know that it wasn't a genuine Apple box?

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    121. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by macron1 · · Score: 1

      Here's a suggestion...

      Find 4 friends, buy a family pack. 4 of my friends at school are doing the same. Thus, $40 apiece.
      what is there to stop one using a regular (i.e. non family-pack) version of OS X for multiple upgrades? I recall when i upgraded to tiger there was no serial or activation required, and the disc certainly didnt dissolve or anything after installation. do you get 4 discs or sumthing with the family pack?
    122. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by krunk7 · · Score: 1

      There are two properties of the HFS+ filesystem which rsync had problems with (that I am aware). metadata and ACL's. Neither of them are essential for data recovery itself and rsync had issues with them on any platform, not just osx.

      It bears noting that the reason no one in the linux world cared about metadata until rsync began developing patches for it was due to the fact that linux didn't have them until 2.6 (or 2.5 for the brave). In fact, the idea of metadata (file attributes in linux parlance) was taken from osx's success and proven utility in using them. Reference: http://lists.samba.org/archive/rsync/2004-June/009937.html

      Further as soon as metadata and acl support was available to the linux world, it was to the osx world as well.

      The last niggling problem with osx is resource forks. There have been patches for resource fork support in rsync since at least 2002 (when rsyncX was copyrighted).

      If I am mistaken about the features that are apparently lacking via HFS+ and rsync (and the fact that they existed for all users of rsync regardless of platform), please correct me.

      Finally, we've just been talking about some unix utils that needed a bit of time to catch up with the current trends in filesystem design. There have been command line utilities for creating bootable restores and preserving metadat for a while in osx besides the ones listed above such as ASR and PAX.

      I believe the mistake your making is to assume that an osx admin is limited by the pre-compiled software offered on osx by default, but this is simply not the case. No more then it is the case for any *nix install that leverages open source. I also find it peculiar (unless you bring to light issues which I have not covered here) that your major complaint about said backup solutions is that they could not back up extra information with HFS+ that was not even existent in prevailing *nix file systems (e.g. metadata). This is more of a reflection on the lack of features in said *nix solutions then in OSX.

      I will now use the opportunity to promote my favorite hard link / cp based backup solution which I use for both Tiger and Panther backups without issue: BacupPC

    123. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by dubbreak · · Score: 1

      I need to move to an American University. My uni cost $89CAN for Leopard(same product number,MB021ZA , so no 'special' canadian version). $20 buys a decent amount of beer, or whatever Apple users drink (Steve Jobs' special kool-aid?).

      --
      "If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
    124. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Squozen · · Score: 1

      I've been using rsync to backup now for a couple of years without problems. Resource forks really aren't used for anything important these days beyond a few system files (fonts mostly), and I can get system files back easily enough without wasting HD space on backing them up.

    125. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by thelenm · · Score: 1

      $20 buys a decent amount of beer, or whatever Apple users drink

      Apple juice.

      --
      Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
    126. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Yoozer · · Score: 1

      It's Reason and Cubase and Ableton Live which come on Windows, too - Logic for Windows ceased to exist around version 5 or so.

    127. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) Are you telling me that there haven't been FreeBSD equivalents to those for OS X all along?

      2) Are you telling me that any major Linux distro today comes with anything resembling Time Machine? (That is: truly *easy* to use by every single user, and not some third party N'Sync but integrated in the base installation.)
      Yes.
    128. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      If that works for you; fine. Some of us, though, have grown tired of fucking around with flaky wireless drivers
      Reminds me of how the wireless card stops working in the MBP when I updated to 10.4.9/10.4.10 - If I reinstall from scratch and use version 10.4.5 it works fine.

      In the end I had todo some horrible, horrible hack of using the osx86 kernel just so I could use the wireless card and latest OS X software.

      bad 3D support for new gfx cards etc
      While it's nice the OS X version of OpenGL is properly multithreaded, there are many locking issues that Apple has ignored in fixing. Although I do recall issues with Apple supporting graphic cards too.

      I haven't really gone into the issues I've had with OS X and Apple hardware, but to be honest for a company that is supposed to provide the hardware and software I really did expect superior hardware and software support and not more issues than what I get from "generic" x86 systems.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    129. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by 10Ghz · · Score: 1

      "The fact of the matter is that there wasn't a fully working incremental backup solution for OS X and HFS+ until Time Machine."

      Last time I used Ubuntu, there wasn't one for it either, does it have one now? And before you mention any of the third-party backup-tools that are available then I would be forced to remind you that there were and are plenty of third-party backup-tools for OS X out there. So what exactly is the difference here?

      "For all other UNIXes and Linux, incremental backup has been available, but OS X is so pathetically late to the game."

      Backups have been available for OS X as well, so what on earth are you blathering about? Sure, backup-tool might not have been built in to OS X, but it hasn't been built in to Linux either. Sure, there are rsync and others, but you are deluding yourself if you think that rsync alone is enough.

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    130. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by MikeFM · · Score: 0

      I use both Linux and OSX. As long as I have a Linux computer that I can do most of my real work on I don't mind OSX but I wouldn't want it to be my only computer. I do hope some of my complaints are fixed in Leopard but a few problems I have with OSX are that it is noticeably slower and less reliable than Linux on the same hardware, they've done something weird with the key mappings which never seem to be completely fixable and they aren't as useful, and OSX just doesn't handle a lot of open windows as well as Linux does. I think OSX is great for your average user that is going to run two programs at a time and never do anything hardcore but for power users it can seem a little wimpy.

      I do like the active corners and dashboard though and would like to see better support for a similae feature in Linux. My wish list still includes the desire for them to sell a 30" model - hopefully not in the new ugly 90's chrome style but instead in the clean white look. The quality and look of Apple's hardware is why I buy their product.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    131. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      There's one reason why they would limit the target hardware. To limit the target hardware!

      One of the issues with Windows is that they have to support such a multitude of hardware either themselves or having the vendors write the drivers. This obviously hurts quality. It is a lot easy to write code for a small subset of hardware.

      Admittedly if you had a machine that totally matches the spec of a Mac model then there's no reason why it couldn't run OS-X but then you have the issue of support. Most users wouldn't understand the difference between one configuration of hardware and another and try and run OS-X on unsuitable machines. This would be more of a headache to Apple than any benefits. I don't think its elitism as to why they stick to just their machines but partly for management simplicity.

      As for low end machines I actually want everything I get on a Mac. I use wi-fi, bluetooth, and so on. So if I'm going to have to spec a machine with the same spec as a Mac and like OS-X why not just buy a Mac!

    132. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by LKM · · Score: 1

      System Preferences -> Network -> Airport -> click on the network and on "-"

    133. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by LKM · · Score: 1

      My former school had a deal with Apple where we could basically get OS X Server (as well as a bunch of other Apple software) for 20 bucks.

    134. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by LKM · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure he's violating the license agreement. The family license actually applies to "households." From Apple's site:

      "Mac OS X Tiger is available with a family-friendly license that allows upgrades for up to five Macs in a single household -- at a price much lower than buying five separate licenses."

    135. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by LKM · · Score: 1

      >do you get 4 discs or sumthing with the family pack?

      no, what he gets is four legal licenses.

    136. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by LKM · · Score: 1

      The idea is to get everyone to pay as much as he is possibly willing to pay. That can't be done in reality, so the next best thing is to try and get as many people to buy the app, and price it in a way that that each single person can afford, but not so low that they are willing to pay significantly more. Microsoft does this via a gazillion different versions. Apple only has two versions (plain and server), and edu prices.

      Why should Apple sell OS X for 50 bucks to me if I'm willing to pay 100? It's only a disk, anyway. It probably cost about a buck to manufacture.

      Actually... Apple used to give OS updated away for free, up to System 8, I think.

    137. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by LKM · · Score: 1

      I think it's pretty easy to understand Apple's pricing: Apple's products are competitively priced to comparable products, but Apple has no low-end products (I guess because the margin on these products is too low for Apple to justify developing them). So if you want a low-end product, Macs are not for you.

      Hence, if you want to run OS X on a low-end computer, you can't (legally). Apple thinks that selling OS X for generic computers would make them less money than selling hardware to those who want OS X. No clue whether they are right, but so far, it seems to be working out quite well :-)

    138. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by holt · · Score: 1

      From the Apple Store page for preordering Leopard:

      * The Family Pack Software License Agreement allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple software on up to a maximum of five (5) Apple-labeled computers at a time as long as those computers are located in the same household and used by persons who occupy that household. By "household" we mean a person or persons who share the same housing unit such as a home, apartment, mobile home, or condominium, including student members who are primary residents of that household but reside at a separate on-campus location. This license does not extend to business or commercial users.

      I don't think they consider dorms to be households, especially since they mention students as potential members of other primary residencies. It would be interesting to see what they have to say about fraternities or other similar housing clubs. I suppose it's not entirely clear. Their SLA page doesn't have any additional detail that adds to the information from the footnote I quoted above.

    139. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 1

      IL2 Stormovik rocks!

      My macbook pro does fine with the latest games using bootcamp and XP - and my older games work great too. Games I've used on the Mac side (WOW, BattlefieldEurope) run great natively.

      What I am jazzed about is the new 64 bit graphics/windowing code (basically extending the 64 bit code all the way from the kernel to the GUI). That coupled with the commitment of game manufacturers to port more games to the Mac could make the Apple platform a viable performance gamer's box.

      The biggest LAG issue in the games I've played has not been my network - the bottleneck is most commonly the slowdown in rendering complex scenes in realtime (e.g. nearby explosions, large groups of players near, etc). My Intel core2duo macbook pro doesn't usually have serious problems in this regard - compared to my old Pentium 4 gamebox. If the rendering speed on the Mac turns out to be better than XP on the macbook, then I'll be buying more Mac specific games going forward.

      --

      Lodragan Draoidh
      The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
    140. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by chrish · · Score: 1

      If Cryptic would port (or let someone port, yes I'm volunteering) the City of Heroes/City of Villains client to OS X, I could scrap my BootCamp plans for when I get a new laptop.

      Come on, guys, it'll flush out bugs in your code, and I promise not to laugh at your source control system!

      --
      - chrish
    141. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, while Canadians might've been the one modding this up for the irony factor, somehow I doubt it. After all, the Canadian dollar is now at parity with the American one. That jokes like this are still being made suggests huge amounts of ignorance. You'd think Americans would be shamed by their piss-poor buying power outside their own country.

    142. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by DaggertipX · · Score: 1

      Examples...? (honestly curious.)

    143. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      I'm on OSX 10.39...don't see that option....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    144. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      I'm on OSX 10.39...don't see that option....

      Is this one you gave for a newer version?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    145. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's educational. The new price should teach you a lesson!

      ---
      http://www.bananaranha.com/

    146. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by mfnickster · · Score: 1

      Try this:

        - Set your location in the Apple menu to "Automatic" if it's on something else
        - Open your Utilities folder
        - Open Keychain Access
        - If there's no keychain drawer on the right, click "Show Keychains" in the upper right
        - Select the System keychain
        - Click on the 'Unlock' button
        - Select the Airport network password in the keychain items (main window) and click 'Delete'
        - Click on the 'Lock' button and quit Keychain Access

      See if that does the trick!

      --
      "Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
    147. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Space+cowboy · · Score: 1
      Well, your machine is nothing like his, of course...

      He has
      • 2 quad Xeon (3GHz, which Newegg doesn't even stock), but 2x 2.44GHz= $1080
      • A top of the range case, with RAID-like disk chassis, better than any PC case I've seen, but let's say a Lian-Li @ $300
      • 16G of PC2-5300 RAM for $1016
      • 4x 750G drives for $1060
      • The Apple RAID card is a 350 MB/sec sustained transfer. I doubt if a $200 card will perform like a $1000 card...
      • A Quadro FX4500 will set you back circa $1800, not $300...
      • Warranty/Support - let's say you find somewhere for a similar $250.

        So, in bits, that's $6506, for slower CPUs. And that's US dollars, not AU ones. Now you can argue that you only want what you bought, so it's a good deal for you. My point is that in an apples to apples comparison, it's not that much of a premium to go with the supported config, over the build-it-yourself option. Highway robbery it ain't.

        I priced out a lesser spec Mac Pro for myself almost a year ago. It was cheaper than any of the competition for the same parts. And I get to run OSX, of course :)

        Simon.
      --
      Physicists get Hadrons!
    148. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      If you use identical hardware of an intel apple it IS kind of region coding.
      For the countless other cases it is not.

      So in general, it is not, which was my point.

      I didn't say it's NOT an artificial lock, I said it's not a matter of artificial lock. To clarify, it's a matter of compatibility plus the apple (questionable? justified?) choice of preventing OSX to run at all instead of, say, throw a big warning that the machine you're running on could experience potentially disastrous behavior as the config is untested.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    149. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by dbrutus · · Score: 1

      Unix backup tools work just as well on OS X as they do on Linux. The problem is that Apple does more than Linux and most U*ix variants and thus the tools were inadequate. Backup, under certain conditions, would degrade your files to the level you would get on a normal U*ix machine. Aliases would degrade to symlinks, for example, because the inode of the file would change and the alias relationship would not be preserved. But Linux et al don't do better than symlinks. They don't have aliases, nor most of the metadata that is what has kept Mac a step ahead in user experience even as it gave up its distinctive hardware. How backup to a level equal to other U*ix variants is worse than the same tools on other systems is a little puzzling but that's the OS wars for you.

    150. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's exactly the fancy front end(s) that makes Time Machine interesting compared to other incremental file-oriented backup mechanisms.

      The mechanism is straightforward -- the fsevent that drives spotlight indexing also drives a spoolout to the archive volume; spoolouts happen at almost arbitrary granularity, including an immediate mode which means every change to a file gets backed up. There is nothing "gee whiz cool" about that, other than it works.

      This isn't quite the same as snapshotting, but is roughly the same from a functionality perspective as making regular automatic volume copies using shadow copy or a number of similar versioning mechanisms, including third-party incremental snapshot-making tools.

      The method of retrieving older versions of files is dramatically different, though. The UI of almost any application can show a navigable stack of older versions of files and file-like or record-like objects (e.g. address cards, calendar entries, bookmarks, document drafts). Old, archived versions of applications can be run on old, archived versions of their data without dirsupting current data. Installations can be entirely undone, including most side effects (Receipts files, preference files and so forth associated with an application in a standard bundle format can be backed out to a given date).

      Most snapshotting and versioning systems are much more coarse grained -- if you want something or set of things in the past, you have to revert your entire filesystem, or go digging for each item through an awkward interface. This makes it seem like getting older versions is something to be done in an emergency. Time Machine is very different, and is designed to make it easy to regularly go back to older data and then return to newwer data, much like an an "infinte" Undo (Command-Z)/Redo (Shift-Command-Z) feature.

      Moreover, the underlying machinery and UI are first class citizens of Leopard, and developers have been encouraged to explore ways in which to take advantage of it (and to avoid it being a problem for some applications with lots of transient data, or many changes to small pieces of very large datasets). It's not a "System Utility" at all; the only "System" interface most users will see is a big "On/Off" toggle switch, and a popup that asks whether an attached-for-the-first-time drive should be used for backups.

      This is fantastic for people whose mothers forget to make backups of critical material a few days or weeks after being badly bitten by the most recent deletion or overwrite accident, and even more fantastic for people whose fathers never make backups in the first place, but call you when they shred (or lose) data that they suddenly want back.

      It's even more fantastic for people who run into horrific and extremely unusual problems with software updates. Software Updater and Installer both have Time Machine built right in, and cause a fuller spoolout as a side effect of their overwriting/editing/removing/adding of files. "After updating to 10.5.1, my wireless didn't work, so I just reverted. That cost me a whole 10-15 minutes of waiting for the restore, argh, can't Apple get anything right?". A vast improvement over what one often reads on Mac discussion boards after big software upgrades are released into the wild!

      It's also fantastic for vendors of external drives, of course. :-)

      Finally, spooling out to network mounted volumes, most notably those on drives attached via USB to modern Airport Base Stations, is fully supported. There is nothing exceptionally strange requirements-wise, all that's needed is a big HFS+ or AFP volume. Webdav will probably work too at some point, for .Mac purposes.

      Now what I would really like to see is full integration between Leopard's spaces implementation and ARD, such that workspaces can be associated with remote machines, with drag and drop across workspaces working even to multiple machines. Most of the mechanisms are there alrea

    151. Re:The student edition is now $47 more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, Time Machine's underlying mechanism was modelled after UNICOS's handling of demand tape silo storage, particularly those on Apple's old Y-MP with its StorageTek 4400s in the mid 1990s. Up to and including the use of the "@" prepend when doing "ls -aCF" in the spooled-out volume.

      The cool thing about Time Machine is the first class integration at the GUI and application level, not the underlying mechanism at the POSIX interface and below.

  2. Yawn by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I will keep the Gutsy Gibbon on my Mac Mini. Thanks anyway.

    1. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that on a G4 or an Intel mini?

    2. Re:Yawn by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 0, Troll

      Yes, I use the best "tool" for the job.

      OS X sucks, the hardware is great though.

    3. Re:Yawn by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 1

      A G4 (unfortunately). I have to use Gnash instead of Flash (Gnash isn't complete yet) - however I can boot OS X whilst running Linux using MOL (Mac On Linux).

    4. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you're confused. The software is great, which is the only reason people are willing to drop money on their shitty overpriced Dells.

    5. Re:Yawn by PenguSven · · Score: 1

      wow, so despite the previous poster saying that linux has "most of the features" of leopard, it seems FLASH PLAYBACK isnt one of them. yeah you linux geeks are way up there with tech!

      --
      What is...?
    6. Re:Yawn by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Linux doesn't have flash playback on a G4, no. Linux systems running Intel or AMD have had it for some time now, though. Troll.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    7. Re:Yawn by PenguSven · · Score: 1

      Troll? he commented on a Mac related article making claims that he's better of with Linux, but he cant play back one of the most common multimedia formats on the internet. yeah im totally a troll.

      --
      What is...?
    8. Re:Yawn by lazy_playboy · · Score: 1

      Yup.
      OS X rocks but I'm really disappointed in my year old macbook hardware. I was seduced by all those stories of 4-5 year old ibooks (or whatever the powerpc non-pro laptops were called), but I think I'll be lucky if mine makes it to 18 months (I think an expensive screen repair is coming up). I guess the extortionate applecare needs to be factored into the original purchase price. I'm regretting not getting for the macbook.

    9. Re:Yawn by onetwentyone · · Score: 1

      I love your completely unqualified reasons for OS X sucking. I mean, the depth and the logic is so immense it floored me. With an argument like yours, I now know I was foolish for embracing Apple. Time for me to make the switch to PCs.

    10. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Did you just get here? Regardless, you might want to take some notes here.

      If you are a Linux apologist, and some given piece of software or a file format doesn't work with Linux, it isn't Linux's fault. It is the stupid file format. That file format is stupid because it doesn't support Linux and the company that owns it is stupid by extension and it is only popular because everyone is just a sheep and doesn't know what you know. If an application won't run on Linux there is either a 1:1 FOSS replacement that does or no one needs the kind of functionality the app provides and everyone else who uses it is just a stupid sheep following the crowd.

      If you claim for years that what Linux really needs to be popular is for a big time computer maker to offer it pre-installed, and after that happens it is revealed that it still only represents a couple of percent of their shipments, well then there must be some big conspiracy to hold back Linux.

      If you think software is hard to install on Linux you are stupid. Look in the repos, everything anyone could ever need is there even it most of it is half maintained. If you need something that isn't available in the repo or in a DEB or RPM or apt-gettable or any of the other 50 or so half working package managers, you are stupid.

      If you think some other operating system is better than Linux you are either a shill or stupid or ignorant or all three.

      And this isn't even touching on the inter-distro stupidities. Stupid Mandrake users.

    11. Re:Yawn by The+Slashdot+Guy · · Score: 1

      Not having flash playback is one of the features I enjoy the most.

    12. Re:Yawn by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Actually, it would seem that it is that fact that he's running Linux on a G4 that si the root of his inability to play flash videos. It's not ao much a Linux issue, as Adobe has a flash player and plugin for Linux, which works quite well. Pick up all of the details of the situation before forming an argument. PowerPC... Superior, indeed. Blast! Now you've got ME trolling, too!

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    13. Re:Yawn by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Quite amusing. However, I wasn't blindly defending Linux. I was pointing out the fact that Linux can, in fact, play flash files, with an Adobe-created-and-supported player. That the player does not run on a PPC CPU has nothing to do with linux; how much longer will Adobe maintain the PPC/OSX version of flash? Nobody can say for sure, but I wouldn't hope for a PPC/OSX version of Flash 10.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    14. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OS X rocks but I'm really disappointed in my year old macbook hardware. I was seduced by all those stories of 4-5 year old ibooks (or whatever the powerpc non-pro laptops were called), but I think I'll be lucky if mine makes it to 18 months (I think an expensive screen repair is coming up). I guess the extortionate applecare needs to be factored into the original purchase price. I'm regretting not getting for the macbook.

      Usually when I see comments like this I tend to assume the person probably went through non-Apple hardware too. Am I right to guess that?

      If so, what you really ought to be doing is reevaluating the way you handle your notebook computers. Build quality and design does vary from brand to brand, and I happen to think Apple's is probably better than average, but short of ruggedized notebooks (which weigh a ton) none of them are designed to put up with the casual abuse a lot of people give them.

      Keep in mind here that by casual abuse I mean even things like picking the notebook up from one corner without supporting it on the opposite corner. Anything which flexes the notebook's frame also flexes and stresses the printed circuit boards mounted inside. Over time, flexing cracks the solder joints holding components to the boards, leading to failure.

      LCD displays are similarly fragile. You never want to do anything which puts a stress point on the backside of a display, like stacking something heavy on top of the notebook computer while it's closed. This wasn't always as much of a problem as it is now, even though the displays themselves have always been very fragile. The problem is that market pressure to reduce laptop thickness to absolute minimums has led to displays with very thin housings and little structural stiffness, meaning that any load placed on the outside flexes the housing and pushes it against the LCD.

    15. Re:Yawn by evil_aar0n · · Score: 1

      My MBP works fine. My wife's MB works fine. My mother's MB works fine. My sister-in-law's MB works fine. My kid's MBP worked fine - until he got in a car accident from which he really shouldn't have walked away, but for which I'm very grateful he did. They put the car on the flat-bed in pieces - multiple pieces. That accident dented his case above the CD slot, but I was able to push it back enough to allow the CD / DVD to insert and eject, so I guess you could say it still works fine. All of these, except my MBP (9 mos, give or take), are over a year old.

      As they say, YMMV...

      --
      Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
    16. Re:Yawn by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      wow, so despite the previous poster saying that linux has "most of the features" of leopard, it seems FLASH PLAYBACK isnt one of them. yeah you linux geeks are way up there with tech!
      Only a issue with non-x86 Linux systems.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    17. Re:Yawn by lazy_playboy · · Score: 1

      I think that's a fair post. My personal laptops probably have as hard a life as possible without it actually being 'abuse'...

      Still, I'm disappointed with the 4 stuck pixels and the faint light patch on the screen (which has spread over time), the track pad button that has a frustratingly inconsistent and cheap feel, and a dodgy creaky hinge. My last laptop was a cheap generic rebranded thing, but had a heavy well made chassis and only failed after the second orange juice incident (having been revived after the first one).

      Shouldn't a consumer laptop (like the macbook) be built to be moved about, with a chassis that can take the stress? A macbook pro is more likely to be sat on a desk all its life, given the size?

  3. Macbooks by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does this mean that Macs sold after this date come with Leopard pre-installed as well?

    --
    Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    1. Re:Macbooks by BZWingZero · · Score: 3, Informative

      Very likely. Its also likely if you just (within a week or two ago) purchased your mac you might be able to get the new version free of charge. I know this happened with my parents computer and Panther awhile back.

    2. Re:Macbooks by 8127972 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not likely, but you have the ability to get Leopard cheaply if you buy a Mac after October 1st.

      http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

      --
      This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
    3. Re:Macbooks by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

      That or as a free drop in. Also way lock out dual 800 g4 users? Dual 800 is faster then 1 876 g4.

    4. Re:Macbooks by Stamen · · Score: 1

      Actually, very likely. I bought a Mac Mini a few days after Tiger came out. It doesn't come pre-installed, of course as it was probably boxed at the factory months before, but on the outside of the box they had taped Tiger.

    5. Re:Macbooks by BaldNerd · · Score: 1

      A geek working at the Apple store here told me that they will be dropping an upgrade DVD into the box for MACs from the time that Leopard is released up until the units begin arriving with Leopard preloaded.

    6. Re:Macbooks by Crizp · · Score: 1

      A mate bought a MacBook several months ago and even he got a free Leopard upgrade voucher. But it was before it was delayed.

    7. Re:Macbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if you're in the USA or Canada (according to the Terms and Conditions).

    8. Re:Macbooks by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      It doesn't list the price. Is Apple offering it free? When I bought my parents a Mac years ago, it had Cheetah installed but it came with Panther discs as Panther had come out a few months earlier.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    9. Re:Macbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Weird. How did they end up skipping straight from Cheetah to Panther? Very, very, old stock? I could have understood Jaguar being installed and the thing coming with Panther disks, or Cheetah being installed and it coming with Jaguar disks, but...

    10. Re:Macbooks by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      I was confused. I meant it had Jaguar installed and came with Panther. It was a few years ago.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    11. Re:Macbooks by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

      A geek working at the Apple store here told me that they will be dropping an upgrade DVD into the box for MACs from the time that Leopard is released up until the units begin arriving with Leopard preloaded. This makes sense and is consistent with what Apple has done previously. Either they will toss a retail disc into the box of units sold in the transitional period (between release but before they ship with the new OS), or there will be an upgrade program where you can get a retail disc using a proof-of-purchase coupon and the cost of shipping.

      Basically, this is just because Apple doesn't want people to put off purchasing computers once they release the new OS, because they're waiting on ones that come with it preloaded. (I suspect that people do wait anyway, but it's their effort to mitigate this.)
      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    12. Re:Macbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am so choked at Apple right now!

      I ordered an iMac and a MacBook Pro on the same day. The iMac shipped on September 26 and the MBP shipped on October 2. So I get the up-to-date upgrade on the MBP but NOT on the iMac, since shipping by October first is their cut off date.

      WTF?

      I just spent 45 minutes on the phone with their customer support (went through 3 levels all the way to the "manager") who told me that there is nothing they can do. The lady actually said I could return the iMac and then reorder it rather than them just giving me the upgrade.

      What kind of logic is that?

      The manager told me that nobody in the company could change that October 1st rule. So I asked him if I bought 10,000 computers from them and threatened to return them if I didn't get the upgrade, then not even Steve Jobs could make that happen, and he said "Yes, that's right."

      What a freaking moron!

      I was planning to wait until Leopard was released, so I guess this is what I get for being too eager and expecting Apple to take care of me.

    13. Re:Macbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geez. They're upgrading MACs using a DVD? Just how many digits are they planning on adding? 20 hex digits is a reasonable number I'd have thought. Will it not slow down the network to have 9 gigadigit MAC addresses?

    14. Re:Macbooks by mehemiah · · Score: 1

      Mod Parent up, That was funny!

    15. Re:Macbooks by RulerOf · · Score: 1

      Thanks. I ended up buying my Macbook Pro before the release of Leopard because I needed a laptop then and not at the end of the month and didn't look forward to spending another 130 bucks on an already overpriced computer, and snagging the Bittorrent or Usenet edition of the software wasn't a very appealing idea for various reasons (the least of which, ironically, is a moral one).

      Turns out that my purchase date was October 1st. And that was because they didn't have any in stock on the 29th. Yay.

      Thanks for the link.

      --
      Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
    16. Re:Macbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.


      Why aren't the two wolves well-armed?
  4. I'll get my new kitty that day. by The_Isle_of_Mark · · Score: 0

    Finally a built-in multi-desktop. Oh and decent delta backup built-in as well.

  5. The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by 8127972 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129."

    Why does "The Steve" need to bash M$ & Vista at every opportunity? Is it to pander to Apple fanbois? Or does he secretly aspire to be Ballmer? Don't get me wrong, I have a Mac and I don't like M$ as much as the next /.'er, but the bashing of M$ and Vista is starting to get old.

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
    1. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by CommandNotFound · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wouldn't exactly call this 'bashing'. More of a jab. With six version of Vista, MSFT pretty much walked into that punchline.

    2. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by jimstapleton · · Score: 1

      Apple has always been a very agressive company (which has its good and bad points), and this is pretty much a continuation of the norm for Steve.

      --
      34486853790
      Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
    3. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Shivetya · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Why does it cost me so much for a point release is what I want to know and why aren't people lambasting Apple for such?

      --
      * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    4. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 2, Funny

      Agreed. Especially when you're releasing OSX SP6.

    5. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by 8127972 · · Score: 1

      Three words: Reality Distortion Field.

      --
      This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
    6. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Negatyfus · · Score: 1

      What gets even older is the spelling of MS with a dollar sign. Stop it. It makes you look stupid.

    7. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Rufty · · Score: 1

      'Coz "M$ & Vista" copied a *load* of OSX features, but badly. (Expose, Dashboard, Spotlight, .MAC ...)
      What he should do is just copy back (ZIP folders...

      --
      Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
    8. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Jaxoreth · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why does it cost me so much for a point release is what I want to know and why aren't people lambasting Apple for such?
      Because it's a major upgrade, not a point release.
      --
      In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
    9. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by eshefer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      to quote BillG at the joint interview at all things digital this year: "steve is well known for his restraint".

    10. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ten point four to ten point five? Or is this actually OS XI?

    11. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why does "The Steve" need to bash M$ & Vista at every opportunity?
      Being mainly a linux user I don't understand your reference (something about "ultimate"?) - however, I do think the artificial limitations on most versions of Windows are very annoying. Somebody at Microsoft actually went to extra effort to restrict you to only 5 network connections. Or the fact that only one remote user can log in at once. It's just very, very Lame.
    12. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by value_added · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why does "The Steve" need to bash M$ & Vista at every opportunity? Is it to pander to Apple fanbois?

      Because it's an easy and slow moving target?

      I don't recall how many versions of Vista exist, and have given up trying to keep track of what is wrong generally with Vista, but if late night talk show hosts were more technically inclined, I'd wager there would be as a steady stream of jokes about Vista, at least as many as there are about embarassing celebrity goofups and blunders of the day.

      So laugh. It's funny. Hell, I don't even own a Mac, and I'm laughing. But I doubt I'm alone in saying that I am paying close attention in anticipation of my next computer purchase.

    13. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Rogerborg · · Score: 1
      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    14. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 5, Informative

      In order to maintain the longevity of the OS X name, full milestone upgrades of OS X are called point releases. People lambaste OS X for that numbering convention, as if OS X milestone releases are not as significant just because Apple isn't moving the first digit of the version number with each release. It's a really stupid critique, FWIW.

      --
      Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
    15. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      Why does it cost me so much for a point release is what I want to know and why aren't people lambasting Apple for such? This isn't a simple point release. OS X 10.5 is really more like OS 15. They want to keep the OS X naming convention for as long as they can. That gives them another 5-8 years at the current pace of a release every 1.5-2 years. Their actual point releases are more like 10.Y.Z, where Y is the new version and Z is the point release.
      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    16. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by foniksonik · · Score: 1

      'Service Pack' is the worst marketing of a version release ever. MS would have been much better off if they had used a version number and had added new features each time in addition to fixing bugs, which if they did add features in the SPs it was buried cause I only ever got the impression that they were roll-up bug fix updates.

      BTW Apple actually does release SPs.... they just call them Security updates and point-point releases... ie: 10.4.11 is just around the corner for those who are not going to buy 10.5

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    17. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      but if late night talk show hosts were more technically inclined

      No, wouldn't matter. The audience isn't; that limits the material.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    18. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by stuntpope · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's just competition, doesn't annoy me. Fairly standard practice for a company to say, "unlike the competition, our product does this", especially when you are not the market leader. Market leaders are assumed to be the best, so competitors have to knock them down a notch and challenge the assumptions. Look at Ford's recent ads. Guy pulls up at night next to a competing product, and starts going over all the ways the Ford is better than the other car. Mazda has an ad where a Toyota owner is ridiculed for going the "normal" route of buying a Corolla, instead of the "more feature-full" Mazda. Hey, I managed to get a car analogy in here!

      And "The Steve's" point is spot-on. With Apple, you don't have to decide between levels of product like you do with Windows. Home Basic? Home Premium? Ultimate? Apple is saying they designed an OS with lots of new features, and you get all those features if you buy the product. Simple as that.

    19. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is one of the more reasonable jabs he's made IMO.

      However, the interesting thing is: How many OS X releases between XP and Vista? How much would you spend total on all of those vs. Vista Ultimate?

    20. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Dr.+Smoove · · Score: 1

      It's called "Marketing," and every business does it.

      --
      "If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind."
    21. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      I actually think it's quite clever. How is pointing out a glaring price difference in similar products "bashing"? Someone posted there are more OS X users than Vista users, so why not highlight the second worst feature of the competition (the price, first being the performance)? $600 and $129 IS a pretty big price disparity, especially when you take into account that the $129 product is universally considered to be suprior to the $600 product. Have you never seen the "I'm a Mac" commercials? Those seem to be popular AND effective, so why not stick with the theme?

    22. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      Apple's "point releases" have more improvements than Windows full version changes. And Apple doesn't take 6-7 years to crank them out. :-P

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    23. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      SP6? Spoken like a true Windows Champion. You should get out more and realize that life doesn't revolve around the next Microsoft Security Pack (is that what SP stands for? Excuse me, for I am a Mac user and this whole SP thing is foreign to me).

    24. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      Five words: Your snarky comment lacks evidence.

    25. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by lazy_playboy · · Score: 1

      Surely they could go on forever with OS X 10.10, 10.12, 10.13, etc.?

    26. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Experiment+626 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why does it cost me so much for a point release is what I want to know and why aren't people lambasting Apple for such?

      It's not like charging for a "point release" is unique to Apple. Microsoft did so for the upgrades from Windows 3.0 to 3.1, and from Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000) to 5.1 (Windows XP). The thing that determines whether it is worth it to users is what new functionality they get for their money, not which digit of an arbitrary numbering scheme some guy in the marketing department decided to increment.

    27. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Being mainly a linux user I don't understand your reference (something about "ultimate"?

      Yeah, Windows Vista has something like 7 different versions (4 retail versions, not sure how many OEM or volume licensing versions there are, but at least a couple more), each with its own different set of limitations. The the least crippled version is "Windows Vista Ultimate" which costs about $400. And I say "least crippled" instead of "not crippled" because it has all the features included in any other version of Windows Vista, but it's still Windows Vista.

    28. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not just about marketing. These major upgrades are still related at the heart (BSD UNIX/Darwin). If they started with a blank editor and wrote a new OS, then they would call it Mac OS 11. The progression from 10.3 to 10.4 to 10.5 is analogous to the progression of Windows 2000 to Windows XP to Vista.

      Apple uses the same numbering convention as SUN for Sun OS/Solaris.

    29. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by dave420 · · Score: 1, Troll

      How dare MSFT let people choose to not pay for features they don't want! The bastards!

    30. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by C0rinthian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because version number means EVERYTHING, and actual content means NOTHING.

    31. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by poopdeville · · Score: 1

      This is an interesting questions. If Microsoft had a similar release schedule, IT departments around the world would be screaming bloody murder about the upgrade treadmill. It is, in fact, a pretty steep one.

      On the other hand, Tiger had about 300 feature upgrades over Panther. And Leopard has about 300 over Tiger. Obviously, not all of those are going to be significant, but 300 is about how many feature upgrades MS included in Vista. So the OS X line is improving significantly with each iteration, and at a faster pace.

      Whether this means you have to buy the latest OS X is up to you. I tend to take a look at the feature lists. Cocoa/Ruby is going to be included in Leopard, so I'll probably be getting a copy (or, more likely, buying a big ass iMac once they ship with Leopard.)

      --
      After all, I am strangely colored.
    32. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by dave420 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not 5 network connections. It's 10 uncompleted outbound connections per second. You can have as many connections as you want. And if you're talking about limiting the number of people who can access shares concurrently on home systems, that's to guarantee network performance for the client machine (as it's not a server, chances are someone's using it). There are versions of windows that are engineered to support more simultaneous connections through having tweaked software installed, all of which cost money to develop, and costs to support. It's the same with remote users - XP and Vista client PCs are not servers, and the licensing model (one desktop user per installation) reflects that. More people logging in degrades the performance of the computer. They are artificial, definitely, but they're there for a good reason. If you want a computer that can do all that other stuff, go and buy a version of Windows Server 2003. It has a far more useful set of features for someone wanting to run a server, compared to the workstation versions that have a far more use set of featuers for desktop computers. Most folks find it useful to be able to spend as much money as they need to on the features they want, without having to pay extra for features they won't use. Apple appears to want to simplify the experience, which also simplifies the pricing structure, putting everyone on the same rung of the ladder.

    33. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by jimicus · · Score: 1

      Every commercial server OS which isn't directly Linux based that I can remember has had some sort of client-access licensing imposed.

      Have you priced up CALs for Windows lately? Lots more than $999 for unlimited clients.

    34. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by nschubach · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's better that they charge you more for less features then let you add on the features you really want with more money!

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    35. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Stamen · · Score: 1

      Nice spin; creative.

    36. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 1

      Why are you on slashdot, Mac hipster? Shouldn't you be down at the starbucks, photoshopping your latest artistic venture while listening to the wallflowers and eating a scone? Isn't that what Mac users do?

    37. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by macmaniac · · Score: 1

      Vista isn't a server OS, therefore bringing the server versions into this is nonsense.

      One version of client OS (as Vista == client OS) offered in two packages: 1-license and 5-license ("family pack")

      One version of server OS (as Server 2003 == server OS) offered in two licensing tiers: 10-client and unlimited-client.

      Meanwhile, there are 6 versions of Vista (client OS) and at least 3 versions (that I'm aware of) of Server 2003.

    38. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by nominanuda · · Score: 1

      but, no, you don't understand, my amplifier goes up to 11.

    39. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by pjt48108 · · Score: 1

      Peronally, I prefer to say, "MicroShaft" when referring to the Redmond Company.

      --
      Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
    40. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by RogerWilco · · Score: 4, Informative

      Microsoft does the same and sometimes Windows point releases cost as much or even more:

      Windows 3.0/3.1/3.11

      Windows 4.0 a.k.a. Windows 95
      Windows 4.03 a.k.a. Windows 95 OSR2
      Windows 4.1 a.k.a. Windows 98
      Windows 4.9 a.k.a. Windows ME

      Windows NT 5.0 a.k.a. Windows 2000
      Windows NT 5.1 a.k.a. Windows XP
      Windows NT 5.2 a.k.a. Windows 2003

      And the gaps in release dates of the above aren't a lot different from the OS X ones, maybe a bit larger (1.5-2 years vs. 1-1.5 years) and they have some clever naming system since 1995, but then so does Apple (Panther, Tiger, Leopard)

      --
      RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
    41. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      It's also the same numbering scheme as OS/2: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, then the move to 32 bit: 2.0, 2.1, 2.11, 2.3 (Warp 3), 2.4 (Warp 4).

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    42. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. If you think about it, using the same numbering convention, Windows Vista would actually be something like Windows 5.4.0, where the 0 would be the service pack number, the 4 the major upgrades and the 5 being the major kernel rewrite.

      Or, you could just call the latest MacOS "MacOS Leopard Personal Edition Service Pack 1." Same difference.

    43. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Most of this vista "bashing" (I prefer the word "criticism", personally), is pretty much unfounded. It's a good OS. It's quick, responsive, and uses system resources wisely to increase performance. The various versions of Vista are there to let people pay for what they want, instead of making everyone buy every feature, even if their computer can't make use of it. FUD is not funny, regardles who is spreading it and what they're FUD-ing about. Surely, as technologists, we should be focussing on the truth, instead of jumping on a bandwagon and repeating unfounded claims as if they were true. It doesn't help anyone.

    44. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And if you're talking about limiting the number of people who can access shares concurrently on home systems, that's to guarantee network performance for the client machine (as it's not a server, chances are someone's using it).

      How thoughtful of them to decide not to let you choose for yourself.

      Honestly, I hope you're re-posting their justifications and didn't really come up with those yourself.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    45. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by claytor1 · · Score: 1

      Actually, we're listening to the new Radiohead album...

    46. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Khuffie · · Score: 1

      Go install Windows XP with no service pack. Then go and install service pack 2, and tell me the new features are buried. Apple's point-point releases are bug fixes, pure and simple (hence they are called Security updates). Microsoft releases big fixes on a monthly basis. While I wouldn't call the OS X 'point' releases a service pack (unless I was trying to be a jackass, since it's fan to annoy Apple fanboys), I would hardly call them a full-featured update either. Also, I wouldn't call an update to iChat or Safari a new feature, since Microsoft tends to update their equivalent outside their OS. See, something like Quicklook or Time Machine is an OS-level feature update, something like templates for Mail, not so much.

    47. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows has included language to that effect since Windows 95, and has enforced the limit on at least SMB connections since Windows 2000 AFAIK. (I never tested on earlier versions) This is why in a small office environment when you have, say, 11 people in an office, the printer that everybody shares through one machine will be flaky from time to time. SMB will start killing connections once you get past the limit. So it's not a new "extra effort" thing with Vista. The work's been done for at least 8 years that I know of.

      Bonus problem (which I'd wager Vista still has): Windows SMB keeps track of connections instead of clients. If one client connects to the same machine for a printer and a file share, that's two connections used instead of one.

      Also, the language of the EULA specifically says (and has always said) that the limitation on inbound connections applies to ALL software on the system, not just SMB stuff. So if you run a Quake server for 16 people on any version of a Windows workstation (all of which are under 10 connections allowed), you are in violation of the EULA. They just can't enforce it since it's not as easy to just control TCP or UDP in the same fashion without leaving it completely unusable.

      Mindblowing stuff, when I originally read it 10 years ago.

    48. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by stewbacca · · Score: 1
      Actually I was heading to Taco Bell, with my Dell Latitude work laptop to catch a meal and make some work related PowerPoint stuff. What's your point, again: that you are a Microsoft Dorkster and you don't like Hipsters, even though you know nothing about me, my dietary habits, my choices of photo editing software, nor my coffee indulgences?

      In stark contrast to YOUR snarky comment, my snarky comment was merely pointing out that the world doesn't evolve around the next Microsoft Service Pack, and to apply that logic to using Mac OS X is mostly incongruent. You know, come to think of it, I think a scone sounds much nicer than downloading this nagging Windows security update anyway.

    49. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Khuffie · · Score: 1

      Everyone I know (including Apple-users) think the Mac guy in the I'm a Mac commercials is a douche-bag and doesn't make them like Apple more, since it puts Mac users in a bad-light, and the PC guy is cute and fuzzy and you just wanna give him a hug. Also, if you're comparing price-points, you forget that OS X only runs on Apple hardware, and you have to pay the Apple tax on what is essentially an over-priced PC, whereas most Windows 'purchases' come when you buy a PC. So why not compare the price of a similarly equipped and similarly capable PC to a Mac, and then tell me which one is cheaper? Granted, Apple makes it cheaper for people who already own a Mac to upgrade, but then again, they have an upgrade an average of every 18 months, which in the long-run makes it more expensive.

    50. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by rwyoder · · Score: 1

      Because version number means EVERYTHING, and actual content means NOTHING.
      Are we still talking about Leopard, or did we move on to Web 2.0? ;-)
    51. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by eheldreth · · Score: 1

      There's no practical reason OS X can't live on for decades. Apple isn't legally limited to only 10 "Point Releases". You could easily have OS 10.11 or OS 10.100

      --
      The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum. - O'Toole's Corollary
    52. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Truesilver · · Score: 1

      They could go on forever, and don't call me Shirley!

    53. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by eltonito · · Score: 1

      Assuming at the time of XP's release you were running 10.1, you'd be out about $390 (10.2, 10.3, 10.4 @ $129 each), not including Leopard. Assuming you have more than one mac and are honest, the family pack would've been about $600.

    54. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by cbuskirk · · Score: 1

      I was under the impression that Windows ME was more like Windows 0.01

    55. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by strikeleader · · Score: 0

      At $129 each wouldn't you crank out a new "bundled software" as fast as you could. It's all about the cash...show me the money.

    56. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by jocknerd · · Score: 1

      Because Microsoft makes it so easy to bash them.

    57. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1

      How dare MSFT let people choose to not pay for features they don't want! The bastards! MSFT recently admitted that they failed to deliver on the extra features promised for Vista Ultimate. In other words, MSFT admitted that they ripped off people who bought Vista Ultimate.
      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    58. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Altus · · Score: 1


      Whether this means you have to buy the latest OS X is up to you.


      This is an important point. If there is nothing in the new OS version that really blows you away you only have to wait a year, maybe a year and a half for the one after that. Maybe you will find that version more compelling and you haven't spent that long behind the curve (and if you don't find the leading edge of the curve appealing this shouldn't be a big deal). If you don't find vista compelling you are more likely to run into compatibility problems, possibly forced into an upgrade by some new hardware, because it will be 6 years before the next release.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    59. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by initdeep · · Score: 1
      REALLY?

      So if i wanted the ability to have domain networking in my home (and I do), AND have the media center ability built into my OS as well, I got ripped off?

      Hmmm...not seeing it.

    60. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Yes, there are advantages and disadvantages to buying a Mac. Steve Jobs chooses to mention on the advantages. Shocking!

      Granted, Apple makes it cheaper for people who already own a Mac to upgrade, but then again, they have an upgrade an average of every 18 months, which in the long-run makes it more expensive. If you buy every update it's more expensive but you don't have to wait as long between them. If you don't buy every update it's cheaper but you wait longer. It's up to you. Would it be a better deal if they waited another few years to release Leopard?
    61. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by lolocaust · · Score: 1

      Under the old OS numbering system, this would be OS 14 or maybe 13, since 10.1 actually was a free bugfix release. They just love using the lone X in the logo.

      --
      Why does my post history abruptly stop? I want to laugh at the stupid things I posted as a kid.
    62. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by arminw · · Score: 1

      .....Microsoft releases big fixes on a monthly basis......

      That's because they have to. Does even as much as a month go by, that some security vendor doesn't discover a major hole in some part of a Windows PC or Application? Although we don't hear of huge numbers of hosed MS computers any more, there is still plenty of malware for Windows, whereas there is essentially none for the Mac OS. Maybe, just maybe, Apple can spend more time making real improvements rather than just putting out fires?

      --
      All theory is gray
    63. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Khuffie · · Score: 1

      Or you could follow simple logic: Windows has over 90% market share = hackers are going to focus their efforts on the 90% of the market share. Do you honestly believe that there are no major holes in OS X, or for that matter, Linux? If so, then you are very naive my friend.

    64. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by stewbacca · · Score: 1
      You are mistaken if you think the price of a PC doesn't include the Windows OS that comes with it. Even if you build your own, you still have to buy a full version of Windows to put on there. I guess you are alluding to building your own PC and putting free Linux on it? That is an option, I guess.

      For the record, Mac users don't "have to upgrade an average of every 18 months" either. My G4 tower, for example, runs X.3. I don't even remember how long ago that was, and I hardly miss any of the newer features in the latest versions when I use the old Mac (spotlight being the exception).

    65. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

      It should be noted that the iPod-Touch does have crippled software when compared with the iPhone -- so it's not like Apple are above artificially segmenting the market or anything! Steve J. should take a little care where he throws stones. ;)

    66. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

      And "The Steve's" point is spot-on. With Apple, you don't have to decide between levels of product like you do with Windows. Home Basic? Home Premium? Ultimate? Apple is saying they designed an OS with lots of new features, and you get all those features if you buy the product. Simple as that.

      Except... (as I posted above and am now repeating) if you have an iPod-Touch and compare, say, your email/calendar with that of the iPhone. So presumably Apple are crippling the features in one product in order that it doesn't compete with the other, more expensive, product?!

      That said, I love my iPod-Touch to bits (I only got it yesterday!!), but Apple aren't as lovely as people like to make out; they're just less shite than MS.

    67. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by dadragon · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, as Vista is VERY different under the hood, it's NT 6.0. 2000 was NT 5.0, XP was 5.1, and XP x64 was NT 5.2.

      --
      God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
    68. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is cheaper than going from Windows 5.0 to Windows 5.1 was.

    69. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by tbradshaw · · Score: 1

      I think it's a point release. But the "honest" Microsoft releases have been too:

      Windows 2000: NT 5.0
      Windows XP: NT 5.1

      Only with Vista did the marketing team get a hold of the version numbers: NT 6.0

      A major version number is supposed to indicate a break with backwards compatibility. Why would someone be in a rush for something like that?

    70. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Enrique1218 · · Score: 1

      Oh course. They bought Windows for that reason! I must say that Windows is way ahead of Mac OSX in that regard. They jump from 95 to 98, which was a jump 3-not the usual 1. But then, they got innovative jump to a whole 2000- an increased of 1,908! Then, they switch gears and used two letters-oh my!! They truly outdid themselves recently by giving the latest version a whole word!!! I can't till come out with the sentence.

      --
      You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
    71. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Trillan · · Score: 1

      Web 2.0 was, like, so summer 2007. This is, like, fall. We're on web 2012 now.

    72. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by C0rinthian · · Score: 1

      Windows XP is actually Base-36. (Windows 1214) Which is a significant upgrade from Windows NT (Windows 894) but still falls short of Windows 2000.

    73. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 1

      Although I won't discount your point, your numbers are not accurate.

      It starts...

      Windows NT 3.1
      Windows NT 3.5
      Windows NT 3.51
      Windows NT 4.0
      Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000)
      Windows NT 5.1 (Windows XP)
      Windows NT 6.0 (Windows Vista)

      The Win 3.1-Win9x-WinME are not in the same OS family nor do their version numbers have anything to do with Windows NT other than NT 3.1 was given this version because of Win 3.1 on DOS that was released the previous year.

      So the version and point release is accurate, but you are mixing two different OSes families in your analogy.

      This would as big of a mistake as going Linux 1.0, 2.0, OS X, 10.2 (See Linux and OSX are not the same OSes either.)

    74. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by arminw · · Score: 1

      .....Do you honestly believe that there are no major holes in OS X, or for that matter, Linux?.......

      There is of course no flawless OS or flawless of anything people make. However, Windows has more holes that a pound of Swiss cheese, some big enough for a semi-truck to drive through. In the end it doesn't really matter WHY my house doesn't get broken into. All that matters is my Mac is not being broken into either and I don't have to buy and subscribe to expensive, performance robbing anti-malware programs.

      A lot of burglary tools exist for Windows houses and they are also easier to break into than Macs or Linux. Macs are Linux are based on UNIX, which was designed and built from the ground up as a more secure multi-user system. Windows was born as a single user OS, just like the old Mac OS9 and those before. MS cobbled onto that single user foundation, multi-user and other security protections. That's why it is still possible to run some ancient DOS programs on modern Windows systems. Apple decided to make a clean break with the Dinosaur age of computers. PCs still even use the prehistoric BIOS, rather than Intel's modern EFI replacement, which like USB, Apple adopted. Apple is not the only company with good ideas, but they tend to make them available to the rest of us, before the big herd of PC makers does.

      Maybe, when Macs and Linux get to be about 50% or more, hackers will work very hard to break into these. However, if crooks REALLY wanted to work hard, like most of us honest people, they would get well paying jobs in the first place. Since it is a lot of work to break in and the stuff in these systems isn't inherently more valuable than what can be stolen out of Windows boxes, there will still be way more Windows break-ins proportionately.

      --
      All theory is gray
    75. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Khuffie · · Score: 1

      As far as I can remember, I've never had to run or subscribe to an expensive anti-malware software on my Windows machine, and I've never had a virus. I run a free antivirus (right now that would be AVG) and a free firewall (built into Windows since SP2) and have never had a problem. Which brings me to my point: the problem isn't the OS, it is what's between the keyboard and a chair. No matter how secure a system is, it will fail due to it's user in more cases than not. Slashdotters always, ALWAYS argue that the major weakness of any security system always fails at the point of it's users (usually in reference to building/government security protocols and the like), yet they jump at the opportunity to bash MS. Did Microsoft do stupid thins? Yes, yes they have. Did they greatly mitigate the problem? Ever since SP2, yes, greatly.

    76. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by vought · · Score: 1

      It's a good OS. It's quick, responsive, and uses system resources wisely to increase performance.

      Lying is a sin, you know.

    77. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1

      REALLY?

      So if i wanted the ability to have domain networking in my home (and I do), AND have the media center ability built into my OS as well, I got ripped off?

      Hmmm...not seeing it.

      Nick White of the Official Windows Vista Blog said the following:

      While I'm not sure anyone could dispute that to date, we've failed to meet the expectations of our Ultimate customers over the Ultimate Extras, we're working hard to exceed their expectations moving forward, and bring them the value they deserve. http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/archive/2007/09/25/microsofts-mea-culpa-on-vista-ultimate-extras.aspx
      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    78. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Go install Windows XP with no service pack. Then go and install service pack 2, and tell me the new features are buried.
      From the top of my head (I'm sure there is more):
      • Data execution prevention
      • More user friendly firewall
      • Better defaults for the user (firewall enabled, dep enabled by default etc)
      • Windows Movie Maker 2
      • Newer Windows Media player with proper mp3 suport
      • Internet Explorer pop-up blocking
      • Internet Explorer attachment blocking
      • Internet Explorer add-on management
      • Internet Explorer Information Bar
      • nternet Explorer download monitoring
      • Better wireless support and more user friendly wireless UI
      • Windows automatic updates UI more user friendly
      • Windows Security Center - includes notifications for things like lack of anti-virus software install, out of update anti-virus, firewall disabled etc.
      • Built in bluetooth support
      • New DirectX
      • Improved platform SDK and new APIs


      Happy now?
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    79. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Well, considering that MS developed the "ultimate" version of vista first, and then intentionally degraded it to make the lesser versions... The fact that the cheaper versions cost more to develop, potentially slightly more to distribute (multiple inventory items to keep track of instead of one) and yet cost less just shows how much the customer is being gouged. I would feel terribly insulted to pay more for something that costs less to produce.
      Aside from the fact that all the various versions only help to confuse customers.
      They really should make one version at one price tag, keep it simple as it were.
      (car analogy)
      It's not like a car where it actually costs more to install a more powerful engine, aircon, alloy wheels and all the usual extras you can get (thus justifying the higher price tag).

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    80. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Swampash · · Score: 1

      Come on buddy, I like my Mac as much as the next guy and I'm typing this on a Macbook while my Mini does automating backups in the background, but Leopard is a point release. The changes between Windows XP and Windows XP SP1 were far more significant than those between OS X 10.4 and 10.5

      If that's too complicated, just say it out loud: TEN POINT FIVE. Notice the word in the middle?

    81. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by LKM · · Score: 1

      It's version 5 of OS X.

    82. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by LKM · · Score: 1

      >Why does "The Steve" need to bash M$ & Vista at every opportunity?

      Highlighting comnpetitive advantages in a lighthearted way.

    83. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the version and point release is accurate, but you are mixing two different OSes families in your analogy.

      So they gave away 9x and ME for free then? Because his point was what people were charged for.

    84. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Scudsucker · · Score: 1

      Except Apple has this thing called professional pride. Sure, there is some stretching to claim "300 new features", but they try and bring stuff to the customer that is actually useful. As opposed to Microsoft, who strips out all the useful features because they can't code, throw a bunch of crap together and call it Vista, write each piece of crap down on a billeted list.

    85. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Scudsucker · · Score: 1

      Sure, but they'll run out of predator cats to name after. "Domestic Shorthair" doesn't have the same ring as "Tiger". :)

    86. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by Scudsucker · · Score: 1

      Come on buddy, I like my Mac as much as the next guy and I'm typing this on a Macbook while my Mini does automating backups in the background, but Leopard is a point release. The changes between Windows XP and Windows XP SP1 were far more significant than those between OS X 10.4 and 10.5

      Liar.

    87. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by aedan · · Score: 1

      10.100 on my computer would be bad. Not as bad as a 10.200.

    88. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't exactly call this 'bashing'. More of a jab. With six version of Vista, MSFT pretty much walked into that punchline.

      When (/if) Apple has a sufficiently large market to add more levels of price discrimiation than they currently have, rest assured that they will.

    89. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      Only with Vista did the marketing team get a hold of the version numbers: NT 6.0

      Rubbish. Vista is easily worth a major version increment, well in line with previous examples of same (NT 3.x to NT 4.x, NT 4.x to NT 5.x). The changes from XP to Vista are of the same magnitude as the changes from from OS X 10.0 (more like NeXT/OPENSTEP 4, really) to 10.5.

      A major version number is supposed to indicate a break with backwards compatibility.

      More rubbish. By whose definition ?

    90. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by aedan · · Score: 1

      Version 6, the first one didn't have a .x number.

      Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah)
      Mac OS X 10.1 (Puma)
      Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)
      Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
      Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
      Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

    91. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      It makes sense, as it cuts down on the possible confusion it causes for end users. Desktop Windows is not for servers. It's not optimised for it. Want to do that? Then get a version of Windows with everything needed to do just that.

    92. Re:The Vista bashing is starting to get old.... by sehrgut · · Score: 1

      Yay! Now Leopard officially kills Vista! http://digg.com/apple/Leopard_Kills_Vista

  6. Not everybody gets it at $129 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everybody is misleading. OSX cannot be installed on any generic computer like the slapped together zombie that is Windows.

    1. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen. Microsoft at least has the decency to let you choose what kind of PC you put your license onto.

    2. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by Falladir · · Score: 1

      For purposes of that claim, people without Apple hardware aren't really people. It's part of the old-school Apple mindset.

    3. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Amen. Microsoft at least has the decency to let you choose what kind of PC you put your license onto.

      Plus, they give you the opportunity for the thrilling adventure of discovering whether it will even RUN on your hardware!

      "Let's see if your video card can do Aero... wait for it... oh, the suspense is killing me!"

    4. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by prelelat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Aero though probably the most known feature of vista is not necessary for its day to day use. If your computer can't handle aero turn it off. Aero is not Vista, its a feature that requires a shit load of power from the computer. If your going to bash Vista at least make a comment on its drivers, its UAC, its old file system, its many other bugs and let downs.

      Hell Aero doesn't even come with every version of vista. But when you turn it off you basically get a sp3 version of windows XP. I'm not a fan of Vista, I use Ubuntu on my desktop and XP on my laptop(had to downgrade from Vista). Every OS that I have upgraded to(windows based OS) has required some hardware changes, I mean windows 95/98 had a shit less requirements then XP.

    5. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Aero though probably the most known feature of vista is not necessary for its day to day use. If your computer can't handle aero turn it off.

      The point is, you don't KNOW if your computer will handle Aero (or many other features) until you try.

      > If your going to bash Vista at least make a comment on its drivers, its UAC, its old file system, its many other bugs and let downs.

      Okay, I'll give it a shot:

      "Plus, they give you the opportunity for the thrilling adventure of discovering whether it will even RUN on your hardware! Let's see if your machine can handle Vista's drivers, UAC, old file system, and many other bugs and let downs..."

      Bah. Never mind, it's just not as funny.

    6. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by bytta · · Score: 1
      Aero is not Vista, its a feature
      But when you turn it off you basically get a sp3 version of windows XP

      Soooo... then WHAT is Vista?

    7. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by prelelat · · Score: 2, Funny

      an update version of xp that doesn't work with all of your old hardware :P

    8. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      OK. I'd like to put Vista on my Atari 800. Oh! You mean I get to pick what kind of *Windows* PC I want to run on.

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
    9. Re:Not everybody gets it at $129 by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      OK. I'd like to put Vista on my Atari 800.
      You can put it on any PC that fits Vista's minimum requirements or higher.

      Oh! You mean I get to pick what kind of *Windows* PC I want to run on.

      Not all x86 systems are built for Windows making them a "*Windows* PC" like you appear to be implying.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  7. Let's see by Centurix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "According to the Microsoft website, Windows Vista will start shipping on October 26! From their blurb: 'Packed with more than 300 new features, Windows Vista goes on sale Friday, October 26, at 6:00 p.m. at Microsoft's retail stores and Microsoft Authorized Resellers, Microsoft announced today. And, beginning today, customers can place pre-orders on Microsoft's online store. "Vista, the nth major release of Window, is the best upgrade we've ever released," said Bill Gates, Microsoft's CEO. "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $600.""


    hmmm...
    --
    Task Mangler
    1. Re:Let's see by Stewie241 · · Score: 1

      Hmmm... Has the US dollar gone THAT low? Here, you can get the top version of Vista upgrade for $300. The home basic or whatever it is is $120. In addition, I believe that most major retailers selling computers with Windows bundled on it offered free upgrades to Vista if you purchased your computer three months before Vista was released (might have been more). Apple is cutting the cheap upgrade period at less than four weeks, and is charging its users to upgrade. Oh well... I don't use either, so doesn't matter to me.

    2. Re:Let's see by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      "According to the Microsoft website, Windows Vista will start shipping on October 26!"

      I'd suppose that the biggest difference is that Leopard is generally recognized as an upgrade.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    3. Re:Let's see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given that Apple charges its users $130 every 12-18 months, the amount of money it costs to keep up to date with OSX over the last 7 years is much greater than what has been required for Windows.

    4. Re:Let's see by Centurix · · Score: 1

      I must admit that I did kinda pluck a figure out of the air for that one. Although, the Australian dollar is pretty close to .90 US right now...

      --
      Task Mangler
    5. Re:Let's see by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 1

      If Apple were still releasing Mac OS X at the rate it were four years back, that might be a valid critique. As it stands now, this release is almost exactly 30 months after the previous release - Tiger (10.4) in April of 2005. The release cycle of Mac OS X has been gradually slowing down as the platform matures.

      10.0 - March 2001 - $129
      10.1 - September 2001 - free
      10.2 - August 2002 - $129
      10.3 - October 2003 - $129
      10.4 - April 2005 - $129
      10.5 - October 2007 - $129

      So, yes, if you purchased every version of OS X released you'd have spent a bit more. At the same time, there's an undeniable trend in the length of time between upgrades. They're getting farther in-between, which pushes the cost-per-year down quite a bit.

      --
      ± 29 dB
    6. Re:Let's see by skingers6894 · · Score: 1

      Yes that's true and also since Apple introduced the 5 Pack for $199 it's gotten cheaper per machine in the house too.

      I currently have 3 Macs that will be upgradeable for around $66 each. 30 Months since Tiger so whats that? Less than $30 per machine per year at the current rate.

      Not bad at all IMHO.

  8. Interesting by Thyamine · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I find it interesting (and funny?) that all these years I've had a PC (built myself, not from Dell or such) and never once purchased a copy of Windows or felt bad about it. Now that I've had a Macbook Pro for 5 months, and have been so happy with it, I'm eagerly awaiting Leopard so that I can actually buy it.

    I'm trying to avoid the whole fanboy thing, but it's hard to not like it. I mean, the pricing of the hardware is certainly high, but once you dive it it's quite nice.

    --
    I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
    1. Re:Interesting by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait until you ditch OS X and install Linux... you will need tissues and moisturiser.

    2. Re:Interesting by abigor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why would he want to purposely cause himself pain? I use Linux every single day, but my main desktop is a Macbook, for very good reasons.

    3. Re:Interesting by ericrost · · Score: 1

      There are two basic rules to using linux. DON'T PANIC. Always carry a towel.

    4. Re:Interesting by LoudMusic · · Score: 0

      Now that I've had a Macbook Pro for 5 months, and have been so happy with it, I'm eagerly awaiting Leopard so that I can actually buy it. Don't Macs still come with three OS upgrade coupons?
      --
      No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
    5. Re:Interesting by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Sore skin on his checks from all the tears? (spelling.)

      KDE 4 runs on OS X and Windows too you know ;)

    6. Re:Interesting by aliquis · · Score: 1

      No, that is for reading the guide and convince people that you have all the other stuff you probably need.

      Linux is nowhere like that. Running Linux does not convince anyone anything but you may learn something.

      Man is only a sad excuse for _THE_ guide thought ;D

    7. Re:Interesting by aliquis · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, didn't know they had ever.

    8. Re:Interesting by itsdapead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I find it interesting (and funny?) that all these years I've had a PC (built myself, not from Dell or such) and never once purchased a copy of Windows or felt bad about it. Now that I've had a Macbook Pro for 5 months, and have been so happy with it, I'm eagerly awaiting Leopard so that I can actually buy it

      Apple are not perfect - they have priorities and make assumptions that may not suit everyone. They tend towards a "closed" PC-as-appliance mentality, and would probably be just as monopolistic as MS if they could get away with it. They over-hype things. Sometimes they just plain screw up...

      but...

      ...you at least get the impression that you have been deprioritised, locked-in, monopolized and possibly screwed by someone with some sort of vision making an intelligent and possibly risky effort to turn out a better product rather than a committee of PHBs and marketdroids taking input from a focus group.

      Also, Apple have managed to take UNIX and wrap it in a genuinely friendly GUI front end, c.f. KDE/Gnome/X who have taken Linux and wrapped it in a usable but clunky and over-engineered GUI that is still suffering from its ancestry as a way of letting Unix geeks run 8 simultaneous instances of their favorite CLI shell in translucent windows.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    9. Re:Interesting by non · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      i hate to be the one to bring it up, but Ubuntu 7.10 won't cost me a dime...

      --
      ...vividly encapsulates that post-Watergate/pre-punk/coked-up moment when you could trust no one, least of all yourself.
    10. Re:Interesting by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...you at least get the impression that you have been deprioritised, locked-in, monopolized and possibly screwed by someone with some sort of vision making an intelligent and possibly risky effort to turn out a better product rather than a committee of PHBs and marketdroids taking input from a focus group. So where Microsoft is merely an evil corporation, Apple is a cult.
    11. Re:Interesting by greed · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm not sure what those coupons are for; I've never been able to use them to get an upgrade.

      I think they're for if you buy a new Mac and the new OS comes out a week later.

      Heck, remember when System updates were free? Take a stack of floppies to your local Apple store (before the Apple Store, of course), and copy their reference system. No worries about authorization: it could only run on a Mac, and all Macs came with System something....

    12. Re:Interesting by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I find it interesting (and funny?)

      I know what you mean, but really it's not interesting or funny. It's common sense: People are much more inclined to feel good about purchasing products that they believe to be good, well designed, and worth the money spent. People don't feel bad about failing to pay for the software they use when the software is crappy.

    13. Re:Interesting by catbutt · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      i hate to be the one to bring it up, but Ubuntu 7.10 won't cost me a dime...
      Neither will that nasty couch the guy down the street put out on the sidewalk. And?

      (I know, I know, I'll probably get modded as flamebait because you'll think I'm saying Ubuntu is equivalent to a nasty couch. I'm not. Just saying that being free isn't everything, unless you are really seriously broke. But you can mod me as flamebait if you please, it's ok)
    14. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gee, I hadn't noticed. I've only heard it 8,000 times in this story alone. Guess what? I can also grow my own food. People who shop for groceries are suckers of the highest degree. I can also get my pilot's license and fly for free!

    15. Re:Interesting by Daniel_Staal · · Score: 1

      So where Microsoft is merely an evil corporation, Apple is a cult. Exactly!

      (Proud Apple user since 1984.)
      --
      'Sensible' is a curse word.
    16. Re:Interesting by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1

      Also, Apple have managed to take UNIX and wrap it in a genuinely friendly GUI front end, c.f. KDE/Gnome/X who have taken Linux and wrapped it in a usable but clunky and over-engineered GUI that is still suffering from its ancestry as a way of letting Unix geeks run 8 simultaneous instances of their favorite CLI shell in translucent windows. I doubt very much that you've used a recent version of KDE or Gnome. Freedesktop.org standards and a real desire for the two groups to work together have lead to superior desktops from both projects. Gnome, for instance, has moved from clunky and wayyy too configurable to elegant and easy to use. Yes, Gnome is still rough around the edges -- there's no easy way to recursively change permissions on a directory short of either writing or using a Nautilus script or resorting to the command line, registering a mimetype can still be a hassle, and adding custom services to the service (init scirpt) configuration tool is still not possible via some GUI. But these are things that, in time, are (hopefully) being worked on. In the meantime, the desktop is very useable for 90%+ of users out there.

    17. Re:Interesting by non · · Score: 1

      you'd be very surpised what you can find in a dumpster. try the ones near the dorms of any major university during the 3rd & 4th weeks of may.

      --
      ...vividly encapsulates that post-Watergate/pre-punk/coked-up moment when you could trust no one, least of all yourself.
    18. Re:Interesting by aliquis · · Score: 1

      I'm betting there will be no authorization now either...

    19. Re:Interesting by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      So where Microsoft is merely an evil corporation, Apple is a cult.

      Yeah, but it's more like Scientology than the Hare Krishnas - it costs more, but everyone dresses snappily and there are lots of networking opportunities, and all the cool people belong.

    20. Re:Interesting by gad_zuki! · · Score: 1

      rather than a committee of PHBs and marketdroids taking input from a focus group.


      Right, because at Apple they dont do marketing and all their managers are geniuses. Wow, talk about fanboyism. Its just a company, mind you, and up until recently a pretty terrible one.

    21. Re:Interesting by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but it's more like Scientology than the Hare Krishnas - it costs more, but everyone dresses snappily and there are lots of networking opportunities, and all the cool people belong.

      ...and if you reveal their secrets they'll set the copyright lawyers on you :-)

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    22. Re:Interesting by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      I doubt very much that you've used a recent version of KDE or Gnome.

      I don't deny that they're improving all the time - but its been a very slow process and IMHO they are still playing catchup with OS/X and even the WIndows XP GUI (which IMHO is NOT windows' weak spot) in terms of usability.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    23. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course Apple does marketing. But they don't do design-by-focus groups. When people hear Steve Jobs say that consumers don't know what they want until he tells them, they can say it sounds egotistical. But on some level it's the truth, and more and more research is showing that even if consumers do know what they actually want and will use, which they often don't, it is nearly impossible to get them to tell you using traditional means. Apple doesn't ask users what features they want, they figure out on their own what features would make their product better and then give it to users. Yes, with sleek marketing. But the computer is NOT designed by marketers and focus groups.

    24. Re:Interesting by LoudMusic · · Score: 1

      At one point they came with three coupons, but now that I think about it I don't remember them being in the past few computers I've bought for work. I believe they were good for major OS releases. Like going from OS 8 to OS 8.5, and then to 9, and 9.2. Whenever there was a new CD release basically. Could have sworn there were still some in the box when they got to OS X.

      --
      No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
    25. Re:Interesting by Ba3r · · Score: 1

      i installed xp recently for some contract work and was amazed how less usable it was then the default install of xubuntu (this is without taking the blinding speed of xubuntu into account). Furthermore i got a new laptop with vista on it and it was not only infuriatingly slow, but just really hard to use.

      The ony thing OSX has on xubuntu is a bit more consolidation on UI conventions. It's less stable (i use a mac at work all day, and have a mini at home), and slower.

      in my mind there is no reason why windows is more intuitive than a good linux distro, aside from convention most business users are used to (but with google docs and so on,this will go by the wayside). And I would be willing to contend with a bit more consolidation and simplification in system prefs, linux distros will be as usable or more so than OSX!

    26. Re:Interesting by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      i installed xp recently for some contract work and was amazed how less usable it was then the default install of xubuntu (this is without taking the blinding speed of xubuntu into account).

      Hmm. Maybe - but you can't really compare xubuntu (XFCE) with "full featured" window managers like XP, Gnome or KDE because, er, because... hang on... why can't he compare XFCE with XP, Gnome or KDE??? Can't say I've used it much except when I want to run X over a network without that "VNC over a 28K modem" feeling you get with Gnome/KDE.

      Furthermore i got a new laptop with vista on it and it was not only infuriatingly slow, but just really hard to use.

      Sorry, preacher - the choir is over there :-)

      And I would be willing to contend with a bit more consolidation and simplification in system prefs, linux distros will be as usable or more so than OSX!

      They do have to cope with issues such as the disctinction between (e.g.) OS-level settings (possibly distro-specific), window manager/desktop settings, X server settings and the various cans of worms surrounding video drivers and 3D. These are of great significance to Linux techies and completely opaque to users... If your PHB can't plug his laptop into the projector and get it to work its no good explaining to him that ATI and Nvidia won't open source their video drivers (OK, even with windows/Mac this involves the usual pantomime where someone, usually me, has to come to the front and press Fn-F7 and find the "VGA2" button on the projector - but I'd rather not have to do a quick edit on their xorg.conf ta very much).

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    27. Re:Interesting by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      Right, because at Apple they dont do marketing and all their managers are geniuses.

      "PHBs and marketdroids" is not the same as "managers and marketing experts".

      Wow, talk about fanboyism.

      Come on - I admitted that they were fallible. Is a fanboy now anybody who doesn't slag Apple off unconditionally?

      Its just a company, mind you, and up until recently a pretty terrible one.

      Which, alongside Commodore, Tandy, Sol, et. al. produced one of the first batch of plug-in-and-go "appliance" PCs and is about the only survivor from that era (maybe Research Machines in the UK?). Which may not have invented the GUI but made the first commercially successfull GUI-based product. Which more-or-less invented the DTP industry. Which produced the first personal/small group laser printer. Who didn't invent networking, but were the first to ship a PC with networking as standard (mainly to use the aforementioned laser printer). That defined (maybe with some help from Sony) the current laptop form factor (with the set-back keyboard and central pointing device). That kickstarted the use of USB after the ports had been sitting unused on Wintel PC for a while (even if it did mean that all USB peripherals had to come in Bondai Blue for a while). That popularised (even if they didn't invent) the "MP3" player. That introduced the 3.5" floppy drive with the first Mac, and then put it out of its misery with the iMac. That actually got UNIX adopted as a mainstream desktop computer operating system with a significant market share after the industry had spent 25 years thinking about it (even if Linux figures now, remember we're talking 2002 - that's skipping 10.0 and counting from when they started enabling OSX by default). Not a bad CV.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    28. Re:Interesting by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Ah, this is my first mac and I've only had it for 5-6 weeks or so..

      I wonder where Apple had been if Chris Espinosa hadn't convinced the others that they should get rid of Steve for 12 years :(
      So fucking sad, amazing feat of Steve to make a such good computer and OS, manage to do it again with Next, and then come back and still carry on and go throught all that shit with having to mix in Mac stuff into Nextstep. I wonder if it wouldn't had been much cooler if I could have skiped mac compatibility completely and just make OS X "nextstep" and nothing else.

      So the last 20 years Steve has managed to develop three OSes with new ideas, during that time Microsoft has managed to buy DOS, copy MacOS into Windows, release NT and fail with Vista.

    29. Re:Interesting by node+3 · · Score: 1

      Wait until you ditch OS X and install Linux... you will need tissues and moisturiser. I realize the process of getting Linux configured can be so frustrating as to bring one to tears, so the tissues make sense. But seriously, Linux's usability has improved quite a bit over the years. I think, for most people, moisturizer is no longer necessary. Well, for Ubuntu at least. For Gentoo, I suppose, I can see your point...
    30. Re:Interesting by iluvcapra · · Score: 1

      I wonder where Apple had been if Chris Espinosa hadn't convinced the others that they should get rid of Steve for 12 years :(

      $10 in the wallet of each of it's shareholders, maybe. If Jobs hadn't left Apple there'd be no NeXT, and if you have no NeXT, you have no OS X.

      Jobs being forced from Apple made him re-evaluate a lot of things and really forced him to improve his business skills; his success had come to him all to easily the first time around.

      I wonder where Microsoft would be if Gates had been forced out after Windows NT... Would Bill have started another business, bought a computer animation house, worked his way back to the top? Or would he have just settled for the $100 million or so he would take away? Would Microsoft have gone wayward without him, like Apple did when Jobs left? It's an interesting question. I think some of the problems Microsoft has stem from the fact that Gates and now Ballmer have never known a serious defeat in their professional lives during their stewardship of MS. They can spend billions on a product that never turns a profit and still consider it a success in their minds, and such minds are dangerous. With accounting the way it is, and with Office and Vista pouring fat streams of cash into their company daily, they might be correct, but only despite their ignorance of loss.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    31. Re:Interesting by evil_aar0n · · Score: 1

      I'm in a similar boat, having recently pulled the plug on my PC and switched completely over to the Mac. For me, my rationale is that it works - very well, I might add - I like it, and I'm very happy to pay for it. "nuff said.

      --
      Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
    32. Re:Interesting by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      KDE/Gnome/X who have taken Linux and wrapped it in a usable but clunky and over-engineered GUI that is still suffering from its ancestry as a way of letting Unix geeks run 8 simultaneous instances of their favorite CLI shell in translucent windows.
      As someone who uses KDE, OS X, Windows etc. a lot in his daily life, I don't know what you're talking about. More information please.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    33. Re:Interesting by aliquis · · Score: 1

      But would I have needed OS X? When did the first MacOS come out? Also 83-84? And Steve left in 85? How long had it evolved then? What version was it?
      What says it wouldn't have been as good or better than OS X if Steve had been there the last 22 years aswell?

      Since Bill is such a nerd of course he would start something new, and Microsoft would probably just keep on doing what they does. (But what do I know?)

    34. Re:Interesting by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      As someone who uses KDE, OS X, Windows etc. a lot in his daily life, I don't know what you're talking about. More information please.

      You have to imagine that you don't know how to use bash or edit /etc/foobar.conf.

      Think like someone for whom "open a terminal and type 'apt-get install foo_bar'" reads like "remodulate the man deflector array and reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".

      Imagine that you don't know - and don't care - about the distinction between the kernel, the window manager, the X server etc.

      ...then I think you'll find that KDE and Gnome are perfectly fine ways of launching OpenOffice provided you have a pet Linux geek to set up your machine handle anything more complicated. Of course, if you're a linux dev or even an average slashdotter, thinking down to that level gives you a headache.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    35. Re:Interesting by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      You have to imagine that you don't know how to use bash or edit /etc/foobar.conf.
      Okay? Not that I actually configure anything in /etc on my Linux workstations...

      Think like someone for whom "open a terminal and type 'apt-get install foo_bar'" reads like "remodulate the man deflector array and reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".
      Yeah, I'd just use the obvious option in the menu, Add/Remove Programs if I needed a program. Much easier than having to search the Internet for a program manually for OS X or Windows.

      Imagine that you don't know - and don't care - about the distinction between the kernel, the window manager, the X server etc.
      I actually don't, I really care that it works right at the end of the day While I use many operating systems, my preferred system at the moment is Kubuntu and to be honest, I don't really care that much about the FOSS philosophy, I just find it superior to the other choices as my workstation OS.

      ...then I think you'll find that KDE and Gnome are perfectly fine ways of launching OpenOffice provided you have a pet Linux geek to set up your machine handle anything more complicated.
      My HP XE4400 worked 100% out of the box with Kubuntu, I have nothing ever to configure when I install Kubuntu from scratch (I never liked doing a update for any OS, just install from scratch) beyond restoring my files.

      I have had also very reasonable success getting the Kubuntu live cd working on other people's computers out of the box (only exception was a weird network card called 'Acnos' - couldn't even find the windows driver site). No technological knowledge was required to get the hardware working and in the only exception it did, it didn't seem possible anyway.

      Software like Microsoft office XP runs for me out of the box in Kubuntu under Wine (Wine is preinstalled with Ubuntu) as have most of my game collection (this wasn't the case a few years ago mind you). But no, I don't really see the issue you're trying to point out.

      My printer was dead easy to setup, things like tablets, bluetooth, wireless cards (although having read some of the issues people have had with wireless cards, I will research my next purchase to make sure) were even easier - I just plug them in. No driver CD required, no mumbojumbo commands and this is with off the shelf hardware I bought.

      Now, this laptop I use, it's "Designed for Windows XP" according to the label. But the latest drivers do not work under SP2 (some partially work but end up crashing the system on stupid things). The Macs I use will do a kernel panic on my bluetooth dongle if I plug it in (yes I have reported it). So, yes, there is unsupported hardware under Linux, but this is as much the truth for OS X and Windows.

      I acknowledge that there is unsupported hardware under Linux, however:

      I don't really consider OS X superior in support for peripherals because I constantly find warning messages on boxes saying that the device is not compatible with a Mac.
      I don't really consider Windows superior with hardware either as with every release deprecates support for the majority of older hardware and new hardware that comes out appears to be barely functional at first with every new release of Windows until some large amount of time has passed.
      And with all operating systems, I have experienced certain updates that have broken hardware support.

      My future workstation purchases are likely now going to be influenced by which vendors provide Linux out of the box solution since I'm overly pleased with Kubuntu.

      Note: I'm not a Linux zealot, I will switch in a heartbeat to the better viable solution when it is there. I'll still likely use Linux though just as much as I use every other OS.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    36. Re:Interesting by Binary+Ninja · · Score: 1

      I know just how you feel. I waited for the first Intel based MBP, wanting to avoid being stuck on 2nd tier platform like PowerPC. (I didn't want to be stuck running YDL if I hated OS X.)

      Prior to the MBP, the last system I bought which was bundled with an OS was an Amiga 500. (The last Microsoft OS I bought was MS-DOS 4.0 to run on an add-in 8086 based card that ran in that A500.)

      Overall I've enjoyed the MBP. Aside from running too hot, noisy fans, failing batteries, flimsy power supplies, and the marginal crap-pile called iTunes, its been a great machine.

      I planned to buy a pair of (950$ each) refurbed MacBooks and get an upgrade for the MBP as a side effect. But it looks like I'll need to buy the 10$ upgrade and ask for a "right to copy" for the MacBooks. I'll also need to buy the 129$ upgrade for the MBP.

      Wow, that isn't so exciting anymore. I guess I'll just wait for the day when refurbs include Leopard.

      Apple has made sure I won't get a free Leopard upgrade, but theyr'e also losing a 1900$ sale. Keep sharpening that pencil Apple, and maybe the kids will get Dell 1420n laptops running Ubuntu for xmas this year.

  9. problem is... by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    I still dont see a reason to go there. But then I also still use an incredibly outdated G5 2.3Ghz Dualcore Power mac.

    The premium price I will have to pay, I usually use the wife's student ID to get it cheap but not anymore with the latest raft of Apple pricing, makes me yawn and let it slide past.

    Is there anything that really is important in it that is a must have or is it all eye candy like apples website makes it look like?

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:problem is... by spud603 · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's a lot that was done on the base level that will improve general usability. Finder is fixed (we hope). It's UNIX compliant now. Better use of 64-bit and multi-core processors.
      Also, some of the "eye candy" will be very useful: easy backup and multiple desktops built in (I've been using a 3rd-party solution for this for a while now that works remarkably well, but has a number of glitches).
      I'm not beating down the door for 10.5, but I am looking forward to some of its conveniences.

    2. Re:problem is... by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Informative

      Finder *is* definitely much improved. On a lower end system, its much faster and has enough features and speed increase it makes using Path Finder negligible.

    3. Re:problem is... by Jaxoreth · · Score: 1

      But then I also still use an incredibly outdated G5 2.3Ghz Dualcore Power mac.
      So you're paying the Mach-on-PowerPC performance tax. Consider moving to Intel and/or running Linux on the G5.

      The premium price I will have to pay,
      Yes, if the upgrade you want.
      --
      In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
    4. Re:problem is... by MrHanky · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but with the poor forward compatibility between OS X versions, he'll soon be forced to upgrade to use even the simplest of utilities. Yeah, I know, I'm still bitter that I couldn't run Writeroom on Panther.

    5. Re:problem is... by tji · · Score: 1

      If you do any development, the Xcode update in Leopard look quite nice.

      - Interface Builder is supposed to be a completely new app (I hope it's good.. I liked the old one)
      - It has built-in versioning / snapshots (probably related to the "Time Machine" feature)
      - Objective-C 2.0, now has garbage collection
      - 64 bit Cocoa support (as opposed to only non-GUI apps in previous versions).

      Xcode and Time Machine and maaybe DVD Player updates (we'll see how substantial they are) are my main interests in Leopard. Other than that, I can do without the eye candy.. I don't remember the last time I used a widget in Tiger.

    6. Re:problem is... by CWRUisTakingMyMoney · · Score: 1

      Finder is fixed (we hope)

      Forgive me for sounding dumb, but what's wrong with Finder as is? I'm not defending, trolling, or saying it's perfect, I'm just curious. I can't think of anything I'd like to see different in it (but I'll admit my experience is limited and I'm not as much of a power user as many here are). I often see comments like "Finder is broken" with no explanation, so what's broken about it?

      --
      Those who anthropomorphize science and/or nature already believe in an intelligent designer.
    7. Re:problem is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    8. Re:problem is... by xjerky · · Score: 1

      One problem I had was where I would accidentally double-click a file too slowly, which causes you to rename a file. Not paying attention, I would be typing, then realized that I was accidentally renaming a file. I hit Escape to cancel, but it proceeded to rename the file to what I had typed thus far. It should have reverted the file to the original name.

      --
      A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
    9. Re:problem is... by Hatta · · Score: 1

      It's UNIX compliant now.

      Does that mean they've fixed the hierarchy?

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    10. Re:problem is... by LochNess · · Score: 1

      "poor forward compatibility"? WTF? New versions of operating systems usually contain new features, and people will write applications that take advantage of them.

    11. Re:problem is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By older system, you mean 866 MHz G4 or faster. Leopard won't install on anything slower than that.

    12. Re:problem is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, Glad its released. I see that that one thing that Apple took care of was speed.

      Geoff Mandrake Harrison for President

    13. Re:problem is... by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1

      It's UNIX compliant now.

      Does that mean they've fixed the hierarchy?

      If all of what you consider problems in the (presumably file system) hierarchy are forbidden by the Single UNIX® Specification, Version 3, then definitely yes. Otherwise, not necessarily.

    14. Re:problem is... by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      One problem I had was where I would accidentally double-click a file too slowly, which causes you to rename a file. Not paying attention, I would be typing, then realized that I was accidentally renaming a file. I hit Escape to cancel, but it proceeded to rename the file to what I had typed thus far. It should have reverted the file to the original name.

      I've done this too however I don't blame the Finder for it, it's my own fault. Something I've noticed when I do it it happens when I click on the file name but it never has when I've clicked on the icon. As for the changed name, a quick command + z changes it back.

      Falcon
    15. Re:problem is... by spud603 · · Score: 2, Informative
      A lot of things are wrong with the Finder. By and large it works alright, but it's really clumsy. A few things off the top of my head.
      • It's written in the carbon rather than cocoa framework. This means a lot of the nice things about the Mac OS platform don't apply. (certain keyboard shortcuts, system optimizations, services, UI elements)
      • It hangs for a very long time if a volume (like an ipod or external drive) is disconnected unexpectedly.
      • It makes connecting to shares clunky and counterintuitive
      • It breaks the "physical metaphor" of the file system without gaining much by doing so.

      There's a good description in this article.

      From what I understand, the new version of Finder is written in cocoa which fixes a lot of the problems mentioned. Also, they rethought how people will want to interact with the filesystem by emphasizing spotlight and categories over the physical metaphor of folders within folders. I'm anxious to try it out.

    16. Re:problem is... by hotfireball · · Score: 1

      And Finder now finally Cocoa application with iTunes-like interface and cover flow. :)

    17. Re:problem is... by LKM · · Score: 1

      I agree that ESC should revert the name. Until that is fixed, instead of hitting esc, hit Cmd-A, Delete, Return. Finder will revert the empty name to the previous name.

    18. Re:problem is... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Multiple workspaces, very useful...
      The lack of multiple workspaces by default (buggy third party kludges aside) is the biggest issue i have with osx. Aside from that, i see no reason that would make me want to install leopard.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    19. Re:problem is... by iluvcapra · · Score: 1

      Hitting escape reverts the file name on my rig (running 10.4.10). Click on file twice, slowly, type letters, hit escape. The name reverts.

      Even if you accidently hit enter, Apple-Z will undo it.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    20. Re:problem is... by 0xC2 · · Score: 1

      "Spaces" is the only gotta-have feature for me, also. I've been hanging on to 10.39, was planning on buying a used 10.4 license after 10.5 came out. But the multiple workspaces feature will pay for itself in increased productivity, so it's straight to Leopard for me.

      --
      Be heard || Be herd
  10. Best upgrade? by p00n0s · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we've ever released," said Steve Jobs Well they wouldn't get far claiming it to be worst upgrade they've ever released...
    1. Re:Best upgrade? by Bazman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or even the second-best upgrade they ever released. Marketing eh, dontcha love it?

    2. Re:Best upgrade? by Broken+Bottle · · Score: 1

      It would make for an interesting marketing strategy though.

      "We've been working on this day and night for the last 18 months. Frankly, I'm disappointed. GO buy it for $129 and see if you're as underwhelmed as I am." :)

    3. Re:Best upgrade? by the_humeister · · Score: 1

      "Actually, this is the second best upgrade we've ever released," said Steve Jobs as he quickly corrected himself.

    4. Re:Best upgrade? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not? It worked for Vista!

      ...wait...

    5. Re:Best upgrade? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, Apple said that "Time Machine - A giant leap backward" so it must be a lusy upgrade :-)

  11. looking forward to it by Speare · · Score: 1

    I'm looking forward to the release, but I don't think I'll buy it until the first patches come out. A lot of press said Panther and Tiger were pretty solid, but I found a lot of little "quirks" and bugs that needed squishing after the public release. It's also inevitable that I'll have to work around some new "feature" in some of my photography scripts because something tiny changed. And then there's the impact to various macports which I'll have to wait for patches (or learn enough of the codebase to hack a fix).

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:looking forward to it by tgatliff · · Score: 1

      For me, the most exciting thing is the multiple desktops. I have for a long time been needing this functionality. Expose is nice, but when you have 20 windows open everything gets so small that it can get annoying. Seeing as my MacBookPro only supports 2G of ram, though, which as never been a problem with Tiger even when Fusion is running, but I hope that Leopard is equally kind on ram...

    2. Re:looking forward to it by Stamen · · Score: 1

      VirueDesktops

      Linky goodness

    3. Re:looking forward to it by Speare · · Score: 1

      I use VirtueDesktops, but won't need it once Leopard offers me spaces. The author agrees-- last I read, he was not going to continue development down a dead end.

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
  12. You must be new... by djupedal · · Score: 1

    "Why does "The Steve" need to bash M$ & Vista at every opportunity?

    C o m p e t i t i o n - the American way.

    Reminding your core customers why your product is better than the crap sold by the other guys is not new.

    Maybe you'd prefer no advertising at all - wouldn't we all...talk to MS about that idea and let us know when they stop laughing.

    1. Re:You must be new... by rtyhurst · · Score: 1

      Well, there's that.

      But also, to put it as simply as possible OS X works; VISTA is a bloated buggy nightmare.

      Seeing as how Apple has around 6 percent of the market and climbing

      http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/06/10/18/apples_share_of_us_pc_market_jumps_to_61_percent.html/

      they might want to keep pointing that out.

  13. Yes, but... by Liquid+Len · · Score: 1

    will it run on the old G4's ?

    1. Re:Yes, but... by ozzmosis · · Score: 3, Informative
    2. Re:Yes, but... by Library+Spoff · · Score: 1

      It will.

      But will it run patched on my Athlon 64x2? *ahem*

      --
      Acid House saves Souls
    3. Re:Yes, but... by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Funny

      Of course it will. After all, Apple told you for years that their machines were so expensive because PPC was infinitely superior to x86.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    4. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It was generally true at the time.

      Hey look, things changed over a few years! Imagine that!

    5. Re:Yes, but... by Dahan · · Score: 0

      will it run on the old G4's ?

      Yes, ... 867MHz+ PPC. Isn't that a "new G4", rather than an "old G4"? I bet Leopard's not supported on my PowerMac with two 500MHz G4s.
    6. Re:Yes, but... by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

      will it run on the old G4's ?

      Yes, ... 867MHz+ PPC.
      Isn't that a "new G4", rather than an "old G4"? I bet Leopard's not supported on my PowerMac with two 500MHz G4s.


      Officially it won't run on anything less that an 800MHz G4. Unofficially you may be able to, but you will need to wait for the instructions to appear on the web and they won't be published by Apple.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    7. Re:Yes, but... by Roadstar · · Score: 1
      Officially it won't run on anything less that an 800MHz G4.

      I'm not sure whether they're enforcing the limit in any way, so I'll at least try to install it on my old 533MHz G4 tower as well. For after all, the system requirements for the latest iTunes state that 500MHz G3 is required, but my old 233MHz G3 iMac with Panther is running it without a hitch and no hacks whatsoever applied.


      And well, if they do enforce it, I guess we'll see an XPostFacto update soon.

    8. Re:Yes, but... by jerkyjunkmail · · Score: 1

      The installer will warn you on a machine not up to the requirements and refuse to install. I'm sure the XPostFacto team will conjure something up.

      --

      --
      What is pirate software? Software for inventory of stolen treasure?
    9. Re:Yes, but... by daybot · · Score: 1

      867MHz+ PPC

      Shame - I was going to buy a G4 Cube :(
    10. Re:Yes, but... by DurendalMac · · Score: 1

      Supported PPC Mac + Firewire Target Disk Mode. There you go.

    11. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Of course the processor speed and memory is the only thing the common person understands, so the slower clock speed was a negative to sales. x86 machines, OTOH, had high clock speeds, but wasted power in the form of excessive heat, which no one cared enough as a high clock speed meant you were cool. Of course now the RISC war is over, and we have compromise processors which have the best of both worlds.

      Those who were not the masses knew what was being bought, mainly faster busses parts that did not fall off the truck. As much as Apple is ridiculed for price, they money at least paid for something, and there were usually cheap options. For instance, Apple had a $1000 laptop and a $1000 in the early to mid 90's. They hit that price point by going IDE and slowing some things down. These were good machines, I think my desktop still works. They also had $4000 laptops that were well worth the money.

      It is no different for other manufacturers. You can get the cheapest Dell laptop for around $400, but if one want to direct video import over firewire, that laptop will cost $700-$1200. A basic Macbook is $1100. Of course the more expensive Dells have a faster front side bus, comparable with the macbook pros. One HP I own actually costs quite a bit more than the Apple, but the size and features actually made it a reasonable buy.

    12. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure whether they're enforcing the limit in any way

      Maybe because its performance sucks on anything less?
    13. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From what I've heard, Leopard will run on some (but not all) G4s. The minimum clock speed (for a single-core system) is 866 MHz I believe; it used to be 800 MHz, but was raised about a month ago. Even so, don't expect great performance from such slow machines.

  14. Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by nweaver · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html

    Automatically hourly incremental backups to an external disk, with everything done readable in the filesystem as simlinks so you can look at arbitrarily hour-snapshots for the past day, day snapshots for the past month, and weekly snapshots thereafter.

    COOL!

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
    1. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean like Shadow Copy? Seriously, this has been around for a while. We were using Shadow Copy on Server 2003 installs to perform incremental backups back in 2004. This isn't that new and Apple is hardly the first to do it. (Of course, neither was Microsoft.)

    2. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Very cool. Netapp and company used to charge about a quarter million bucks for that feature and now you can have it in your notebook.

    3. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      To be precise, Time Machine utilize hard links, not soft.
      It's pretty useful this way, because practically it make every
      snapshot 'complete' by itself.

    4. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by slyborg · · Score: 3, Informative
      Not quite. Following from recent article at AppleInsider http://www.appleinsider.com/

      Snapshots and Windows' Shadow Copy

      Time Machine has been frequently compared to Microsoft's Shadow Copy (or Volume Snapshot Service), because both systems involve file backup. In reality, they are not really very similar at all. Microsoft uses the background Shadow Copy service to duplicate files on the same disk. Those shadow copies record a "snapshot" of the file at a given moment in time, and can be accessed by the user using Previous Versions (which shows up in the file properties viewer), or tapped into by an external network backup system. Backing up these "shadow copies" simply prevents the external backup system from running into problems trying to back up live files that may be locked by the user working on them. The data backup features related to Shadow Copy are only useful if a Windows machine is running in an environment with a server backing them up. Shadow Copy is not in itself a backup system, although it can present a listing of duplicated files that were captured by the shadow copy service. Without a dedicated backup system, Previous Versions only shows local shadows of a file. It does not copy files to an external disk for safekeeping, and its shadow copies can't be browsed through by the user in the file system by date or by query. Shadow Copy is certainly not an easy to use consumer backup solution (nor is intended to be), which is what Time Machine expressly is.

      In Windows Vista, Microsoft also tied Shadow Copy into System Restore, which allows users to roll back their entire PC software install to a previous point in time. This is not a backup system either; it's a system wide undo. System Restore is oriented around undoing the problems caused by installing a software title, a Windows software update, an unsigned hardware driver, or some other event that causes problems that need to be rolled back. It doesn't go back and find something lost from the past; it reverts the clock to a previous checkpoint and throws away the future from that point forward. System Restore is not even loosely related to Time Machine in what it does, how it does it, or why it exists.
    5. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      It would look even cooler if Microsoft hadn't beat them to it by months with Vista. (Then again, Vista only has it on the Business and Ultimate versions, but still.)

    6. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Couldn't you setup an hourly incremental backup with ntbackup and scheduled tasks? Wouldn't you have been able to do this in win 95?

    7. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by sootman · · Score: 1

      And the iPod wasn't the first portable digital music player, either. What makes Apple's implementation kick ass is the fact that anyone can use it without having to read a manual. To make it start working, plug in a drive and check one box in System Prefs. To use it to retrieve a deleted file, just go to where the file should be, go back in time, find it, and click 'restore.' Making things easy to use and just work was Apple's original claim to fame and they're once again very strong in that area.

      And of course, "automatic backups" are not a new concept in the first place, so there's no need to get into a pissing match about who had the first implementation. What matters is who got to market first with a good implementation. Once again, the winner is Apple.

      --
      Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
    8. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by Alchemist253 · · Score: 1

      While useful, I would point out that rsnapshot is an open source program that trivially does this on any UNIX/Linux OS. (I would also assume that Time Machine uses hardlinks, not symlinks, as they are much more useful.)

      This won't stop me from buying the upgrade, though...

    9. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by larry+bagina · · Score: 1

      cool... but not as cool as zfs snapshots.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    10. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      What makes Apple's implementation kick ass is the fact that anyone can use it without having to read a manual.
      People have asked me to help them figure out how to use their iPods...
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    11. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by DurendalMac · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't be surprised at all if Time Machine drives/partitions are formatted to ZFS.

    12. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by 1110110001 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The big difference is fsevent, which is also used by spotlight. Syncing 100.000 or more files with rsync can take some time, because you always have to traverse the whole tree on source and destination. Time Machine already knows what's changed.

    13. Re:Damn, "Time Machine" sounds cool... by LKM · · Score: 1

      I would be, because it seems 10.5 can't write to ZFS.

  15. 300+ features... by Techguy666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a list of all the new features: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

    I'm praying that it's not just more bloat like Vista. It seems like Leopard is good on paper, better Boot Camp for those who still need Windows; better iCal for the people who use their Macs for organizing their life; Instruments, Core Animation, Unix certification, built-in Sandboxing for programmers; and other doodads for Joe-user such as a cooler Photobooth... But then, do I need my address book to make calls to Google Maps or the OS-wide dictionary to reach out to Wikipedia? Those last two are cool but I get worried when my "OS experience" is tied in anyway to whether I have network or Internet access.

    1. Re:300+ features... by k3v1n · · Score: 1

      I agree. Apple (or anyone for that matter) can go a lot further by embracing the developer community and enabling them to create whiz-bang features that maybe not everyone wants.

    2. Re:300+ features... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I call rubbish. Look under Boot Camp. They are counting Leopard's ability to read and write FAT 32 as a new feature. For all I know, it's probably been there since 10.0, maybe in previous versions of Mac OS.

    3. Re:300+ features... by simong · · Score: 1

      BootCamp allows native Windows support, it doesn't do anything else. It's basically a driver bundle for Windows on Apple hardware. OS X has been able to format FAT32 for some time but the support has been flaky to say the least - FAT16 was more reliable. Fixing the problems with FAT32 should improve interconnectivity with disks mounted on Macs and shared to Windows machines.

    4. Re:300+ features... by kevingolding2001 · · Score: 1

      >But then, do I need my address book to make calls to Google Maps...

      Probably not, but having address book sync with Yahoo is a bonus for me since my main email address is a Yahoo one.

    5. Re:300+ features... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Apple is usually careful to make sure their new features downgrade gracefully. The iPhone (and now my iPod Touch) has the address book to Google Maps feature. It works just like the old address book when there's no network, but it's a nice bit of refinement to click on the address and have Google tell you where it is.

    6. Re:300+ features... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

      A lot of the new features (mostly the ones that aren't hyped on the main page) are specifically for developers. It's been that way with most of the OS X releases -- the best features are actually for developers. From memory there's full 64-bit support, CoreAnimation (CoreImage, released with Tiger, was a great tool for developers), a Dashboard development tool and Objective-C 2.0.

      All of the new developer toys are nicely exposed through well thought out APIs, with free documentation and were announced two years ago and a pre-release of the OS made available a year ago so developers could get a jump start.

      Apple has to put a few nice Joe Public features in the new OS so people will upgrade to it so there's a bigger market for all those third party developers.

    7. Re:300+ features... by ahdemus · · Score: 1

      The page must have been titled 301+ Features, with the end of the page saying "Secret. Until Oct 26." (I haven't forgotten the 2 dots).

    8. Re:300+ features... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Some of the more curious ones are official support (including IDE and visual GUI designer) for Cocoa programming with Python and Ruby. I think this is the first time Ruby becomes an officially supported language for native OS application development.

    9. Re:300+ features... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Really? I hadn't heard that. Thanks for the tip -- I'm a Cocoa-Python programmer.

      PyObjC (the Python - Cocoa/ObjC bridge) has a few Apple employees as it's main developers but adding official support in the IDE is fantastic, assuming that means a debugger.

    10. Re:300+ features... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Really? I hadn't heard that.
      It's on their official list of new features for Leopard, in the "UNIX" section:

      Cocoa Bridges

      Use Ruby and Python as first-class languages for building Cocoa applications,
      thanks to Objective-C bridges as well as full Xcode and Interface Builder support.
    11. Re:300+ features... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I went over and looked it up as soon as you mentioned it.

      Sounds like the PyObjC bridge, which has existed for years, plus a Ruby bridge, which has been under development for a while.

      But the real new bit is building support into XCode. OS X has always lacked a really good Python IDE.

    12. Re:300+ features... by le_lotus_604 · · Score: 0

      but no Java 6 !!

  16. List Moms....pfftt... by djupedal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What gets even older than that is the spelling of Microsoft as MS. Stop. It makes you appear laughable.

    1. Re:List Moms....pfftt... by jimicus · · Score: 1

      ITYM "spelling as Microsoft as M$".

      Microsoft have referred to themselves as MS since the days of DOS.

    2. Re:List Moms....pfftt... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      What gets even older than that is the spelling of Microsoft as MS. Stop. It makes you appear laughable.

      Of all things to criticize Microsoft for, I can't believe you'd stoop to making fun of them for registering trademarks for MS-DOS, MSDN, and MSN, or for using MSHOME as their default network name.

      That's assuming that you were criticizing Microsoft and not the grandparent poster for using the shorthand that Microsoft uses for themselves. That'd be either ignorant or hypocritical, so I'm sure it must be the former.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    3. Re:List Moms....pfftt... by djupedal · · Score: 1

      'Microsoft have referred to themselves as MS since...'

      Must be why www.ms.com hits morgan stanley - thanks for taking a run at me, chump, but next time you feel such an urge, bring some heat or stay home with your sister.

    4. Re:List Moms....pfftt... by djupedal · · Score: 1

      'That's assuming that you were criticizing Microsoft and not the grandparent poster'

      'm o c k i n g' - look it up, grasshopper...and beware assumptions.

    5. Re:List Moms....pfftt... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's really old is people trying to spell Micro$oft as MS.

      It's either Micro$oft, MicroSloth, or M$. Please stop getting it wrong, you look like a ballmer and gates fellating moron.

    6. Re:List Moms....pfftt... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      'm o c k i n g' - look it up, grasshopper...and beware assumptions.

      I see that your browser lacks support for the <sarcasm> tag.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  17. Hype train leaves the station by Hoplite3 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    All aboard the hype-train! Next stop, RDF station.

    That's certainly too cruel. Apple always makes some nice advances to their system and especially their system libraries. There are some nice things they're talking about with the new version, but I think the greatest trick is to get $100+ from mac fans every two years or so. The short cycle seems a bit exhausting.

    --
    Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
    1. Re:Hype train leaves the station by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      How dare they try to make good software and sell it for a profit!

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
  18. Dear Microsoft by tod_miller · · Score: 1, Funny

    I found this product release that you may find interesting. Curiously it seems to be the anti-thesis of your recent 'Vista' release.

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/

    "And everyone gets the 'Ultimate' version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129."

    Today, more people are using OSX than Vista, and at Vista's current growth rates, this may inevitably remain a fact.

    Sucks to be you,

    Tman.

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
    1. Re:Dear Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Today, more people are using OSX than Vista, and at Vista's current growth rates, this may inevitably remain a fact.

      Sucks to be you,"

      just because more people use an OS doesn't make it better. Case in point: XP and everything else

    2. Re:Dear Microsoft by Toby_Tyke · · Score: 1

      Today, more people are using OSX than Vista, and at Vista's current growth rates, this may inevitably remain a fact

      I found that a little dubious, so I looked ip some figures. The first thing I came across was this:

      http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2

      Just incase you don't want to click on the link, they have vista at 7.3 percent and Macs at 6.5. If you go to the precious month, Vista had 6.2, Macs had 6.3, so Vista would seem to be growing faster than Mac OS, largely, it appears, at the expense of XP. Really though, this is inevitable, since virtually every new PC sold comes with Vista. Still, judging from the trends, you ought to stop making that claim. It's already debatable, and it's only going to get more wrong as time goes by.

      --
      "I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
    3. Re:Dear Microsoft by ChrisMP1 · · Score: 1

      Isn't "may inevitably" an oxymoron?

      --
      <sig>&nbsp;</sig>
  19. Wikipedia built in... by Vokkyt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From the Dictionary Section:

    "Wikipedia in Dictionary

    Harness the power of Wikipedia when you're connected to the Internet -- built right into it's Dictionary. You get a great Mac OS X user interface with super-fast searching and beautifully laid out-results."

    From the Parental Controls:

    "Wikipedia Content Filter

    Limit access to profanity in Wikipedia."

    Huh...interesting.

    1. Re:Wikipedia built in... by johnmrowe · · Score: 1

      > Harness the power of Wikipedia when you're connected to the Internet -- built right into it's Dictionary

      I see the new grammar checker is working well.

      John

    2. Re:Wikipedia built in... by mdielmann · · Score: 1

      You'd think so, but how much do you want your 7-yo learning about bukkakke? Granted, I don't know if that's the site Mac uses, or if they use the Wiktionary. I'm a fan of completeness, but some things can wait to be discovered (and some things can wait forever :P).

      --
      Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
    3. Re:Wikipedia built in... by JambisJubilee · · Score: 1

      I'd certainly want them to read the Wikipedia article over any other site! From the article:

      Bukkake is a group sex practice...
      Theories as to the historical origins...
      Bukkake is the noun form of the Japanese verb bukkakeru

      The article is straightforward and objective. It describes the material without judgement. This is good. In the same respect, be honest with your child about human nature.

    4. Re:Wikipedia built in... by mdielmann · · Score: 1

      ...which includes a number of men ejaculating onto a man or woman. Still entirely objective, but not appropriate for a 7-yo imo. If my kid came up to me and asked what bukkakke was, I'd be willing to mention it was about sex, but not go into the details the article does. I appreciate your 'honesty' in this respect.
      </sarcasm>
      --
      Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
    5. Re:Wikipedia built in... by sootman · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it really struck me as funny that Apple would link right to Wikpedia. Do you really want to look up 'rhomboid' and find out that ERIC LOVES COCK?

      --
      Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
    6. Re:Wikipedia built in... by Titoxd · · Score: 1

      From the Parental Controls:

      "Wikipedia Content Filter

      Limit access to profanity in Wikipedia." Damn, how did they manage to do that?

      Even after two and a half years on Wiki, I'm still trying to figure out how to do that, and I pretty much only edit hurricane articles...

      ~~~~
  20. language distortion field? by drjzzz · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The "Technology" highlights include:

    Bonjour
    Holisticly provide access to ethical communities vis-a-vis client-focused

    That's it, just a string of buzzwords, not even grammatical, followed by a link to "learn more". Somebody attended too many marketing or web2.0 presentations. Or maybe they want to put the mystery back in. Turns out, it automagically configures an "instant network". The intro is curious. Does the "ethical community" description mean that security sucks?
    --
    to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...
    1. Re:language distortion field? by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      Nah, Apple is just using the language of the taret audience (BonJour users). I've sat through far too many of those crappy corporate video conferences that I actually understood it to be grammatically correct.

    2. Re:language distortion field? by martinX · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I looked (being of a suspicious nature), and you are right. WTF is "Holisticly provide access to ethical communities vis-a-vis client-focused. "

      I suspect someone put in some filler text that someone else forgot to take out...

      Especially since "Holisticly" is the wrong spelling.

      --
      When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
    3. Re:language distortion field? by ericrost · · Score: 1

      I believe this translates to: DON'T EVER HOOK THIS UP TO A PUBLIC INTERFACE.

      Why would they make avahi/bonujour/rendezvous on by default? If you hook that up to a public interface (ie directly to your cable modem) you're screaming to the internet: "hey there, here's some resources you can use to get into my box"

      Is it just me, or is this an big invitation to script kiddies?

    4. Re:language distortion field? by Suzuran · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think that's an intentional joke. It has to be, otherwise nobody can read it.

    5. Re:language distortion field? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That isn't even a sentence! I love apple, but this text is a joke. It's like it was generated by an automated marketing speak applet.

    6. Re:language distortion field? by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 1

      You ever seen Apple's nonsensical templates in Pages from iWork? It looks like someone forgot to edit the template.

    7. Re:language distortion field? by tooslickvan · · Score: 1

      It's a new feature. Similar to the dictionary integration with Wikipedia, documents and web pages for marketing are now integrated with the bullshit generator.

    8. Re:language distortion field? by xZgf6xHx2uhoAj9D · · Score: 1, Insightful

      That's lorem ipsum. It's standard in the design world.

    9. Re:language distortion field? by spiffyman · · Score: 3, Informative
      Just checked, and it's been fixed:

      Bonjour
      Network your computers and smart devices instantly. Meanwhile, Bonjour is nothing new. It's just a Zeroconf implementation, and it's been around since 2002, so the marketing droids likely aren't at fault.

      I think it's pretty clear that the culprit was some kind of filler text on a template or a joke. This is probably the web team's fault and no one else's.
      --
      So you can laugh all you want to...
    10. Re:language distortion field? by localman · · Score: 1

      Looks like they corrected it... that had to be some kind of joke text that they forgot to replace :)

    11. Re:language distortion field? by dhovis · · Score: 1

      I think it's pretty clear that the culprit was some kind of filler text on a template or a joke. This is probably the web team's fault and no one else's.

      That is almost certainly true. This happens now and then with Apple. I think the web team like to insert little jokes when they are mocking up pages and then sometimes forget or maybe "forget" to change them before the pages go live. I think when either Panther or Tiger (or maybe the XServe) came out, one of the pages promised fewer "blinkenlights" for a short time. Some of them get left in, like the "Do not eat iPod shuffle" one.

      --

      --
      The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.

    12. Re:language distortion field? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Now it says ``Network your computers and smart devices instantly.'' Someone at Apple must have agreed with you.

    13. Re:language distortion field? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is probably a mere typo, but http://www.apple.com/xserve says this:

      Dual redundant power supplies gives extra piece of mind.

      Regardless I was spelling nazi enough to inform them of this slightly difficult lobotomy reference on a somewhat professional-oriented page.

    14. Re:language distortion field? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe this translates to: DON'T EVER HOOK THIS UP TO A PUBLIC INTERFACE.

      You are incorrect.

      Why would they make avahi/bonujour/rendezvous on by default?

      Why wouldn't they?

      If you hook that up to a public interface (ie directly to your cable modem) you're screaming to the internet: "hey there, here's some resources you can use to get into my box"

      No, you're not.

      Is it just me, or is this an big invitation to script kiddies?

      It's just you.

      (This message has been brought to you by the Committee for Recommending that Tinfoil-Hatters Actually Investigate What A Technology Does Before Ranting About It. Zeroconf aka Bonjour does not involve packets which get routed to the Internet; your script kiddies can't see it unless they're on the same LAN as you. And if they are, you're hardly going to avoid them by not running Zeroconf.)

    15. Re:language distortion field? by ericrost · · Score: 1

      I specifically said hooked up to a public interface, in which case, guess what, the internet is the same subnet as you. You obviously know squat about networking, thus need Zeroconf, aka Rendezvous, aka Avahi. I'm quite aware that on a subnet nothing gets routed out from avahi, WHICH IS WHY I SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED A PUBLIC INTERFACE.

      This message has been brought to you by the committee for reading messages you're responding to.

  21. The 300 release by tod_miller · · Score: 2, Funny

    300 reasons to upgrade: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

    Another 300:

    Steve Jobs: [points to Microsoft Programmer behind Baller] You there, 'Softy! What is your profession?
    Microsoft Programmer: I am a trainee QA, sir.
    Steve Jobs: [points to another 'Softy] And you, what is your profession?
    Microsoft Guy: 3rd level branch tester, sir.
    Steve Jobs: Branch tester.
    [turns to a third 'Softy]
    Steve Jobs: And you?
    Microsoft Guy: Graphics guy, I repainted XP to make it Vista...
    Steve Jobs: [turns around to OSX Team] Apple Employees! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?
    Apple: HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!
    Steve Jobs: [turning to Ballmer] You see, old friend? I brought more mac than you did.

    Microsoft: A thousand downloads of the 0day Vista sploits will descend upon you. Our BSOD's will blot out the sun!
    Apple: Then we will iLife 08 in the shade.

    ok. any excuse for 300 quotes.

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
    1. Re:The 300 release by rabryan21 · · Score: 1

      That is hands down the dumbest thing I have ever read on the web.

    2. Re:The 300 release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amateur.

    3. Re:The 300 release by tod_miller · · Score: 5, Funny

      > That is hands down the dumbest thing I have ever read on the web.

      You must be new here.

      --
      #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
    4. Re:The 300 release by screeble · · Score: 1

      My brain heard your chant as something like "HOW... HOW! HOW! HOW!... HOW!" as in "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

      I think you actually meant: "HUA! HUA! HUA!"

    5. Re:The 300 release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      THIS! IS. UNIIIIIIIX!

  22. Translucency is so overrated by tjstork · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If translucency were so great in the real world, we would be printing on onion skin and writing on glass things. But I think translucency is more to show that they can do something in 3d, done by people that have no real vision as to what to do with it.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Translucency is so overrated by ConanG · · Score: 1

      Totally agree. I've never found a good use for it in any desktop environment I've used.

      I've never run into a situation in which I've needed to see two things on top of each other. They just get mixed up and I can't concentrate on the top layer or use the information from the lower layer.

      That just leaves eye-candy as a possible use. I only like eye-candy when it stays out of my way and doesn't try to do anything. Good example of eye-candy: drop shadows in OSX. They're pretty, but utterly useless. I like that. Translucency is somewhere in the middle, tries to be useful but only ends up being good as eye-candy. I hate that.

    2. Re:Translucency is so overrated by Mikey-San · · Score: 1

      If translucency were so great in the real world, we would be printing on onion skin and writing on glass things. But I think translucency is more to show that they can do something in 3d, done by people that have no real vision as to what to do with it.

      It looks and feels awesome. It's easy to do from the engineering side.

      Did I mention it looks and feels awesome? Sure, you can go overboard, but you can go overboard with anything. Translucency is pretty stylish, and last time I checked, most people like stylish things.

      --
      Mikey-San
      Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
    3. Re:Translucency is so overrated by Drizzt+Do'Urden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I do not agree!

      A translucent terminal let's me read the content under it while doing stuff in it.

      Drop shadows helps you know which windows is the front most.

    4. Re:Translucency is so overrated by c_forq · · Score: 1

      Dude, have you seen those military movies or those crime solving shows? Having giant clear screens in the middle of the room is the way of the future. For crime solving they are more like transparent whiteboards though, with very bright markers.

      --
      Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
    5. Re:Translucency is so overrated by Llywelyn · · Score: 1

      Actually there are "war rooms" that were/are in use by the military where people who were trained to write backwards would write on basically a glass plate for the decision makers... They've been doing that for decades.

      --
      Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
    6. Re:Translucency is so overrated by hackstraw · · Score: 1

      If translucency were so great in the real world, we would be printing on onion skin and writing on glass things.

      Translucency has its place. Fishnet stockings and the like come to mind.

      As far as on a computer, the best place I've found it to be is with terminal windows. Its nice to be able to have one terminal window over another one that is doing something and be able to passively watch the window below the current one.

      Personally, I think that feature is excellent, and I hate being without it.

      Translucency also enables things like rounded corners and drop shadows, which I think are also nice.

      I don't see translucency going away any time soon. In fact, it was a big deal with GIFs on the web to add 1 bit translucency, and many people want better alpha channel support for PNGs on the web.

      The thing is that translucency/alpha channel stuff is here, so why not use it?

    7. Re:Translucency is so overrated by Bertie · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'll tell you a good one. With Beryl, you can set windows to become progressively more transparent the longer you've gone without interacting with them. So the one you're using is solid, the one before is a bit transparent, the one before that is a bit more transparent, and so on. What this means is that as stuff gets less relevant, it literally fades into the background, so that your screen looks less cluttered and it's easier to concentrate on what's important right now.

      Sounds a bit gimmicky, but I think it's really handy.

    8. Re:Translucency is so overrated by xZgf6xHx2uhoAj9D · · Score: 0

      Actually, I would argue that translucency is used to show that things can't be done in 3D. In meat space, if you want to look behind something, you shift your head slightly to the side. Voilà, instant parallax effect. Sadly, user interfaces on computers have not reached that level yet (not that it hasn't been tried, but it's a hard thing to make painless). Translucency is a work-around. Obviously, it's not ideal, but there are a lot of cases where translucency is better than absolute opacity, and Apple's standard drop-down dialogs I think are actually quite a good example of that.

    9. Re:Translucency is so overrated by SciFi_WaBobby · · Score: 1

      In the real world we are not limited by screen size. Translucency gives you another dimension of visibility for those documents/windows/etc that you only need awareness of, and not your full focus. That said, it's still probably 75% eye candy and 25% functional.

    10. Re:Translucency is so overrated by Crayon+Kid · · Score: 1

      To know what window is front-most you have window colors. Focused windows are traditionally marked as such in a distinctive manner. Drop shadows are just eye candy.

      How much use translucent windows are is debatable. Frankly, I don't find it very productive to squint at content half-covered by translucency and prefer alt-tab or tiling or workspaces. But to each his own.

      --
      i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
    11. Re:Translucency is so overrated by p0tat03 · · Score: 1

      Translucency is a valid UI trick for reducing screen clutter. For example, I have a 3D editor that I work on in my spare time, and I rely on translucent windows heavily. Why? Because the nature of the software demands a huge number of dialogs to be open at once, but at the same time I wish to retain at least a cursory overview of what I'm working on.

      For example, I may have a full-screen function editor (curve editor in other packages) that I'm working in. I fiddle with a parameter on something and the curve will change. Instead of reducing the number of dialogs I have available, or reducing the viewport size to fit more dialogs, I can monitor the effect of what I'm doing on the curve in the background if my dialogs were translucent.

      I agree it's overused in many cases - most notably the Vista window borders - there's absolutely no benefit to having them translucent. But don't write off the method entirely just because some people don't know how to use it.

    12. Re:Translucency is so overrated by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

      +1

    13. Re:Translucency is so overrated by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 1

      The only time i like translucency is when moving windows around, so I can see more clearly what I'll be placing my moving window over, or what my moving window is covering without having to move it completely out of the way first.

      ok that may still be fairly useless, but boy does it look good, especially when its wobbling when i move it :)

    14. Re:Translucency is so overrated by ArAgost · · Score: 1

      Totally agree. I've never found a good use for it in any desktop environment I've used.

      Good example of eye-candy: drop shadows in OSX. They're pretty, but utterly useless. I like that. Drop shadow are very useful! They're fundamental to help you locate the focused window and to understand at a glance the z-order of the windows. Leopard has received some major revamping of its shadows, to make those task even easier.
    15. Re:Translucency is so overrated by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 1

      I really don't see how you can say that Apple has "no real vision as to what to do with it". Ignoring the fact that Apple does make many good applications that take advantage of their fancy GUI features, the point of developing these technologies in an operating system and showing them off is so that 3rd-party developers incorporate them into their applications.

      Just because a feature is considered overrated or overused, that doesn't mean it doesn't have it's place. Although I agree with you in that Apple have gone a bit to far with the translucency this time -- I still don't like the new menu bar. I guess it's just too tempting for them, like a graphic designer who discovers a new font, and overuses it to begin with.

    16. Re:Translucency is so overrated by GrahamCox · · Score: 1

      If translucency were so great in the real world, we would be printing on onion skin and writing on glass things.

      Which many people do. Perhaps not you, but then again, transparency isn't hurting you, is it? Where translucency has been done very wrongly is in Vista, where, presumably to differentiate their product from OS X, yet to give it some "me too" eye candy, windows behind are BLURRED. WTF??? So, I can see through my top window but the text and anything in the windows behind is now unreadable and useless? Talk about missing the point! In the context of Vista, your observation may have a point - but in OS X, it doesn't.

    17. Re:Translucency is so overrated by dancingmad · · Score: 1

      writing on glass things

      Have you ever watched the TV show House? He writes on a glass thing. And he's fucking House! He's never wrong!

      --
      "There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
    18. Re:Translucency is so overrated by LKM · · Score: 1

      To know what window is front-most you have window colors. Focused windows are traditionally marked as such in a distinctive manner. Drop shadows are just eye candy.

      No. Drop shadows make your brain perceive the topmost window to be literally a bit above all other windows, which makes it a bit easier to find the topmost window. It's not an obvious thing, but it makes your brain think less, which is a good thing.

    19. Re:Translucency is so overrated by Riquez · · Score: 1

      Translucency is so overrated
      I agreew conpletely . I evenn had my glasses lens;s mde from 100% opaque plastic.
      Now, I can rtotally live without transulucency - i t didnt affect my day to dayh life at all.
      --
      * Game Over * High Score: 264,846,927 -- Your Score: 14
  23. Cracked Release for ordinary PCS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real question is when will Semthex and other kernal hackers break it and port if for ordinary PCS?. My guess is about two weeks.

  24. Nope by simong · · Score: 1

    OS X version 6. The differences between 10.0 and 10.5 are enormous, especially internally, pretty much in the same way that BSD and Linux have evolved over the past seven years.

  25. Well done by Mahenda · · Score: 1

    I'm glad it is true now, and that price is amazing as well. Now if also Pixel http://www.pixelimageeditor.com/ comes out of Beta state until end of the year, that will make me trully happy!! Again good job Apple, can't way to buy Leopard ASAP!

    --
    Photoshop for Linux? Wine? No. http://www.kanzelsberger.com
    1. Re:Well done by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      Why is the price amazing? $129 is no secret. That's what all their major upgrades always sell for.

  26. Anybody know? by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 1

    If they offer it free to people who recently bought Macs? I recently started a new job as did a fellow coworker and we both received new Mac Pro's within the last month. It sure would be nice to get a Leopard upgrade.

    1. Re:Anybody know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anybody who bought a Mac after October 1 gets Leopard for $9.95 shipping.

      Before you start bitching and moaning, that's actually better than Apple has done in the past. Usually that deal starts on the date the ship date is officially announced, not 2 weeks previous.

    2. Re:Anybody know? by seanyboy · · Score: 0

      No it's not. You'll probably find that you'll have to have bought the mac *after* the Leopord release date was finalised in order to qualify for a discounted or free update.

      --
      Training monkeys for world domination since 1439
    3. Re:Anybody know? by larkost · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you bought it on or after Oct 1 Apple will cover you for a shipping fee (they are usually $20):

      http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

    4. Re:Anybody know? by frdmfghtr · · Score: 1

      If they offer it free to people who recently bought Macs? I recently started a new job as did a fellow coworker and we both received new Mac Pro's within the last month. It sure would be nice to get a Leopard upgrade.
      According to the Apple website the upgrade is $9.95 for qualifying Macs bought after October 1st.
      --
      Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
    5. Re:Anybody know? by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      You fail it. The date is Oct 1.

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
  27. I'll wait thank you. by seanyboy · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm going to hang back on ordering this. It's a year late, and Apple still haven't managed to release the Gold Master to developers. My feeling is that in order to get it out on time it hasn't been as well tested as previous versions.

    --
    Training monkeys for world domination since 1439
    1. Re:I'll wait thank you. by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

      I'm going to hang back on ordering this. It's a year late, and Apple still haven't managed to release the Gold Master to developers. My feeling is that in order to get it out on time it hasn't been as well tested as previous versions.

      You're lucky, turns out my Windows upgrade was 6 years late and it wasn't even worth it - well at least IMHO.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    2. Re:I'll wait thank you. by j!mmy+v. · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're either high, or hopelessly out of touch.

      1: When's the last time Apple released a GM to devs? When was that? If you've been in the dev seed program at all in the last three years, you'd know that the seeds are most certainly available for devs, and when there's a GM, the product ships.

      2: 10.5 wasn't "out on time" due to to dev team reprioritization to the iPhone project. Everyone else appears to know this.

      3: You say it hasn't been well tested in order to "get it out on time," yet it's also "a year late." Your schizophrenia clashes with your tie.

      Seriously, were you just making shit up there?

      --
      -- often wrong; never in doubt
  28. SLOW by Gyorg_Lavode · · Score: 1

    I would think about buying this except that my mac mini can't even handle the OS it has right now. It runs terribly slow (bearly usable) just running a web browser, iTunes, and an IM client. I can't image how slow my computer would run with these new features.

    --
    I do security
    1. Re:SLOW by Llywelyn · · Score: 1

      How much RAM do you have and how much free space is on your HD?

      --
      Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
    2. Re:SLOW by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You likely have too little ram (let me guess, a pathetic 512mb stock right?). Bump it up to 2gb, and the Mini will be great.

    3. Re:SLOW by theantipop · · Score: 1

      I don't know that is the issue. My CoreDuo Macbook came with 512mb or ram and it worked perfectly for general web browsing, movie watching, SSH sessions, text editing, etc. I did eventually upgrade to 2gb, but only because the cost dropped to $80.

    4. Re:SLOW by 644bd346996 · · Score: 1

      Hmmm... You must have missed the bit about every OS X release being faster on the same hardware than its predecessor. Unless you've got the minimal stock RAM of the early Minis, an "upgrade" to Leopard can be expected to be a real upgrade.

    5. Re:SLOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And people complain about Vista being bloated...

    6. Re:SLOW by c_forq · · Score: 1

      Did you install from scratch or upgrade? With Apple the upgrade option never works as well as from scratch, I don't know the reason behind it but in previous versions it has always been slower after upgrading rather than doing a blank install.

      --
      Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
    7. Re:SLOW by JulianOolian · · Score: 1

      The 2002-era iMac G4 I still use is a much older, slower machine than any Mac Mini and while it shows its age when pushed too hard, it's fine for browsing, iTunes and email.

    8. Re:SLOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > It runs terribly slow (bearly usable)

      Don't make the mistake most do and clip down their claws. Their paws are too large to effectively type, so you must keep the claws around to get any decent typing rate. Of course, then you are risking getting disemboweled when he's in a bad mood (speaking of which, you might want to increase the RAM in the system to avoid poor performance setting him off). But, you're the one who wanted a bear to use your Mac, the risk comes with the territory.

    9. Re:SLOW by Kasracer · · Score: 1

      My Mac Mini came with 512MB and it was very slow. It constantly trashed the disk. I had the same issue with an eMac I had to use when I worked for Apple. Even though it had 768MB of ram, after opening a few apps it became extremely slow and used all the memory. I'm not really sure why people say Vista is bloated... not only did they remove quite a bit of legacy code from it but it can run very well at 512MB. I added 2GB to my Mac Mini and it runs quick now but I typically have about 600-700MB free even with almost nothing open which is less than my Vista machine even after it caches several apps.

    10. Re:SLOW by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      You likely have too little ram (let me guess, a pathetic 512mb stock right?). Bump it up to 2gb, and the Mini will be great. That's odd, the system requirements for Leopard say you only need 512MB. Does a Mac really need 2 GB of RAM? What can it possibly be putting in all that memory?

      --

      Enigma

    11. Re:SLOW by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I've got a Core Duo MPB and a Mini, 2GB in one and 1GB in the other. The mini with 1GB works fine. It was getting very slow and crashing a lot, but I think something was wrong with the hard drive. I popped in a new one and it works fine again. Safari will eventually fill up all your memory, so if you don't restart it occasionally it will slow things down too.

      The mini is basically a Macbook folded up a bit differently, so it should be just as fast.

    12. Re:SLOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finally, an OS bears can use!

    13. Re:SLOW by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Does a Mac really need 2 GB of RAM?

      Nope. I have 640MB (512 + 128) in my kids' 400MHz iMac and that ought to be enough for anybody. My wife's 800MHz iMac has 768 and it runs great. My eMac has 2GB because I run large process like QEMU pretty often, but it hardly ever uses more than 1GB at any other time.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    14. Re:SLOW by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 1

      And for prying it apart, get yourself a putty knife or similar (I used a spark plug gapping tool), because it ain't got no screws. I ended up putting down my keyboard for a day or so and tearing 20 of 'em apart to pull the 512, and add 2 1gb sticks because my boss thought it would be "cheaper" than getting it installed through CDW and the bench techs were intimidated by the idea of going after a computer with sharp metal tools.

      **They do run nice with 2gb of ram.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    15. Re:SLOW by Darth+Cider · · Score: 1

      My 500 MHz G3 with 340 MB of RAM can run those apps simultaneously under OS X 10.4. As another example, I have no problem running Quark, Dreamweaver and Photoshop together. Imagine trying to run Vista on a Pentium III. OS X is robust on my G3.

    16. Re:SLOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does a Mac really need 2 GB of RAM?

      It doesn't need it, but it helps a lot.

      What can it possibly be putting in all that memory?

      All those programs you're running. You've got Finder, Dashboard, Spotlight, plus the GUI rendering library at a bare minimum, then whatever else you have open -- you've probably got Mail, Safari, and iCal at a bare minimum, plus maybe Pages, iTunes, iPhoto, your favorite IM client, a news reader, and so forth. Sure, it'll all run at the same time, but you'll be swapping memory every time you switch applications. I'd say that 2 GB is a bit of overkill for a normal home user, but you really do want at least 1 GB for minimal swapping.

    17. Re:SLOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my mac mini can't even handle the OS it has right now. It runs terribly slow (bearly usable) just running a web browser, iTunes, and an IM client. I can't image how slow my computer would run with these new features. Maybe you have a load of spyware - or a virus! I suggest Norton or McAfee.
    18. Re:SLOW by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 1

      You likely have too little ram (let me guess, a pathetic 512mb stock right?). Bump it up to 2gb, and the Mini will be great.


      Funny, that's what I keep saying about Vista, but the Mac users seem to be convinced that Mac OS runs fine with 512M.

      FYI, Vista runs just peachy on my 2.5-year-old Pentium-M 1.73GHz notebook with 1.25GB of memory.
    19. Re:SLOW by __aawdrj2992 · · Score: 1

      I have 640k (512 + 128) in my kids' 400MHz iMac and that ought to be enough for anybody.
      Fixed that for you
    20. Re:SLOW by in5ane · · Score: 1

      Why should a 'stock' configuration be 'pathetic'. Apple are controlling the hardware and software, so they should sell something perfectly usable.

      My opinion is biased btw, as I bought a mac mini when they first came out to dip my toe into Apple's new OS. It came with 256mb as standard and ran like a dog.

    21. Re:SLOW by LKM · · Score: 1

      Wha? I have a prev-gen Mac mini, and it is perfectly snappy. Not to mention that 10.4 was Apple's first Intel release, so it's likely that 10.5 will be better optimized and run faster than 10.4 (that has also been the pattern with the PPC releases).

  29. New Systems or just OS upgrades? by failedlogic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I follow some of the Apple 'rumor' sites. Curiously there are no known updates on the Mac Pro and the Mac Book Pro seems to be rumored for an upgrade in the Winter. Apple seems to be weaning off the Mac Mini (as I hear the Mini has had poor sales). It seems new hardware will have Leopard included but will not be upgraded.

    Consider most iMac users will *require* an enclosure if they want to use Time Machine as it will only work with an add-on drive and not on the system disk.

    This leaves me to ask, will we see a go-between on the Mac Pro and the iMac? I'd really love to see a lower cost tower than the Mac Pro. Expandable hard drive bays, upgradable video card and an extra DVD drive in the same case would be most welcome. My iMac G5 is in need of replacement and the footprint of the system when I account for the external DVD and dual-HDD enclosure doesn't make it seem as worthwhile for space saving.

    1. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

      You can replace the mini with a tower G33 / G35 chipset with on board video and 1 pci? and 2 pci-e slots x4 and x16 with gig-e over pci-e x1 and firewire over pci-e x1 for the same price with good video cards, more ram, and faster cpus for BTO add ones. Also have a pci-e x4 raid card and other pci-e cards for BTO as well may even have a pci sound card for gameing as a BTO.

      I would like to see apple have a dual quad-core amd system with DESKTOP RAM and sli / crossfire as well not dual cpu intel systems with FB-DIMMS and very few pci-e lanes.

    2. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Mini had poor sales because it was priced too much for the hardware contained. This was more a result of their inability to keep it refreshed. The price is fine when first released, but they go so long between refreshes that it gets to be quite expensive for the hardware contained...

    3. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Time machine can use the same volume (and I think even partition) as the OS.

    4. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Apple hasn't had anything in that range for ages. The cheapest tower Mac, back when they used G5 CPUs, was $1600. Now you have to spend twice that to get a tower, it's ridiculous. That's the main reason I moved to Dell for my next computer, I couldn't justify spending a full $1500 dollars more for (virtually) the same hardware Dell would sell me. Sure, my Dell doesn't have 76 Xeon CPUs, or whatever makes the Mac Pro so expensive, but that's waaay over kill for my use anyway.

    5. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

      Actually, time machine can use any non-bootable partition. You could partition the iMac's hd so that you could have say a 20 gig partition for OS X and associated apps and the rest as a time machine partition for all your data. So why is apple saying you have to have an external hard drive? 3 reasons:

      1. They are billing it as the ultimate backup system. If you have your time machine partition on the same drive as your data, it would help if you accidentally nuke something that you needed, or want to go back to what you did last week, but if your drive dies then you are SOL.
      2. Simplicity is Apple's goal. Most of their users don't know or care what a partition is. For the geeks that do, there are tools available and they can make multiple partitions on their disk and use time machine without an external drive, but for most users that would just get in the way of the whole "the computer is an appliance" theme that Apple has going.
      3. External disks tend to be larger than the disks Apple ships in its machines(esp. the notebooks). If you enable time machine on your main partition, it will probably end up filling up faster than usual, which means that you have to delete stuff to add new apps, upload new photos etc. Also, full hard drives can have an impact on performance, so its better to push that off to an external drive.

      Keep in mind that Apple does make the whole external hd easier....if you use wireless and have their 802.11n router. You can hook up a USB(firewire?) drive to the router and share it with anyone that is authorized to be on the network(security implications be damned!) They also set up time machine so that multiple users can use the same disk as their time machine disk, so if you have multiple computer users in the house all you have to do is buy one big disk and share it with everyone. Can make life a little simpler.

    6. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by failedlogic · · Score: 1

      I'm doing the same math as you. And we've reached the same conclusion. Either we both suck at math or some people don't 'get it'. ;)

      Yes, its ridiculous that you can't get a tower for the same price as you once could with the G5. That's also why I was peculiar in mentioning the enclosure. This super-duper liquid cooled system and super-fancy case that started with the G5s and is fancier even in the Intel models is sure to add $400 or $500 to the price. And I question the necessity.

      And their add-ons at system build time are nowhere near competing with Dell, let alone the local computer guy. Fine the Mac Pro Ram is non-standard and requires a special heat-sink and need ECC. But aftermarket companies are selling RAM which works in said systems for less. Why aren't they more competitive? Trying to pull a Sun or an SGI on RAM prices? If I'm going to invest in a Mac Pro, I'm not going to go and add aftermarket parts as you would have to given Apple's pricing and risk voiding the warranty.

    7. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by vux984 · · Score: 1

      Mac Mini was also just a little too "cool" for the hardware it contained or the market it was competing with. If it had been twice the size, and $150 cheaper it would have sold a lot better.

      It would still have been a fraction of the size of a comparable PC.

      And not pushing so hard at being so small would have brought the price down a decent chunk, and made refreshing the hardware that much easier to do.

    8. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by mr.float · · Score: 1

      Consider most iMac users will *require* an enclosure if they want to use Time Machine as it will only work with an add-on drive and not on the system disk.
      The idea of Time Machine requiring an external drive is because you simply shouldn't backup onto the system that is being backed up. If people want to avoid clutter on their desk, they are free to use a network attached storage instead of a usb connected hard drive, e.g. via the new Aiport Express station.
    9. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 1

      Unless you have two types of back-up schemes going, why would you want to keep a back-up on an internal drive? Most people would be better off with the external drive, and those such as yourself would be better served by the many back-up apps available that offer more options. So I don't really see how the Time Machine requirements are going to have much of an effect in that sense.

    10. Re:New Systems or just OS upgrades? by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised that the Mini doesn't sell well. I absolutely love my Mini. It makes a great, low-cost, moderate performance (I have a Intel dual-core w/ 2GB RAM) unit that I can use to check things in OS X (which is not my primary OS).

      Sure, at times I wish I had a more powerful PowerMac, but the cost for the Mini is quite good. Plus it's small and stays out of the way (I have mine stacked on top of a pair of USB /Firewire drives that I use for expansion/backup).

      Definitely a good unit for testing the waters.

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
  30. First untied x86 version? by bre_dnd · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Something else that is interesting about this is that it will be the first untied x86 version -- you can actually buy a x86 version of MacOS without buying Mac hardware to run it on.

    1. Re:First untied x86 version? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and where did you find this snippet of misinformation?

    2. Re:First untied x86 version? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The system requirements seem to say otherwise. Sure would be nice though. I'd buy a copy to install over my windows os if it would work. Anyone?

    3. Re:First untied x86 version? by Budenny · · Score: 1

      He is mainly correct. There will be retail versions of Leopard that will run on x86. Contrary to what the previous poster says, this will be unlike Tiger, where you can buy a retail version, but it is PPC only.

      Where he is wrong, or at least doubtful, or anyway there is no evidence for what he says, is that the retail version will run on anything but an Apple branded machine.

      The interesting question is, how are they going to stop it from loading and booting - after the first couple of weeks.

      If they are. That is the interesting conjecture. If it is not really possible, this could indeed be the time they finally stop trying. No evidence, but it is an interesting possibility.

    4. Re:First untied x86 version? by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      It's not the first, Tiger Server is also "untied" in the sense that you don't have to buy it bundled with an Intel Mac.

      However, note there is no evidence that any versions of Mac OS X capable of running on non-Apple hardware without dubious hacks and legal problems are coming out any time soon. So while you may be able to purchase it, attempting to install on a Thinkpad or some other computer that's infinitely more desirable than the Apple equivalent may be illegal and will require the help of those cracking Apple's prevention schemes.

      (I'm tempted to suggest they should go ahead anyway. The idea of Apple trying, as they did with the AT&T locks, to close the barn door by issuing a crippling software update that destroys as many legitimate systems as "Apple disapproved" systems, is just hilarious.)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  31. Lies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The two school stores I checked listed it at $116, which is also the same price as the standard Apple education store. Perhaps it is still $69 somewhere... who knows. In any case, Apple education discounts are not nearly as good an they once were. Oh well, instead of receiving $69 of my money, those greedy bastards can have $0 instead.

  32. Development by raffe · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Can anybody give some more info regarding development on mac? I have done java development so I guess eclipse works but what about native? Anything else except objective-c ? Does XCode work for other languages as well?

    1. Re:Development by simong · · Score: 1

      The Developer's Kit is all open source - it installs gcc; python, perl and ruby are included by default, PHP can be enabled in the included version of Apache, there is good documentation to build Ruby on Rails or most other frameworks that you want. I've never used the IDE myself but there are plenty of Other Ways to Do It - ranging from Eclipse to TextMate (very powerful text editor with hooks into most compilers) and Coda from Panic, which is perhaps more designed as a web development IDE but is beautifully featured for that purpose.

    2. Re:Development by larkost · · Score: 1

      XCode also works for C, C++, Objective-C++ (mixed Obj-C and C++), Java (depreciated, other than for WebObjects development), AppleScript (AppleScript Studio), and can work for Perl, Ruby, and Python (all for creating native apps thorough the bridges to Obj-C). All of this is focused on producing MacOS X Apps.

      And once you get into Obj-C you will find a great environment, especially if you can stay in the Cocoa world and not dip down into Carbon.

    3. Re:Development by cyfer2000 · · Score: 1

      I coded a lot in C++ with Carbon.

      --
      There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
    4. Re:Development by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, Works very well for C/C++ development. It has a number of templates for things like command line apps and such. Also I've done a tool PBtomake http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze35xda/software.html that can convert the XCode project to standard make files (useful to port things from OSX XCode to Linux, Sun,HP.... etc).

    5. Re:Development by Yer+Mom · · Score: 1

      there is good documentation to build Ruby on Rails

      Since this is a Leopard thread, it's probably worth pointing out that Rails is pre-installed on 10.5 :)

      The easy way to set up Rails for development (not deployment!) on Tiger is to download Locomotive, as it avoids clashes with the rather out-of-date version of Ruby that's already installed...

      --
      Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
  33. Short cycle? by Ghubi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lets see... Windows 95 came around 1995, few years later there was Windows 98, couple years later we had windows ME, couple years after that we had Windows XP. Only Vista has been a long upgrade cycle, and aren't we all glad they took the extra time to make sure they got it right on Vista?

    1. Re:Short cycle? by fermion · · Score: 1

      I cannot believe anyone would dare mention Windows 98 or ME as actual releases of windows. The only one who would do such a thing would be one who never had use 98 or ME. In fact history tells us that MS produces a reasonable release of MS Windows every 5 years. Anything between those releases are either fixes or beta tests. The first version of MS windows around 1985, then MS Windows 3.0 in the early 90's, then MS Windows 95, then Windows XP. These were the releases that were adequate for the time, and as long as MS only released fixes everything was OK. What really killed MS was releasing the god awful beta packages in the late 90's. Given this history, Vista is released as expected, and given history, we expect it will be usable in a year and quite usable in 2-3 years.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    2. Re:Short cycle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given this history, Vista is released as expected, and given history, we expect it will be usable in a year and quite usable in 2-3 years.

      And by then Vista will be comparable to Tiger, and Apple will be up to OS X 10.7: LOLCAT
    3. Re:Short cycle? by NoMaster · · Score: 1

      I cannot believe anyone would dare mention Windows 98 or ME as actual releases of windows.
      Win98 was a legitimate release - ask anybody who wanted to use USB devices on Win95. And, even then, they had to wait for SE to get decent USB support. Remember 98SE? Now, there's a good example of being forced to pay for a bugfix release...

      (Yes, a lot of upgrades in SE were available as patches for 98. Unfortunately, the USB stuff wasn't among them; not legitimately anyway.)

      And, terrible as it was, how can you say ME wasn't a release? It supplanted 98SE, and stayed as the only available "home" version of the OS until XP was released. Thankfully, that wasn't too long at all. I'm told it even had "features", though all I ever saw were bugs.

      What was that quote? Something like "users have problems installing it, getting it to run, getting it to work with hardware or software, and getting it to stop".

      (Still shuddering at installing Stingray ADSL modem drivers on 64 meg RAM machines when WinME was current, GDI and drivers-in-low-memory-only limitations and all. I nearly cried when I realised ME would silently ditch drivers when it ran low on memory...)

      What really killed MS was releasing the god awful beta packages in the late 90's.
      You don't stop selling your current version when you release a new beta...

      Given this history, Vista is released as expected ...
      At the moment the only difference between Vista and ME is that they haven't stopped selling XP, like they stopped selling 98SE when ME came out...

      --
      What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
  34. Still a few bugs in the system by PuritySyrup · · Score: 1

    And, beginning today, customers can place pre-orders on Apple's online store.
    Unless, of course, you live in Canada. If you do, the Apple online store will attempt to load your existing customer record, and then balk because your "ZIP" code has letters in it. (No, I'm not ordering it yet. But I've gotten so used to testing, I tested it pretty much on autopilot.)
    1. Re:Still a few bugs in the system by matoch · · Score: 1

      It's stupid but make sure you put a space between the first and last 3 characters. It may or may not solve the problem but this is what I ran into filling out apple care today.

      --
      Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
  35. That's how much OSX costs... by argent · · Score: 1

    The 'ultimate edition' bit is Jobs jab at Microsoft's Heinz-57-varieties-of-Vista. $129.00 is how much Apple always charges for OS X.

  36. Paying the Apple Tax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is one thing which always strikes me as amazing.

    I have a coworker who JUST purchased a macbook, it's like two months old. And, like many Mac users, he's looking forward to paying $130 for the OS X point release service pack.

    However... if these same people had just purchased a new Dell, they would be whining to high heaven if they had to pay $90 to upgrade from XP to Vista Home Premium (Business/Ultimate are only needed if you are connecting to an active directory, which 99.9999% of consumers will never need to do).

    So it's just shocking how Slashdotters and Mac users tear their hair out and grind their teeth at the thought of paying for Windows... but get all hot and bothered about giving their money to SteveJob for what MS would consider a service pack.

    1. Re:Paying the Apple Tax by alfredo · · Score: 1

      This is much more than a service pack,

      Leopard

      --
      photosMy Photostream
    2. Re:Paying the Apple Tax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >but get all hot and bothered about giving their money to SteveJob for what MS would consider a service pack.

      This is because "The Steve" is a demigod well on his way to full godhood, and "The Other Steve" (Ballmer), is not.

      "The Steve" could put dogshit into an Apple-branded box and the fanboys would buy it, saying "It's not just dogshit, it's Apple dogshit!"

      But, you have to admit, the guy is a brilliant salesman. More power to him, I say, in all honesty.

      Apple has managed to do something that Microsoft hasn't: They sell a completely proprietary platform and their userbase loves it, to the point where they evangelize for Apple, and make excuses for it. You rarely find that kind of devotion outside religious cults with charismatic leaders.

      Steve Ballmer has got to be wondering what it is that Microsoft is doing wrong. Apple's numbers, although small, are slowly growing, and so long as they do, Apple is a force to be reckoned with, because it isn't a technical battle anymore - it's a battle of perception, and for better or worse, Apple is perceived to be "good" and Microsoft is perceived to be "evil"

      Yet both are corporations out to make a profit...

    3. Re:Paying the Apple Tax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That really ought to tell you something, rather than amusing you: There's a reason people whine about a Windows upgrade and are happy about a Mac OS X one. The Windows upgrade gets you new DRM, fixes to issues that never should have existed in the first place, and features that have been on every other major OS for year. The Mac OS upgrade gets you all of those, plus quite a few ideas that (while they may not all be novel) haven't really been seen before.

      10.4 to 10.5 is a much bigger jump than XP to Vista.

    4. Re:Paying the Apple Tax by Altus · · Score: 1


      Don't waste your time. People who continue to trot out this service pack crap every time apple releases an OS have heard all this over and over again. They will continue to troll as long as it gets a reaction. Don't even bother.

      If you wanted to reply to this you could have said something like "If I got a Dell with XP instead of vista I woudl be psyched that I didnt have to look at that vista UI all day, it would save me wiping vista out and replacing it with XP"

      IF you wanted to reply.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    5. Re:Paying the Apple Tax by alfredo · · Score: 1


      woke up on the wrong side of bed. The bottom.

      --
      photosMy Photostream
    6. Re:Paying the Apple Tax by Kelson · · Score: 1

      Leopard (Mac OSX 10.5) is not a "service pack" for Tiger (Mac OSX 10.4) any more than Windows XP (Windows NT 5.1) was a service pack for Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5.0). Version numbering schemes don't always mean the same thing from company to company or product to product, or even make sense at all.

      That said, you do have a point: I've noticed myself that when a new version is released of Mac OS, or any Linux distro that I use, my first inclination is to buy it or download it, then do the upgrade when I have the time. With Windows, my first inclination is to sit it out and wait for the first service pack. I've been trying to figure out why that is, and the best I can come up with is that while bugs tend to slip through on most OS releases (and get fixed via updates over the next few weeks), Windows often seems to have issues that aren't just bugs to fix, but design issues that need to be changed... and therefore need to wait for a service pack, rather than just a hotfix.

      Of course, if you really want to see Apple fans griping about giving money to Apple, go back a couple of weeks and look at the comments on the iPhone price reduction. Apple users aren't immune to the "but I just bought it for $X!" phenomenon -- there are just some things they're willing to pay for.

  37. OS 10.5 only $129* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *With qualiifying purchase of Apple computer $499 or more.

  38. has it fixed the automounter and NIS? by t35t0r · · Score: 1

    Has it fixed the automounter and NIS? probably still crap covered by a metallic finish.

    1. Re:has it fixed the automounter and NIS? by AIXadmin · · Score: 1

      yeap, that would some up NIS. =)

    2. Re:has it fixed the automounter and NIS? by HogGeek · · Score: 1

      Why in the HELL are you still using NIS!?!

      LDAP is your friend!

    3. Re:has it fixed the automounter and NIS? by t35t0r · · Score: 1

      Why in the HELL are you still using NIS!?!

      Because we have systems in production with uptimes older than you!

    4. Re:has it fixed the automounter and NIS? by AmVidia+HQ · · Score: 1

      From http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html

      "AutoFS.

      The brand-new multithreaded AutoFS filesystem layer keeps track of which paths are actually located on remote AFP, SMB, or NFS fileservers even across symlinks and automatically mounts the appropriate server. The Finder and other applications neednt wait for one mount to complete before requesting another. Now you can specify automount paths for your entire organization using the same standard automounter maps (for example, NIS) supported by Linux or Solaris."

      --
      VIVA1023.com | Political Fashion.
    5. Re:has it fixed the automounter and NIS? by t35t0r · · Score: 1

      If there are two automount maps that point to the same location but are under two different automount directories then the one that most recently is put into the netinfo fstab is operational, but not both.

      auto.root1:
      foobar server:/foo/bar

      auto.root2:
      foobar server:/foo/bar

      if you stick auto.root2 into netinfo after auto.root1 then only the automount for auto.root2 will work, i.e. cd /root1/foobar doens't work but cd /root2/foobar does. This works fine on linux and irix and probably other "posix" OS's. Hope this is fixed in leopard, it was already reported to apple. It's a very annoying bug.

      don't even get me started on Xsan..

  39. I find your lack of vision disturbing by Shadowlore · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And you've done what, exactly, with it? Your vision is where?

    Just because you don't do things such as writing on translucent materials or glass things doesn't mean the rest of us don't. Not all technology is for every person. For example, those who actually build things by hand (quilters, seamstresses, wood workers, metal workers, etc.) quite frequently use translucent or clear materials for patterns, templates, and sometimes finished products. How about clear measuring cups? I've seen chefs use clear containers and mark various levels and information on them using erasable markers. Then there is the clear surfaces with map inlays used by tactical planners and tac-rooms. In the Army, decades ago, we would use clear or translucent materials over maps to create different plans and routes, and lay them over various maps. Oh, and waaay back in elementary, junior, and senior high school, and lo even in college, transparencies were used in classrooms with overhead projectors. I've seen the use of transparent or translucent overlay "technology" used in the real world by police, firefighters, medical personnel, construction crews, demolition crews, surveyors, etc..

    So since many of us DO use it, translucency (or transparency by your reference to glass) by your own argument IS great, and you simply lack the vision to make use of it, right? It isn't translucency that is overrated, it's your post.

    --
    My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
    1. Re:I find your lack of vision disturbing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for your post. It's refreshing to hear someone that still sees technology as a user, not a consumer.

    2. Re:I find your lack of vision disturbing by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      You are absolutely right. There are situations where being able to see through a layer is a good thing. But this is not true in general. For example, I'm typing this in a text box on my browser. Behind the browser is an RSS reader, an Eclipse session, another browser window containing the BBC radio player, several Finder windows, an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document, a terminal window and the desktop background consisting of a Dilbert cartoon. If this window were translucent to any degree, I'd not be able to read the text in it.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    3. Re:I find your lack of vision disturbing by graviplana · · Score: 1

      Heh, awesome. Best post of the thread. PWNT.

      --
      "Time is nothing; timing is everything."
  40. More than a Service Pack(as made famous by Boston) by Tetsujin · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's no service pack... it's a space station...

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  41. ...and they seem to have their own exchange rates by gunne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Using google currency converter:

    129 USD In SEK:
    129 U.S. dollars = 828.979584 Swedish kronor

    and the list price for apple store sweden:
    1.195,00

    hmm
    1195 SEK in USD:
    1 195 Swedish kronor = 185.957535 U.S. dollars

    So thats a 56$ premium. I don't think so.

    Congrats, apple. You just won a pirated copy of Leopard!

  42. 26th October... by Tim+Browse · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...was the day Doc Brown completed the first test of his Time Machine.

    What a bunch of geeks.

  43. Not only that.. by multipartmixed · · Score: 1

    ..students represent the long-term viability for a company. Between students and pirates (which are largerly interchangeable terms, anyhow), a large body of young people become familiar with a particular OS/Company/Way.

    Once those young people get older and are responsible for making large purchasing decisions (or even moderate decisions year after year), the companies benefit.

    It's called a "loss-leader", and is EXACTLY the same reason bars have happy hour and sell wings for a quarter between 7 and 9.

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
    1. Re:Not only that.. by Helios1182 · · Score: 1

      Exactly. If you learn graphic design using Adobe products as a student you may want to buy a copy so you don't have to go to the lab. Then you get out and start working for a living and have to buy a commercial version. Then you spend the next few decades using their suite because thats all you have ever used.

  44. In other news... by Mongoose+Disciple · · Score: 1

    More people are driving all GM vehicles combined than Toyota Priuses.

    I'm not even sure if your statistics are correct, but it's pointless to say that more people are using the last six versions of OS X than are using the last one version of Windows.

    There's a lot of good things to say about OS X; say those things instead of trying to manufacture a half-assed attempt at populism.

  45. How do you know the Mini has not sold? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the Mini hadn't sold well, they would have dropped it by now - not did a minor update to it a few months back.

    I know a number of people that have minis, and like them (the new Intel versions are a lot more powerful than the older G4 ones).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  46. Question about OSX.... by Wescotte · · Score: 1

    I don't own a Mac and have only touched OSX a few times on friends machines (and at school) but I find the fact that applications never seem to really be able to maximize and there are huge amounts of wasted screen space. Now I know you can auto hide the launcher thingy on the bottom but it just seems to function worse than the newer start button designs. Am I missing something?

    Eric

    1. Re:Question about OSX.... by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      You're missing something. Windows' ancestor is basically a task switcher, a way of running several applications at a time, whilst working on one at a time. On OS-X it is intended that you are using several applications all at the same time since the integration between applications is better. For example you can just drag an image out of Safari in to an e-mail window to attach it, and so on. Admittedly on small screens there's not necessarily the space to do this in which case just drag out the window to fill the screen. On big screens I never maximise apps.

    2. Re:Question about OSX.... by eltonito · · Score: 1

      Am I missing something?

      Maybe? OS X maximize is slightly different than Windows in that it will scale the window to fit the screen vertically but not always horizontally while Windows will just fill up the entire screen. You can quickly resize the Mac app to take up the full screen and following that it will maximize that app to take up the entire screen when you toggle the green plus button.

      But why? On larger displays having maximize execute a policy of manifest destiny is highly annoying and inefficient use of space most of the time. I rarely run Windows or Mac apps full screen and I have 2 displays on each.

    3. Re:Question about OSX.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I've never really used Windows machines, except sometimes in a computer lab, but it seems to me that the reason Windows people always work with their applications maximized is first, that Windows automatically maximizes so you get used to it, and second, that PC monitors have much lower resolution than Mac monitors. On my MacBook, I generally work at 1440x900 resolution, and at that resolution most Web pages or Word documents would have large amounts of white space around them (or very long line length) if I maximized.

    4. Re:Question about OSX.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Welcome to anything past Windows 3.1!

      On OS-X it is intended that you are using several applications all at the same time since the integration between applications is better Same is true of Windows XP, I'd say that "integration between applications" is even better with first party apps than Mac apps.

      For example you can just drag an image out of Safari in to an e-mail window to attach it, and so on Can do that from IE/Firefox/Opera/Safari/many other apps (ex: photoshop) to Outlook/Outlook Express (only email clients I've used) on Windows as well.

      I think GP just has too low a resolution so always needs apps maximized.
    5. Re:Question about OSX.... by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

      I don't own a Mac and have only touched OSX a few times on friends machines (and at school) but I find the fact that applications never seem to really be able to maximize and there are huge amounts of wasted screen space. Now I know you can auto hide the launcher thingy on the bottom but it just seems to function worse than the newer start button designs. Am I missing something?

      In many ways the behaviour of the maximise button is application specific. There are different behaviours that I have observed:
        - Firefox resizes between allowing you to see the drive icons on the right and whatever it was previously
        - Mail maximises completely and on second click goes back to the previous size
        - Quicktime won't resize until you have manually adjusted the size and will toggle by default size and the previous user specified size

      There may be an extension that unifies the behaviour, but I haven't seen one.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    6. Re:Question about OSX.... by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      For example you can just drag an image out of Safari in to an e-mail window to attach it, and so on.
      You can do this with Internet Explorer and Outlook by the way.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    7. Re:Question about OSX.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you are missing something. The green Maximize button/Minimize menu/command-M shortcut is not really intended to fill the whole screen, rather it is to toggle the window size between its optimal (the optimal window space according to the content/context) size and current size. For example, a window containing a few checkboxes and textfields doesn't need the whole screen for its space. Taking up the whole screen is just a waste of space and prevents users from seeing the desktop. Mac users manipulate desktop objects more than Windows users, e.g. text/image clippings, draging-and-dropping files, etc.. However, it is up to the developers of the app to implement what's optimal and how to arrange the content according to this optimal size. A lot of developers don't take advantage of this, though.

      IMHO, Apple's mistake is calling it a maximize button and placing a + sign when the cursor hovers on it. They should call it the optimize button and instruct developers to code for it in the human interface guideline.

    8. Re:Question about OSX.... by theurge14 · · Score: 1

      What you're missing is the applications you are trying to "maximize" have nothing more to display. They're already showing everything they can in the window they have. To make the application window even bigger would be to fill the screen with gray space.

      What you are suffering from is a commong Windows users disorder known as Fullscreenitis. The symptoms are maximizing every app window and switching between them using the taskbar. Non-Windows users know this malady as "MS-DOS". The cure is to familiarize oneself with the concept of using windows and icons as they were intended.

    9. Re:Question about OSX.... by Wescotte · · Score: 1


      What you are suffering from is a commong Windows users disorder known as Fullscreenitis. The symptoms are maximizing every app window and switching between them using the taskbar. Non-Windows users know this malady as "MS-DOS". The cure is to familiarize oneself with the concept of using windows and icons as they were intended.


      The only Mac OSX app I use is Adobe Flash CS3 at school. When you maximize it tends to favor the various undocked toolbars in favor of the "stage" area. So it gives more screen area to tool bars at the expensive of the working area. I usually just hide/unhide toolbars as I need them which is annoying in itself.

      As far as Fullscreenitis I dunno but even on my 22" LCD I want anything I'm using to be full screen. It just feels right. The only time I use anything not using the full desktop area is when I have multiple terminal windows open and I want to read the contents of one as I type in another. I guess it's really just my infrequent use of Macs that are turning me off to bothering to learn more.

      Eric

    10. Re:Question about OSX.... by markjhood2003 · · Score: 1

      What you are suffering from is a commong Windows users disorder known as Fullscreenitis

      It's a preference. Why are some preferences wrong? Why shouldn't Mac OS implement this preference for people who have it?

      It would certainly convert my wife to a Mac user to be able to run her apps full screen. She prefers to interact with only one app at a time and finds the clutter around the desktop to be a distraction.

    11. Re:Question about OSX.... by Shuh · · Score: 1

      I don't own a Mac and have only touched OSX a few times on friends machines (and at school) but I find the fact that applications never seem to really be able to maximize and there are huge amounts of wasted screen space.
      In Classic Mac OS, clicking the maximize button made the window just big enough to fit the content of the window, no bigger. Option + maximize-button was the command to maximize a window to completely fill the screen. In OSX it's essentially the same, but it seems more apps follow their own standards.



    12. Re:Question about OSX.... by mr_matticus · · Score: 1

      Why shouldn't Windows do the same? I don't see any reason why "zoom" can't be implemented--do you know how god-awfully annoying it is to have Firefox take up all 30" of screen space and turn the monitor into a tidal wave of bright white? I have yet to see a web page that required that kind of space.

      Some people have a preference for window glyphs on the top right. Some people can't handle icons that align to the right. Some people like purple scroll bars. It's not that some preferences are wrong, it's that some people value consistency and integrity of UI experience over complication and needless gratification of every whim. Apple falls into that group. It's not for everybody; it's not supposed to be, and it doesn't try to be.

      Experience shows that people who are super picky generally also have questionable taste. If you want to do something stylish, there's some image preservation in narrowing down the venues for "ricing" your desktop.

      If you fall into the "I need to be in control over every possible aspect" group, use Linux or seek out a suitable theme using a desktop skinning app like ShapeShifter.

    13. Re:Question about OSX.... by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't know. I run neither on my XP Laptop.

    14. Re:Question about OSX.... by LKM · · Score: 1

      Welcome to anything past Windows 3.1!

      So Windows has got "zoom to fit" now? And they god rid of these stupid windows-within-windows? No, wait, still same old.

      Same is true of Windows XP, I'd say that "integration between applications" is even better with first party apps than Mac apps.

      In my experience using both, no. Examples?

      Can do that from IE/Firefox/Opera/Safari/many other apps (ex: photoshop) to Outlook/Outlook Express (only email clients I've used) on Windows as well.

      Drag and drop in Mac OS X is simply much more mature. For example, I can't open a .gif by dragging it to the Photoshop tab in the Windows start bar. WTF??? Drag a folder into an open dialog in Windows, and it actually tries to copy the folder. When would I ever want to do that???

    15. Re:Question about OSX.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe? OS X maximize is slightly different than Windows in that it will scale the window to fit the screen vertically but not always horizontally while Windows will just fill up the entire screen. You can quickly resize the Mac app to take up the full screen and following that it will maximize that app to take up the entire screen when you toggle the green plus button.

      Not quite. This seems to be one of the things that confuses almost all of the people I know that switch to OS X. For most apps there are 3 sizes stored/computed for a given window: the default window size as determined by the developer of the app, the "best-fit" size as determined by OS X (and sometimes the developer), and the user-defined size. The + button toggles between these. So, if I open up an app for the first time I see what, if anything, the developer has set as a default. If I hit the +, it changes size to try to best fit the content of that window (with most programs, things usually scroll vertically but not horizontally - that's why it may appear that it always fills the screen in that orientation and not the other, but it's really just a matter of it best fitting that content in those cases). It will then toggle between these sizes unless I resize the window myself, in which case it will rotate between the 3, though I have run into a few 3rd party apps that only do user-defined and best-fit once the default window has been resized. The app remembers the last window size and position and uses that by default the next time it's opened.

      So, actually, it works in a similar way to Windows, but instead of just blindly filling the whole screen with a "maximized" window, it tries to maximize your screen real estate by going for best-fit instead and allowing you to fill the whole screen (usually with wasted empty window space) if you so desire and then remembering that preference on subsequent uses.

  47. Not so, Tiger is universal... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    You can buy Tiger which is currently universal as well.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Not so, Tiger is universal... by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1

      You can buy Tiger which is currently universal as well.

      You can buy a version of Tiger without buying a Mac, and there is a version of Tiger that's universal, but have you verified that the two versions are the same? I.e., is the retail Tiger PPC-only, and the Tiger you get on a current Mac universal?

    2. Re:Not so, Tiger is universal... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      I thought that's where you were going with that, and I could have sworn the boxed versions have been updated to be universal - but I can't verify from the Apple store since they are only selling Leopard now!

      There are also the Tiger installation discs that ship with new macs... those may be Intel only though, I've not checked.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    3. Re:Not so, Tiger is universal... by twitchingbug · · Score: 1

      I don't think there's a retail Intel version of Tiger out. After all, why does there need to be. EVERY Intel Mac has shipped with Tiger and Tiger install disc. So exactly who would buy a universal copy of Tiger?

      Server might be a different issue tho since people like to upgrade.

      Freak, the Apple Store has delisted Tiger. Man. That blows.

  48. Re:and they seem to have their own exchange rates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >Congrats, apple. You just won a pirated copy of Leopard!

    STFU, you cheap whiner. People like you make the rest of us look bad.

  49. what's wrong with it already .. :) by rs232 · · Score: 1

    Insert FUD here ...

    --
    davecb5620@gmail.com
  50. One version, really? by PhotoGuy · · Score: 1

    While I certainly appreciate the fact that Apple keeps their OS X versions under control, it's a bit ironic that he takes a jab at Microsoft with the "everyone gets the ultimate eversion," when the second announcement on Apple's home page is "Apple Announces Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard."

    What? Two versions?

    In any case, there's a lot more sanity with Apple that MS, and I've been a solid convert to OS X (not for fanboi reasons, but because it lets me get my work done with silliness, dammit!). I'm very much looking forward to Leopard; my main concerns are related to application compatibility, especially low level utilities and apps (like Insomnia, device drivers, Parallels, and such). Hopefully we won't need new versions of those to transition smoothly to Leopard; I'll probably run it off an external USB drive at first, to make sure. This will be the first operating system I've ever purchased personally (and I will do so enthusiastically).

    -dale

    --
    Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    1. Re:One version, really? by juuri · · Score: 1

      In this case the desktop version is pretty much the ultimate version. The server version of OSX is and has always been much more like the difference between Win2KWS and Win2kServer. Server comes with a bunch of utilities, features and a gui configurator that even power desktop users wouldn't need. They could in theory just sell only OSX and then a Server Utility Pack as a seperate product and it would be the same thing.

      --
      --- I do not moderate.
    2. Re:One version, really? by canistel · · Score: 1

      No, really, it is quite simple... 1 version for normal people, 1 version for servers

    3. Re:One version, really? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Make that one version to use, one version to sit in a closet somewhere.

  51. Re:...and they seem to have their own exchange rat by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2, Informative
    So thats a 56$ premium. I don't think so. Congrats, apple. You just won a pirated copy of Leopard!

    How much of that is tax? In many parts of the US the final amount will be 7 or 8% higher than $129.

  52. Bittorrent edition a non starter... by MsGeek · · Score: 1

    ...for someone who opted for AppleCare on their MacBook. Apple will not TOUCH your system if it has a pirated copy of the OS on it.

    As it is, the Student Discount is down to $13, compared to the $60 discount students got on systems from Puma to Tiger. So screw it, I'm not going to mess with Apple Store for Education anymore. I worked at Fried a few years ago so I was one of the first to have one of those spiffy transparent green credit cards. Looks like I'll be lining up there a week from Friday. 64-bit goodness is too good to pass up.

    Anyone know if Rosetta has been improved and/or made 64-bit aware? Considering some of my apps are still PPC-only (Office 2007, Photoshop Elements v.4 Mac) it's an issue.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    1. Re:Bittorrent edition a non starter... by mr_josh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bull. Apple isn't wasting their time looking for pirated copies of the OS during service. PLEASE cite an example of someone being turned away for having an illegitimate copy of the OS. For that example, please cite a way of determining what is a pirated copy of the installed OS.

    2. Re:Bittorrent edition a non starter... by BrainInAJar · · Score: 1

      Why precisely do people think they need 64-bit applications?

      Unless you're running something that can eat through a 32 bit address space like Oracle for example, you really don't...

    3. Re:Bittorrent edition a non starter... by 10Ghz · · Score: 1

      "Why precisely do people think they need 64-bit applications?"

      To get better performance for starters. And before you start telling how 64 bitness does nothing for performance, maybe you should read how 32bit and 64bit x86 differ from each other.

      And, of course, the size of the datasets that people handle are going up all the time, so why SHOULDN'T we move to 32bit apps?

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    4. Re:Bittorrent edition a non starter... by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      Exactly what '64 bit goodness' do you need? Running a multi gigabyte database or something?

    5. Re:Bittorrent edition a non starter... by MsGeek · · Score: 1

      Bigger chunks of data can be handled at a time with a 64-bit OS. This can be helpful in data-intensive processes like encoding video. Which I am very interested in.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    6. Re:Bittorrent edition a non starter... by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      That I can understand. Video processing is one of the very, very few applications that benefit from the larger address space.

  53. Cocoa Regular Expressions by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1

    After the sixth version is released, we mac developers still probably won't have an Apple-shipped Cocoa API for regular expressions...sigh.

    I guess that giving developers the ability to add cutesy animations to applications is more important than giving those application developers ways to scrape information off the internet and display it to users in useful and innovative ways.

    Given that every other desktop development environment and every scripting language ships with built-in regular expressions functionality, Cocoa is starting to look extremely uncompetitive, at least from the standpoint of doing any significant work with strings of text.

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
    1. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by gentlemen_loser · · Score: 1

      You could try something like: this.

    2. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by Pengo · · Score: 1


      Is there really anything wrong with having to use 3rd party libraries to do regex operations?

    3. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're scraping information off the internet then you should probably use an actual HTML parser such as a WebView or an NSXMLParser. Using regular expressions to get information out of web pages is the wrong tool for the job.

      In any case it's not as though there aren't a zillion third-party regex libraries out there. It's hardly a massive burden to use one of those if you really need one.

    4. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by larkost · · Score: 3, Informative

      I am going to second this. There are a lot of great RegExp libraries available for Cocoa that have some great developers behind them. The shining one to me would be OmniGroup's OFRegularExpression (http://www.omnigroup.com/developer/). It has an easy license to work with, and is easy to embed in a project. Why should Apple spend resources trying to rebuild what is already there (or spend money updating it) when OmniGroup already has an interest in keeping it up-to-date?

    5. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1
      As expected, the point was missed entirely, as it has been missed it for the last six years.


      All these people have technologies that compete with Cocoa+Objective-C. And they are all shipping their stuff with regular expression functionality. Today.

      My point is that there are numerous gaping in holes in the functionality of the API and language that Apple has been touting as the future of mac development. With Leopard, Apple spent lots of money to put even more bling on the naked emperor when they should have bought him a cheap suit.
      --
      Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
    6. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Volow: want regex? why are you killing yourself?

      Read this:
      http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

      "Cocoa Bridges: Use Ruby and Python as first-class languages for building Cocoa applications, thanks to Objective-C bridges as well as full Xcode and Interface Builder support."

      Surely Ruby, Python, or Perl regex capabilities will suffice.

    7. Re:Cocoa Regular Expressions by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1

      Why should Apple have bothered to add XML support in 10.4 when the guy writing Iconara DOM had an interest in keeping it up to date?

      (And yes, XML is another example of a technology that everyone else had that Apple took way too long to implement for Cocoa).

      --
      Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
  54. OS X never able to maximize .. by rs232 · · Score: 1

    "I find the fact that applications never seem to really be able to maximize"

    Those bastards, someone should take Jobs out, nail him to the back fender of a car and then drive up and down the highway - ALL WEEK !!!

    Re:Question about OSX....

    --
    davecb5620@gmail.com
  55. Institutional vs. Individual education sales. by guywcole · · Score: 1

    Many individual educational sales have been replaced by institutional sales, where discounts are much higher than they were before.

    Apple wants institutional over individual because some of the insitutions are buying more than 50% apple hardware now, and it's easier to target the real educational sector.

  56. What about Boot Camp? by el_chupanegre · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not sure if i remember this correctly, but didn't Apple say they would be ending support for boot camp 'beta' as soon as Leopard came out? (i.e. every version that isn't leopard)

    Are our XP boot camp partitions that we have now just suddenly going to stop working? I can see people getting really pissed about that, myself included!

    On an interesting note it looks like it supports Vista properly now as well. I never wanted to just do an upgrade of my XP in case that stopped working.

    I think the age old Apple rule applies. I certainly won't be upgrading to 10.5 until it's at least 10.5.1, and people find workarounds for all the problems that will inevitably come from this upgrade

    1. Re:What about Boot Camp? by director_mr · · Score: 1

      You may want to read the apple page on boot camp. They have improved boot camp, and apparently you can be seemlessly upgraded to the new version just by updating the drivers included in the install disk. At least that is what I gathered from reading Apple's page that informs you about the new version of boot camp.

    2. Re:What about Boot Camp? by Imazalil · · Score: 1

      Your partitions will still work - meaning you can still boot into WinXP or whatever - but you will not be able to use the Bootcamp 'wizard' to create or edit new partitions. So get this set up as you need them before the expiry date and you're good to go.

    3. Re:What about Boot Camp? by ph0rk · · Score: 1

      No, existing partitions will still function. The boot camp assistant will cease, though.

      --
      semantics are everything!
    4. Re:What about Boot Camp? by el_chupanegre · · Score: 1

      Ah, thats a load off, thanks! I'll still hold off upgrading to Leopard until the dust settles though, you never know!

    5. Re:What about Boot Camp? by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      No, they'll keep working. You just won't be able to use the Boot Camp Assistant to resize the partitions. The partition will remain usable, though. I went through all the available information and learned that a couple weeks ago, when I created a partition on my shiny new (first Mac ever!) MacBook Pro for XP. I had the same concern as you.

  57. And a 1996 study demostrates it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Probably for some tasks it can be useful, like marking which part will be kept and which discarded in a crop operation. Basically for things that are deeply related. But for some things that are unrelated, like menus and the thing they hide, it just slows down people, as the background thing is not important anymore compared to the menu options. And probably causes a higher visual stress, thing the study did not cover but I would like to see tested.

  58. Re:Will this suck as much as the iPhone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You sir, are a bigot.

  59. General requirements by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    General requirements

    • Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor

    Looks like the rumors were true: G3 support has been dropped. Also my G4 Cube no longer makes the cut.

    I guess I won't be buying the 5-seat license version after all.
    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:General requirements by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      Also there appears to be no mention of support of HD-DVD or BluRay media. No mention of them under enhancements for DVD Player and I can't find any mention of UDF 2.5 file system support.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    2. Re:General requirements by TeamSPAM · · Score: 1

      Seems that way. The question I have about the about the requirements is: Does the dual 533Mhz G4 that my wife uses meet the requirements or not? I'm betting that it doesn't.

      --
      Brought to you by Team SPAM! where we believe: "Information in the noise!"
    3. Re:General requirements by mr_matticus · · Score: 1

      Why bet? 533867. Question answered.

      Will it install? Probably. Will it run roughly as well as an 867MHz single-proc? Not likely at all.

      The general rule of thumb for dual processor systems is that you can count on no more that 150% core speed performance for general operation (about 800MHz in your case and still below the cut). That will improve as software evolves, but it won't affect the way G4 systems work.

      Based on my experience with Leopard through a developer friend, I wouldn't try it on anything less than a dual 800.

    4. Re:General requirements by blzabub · · Score: 1

      It won't install normally, but you can hack it- http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&goto=lastpost&threadid=371302

  60. It hurts...at first by Steve+Hamlin · · Score: 1

    I'm trying to avoid the whole fanboy thing, but it's hard to not like it. I mean, the pricing of the hardware is certainly high, but once you dive it it's quite nice.

    "It hurts...at first. But after a while, the pain goes away, just as they promise. There's a moment...when you can almost see it through his eyes. He makes it sound perfect, a place where anyone can start over."

    Riddick would kill you with a Leopard Install disc for joining the necro-Mac-ers (sorry, the whole scene popped into my head as I read your post).

    Actually, I'm looking forward to agreeing with you. If the rumors about the new Mac Mini/Nano are true, I might be getting my first Mac soon.

    Hard to justify when a nice desktop linux install is up & humming, but a Core2Duo Mac the size of paperback, with Mac OSX 10.5, for several hundred dollars? Too neat to pass up.

  61. $100 every few years is much less difficult... by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Than a very large Windows upgrade fee, whenever it comes.

    It might be exhausting if you didn't feel like you were getting value for the money, but as it stands each release has had a few things that were very useful - and as you said, often with nice updates to system frameworks.

    It's also helped that each release has felt faster, so buying a new copy of OSX also replaced a hardware boost I typically underwent with Windows updates.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:$100 every few years is much less difficult... by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

      It's also helped that each release has felt faster, so buying a new copy of OSX also replaced a hardware boost I typically underwent with Windows updates. Agreed. This is the thing that concerns me about Leopard, though. I'm a little worried that since they've brought out so many hardware performance improvements, that it will allow more bloat to sneak in than the past few years have.

      Up until last year I was running OS X on a 400MHz G4; it got progressively faster with each release and was still totally usable. (It's still in use, too; I just had to give it to a family member whose computer died rather suddenly and spectacularly, giving me an opportunity to buy myself a nice present.) Shelling out a few hundred bucks every couple of years was totally worth it to keep getting more performance out of a 1999 computer.

      Some of the features in Leopard are neat, but I don't see anything that would justify any type of performance hit. So I'm waiting on upgrading until I hear whether this release keeps up the gains in "teh snappy" that I've gotten used to.
      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    2. Re:$100 every few years is much less difficult... by graviplana · · Score: 1

      I completely agree. Over at least the past few OS X updates, my machines get faster and faster. That never happens in the Windows world.

      --
      "Time is nothing; timing is everything."
  62. The real coolness by wazzzup · · Score: 1

    The eye candy is okay and all but the things I'm looking forward to are at the core. The new Leopard scheduler is reason enough alone to upgrade. With a multithreaded networking stack the days of disconnecting a network share without ejecting it will no longer mean 5 minutes of the beachball of death.

    Plus those with multicore CPU's should run, not walk, to Leopard. From the Apple website:

    "NSOperation, a breakthrough new API that optimizes applications for the world of multicore processing. Independent chunks of computation (operations) are added to NSOperationQueue, which dynamically determines how many operations to run in parallel based on the current architectures. So there's no need to hand-code the complexities of threading and locking. You simply describe the operations in a program along with their dependencies. Cocoa takes care of the rest."

    Leopard features improved scheduling, memory management, and processor affinity algorithms to make better use of multiple cores. Several subsystems (TCP networking, AutoFS automounter, and NFS server) have been rewritten to be fully multithreaded. Also, POSIX thread allocation has been optimized to support the new NSOperation APIs.

    Leopard gets the best possible bandwidth from both broadband and narrowband networks by optimizing buffer sizes according to the local resources and connection type. Starting with a larger window helps TCP with ongoing dynamic optimization. This is especially valuable when connecting to high-bandwidth/high-latency networks like Verizon's FiOS, which previously required specialized tools such as Broadband Tuner.

    The new IOStream class in IOKit provides a high-level API for managing DMAs and other high-bandwidth data transfers, without the need to optimize caching strategies for different hardware architectures. It also forms the basis of the new IOVideo family, designed to support professional-level video cards. These new APIs make it easier for developers to take full advantage of both cutting-edge and previous-generation hardware.

    This means real speed benefits are coming down the road for Leopard apps running on Intel Macs or any dual cpu or dual core PPC Macs. Plus anyone, regardless of hardware, will benefit from the dynamic TCP optimization and the new IOKit API's. The real question is whether the loads of eye candy will "cancel out" the low-level improvements from a user-experience perspective.

    1. Re:The real coolness by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      One of the recent updates to Tiger must have at least tweaked the networking as well. I'm always packing up my MPB without remembering to disconnect the network drives but the last couple of months my only indication that I'd done so was the little message box telling me the server couldn't be found and the share had been disconnected.

  63. Re:This is exactly why I'll never buy a Mac by edeloso · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except for the fact that you can run pretty much every OS out there on an Intel Mac.

  64. Re:...and they seem to have their own exchange rat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You do realize that
    1) Sales tax is about 7% in the states and NOT included in the listed price
    and
    2) Sweden sales tax is 25% and INCLUDED in the listed price.

  65. How would they know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no serial number associated with an operating system, how could apple know if it was "pirated". It's a silly supposition you're making.

    I have 3 macs at home, and I simply buy the regular edition. Apple might insist that I need to buy the family pack, but that's just silly. So how would they know?

    Think it through for about 2 seconds.

    1. Re:How would they know? by arminw · · Score: 1

      .....So how would they know?......

      They won't know, but your conscience (if you still have it) knows you are dishonest. It is because of people like you that MS is forced to make life difficult for all the honest folk of this world, It if were not for guys like you, Windows computers would not have to call the mother ship every ten CPU cycles to check whether the software is not a ripped off copy. I hope Apple doesn't get forced to resort to crap like that because of the likes of you.

      --
      All theory is gray
    2. Re:How would they know? by Moridineas · · Score: 1

      Well, on the other hand, maybe if windows were cheaper and didn't have the same restrictions, more people would buy it retail? Apple hasn't seemed to feel the need to add more copy protection schemes over the years, even when software like iWork DOES have serial numbers.

    3. Re:How would they know? by empaler · · Score: 1

      I'm planning to buy both the OS and iLife in one go (save a few bucks on shipping, because I'm a tightwad), so until the OS is released, I'm... borrowing a very publicized serial number. The only consequence? They made Software Update blind to updates to iLife '08. That's it.

      Well, all I know off.

    4. Re:How would they know? by aclarke · · Score: 1

      The person to whom you responded didn't say at all that they pirate software. You read that into his comment.

      As far as I'm concerned, I pre-ordered the family pack of Leopard today. I also have legally purchased copies of 10.4, 10.3 and 10.2 which is when I switched to Apple. One of the things I appreciate is that Apple doesn't treat me like a criminal when I am installing legally purchased version of their operating system. I reward that behaviour by doing the right thing and buying their operating system.

      In contrast, I have lost track of the number of Microsoft products I have bought over the years. This includes two licenses of Windows XP Pro. I have become so sick of being treated like a pirate by Microsoft when installing LEGALLY PURCHASED SOFTWARE that I now just install the cracked versions.

      So don't assume that just because someone says you CAN pirate software, it means that they are.

    5. Re:How would they know? by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      I'm calling shenanigans. iLife doesn't have a serial number.

      Perhaps you're thinking of iWork?

    6. Re:How would they know? by arminw · · Score: 1

      ......I have become so sick of being treated like a pirate by Microsoft when installing LEGALLY PURCHASED SOFTWARE......

      I have given up on my regular PCs entirely, but I still have some Windows programs I like to use. So, to get around MS onerous anti-piracy measures, I installed my legally purchased, duly activated, Billy G. blessed Windows OS in a virtual machine with Parallels on my new Macbook. It works great. Since I have a backup copy of the clean, activated, updated HDD file, I was able to recover from some problems easily by just copying the backup HDD file onto the Mac. The MS anti-piracy system doesn't get triggered, since it has no way of determining any changes. If I wanted to, I could copy the backup to any number of Macs, but that would be dishonest. I have also turned off Internet access to the VM, since it is not needed for what I want to still do with Windows. That means no malware can get in and no regular updates or anti-malware software is needed.

      --
      All theory is gray
    7. Re:How would they know? by empaler · · Score: 1

      You are probably right. I just remember iMovie kept telling me that there was an update, but every time I started Software Update, it reported 'All Software Up To Date, Please Sever Your Leg'.

      Won't be an issue for long, though :)

    8. Re:How would they know? by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      Hmmm. That sounds more like you haven't installed iMovie 08. It won't install on a G4, it requires a G5 or later, but it will sometimes keep whining about there being an update.

      Don't worry about it too much - iMovie 06 is MUCH better.

    9. Re:How would they know? by empaler · · Score: 1

      Got Intel, foo'! :)

      Anyway, I'm not losing sleep over it. She'll be right in a few days.

  66. but will it run on my.. by jb.cancer · · Score: 0, Redundant

    gPhone? :)

  67. No binary diffs though by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

    rsync --link-dest

    Thanks for playing, though. I don't think --link-dest does binary diffs/deltas, though, does it? If you modify a large file, it will create new copies of them rather than keeping track of the deltas. While this might be a good thing from a reliability standpoint, I could imagine that it could quickly cause your backups to get quite large.

    I can't quite figure out how Time Machine works, but I think its operation is closer to rdiff-backup than rsync --link-dest. If it's not, the space requirements for it are going to be huge.
    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    1. Re:No binary diffs though by jasonwea · · Score: 1
      According to http://developer.apple.com/leopard/overview/apptech.html:

      The second guideline you should follow is to avoid putting small amounts of volatile data into otherwise large and static files. If you have data files that are updated frequently to change a small percentage of the data in that file, Time Machine will copy the entire file, taking up more space on the backup disk. If, instead, you can separate the volatile data into a smaller separate file, Time Machine will be able to back up changes to the smaller file and make more efficient use of backup disk space.
      Unless I'm reading this wrong, unfortunately Time Machine doesn't do deltas on files.

      I guess this saves me a bunch of time testing out Time Machine, I'm sticking with rdiff-backup. Sure, Time Machine has a pretty UI but this is a show stopper for me. I love the command line and I'm using rdiff-backup on my other machines (Debian Etch) anyway. The software is also open source so I know I can get to the data in the future should rdiff-backup not be maintained.
    2. Re:No binary diffs though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Time machine introduces hard links for directories, and uses them (as well as file hard-links within directories-with-changes) to store static directory trees without change. It doesn't do file-deltas. This means that every snapshot looks like a mirror of the filesystem; that you can "cd" into the archive and copy files out elsewhere; that any filesystem operation will work just fine on any version of any file.

      That's pretty cool. Given how large HD's are these days, it's a reasonable trade-off for the space IMHO.

    3. Re:No binary diffs though by jasonwea · · Score: 1

      With smaller files I completely agree that hard links (or equivalent[1]) make sense. If Time Machine is using something that's readable without their code, great. I make use of file deltas with rdiff-backup however and without this feature I won't be using Time Machine. The biggest (by disk space) use for me is virtual machine images. I have a ~30 GiB Parallels image that's included in my nightly backup. With Time Machine I could exclude this and setup some Windows specific backup[2] but I quite like being able to just restore the full image should I need to. I've used it a few times and it's very easy to do a full VM restore this way. I don't particularly care about being able to do file level restores for my VM (it only exists for Office, Visual Studio, and browser testing). [1] I assume that Time Machine will support backing up to non-local and non-HFS volumes that may not support hard links (i.e. CIFS mounts). [2] I've had many issues getting rdiff-backup and even rsync running correctly under Cygwin (random freezes, fork failures, etc). I know I could play with Amanda, Bacula, etc but I'd rather stick to what I know at this point. Any suggestions and/or success stories would be welcome however.

    4. Re:No binary diffs though by jasonwea · · Score: 1

      Crap. I forgot to preview and/or set "Plain old text" :(

  68. or download an alternative free by m2943 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If you want a high quality, consistent, graphically appealing operating system with desktop search, office suite, iPod integration, better Windows compatibility (including NTFS mounts and Windows codecs), and plenty of graphical glitz, download Ubuntu 7.10 at ubuntulinux.org.

    1. Re:or download an alternative free by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1

      If you want a high quality, consistent, graphically appealing operating system with desktop search, office suite, iPod integration, better Windows compatibility (including NTFS mounts and Windows codecs), and plenty of graphical glitz, download Ubuntu 7.10 at ubuntulinux.org. Applications, Applications, Applications is what average users want. Graphical glitz is just the gravy. Developers are attracted to OS X by frameworks that make it a breeze to rapidly develop your application without having to reinvent the wheel.
      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    2. Re:or download an alternative free by m2943 · · Score: 1

      Applications, Applications, Applications is what average users want.

      Good thing that you mention that: OS X comes with almost no applications out of the box, while Ubuntu comes with hundreds of applications that satisfy almost everybody's needs. To get OS X to anywhere near the functionality you get out of the box with Ubuntu, you need to spend many hundreds of dollars.

      Developers are attracted to OS X by frameworks that make it a breeze to rapidly develop your application without having to reinvent the wheel.

      Good thing you mention that, too, since great development environments are another reason to prefer Ubuntu to OS X. XCode and Cocoa are really quite cumbersome and limited compared to MonoDevelop and Gtk#.

      So, you are absolutely right: users care about applications and developers care about development environments, and both are far better on Ubuntu compared to OS X.

    3. Re:or download an alternative free by fall3n_j0ker · · Score: 0

      You know, i like linux just about as much as the next guy, but sheesh this reminds me of the attitude that people are so often complaining about Apple fans, everyone has there own opinion, and what suits them best, and some people work differently, there is no end all for everyone. Mine happens to be I like linux for most of my server purposes, but it does not suit my day to day desktop needs. That does not mean that i feel it is inferior, because obviously it suits your needs just fine.

    4. Re:or download an alternative free by m2943 · · Score: 1

      and what suits them best, and some people work differently, there is no end all for everyone.

      Nor did I claim there was. If you say "I use OS X because I like the colorful beach ball", that's fine. But if you say "I use OS X because it has more applications and better development environments", it's reasonable to point out that the statement following "because" is not necessarily factually true.

    5. Re:or download an alternative free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want a high quality, consistent,

      And right there is where you went off the rails.

      The ability of many Linux users and developers to rationalize away the failings in UI quality and consistency is one of the reasons why it's taking so long to improve it.

      (I'm not denying it's come a long way, but it just isn't there yet. Sorry.)

    6. Re:or download an alternative free by onefriedrice · · Score: 1

      Nice plug, but I don't think 'consistent' would best describe Ubuntu. Just my opinion, though.

      --
      This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
    7. Re:or download an alternative free by mfnickster · · Score: 1

      But if you say "I use OS X because it has more applications and better development environments", it's reasonable to point out that the statement following "because" is not necessarily factually true.

      'More' is factual. 'Better' is opinion. Just FYI.

      --
      "Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
    8. Re:or download an alternative free by m2943 · · Score: 1

      'More' is factual. 'Better' is opinion.

      That's incorrect. "Better" simply refers to some implicitly assumed criteria. User interface experts know what those are for user interfaces and development environments, and it's factual question how XCode and Linux development environments compare. You may disagree factually, but it's not a matter of opinion. Just FYI.

    9. Re:or download an alternative free by m2943 · · Score: 1

      Well, this is something one can actually evaluate objectively. From observing Gnome and Mac users, my impression is that the result of an objective evaluation would be that it's at best a toss up or that Gnome wins.

    10. Re:or download an alternative free by LKM · · Score: 1

      Most apps that you can easily install in Ubuntu look like crap (at least that was the case about a year ago when I set up my MythTV box, which I've replaced about two months ago with a Mac mini).

      Also, Macs come with iLife, and a whole bunch of other apps. I kind of doubt anything on Ubuntu can compete with the likes of Garage Band, iPhoto or iMovie.

    11. Re:or download an alternative free by mfnickster · · Score: 1

      That's incorrect. "Better" simply refers to some implicitly assumed criteria.

      No. 'Better' is a comparative form of 'good', and calling something 'good' involves a value judgment.

      You can't factually verify whether something is objectively 'good' or not. Even the selection of the criteria is subjective.

      --
      "Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
  69. could be because Vista is very very late? by Imazalil · · Score: 1

    Right, could that be because Vista was delayed five odd years?

    What were the gaps between Win98, WinME, Win2k, WinXP - to be fair WinME & 2K were for different market segments initially - oh, could they be about two years or less? I'm not the biggest fan of the continues updates from Apple either, but trust me MS would be doing the same thing if they could actually ship something out the door at a regular interval.

  70. adding ram to Macbooks by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    About the only exception I'd make to that is memory - if you go to the default Apple Store, and add memory that way, you're pretty much guaranteed to get screwed (which is sad, especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the memory in Apple's notebooks yourself).

    That's one thing I don't like about Apple's pricing. I recently bought a Macbook Pro with 2GB RAM, 4GB was an option however it was a few hundred dollars more. Buying RAM elsewhere only cost half that, unfortunately the warranty won't cover Macs with third party RAM installed, so I've been told by someone at Apple. I couldn't justify the added cost at the tyme so I asked about adding more RAM if I found out I needed it.

    Falcon
    1. Re:adding ram to Macbooks by Magic5Ball · · Score: 1

      In Canada, at least, this isn't a problem.

      It makes sense that Apple warranty won't cover non-Apple hardware, like random new compatible SODIMMs. However, through three generations of Apple laptops, I've never had Apple refuse service due to swapping/inserting user-servicable components.

      On the other hand, I've also had to clean up after a friend received Apple repair "service" in a former Soviet Bloc country, where the only Apple authorized repair tech in the country "went on vacation" during the repair and the friend left with a laptop and some ESD bags containing most of the components that weren't screwed on to the metal iBook chasis. The warranty remained valid after that experience though.

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
    2. Re:adding ram to Macbooks by LKM · · Score: 1

      Who told you that the warranty won't cover third-party RAM? They're wrong. Installing RAM into a MacBook Pro is easy, it's described in the manual as an user-installabe part, and in fact, except for the Mac mini, I always order the lowest amount of RAM from Apple and upgrade it myself. AppleCare never had an issue with that.

    3. Re:adding ram to Macbooks by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      Who told you that the warranty won't cover third-party RAM? They're wrong. Installing RAM into a MacBook Pro is easy, it's described in the manual as an user-installabe part, and in fact, except for the Mac mini, I always order the lowest amount of RAM from Apple and upgrade it myself. AppleCare never had an issue with that.

      A Genius at a store told me that AppleCare at least won't cover third party RAM, but he did say, like you, that adding RAM is easy. That Apple designed the MacBooks and MBPs so RAM could be added or swapped by users. He didn't say though whether Apple checks RAM to see if it's Apple branded. The terms for AppleCare says Apple RAM modules are also covered under APP if owned by you and used with the Covered Equipment.(pdf) It says nothing about whether third party ram is covered though.

      Falcon
    4. Re:adding ram to Macbooks by LKM · · Score: 1

      Third-party RAM obviously isn't covered, but putting in third-party RAM will not make the rest of your computer uncovered. Anyway, if it is an issue (and it's not), just put in the original RAM before giving the thing to Apple if it breaks.

    5. Re:adding ram to Macbooks by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      Third-party RAM obviously isn't covered, but putting in third-party RAM will not make the rest of your computer uncovered. Anyway, if it is an issue (and it's not), just put in the original RAM before giving the thing to Apple if it breaks.

      Yeah, that's what I was thinking, just remove the added ram before taking it in.

      Falcon
  71. Re:Will this suck as much as the iPhone? by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

    Mr. Ballmer? Is that you?

  72. Well, no... by tjstork · · Score: 1

    In each and every case you site, the user can composite the items in a single unit of work, and move the thing as a whole, and that facility is entirely lacking in a desktop GUI.

    The need to do that compositing tends to exist within an application, rather than across a desktop. There's probably applications now for each of the items on your list. Photoshop has layers, as do GIS applications, which can sorta select and see things that line up on top of another. Animation packages put frames next to each other so you can seperate them out, and so on.

    From an engineering perspective, if you -really- wanted to use translucency for something at an OS level, you would need to have a few more things. Simply moving windows around on top of each other doesn't really buy you much. You need to have data shared between applications, a common way to represent that each application represents a slice of a larger data set, and finally, each application is looking at something that is stackable within that set. That way, you could fire up "my super paint", draw something, launch a word processor application, and put the super paint on top of the document by simply moving it across. Really, it would be a whole different kind of metaphor, where instead of cut and paste, you just moved one window on top of another that created an integrated thing.

    Presently, the only people that even thought of windows applications as views into a shared data set were Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft's OLE, for example, was sorta designed around the idea that one application could composite other applications... that's how if you drop an excel sheet into Word, when you double click, the word menus change to excel - you are actually running an Excel on a data stream that is sitting inside of a Word document.

    Pretty cool stuff, but the Internet just killed it, as did a deserved reputation for being difficult to program. The MS guy that wrote the Bible on the topic (Kraig Brockschmidt), wound up taking off and moving into some sort of a commune. Today, there's not an ounce of support for anything like it in .NET, and, in a networked world, it's arguable whether or not you should even applications stepping on each other's data the way OLE originally envisioned.

    Theoretically, though, with OLE plumbing in place, MS could create a new set of interfaces that allow child windows to be stacked on top of each other, and views to be coordinated, and do that. Think, multiple Active X controls on steroids, but with data aware methods to coordinate multiple layers.. then, you have to have it be out of process communications, to support different applications... like OLE was. (Active X controls were a sort of dumbed down version of OLE).

    I don't even know if Linux has an analog to it.. .maybe KParts or Gnome's component stuff?

    But the bottom line is, you gave a bunch of real world examples that work because the user can do some things that the translucent desktop gimmick really doesn't let them do. There's aggregation of views, selection, moving... a lot. Simply making a window see through doesn't even come close to satisfying the requirements of what you want to do. Thus, I stand still correct - translucent windows are a fraud.

    So... even though you are totally wrong, and I am totally right, I thank you for the opportunity to elucidate my ideas further, in hopes of saving those who lack the superior insight that I seem to possess. [that is of course, tongue in cheek!]

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Well, no... by Budenny · · Score: 1

      You're quite right.

      What you might have said in addition is that the only reason people have the impression that translucent windows help, is that Apple has for 10 or more years now (along with MS) refused to support multiple desktops, which is the correct solution to the usability problem they are struggling with. You don't need 40 inch screens, you don't need translucent windows, you just need the ability to move windows to whatever desktop you want, and have them stay there.

    2. Re:Well, no... by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      That's an interesting idea - kind of like a visual cat of sorts? Create a viewport window that outputs whatever its overlayed on as an RSS feed, for example. I'm not sure how workable it would be in practice, but its fascinating to consider. Maybe decryption, a la the matrix? Show encrypted video (or whatever), toss on a decryption filter (obviously it would receive more than just the visual representation beneath) by holding it over the window, and you'd get your intended output.

      Of course, the number of inadvertent uses would probably far outweigh the intended results. Which could be fun, too.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    3. Re:Well, no... by Shadowlore · · Score: 1

      That was an awful lot of text to avoid the fact that you incorrectly claimed people don't use transparent/translucent materials in the real world. Regarding transparent windows, just because you see tha as useful in one rather limited way.

      As a woodmaker (yeah I said that on /.) I can tell you that the examples I cited regarding making things are not what you described. You do not composite the data into a single unit, in fact it is replication of data. This thing we call tracing or transferring, or in some places siply visually comparing. Tac plates I doubt you've even seen, but they are not compositing of data into a single unit. Indeed, to combine these into a single unit would violate the intention and integrity of the "components". Combining the data, which you see so keen on, is the opposite of what is desired. Same thing with map overlays in military usages.

      So while you clearly are concerned about integration of data, again that does not mean the rest of us are.

      That said, MY usage and MY wants, which you went to great lengths to convince me of, are not about sharing data between transparent apps on the desktop. They are about effectively making the desktop larger by eliminating blocking overlap (which happens to be similar to same usage as transparent containers and chefs/cooks/housewives/househusbands). Often I have to reference some material while writing some more material. No, I don't want copy-paste, and no I don't want integration and sharing of data. My brain serves that purpose better than the computer can because it is going through a different kind of filter/transform. For this, I've use transparent windows when I had them and missed it when I didn't.

      Additionally, viewing some windows with log files that I need to monitor (usually during an incident) while documenting the activity by using a translucent or transparent window in my main composition (as in writing) window with the logs immediately behind it is terribly productive after a few minutes for getting used to it.

      We get it, you don't like them. Big deal. But to claim that based on your experience they are a sham and not of ANY use, is actually quite arrogant even though I don't believe you intended it to be.

      In the end, however, you made the assertion that translucent windows materials were not great because nobody used translucent materials to write on in the real world. Yet we do. In fact there is a reason you can buy onion paper, to use your specific assertion. Sometimes you only want a visual, or apparent, "combining" of data, not an actual one.

      Oh and by the way, Trolltech also has windows onto shared data. Not the specific and limited way you clearly think of, but it is there.

      Oh and you are certainly welcome for the opportunity to demonstrate how further limited your views and thoughts on the subject are. ;^D

      --
      My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
  73. That sucks, but it's not Apple's fault. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do realize that 298 of those 1195 SEK are tax, right? So subtracting that out, you get a real price of 897 SEK, which is only 68 SEK more than the US price, or about $10.60 USD.

    I doubt that you'd be able to order a US version and have it shipped to Sweden for less than $10 in shipping.

    Seems like a pretty fair price to me. Maybe you should vote for politicians who support lower taxes if you don't like it?

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    1. Re:That sucks, but it's not Apple's fault. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what's that in Triskelian Quatloos?

    2. Re:That sucks, but it's not Apple's fault. by heinousjay · · Score: 1

      You're wrong. He's entitled to the software at whatever price he wants to pay. It's a matter of freedom to take as you wish and give nothing back. Are you an enemy of freedom?

      --
      Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
    3. Re:That sucks, but it's not Apple's fault. by magnamous · · Score: 1

      Seems like a pretty fair price to me. Maybe you should vote for politicians who support lower taxes if you don't like it? Ah, the wonders of the Value-Added Tax. I would also suggest that the grandparent poster support unobscured tax systems - that'd probably get quite a few people on board for lower taxes.
    4. Re:That sucks, but it's not Apple's fault. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should also note that the US price is pre-tax, since the sales tax on retail purchases varies from state to state.
      For example, parts of California have a sales tax of 8.75%, giving the a retail price of over $140.

  74. if this is the 6th release of OS X by stenn · · Score: 0, Redundant

    then shouldn't it now be called OS XV ?

  75. Fixed the FF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not only is build 9a466 as quick (if not quicker) than Tiger on my testbed (dual 800mhz G4 Power Mac, 768Mb) they've reworked the networking- it's worlds apart from 10.4's stuttering, stalling, clumsy file sharing system.

    Almost worth the price of admission on its own if you work in a mixed-platform network.

  76. Re:The 300 release (OSX Sparta) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll take my 300 reasons and fight off the Persians, thank you very much. Sparta!

  77. Finally... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tabs on the terminal! I can't tell you how many times I've switched back to my Fedora box when working on something that uses the terminal window extensively.

  78. Re:More than a Service Pack(as made famous by Bost by alfredo · · Score: 1

    I can't wait to try Spaces. I am addicted to virtual desktops. Linux did that to me.

    --
    photosMy Photostream
  79. Authorization by Kelson · · Score: 1

    2 years ago I bought the "family pack" of Tiger, which allows you to install on up to 5 machines in the same household. We only had 2 Macs, but at $199 it was still cheaper than buying 2 copies of the single-license OS. As near as I can tell, the only thing that made the 5-license box different from the 1-license box was a sticker and a 1-paragraph license addendum. Other than that, there was no reference to it being a multi-license pack anywhere, including on the DVD itself.

    No special installer, no licence keys to enter, no product activation, just a piece of paper that says, "Yes, you can install this on more than one computer."

    It was nice to see that they were willing to trust their users. Though I suppose since it'll only run on their hardware, they're a bit less concerned with people pirating the operating system.

    1. Re:Authorization by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Yeah, atleast everyone has paid once for it and they earn money on the hardware.

      Not to mention protection against piracy never seems to work anyway, except games where you need a real key to be able to play online.

  80. Re:The 300 release - Forgot one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jobs: THIS IS APPLE!

    *Jobs shoves Bill into a pit*

  81. Leopard by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    A mate bought a MacBook several months ago and even he got a free Leopard upgrade voucher. But it was before it was delayed.

    I got my Macbook Pro in August just about 2 months ago but I didn't get any sort of upgrade offer. Maybe if I went down to the Apple store I could get it, but to tell the truth I don't see anything it offers I would like. Time Machine? I got backup software with my MBP. About the only thing I was looking for, a long shot, was Leopard having Windows APIs so Windows software could run in OS X without needing Windows.

    Falcon
  82. Windows on Fat32, HA by gblackwo · · Score: 1

    I like how a selling point for bootcamp is that Leopard can read and write to Window's (FAT32) partition, not NTFS. Yes, go ahead and install windows vista on a fat32, see what happens.

    1. Re:Windows on Fat32, HA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would you? Install Vista on NTFS. It's not like Vista can read the Mac partition anyway. At least OS X will read NTFS.

  83. Way to miss the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She originally said that that she can't put a pirated version of OS X on her Mac because Apple would disallow her warranty.

    The question isn't if piracy is good or bad, the question is whether Apple can tell. I can accept the argument that you want to pay for software, but the argument that Apple can tell is no supported by any facts.

    Try to stay on topic.

  84. spelling of Microsoft by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    What gets even older than that is the spelling of Microsoft as MS. Stop. It makes you appear laughable.

    And does using MSFT bother you also?

    Falcon
  85. Think it will be a bit faster... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I have the same concerns, I think though it will still be a bit faster just based on them probably having optimized the CoreImage code that's doing all the fancy stuff... could be part of the reason why the floor on installs is 867MHz G4's though. I still plan to try and load it on an older G4 667MHz powerbook mounting as a firewire drive from a different computer though. I can always revert!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  86. paying for features by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    Most folks find it useful to be able to spend as much money as they need to on the features they want, without having to pay extra for features they won't use.

    And what about paying for "features" you don't want? Like Activation, WGA/WPA? I used to be a Windows user but in part because MS wants to treat me like a criminal I switched, I am typing this on a MacBook Pro.

    Falcon
    1. Re:paying for features by dave420 · · Score: 1

      So you don't drive a car, as they require keys. Why is your car assuming you're a car thief? It's disgusting! Activation allows Microsoft to ensure their R&D is getting paid back for the immense amounts of cash spent on development. Without that, then we don't get any more software, and everyone loses. WGA? That, again, is a measure to protect those who've legally bought a legit copy of Windows. If you see someone looking out for legit users and get scared, you're clearly not operating from a basis of sound logic, but reactionary victimhood.

    2. Re:paying for features by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      Activation allows Microsoft to ensure their R&D is getting paid back for the immense amounts of cash spent on development.

      Microsoft doesn't just require a person has the right to install and use their software once, but again and again.

      Without that, then we don't get any more software, and everyone loses.

      WOW, so all those free and opensource software don't really exist? And all this tyme I thought I was using some FOSS. I don't know how I'm typibng this as Firefox doesn't exist. Neither does Apache, so it can't possibly be the most widely used webserver.

      If you see someone looking out for legit users and get scared, you're clearly not operating from a basis of sound logic, but reactionary victimhood.

      It is victimhood if your software continually contacts the home office, MS.

      Falcon
  87. Awesome! by scooter.higher · · Score: 1
    --
    Ramen
  88. are Macs overpriced? by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    you have to pay the Apple tax on what is essentially an over-priced PC

    Where have you been lately? Apples are not overpriced. Some similarly specified Macs and Windows PCs are generally similarly priced. In some cases the Mac is lower priced and in other it's higher priced.

    most Windows 'purchases' come when you buy a PC

    The same with Macs. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro I bought about 2 months ago and just as the PCs I've bought came with Windows preinstalled so did my MBP come with Tiger preinstalled.

    So why not compare the price of a similarly equipped and similarly capable PC to a Mac, and then tell me which one is cheaper?

    I have, have you? Before I bought my MBP I compared prices between similarly configured Macs and PCs from different OEMs. With some configurations the Macs were cheaper and with other the PCs were cheaper.

    1. Re:are Macs overpriced? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Where have you been lately? Apples are not overpriced. Some similarly specified Macs and Windows PCs are generally similarly priced. In some cases the Mac is lower priced and in other it's higher priced.
      I can at least upgrade the hardware on lower end generic x86 systems (despite having embedded sound, graphic cards etc - I can add much better ones later on). I can't do that on lower end Macs. No, I don't consider it similar enough for the price in cases such as those.
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    2. Re:are Macs overpriced? by falconwolf · · Score: 1

      I can at least upgrade the hardware on lower end generic x86 systems (despite having embedded sound, graphic cards etc - I can add much better ones later on). I can't do that on lower end Macs.

      Expandability of consumer Macs is one of the issues I have with Apple's Mac lines. The only Mac a person can really crack open and add cards or drives to is the Mac Pro, which starts as $2500. Related to it, I wish Apple had a tower for maybe $1000. It doesn't need the best or biggest drives or graphics but should have expansion slots. However some say most people can find a line of Macs that suit them and that by adding more lines, such as what I said above, would increase their costs without bringing much benefit. Only those who have demands for customization would get these.

      Falcon
  89. Oh Please... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I paid $300 for one copy of XP Pro almost 7 years ago, and MS still supports and updates it, and I can run pretty much any Windows software on it.

    During that time, for OS X, I would have had to pay $129 four or five times just to be able to keep getting security updates and compatibility for even some of the simplest shareware apps out there.

    Don't get me wrong. I used to be a mac guy, and Intel, 10.5, and the MBPs are probably going to finally get me to go back, but there's no way I'd argue that Apple is somehow cheaper.

  90. Uh FAT32? by castrox · · Score: 1

    Leopard understands the Windows FAT32 disk format. Okay.. so Leopard understands FAT32. Previous versions of OS X *doesn't*? Or is this a typo meant to be NTFS? Or doesn't/didn't OS X have support for NTFS (either)??
    --
    Fight for your digital freedom, join the EFF *now*: http://www.eff.org/support/
  91. Filler text by Kelson · · Score: 1

    Some of them get left in, like the "Do not eat iPod shuffle" one.

    That has to be my favorite example of joke/filler text that made it to a release, followed by Firefox's "Cookies are delicious delicacies." That one was so popular, someone wrote an extension to put it back in.

    Though I have to admit, the hundreds of website legal disclaimers including the phrase, "you actually came to this page" are hard to beat.

  92. Re:or download an alternative free-qwt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When does ubuntu support my sound card? I would really like to be able to hear the sounds playing on my computer.

  93. Re:Dear Microsoft: WRONG! by bluenote39 · · Score: 1

    Wrong! Vista overtook the entire install base of apple within 5 weeks of launch.. check your numbers

  94. Sorry about this... by Macthorpe · · Score: 1

    ...but you must be new here.

    --
    "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
  95. ubuntu by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    i hate to be the one to bring it up, but Ubuntu 7.10 won't cost me a dime...

    But what will Ubuntu give me that I can't get with OS X? Having switched from Windows I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro I got about 2 months ago. Before I got it I had planned on dualbooting it with Ubuntu but now that I have it I'm wondering just what installing Ubuntu will give me or allow me to do that I can't do now. On the other hand I've got a PC running Linspire Linux and I've been thinking about installing Ubuntu on it as a server.

    Falcon
  96. But can it copy more than 16,400 files? by DaveM753 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...or does that cost extra?

  97. ZFS not in the feature list? by CCW · · Score: 1

    I was expecting some mention of ZFS - did it get removed from the features for leopard? I thought it warranted a mention if it was there, Dtrace did.

    1. Re:ZFS not in the feature list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's read-only support for ZFS, but the filesystem is still HFS+. Full ZFS support is supposedly coming at a later date. Engadget article

  98. What happend to the "Step Back" command in Xcode? by neutralstone · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It wasn't advertized for long, but the archive managed to catch one of Apple's first pages about Xcode 3.0, which mentions this nifty feature:

    Step back

    Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Drat! If stepping through code wears you down, you'll love more forgiving debugger in Xcode 3.0. If you step too far, you can rewind to the previous point. That's right, Xcode 3.0 has gone non-linear. Simply click the run button to update your application and start it up. Hover over a variable in your code to see its value in a tooltip. Then just pause when you need to debug. If you go too far, just rewind. No need to start over. No need to set up a debug session. No need to switch focus. Just code, build, run, and debug in Xcode 3.0. What ever happened to it? Hopefully it will be included in some not-too-distant-future version.
  99. XCode by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    If you do any development, the Xcode update in Leopard look quite nice.

    It's my guess you don't need Leopard for the XCode update. A few days ago I got a dvd from Apple with new developer tools and software updates. But maybe it doesn't have all the updates that comes with the Leopard tools. Being new I now have to learn how to use them.

    Falcon
  100. Unless a CEO wants to get the boot, by crovira · · Score: 1

    he maximizes return on the share holder's money by minimizing expenditure and maximizing cash flow (though the actual mechanisms can vary.)

    Otherwise he can be:
      1 looking for another job (shareholder revolt)
      2 looking for a defense attorney (when the SEC caught on,)
      or
      3 working for a private capital company (in which case the SEC has nothing to say.)
      or
      4 scrabbling in the dirt, digging his own grave with his bare hands. ("Tony Soprano" is a major investor.)

    Regardless, these 'savings' programs are always couched in terms of 'insuring future customers' just like product recalls are.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
    1. Re:Unless a CEO wants to get the boot, by spyfrog · · Score: 1

      This still isn't a law - that is simply economics.

  101. I'm looking forward to the release, by falconwolf · · Score: 1

    but I don't think I'll buy it until the first patches come out.

    I don't see any need to get Leopard. I got my MBP 2 months ago and have no problem with Tiger. Well other than it doesn't always let me save a file where I want to.

    Falcon
  102. Re:This is exactly why I'll never buy a Mac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The same could be said for any other x86 based PC if it wasn't for Apple adding artificial restrictions to OS X.

  103. Re:What happend to the "Step Back" command in Xcod by Neanderthal+Ninny · · Score: 1

    It sounds like the Fleetwood Mac song called "Stand back". Here is the YouTube video if you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOU746O9klE But back to your original subject of step back which will be great feature. I had enough times due to late nights that lost track what the heck I did to get that error what forgot what location I did it at.

  104. Replacement by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I don't think there's a retail Intel version of Tiger out. After all, why does there need to be. EVERY Intel Mac has shipped with Tiger and Tiger install disc. So exactly who would buy a universal copy of Tiger?

    Someone who bought a used Intel system that did not come with a replacement disc, for one... if they were unfortunate enough to have the current hard drive crash without a full system backup.

    This has to happen to some extent, so it seems like there has to be some way to get at least an Intel tiger disc apart from buying a new system. Like I said, I was pretty sure that recent boxed sets were universal but I'm not positive, and can't figure out now how to verify one way or the other. I suppose the local Apple store may have boxes but the question is not so urgent I feel the need for a visit.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  105. Re:or download an alternative free-qwt by m2943 · · Score: 1

    It has supported sound on any laptop and desktop I have installed it on, and I'm using some pretty obscure hardware.

    If you really have an unsupported sound card (which one?), buy a new one or a USB sound dongle. That's still a lot cheaper than buying OS X.

    Or, better yet, buy a machine configure for, and with Linux preinstalled. After all, you don't buy a PC to run OS X either, do you?

  106. Re:...and they seem to have their own exchange rat by bennomatic · · Score: 1
    Unless you buy out-of-state over the Internet (mail order), or if you're in Oregon (no state sales tax).

    --
    The CB App. What's your 20?
  107. more important question by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

    how long does it take to copy a 17 megabyte file?

  108. Re:Ultimate for $129, really... by graviplana · · Score: 1

    Well according to Netcraft, you have 15% percent of my attention. You are attempting to qualify and quantify multiple viewpoints into a conflated mess of anti-Apple. It just doesn't hold water. Don't conflate when you type your hate, you're making me irate when you berate the great-est OS released to date!

    --
    "Time is nothing; timing is everything."
  109. TextEdit supports ODF and Ecma OOXML by tyrione · · Score: 1

    When will iWorks '08 support ODF? OOXML?

    I suppose Apple will leave iWorks XML as the file format for it's product suite and ODF/OOXML for TextEdit?

  110. All /. Nerds should protest! by graviplana · · Score: 1

    No Star Wars R2D2 Hologram Effect in iChat?! Dealbreaker!!!

    --
    "Time is nothing; timing is everything."
  111. Leopard's grammar checker needs work... by GrahamCox · · Score: 1

    From the 300+ Leopard features page:"Harness the power of Wikipedia when you're connected to the Internet -- built right into it's Dictionary. You get a great Mac OS X user interface with super-fast searching and beautifully laid out-results."

    Oh dear.

  112. You fool. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You fool. Use the one install disc on both computers. There's no serial number and no activation. It's exactly the same as if you had two install discs.

    I wish you hadn't been AC so that there was a possibility you'd see this.

    Now, for extra irony... *clicks Post Anonymously*

    1. Re:You fool. by 666999 · · Score: 0

      Use the one install disc on both computers. There's no serial number and no activation. It's exactly the same as if you had two install discs.


      Actually, it's not. The install discs that ship with Macs only include the necessary install files for that family of machine.

      His MBP install disc will not work on the iMac.

      On the other hand, a retail copy of Leopard will install on any supported machine.
  113. Re: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cocoa/Ruby + a ton of other languages are already included with Tiger.

  114. Re: Backups by kiwipeso · · Score: 1

    Most people use the Deja Vu control panel that ships with Roxio toast. Sure, you may not want to buy toast, but it is the best app for burning cross platform disks, far more control than with the burn folders setup in the finder.

    --
    - Kaos games and encryption systems developer
  115. Try Sarbanes-Oxley, amongst the many laws. by crovira · · Score: 1

    There are LOTS of laws you can break along with making a buck (and are probably breaking.)

    Ignorance of the law is not MY problem. If you're asking this question, it might very well be YOURS.

    I worked on an expert system which had governmental regulations as a domain. You wouldn't believe all of the contradictory rules we found in the R&R (Rules & Regulations) manual.

    Basically, if you were able to get ANY money from that department, its because somebody up there liked you.

    Run afoul of the management (ANYBODY in the management,) and you were out of luck and had just made a generous donation to the department.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  116. Re:...and they seem to have their own exchange rat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...you still owe your state use tax if you buy it online. Most people don't pay it, but that's the way it goes.

  117. US/CDN Prices are the same, thankfully. by Oshawapilot · · Score: 1

    It was nice to see that Apple (unlike many American companies) is apparently actually aware of the fact that the US and Canadian dollar is effectively at par now - Leopard is $129 USD, and $129 CDN.

    A refreshing change from the recent string of companies which are simply choosing to ignore the currency parity, and continuing to gouge Canadians for 20 or 30 percent phantom currency exchange.

  118. One question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    PC version... anyone?

  119. No, they're all PPC by mr_matticus · · Score: 1

    All the boxed Tiger DVDs are the same--PPC. I just picked one up to examine at the Apple Store the other day while waiting for an iPhone repair, since I'd never seen a retail packaged Tiger.

    If you have a Mac and have lost your restore discs, you can bring it in and they'll reload the OS for you. You can also order replacement restore discs for your system if you're the registered owner, or at least you used to be able to. That solves the replacement problem.

  120. Re: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, this is true. But formerly, only Java and Objective-C had Cocoa bindings installed default. Now Ruby will too. Aquafied Ruby applications are now a compelling option.

  121. Re "Time Machine" sounds cool... by roastedMnM · · Score: 1

    I'll second the thought that rsnapshot does this trivially.

    I just reinstalled, but messed up xorg.conf. Sure I could have taken the time to look through and figure out exactly what went wrong, but instead I just compared the current file with one of the versions from a few hours before.

    That and reinstalling rsnapshot was as easy as grabbing the rpm and copying rsnapshot.conf (and the cron setup).

  122. How about the Java 6 Version? by puppetluva · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't want the ultimate version, I'd just like the late-2006 JDK 6 version.

    You know, the "I wish I didn't regret buying a mac for Java development version". The one on the shelf next to the "Boy I'm glad I didn't donate my old Linux thinkpad since its all I have for Java 6 development" version.

    My mac is great -- unfortunately I don't get to turn it on much these days.

    Same old story. . .
    1) Apple starts doing great
    2) Profit!!!
    3) Apple gets really egotistical and forgets that other developers exist. (And thinks that archaic languages like Pascal and Objective-C are the only games in town. While coming up with some platforms external developers can't code at _all_ for like the iPhone, early Newton, etc.)
    4) ???
    5) Struggle for a few years and almost die!
    6) Repeat

    I wish they'd "Think Different" this time. Here's what I would suggest.

    1) Support cross-platform development languages so developers could choose their platform (think Java) above others.
    2) Support cross-platform standards for documents like Oasis/open-office formats instead of the egotistical AppleWorks, ClarisWorks, Pages hubris. That way they don't almost die when Microsoft decides not to upgrade Microsoft Office for 8 years or so.
    3) Support developers that develop for their devices instead of handcuffing them with bogus languages on their main platform (languages that no-one knows or cares to know in the general industry) or worse, disable them from writing real apps like on the iPhone.
    4) Make laptops that don't burn the users' genitals.
    5) Be less secretive about things that aren't new features and don't need to be secrets. (Like APIs, and platform development - like JDK development).
    6) Listen to the users even _after_ they get popular. It seems they score huge points with users after creating stuff the users want, then they completely ignore them for years until it is too late.

    I like Apple, I don't care for the Red Sox. I want Apple to stop playing like the Red Sox.

    1. Re:How about the Java 6 Version? by Shadowlore · · Score: 1

      1) Support cross-platform development languages so developers could choose their platform (think Java) above others.

      Think Python, Perl, Ruby, QT4, C++, hell even Objective-C - the first time I saw it was on a Linux system a decade or so ago. Will you get everything you can do with OSX stuff? Hell no, why should they implement CoreData, for example, for Windows?

      But to say because you have problems with JAVA means you don't have cross-platform options, is really to extrapolate your preference to apply to all. Don't confuse your problems as the same as everyone else's.

      4) Make laptops that don't burn the users' genitals.

      Perhaps your computer and your genitals should not be in such close proximity? It's OK to love your Mac, but don't LOVE your Mac.

      --
      My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
    2. Re:How about the Java 6 Version? by puppetluva · · Score: 1

      But to say because you have problems with JAVA means you don't have cross-platform options, is really to extrapolate your preference to apply to all. Don't confuse your problems as the same as everyone else's.

      70% of corporate development happens in Java. I wasn't confusing my problem with a universal one. . . just with 70% of corporations.

  123. $109 NO REBATE from Amazon OS X Ver. 10.5 Leopard by Rick+Richardson · · Score: 1
    Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard. $109 with no rebate. Free shipping.

    Amazon

  124. Vista is VMS 2007 by meehawl · · Score: 1

    Windows was born as a single user OS

    This was true for the DOS shells, but not for NT. NT's evolution under Dave Cutler was designed as a pretty close workalike of VMS, and was originally a microkernal design. In some senses, then, it could be argued that NT's foundations are around a decade later than OSX's BSD core, but I don't place much faith in rating an OS by its recency,or lack thereof.

    --

    Da Blog
    1. Re:Vista is VMS 2007 by arminw · · Score: 1

      ......but I don't place much faith in rating an OS by its recency,or lack thereof.......

      That is certainly a valid stance. Why does Windows STILL use this lame thing called a Registry, other than for allowing dinosaur software that needs it to run? Malware writers have become very adept at using this as a powerful method to enable the malware to dig itself deeply into the innards of the OS and make it next to impossible to remove, without endangering the whole OS and hosing the system. Malware has to 1) be in the system and 2) ensure that it runs, 3) number 1 and 2 must survive straightforward user deletion attempts. The registry, more than anything else about Windows helps malware to survive. As long as MS insists on keeping that abortion in the name of backward compatibility, malware authors will always have a powerful insider to help their cause.

      On the Mac, a quick search for recently installed startup items in two folders will give even a semi-knowledgeable user an idea if some recent download put something there. A quick deletion of these startup items will keep the malware from ever starting again.

      --
      All theory is gray
    2. Re:Vista is VMS 2007 by mfnickster · · Score: 1

      Windows was born as a single user OS
      This was true for the DOS shells, but not for NT. NT's evolution under Dave Cutler was designed as a pretty close workalike of VMS, and was originally a microkernal design.
      Well, leaving aside the point whether Windows was "born" only once or "born again" in NT, I would argue that NT was indeed born as a single-user OS. It may have followed VMS's user-space model, but the inability to have multiple users logged in simultaneously and running arbitrary programs would disqualify it.
      --
      "Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
    3. Re:Vista is VMS 2007 by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      That is certainly a valid stance. Why does Windows STILL use this lame thing called a Registry, other than for allowing dinosaur software that needs it to run?

      Why would they ? It's a centralised, transactional, multiuser-safe database with fine-grained user permissions. The concept is perfectly sound and by most technical measures, vastly superior to alternatives like text files and trees of symlinks.

      On the Mac, a quick search for recently installed startup items in two folders will give even a semi-knowledgeable user an idea if some recent download put something there. A quick deletion of these startup items will keep the malware from ever starting again.

      Uh huh. And how about when malware burrows its way into the various UNIX init scripts and/or attaches itself to executables like /bin/sh ?

      There's just as many places to hide in a UNIX system.

  125. 800 MHz by WryCoder · · Score: 1

    My mother-in-law has a 800 MHz iMac. Spec calls for 867 MHz. I wonder what would happen if we tried to upgrade her to Leopard.

    1. Re:800 MHz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently a way round this is to boot the iMac in target disk mode connect via a Mac which is >867MHz and install to the iMac as if it were just an external drive on the faster machine.

  126. Wait a sec by armanox · · Score: 0

    You managed to get Vista to run smooth with 512MB RAM? I'm impressed.

    --
    I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
  127. In The Ghetto XXXI (Special Guest Star: Grandma Lo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In The Ghetto XXXI (Special Guest Star: Grandma Lockwood) A burning wet fart scalded Vlad's colon and rectum as he twitched awake. Vlad laid in bed, shaking at the horrible images that had danced through his sleeping mind. Sweat streamed from his forehead, trickled through his greasy scalp and soaked his pillow. This had been the worst nightmare yet. Vlad had dreamt that he was married to a 400-pound bag of soul-sucking gelatin. Living in a double-wide trailer filled with Jerry Springer moments, his only joy was his two sexy sons. Vlad slipped out of bed and tip-toed into the next room. There, Grandma slept peacefully, snoring and farting in her usual comforting way. Vlad slipped under the covers with her and immediately felt his sense of security return. Grandma always made everything better. A loud, low rumble escaped from her buttocks. Vlad pulled himself lower down the length of the bed so that his nose rested against Grandma's ass. He inhaled deeply as the gas wafted around him and put him back to sleep. Vlad savored every moment, even in his sleep, for he knew tomorrow the other kids in his class would remind him of his countless inadequacies. * * * * * * * * * Vlad belched forcefully, sending chunks of hamburger helper spewing out into the living-room. The orange plastic of the couch stuck to his fat pale legs and his stained briefs bathed him in a rich sampling of unique Lockwood odors. At the opposite end of the couch, Reza sat in her usual spot. The cushion was practically non-existent, compressed as it was from her unimaginable mass. "Oh Vladdie-Pop, I'm so glad Grandma has come to stay with us since little Vaginez came along! It is so nice to have some help around the house!" "Yo, you fat cunt, I'm trying to watch the new Eminem video. One more word outta you, and your fat ass'll be laid out on the fuckin' floor for the next month." Reza quivered at the thought of another merciless beating by her dear Vladdie-Pop. The last time he had "corrected" her, she had spent 22 hours huddled in the shower, weeping as the scalding water pelted her rubbery body. She had lost a whopping 1/2 pound that day. She spent the entire next day eating, fearful of her body wasting away to further displease her beloved. Reza's ruminations were interrupted by a terrible screeching from Marticock's Chamber. Vlad's fleshy head reddened with rage. He just wanted to watch television. Why did everything always have to work against him? He turned to Reza, with a terrifying scowl on his face. Reza felt a pang of terror shoot through her massive gut and she frantically dislodged herself from the indentation in the couch. Reza thudded across the double-wide's paper-thin floors, "Grandma! Grandma!" Grandma Lockwood was sitting on the toilet relieving herself of the Metamucil she had consumed for breakfast, "don't worry, dear, I'll take little Marticock out for a nice walk and he'll be fine!" "Oh Grandma," Reza blubbered. Grandma Lockwood soaked a rag in some Clorox and cleaned her rump of the liquified feces that had spattered up from the toilet. She applied a thick coat of Johnson's Baby Powder and then pulled up her stockings. She flushed the toilet, which immediately backed up and spilled out over the floor. "Reza, honey, you wanna clean up my shit while I take little Marticock for a nice walk?" Reza was only happy to clean up in the bathroom. It would give her a purpose, a valid reason to be away from Vlad. Though she could never admit such a thing to herself, at a subconscious level she would do anything to avoid being with her Precious Love. Grandma Lockwood prepared the grocery cart by throwing some used Taco Bell napkins in the bottom to make a nice nest for Marticock. She then lifted Marticock from his crib, careful not to agitate his pummelled rear, and placed him comfortably in the nest. She wrapped herself in her Eminem shawl - a Christmas gift from her grandson - and pushed Marticock out the door. With Reza scrubbing furiously in the bathroom and Grandma Lockwood and Marticock strolling outside, Vlad popped open an

  128. Apple's Originality... by meehawl · · Score: 1

    Expose - Xerox "Rooms" (1985), AmigaOS WorkBench (1985), swm (1990)

    Dashboard - Borland Sidekick (1984)

    Spotlight - Lotus Magellan (1989), ISYS:Desktop (1989), dtSearch Desktop (1991), Enfish Find (2002), Copernic (2004), Google Desktop Search (2004)

    .MAC - Online disk, email, backup, ecards and ratings were all extant by 1998.

    --

    Da Blog
  129. Re:Calm down! Apple still hates it's customers. by PenguSven · · Score: 1

    Have you finished masturbating over UNO?

    --
    What is...?
  130. If this was in Vista by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Microsoft Adds Risky System-Wide Undelete to Vista

    http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/31/0044201

  131. Free software is still free. by MikeFM · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Use open source instead. I plan to update my work computer to Leopard but most of my work actually gets done in Linux. My work computer is a 24" iMac, bought because of the quality and size of the screen mostly, that I run VMWare Fusion on. In Fusion I run several versions of Windows and Linux. The Mac mostly is just used for managing my virtual machines and testing software and websites to make sure they work well with OSX. Windows is of coursed used only for testing the same in different versions of Windows. Linux is where the real work gets done.

    Of course if you're not a programmer the apps you're most familiar with might not be open source but if you're a starving student you can save a bundle by bothering to learn the free equivalents. I do like OS X, for certain uses, but I've yet to find any proprietary program for it that is so good or so unique I couldn't replace it's functionality with something free and cross platform.

    --
    At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  132. Features, what features? by CtrlShiftEsc · · Score: 1

    I have had a look at http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html and I have to say that some of those "features" that the iWorld are going to have to cough up for, are quite laughable. Six of these features are screensavers - SCREENSAVERS people! Twenty-four of these "features" bundled into an update for iChat and include such innovative things as 'More Smileys'. Oh dear. If Microsoft attempted to get away with this kind of marketing, they'd be fighting lawsuits in Massachusetts or the EU by now.

    I don't need to go too deep into the blatant if, latent copying of "features" already found in Windows. I never thought I would ever be able to utter the words 'Cupertino, start your photocopiers' but some of those features look remarkably similar to what we've already seen in Windows Vista for almost a year now. Even Mary J Foley has her doubts http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=505

    This is the sixth iteration of version 10 since 2001 and it's going to cost yet another $129 to upgrade. It's been plagued with delays and I think Apple aren't really bothered that much - they are treating their core users with utter contempt. I really believe that Apple is going to swiftly move beyond the traditional desktop arena pretty soon. They've already lured their user base onto x86 so that when they cut 'n' run, you be able to jump to another x86 platform. OK, that's probably a little far-fetched but seriously, I think they're not that bothered about trying to compete with Microsoft feature for feature on the desktop anymore - they may even abandon it altogether and instead focus entirely on swallowing up the lucrative digital multimedia space using an embedded flavour of their OS. Then they can update it with much less scrutiny.

    1. Re:Features, what features? by jefreyisnotzen · · Score: 1

      Well, I doubt Apple will have to copy the OS rollback program MS had to initiate due to unsatisfied, no, frustrated Vista users.

  133. Bullshit by LKM · · Score: 1

    Although Apple doesn't do serialization or verification, the discs that come with a computer are different from the retail box versions of the OS. They're not the crummy 'software restore' discs like you get with some PCs -- they do have a regular OS installer on them -- but the installer is fixed so that it looks for the machine ID and refuses to run on a different model computer.

    This is not true, and I have no idea where you got that impression. The discs that came with your Mac work on all other Macs with compatible processor architecture (except possibly newer Macs which may contain hardware the installer disc does not know about). Were you by chance trying to install an Intel version on a PPC Mac?

  134. Popularity is one one factor by LKM · · Score: 1

    Or you could follow simple logic: Windows has over 90% market share = hackers are going to focus their efforts on the 90% of the market share. Do you honestly believe that there are no major holes in OS X, or for that matter, Linux? If so, then you are very naive my friend.

    Do you honestly believe that there is only one factor contributing to the current situation? If it only were the 90/10 situation, you'd expect Mac OS X to have 10% as many viruses as Windows. Or maybe 1% as many. That's not the case: OS X has 0 viruses. Even System 7 had a few viruses. Even HyperCard had its own viruses! OS X has none.

    Why is IIS hacked more often than Apache, even though there are more Apache installations than IIS installations? Maybe popularity is only one of the contributing factors, and not the only one.

  135. Zoom to Fit by LKM · · Score: 1

    First of all, option-clicking the "zoom to fit" button often maximizes.

    However, if you often want to maximize, you're probably doing something a bit wrong. "Zoom to fit" tries to zoom the window to fit its contents. There is hardly ever a need to make a window bigger than "zoom to fit" made it. So don't. The space around the window is not wasted, you can use it for windows from other applications. I usually have Adium, Skype and a list of mailboxes with unread counts down the right side of the screen so I can always see who's online and who sent me mail. when working on code, I have java.sun.com open in a small window next to my window with the code, so I can quickly jump there and look up some API, or keep checking out Sun's examples when coding.

    The wasted screen space is inside maximized windows, not outside zoomed windows.

    There are many ways you can use the empty space around your windows, I'm sure you can figure out something :-)

  136. So? by LKM · · Score: 1

    So? It's still an advantage for Macs. Oh, wait, maybe they don't allow this because it is an advantage for Macs??? SUE THEM!!!

  137. That's the PR answer... by Sancho · · Score: 1
    I could buy the "only have to support X hardware" answer if they didn't actively try to prevent people from running OS X on non-Apple hardware, both through the DRM and through DMCA takedown notices for people who hack their way around it. Not supporting non-standard configurations of hardware is easy--you just don't support it! The first thing they ask when you call Apple Customer Care is for the serial number of the device. If it's not Apple, they should end the call immediately.

    Almost no users will ever change the operating system that their computer came with, anyway. The people who want to buy a Dell and run OS X on it are definitely in the "power user" category--and they're the ones least likely to need Apple support.

    Besides, Microsoft has shown that it is possible to create a stable OS that interacts with third-paraty drivers. It's taken them a while to do it, but it's there. Apple should be able to do the same thing--they just don't want to because they make their money on the premium hardware.

    As for low end machines I actually want everything I get on a Mac. I use wi-fi, bluetooth, and so on. So if I'm going to have to spec a machine with the same spec as a Mac and like OS-X why not just buy a Mac! Those components don't add much to the cost of Dell laptops. Hell, I don't think you can even configure a Dell notebook without wireless anymore, and Bluetooth modules are about $30. But as should be obvious, the reason to "not just buy a Mac" is that there is a premium on the hardware, and there is an increased cost. If it's worth it to you, by all means, buy one, but don't try to pretend that a cheaper machine wouldn't take you to the same Internet, let you perform the same tasks, etc.