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Apple's OS X Leopard In Depth
jcatcw writes "Computerworld begins its Week of Leopard with an in-depth review and image gallery covering Apple's newest version of OS X. Is it worth the wait? Well, Yes. It trumps Vista, of course; the Finder, Quick Look and Cover Flow provide better functionality and eye candy; Time Machine is the biggest undelete ever and the restore function is one of the coolest things we've ever seen; it has iChat; and has lots of updates under the hood. The answer might be no if you're lacking in the hardware department - an FAQ on how to get ready for the new version will help."
Doesn't look like they got the GM. Their dock is on the side and isn't sporting the revised look.
It's available with 1st party software. It's kind of lame, but it does the job.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
My Freakin Blog
There are 300+ of them
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9043838 all on one page print link
It's pretty damn easy to use as an app launcher now - hit apple-space to open it up, type the first few letters of the app's name in, then hit apple-return to open the top hit. Out of interest, how would you suggest it be made better?
The 2D dock can be enabled using the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock
$2B OR NOT $2B = $FF
It is quite a hack indeed. Microsoft's Virtual Desktop Manager relies on bundling groups of windows that are minimized and expanded simultaneously (along with a different desktop background for each bundle). Not only do most programmers not anticipate this (and due to the hacky nature of the implementation it can cause major headaches for end users), apparently MS programmers don't either, as even IE acts ridiculously with it. You also can't move a window in one "desktop" to another.
I'm happy XP finally brought real multiple-display support (something the Mac has had since System 7 at the latest), but who knows when robust multiple-virtual-display support will come along.
The Fight for Student Power on Campus: www.forstudentpower.org.
Tech-Recipes got a copy. Here are their first 20 tutorials about the new features of Leopard.
If you prefer the old dock style, Mac OS X Hints has that tutorial now as well.
Anybody going for a T-shirt tomorrow?
VirtuaWin kicks ass. Have you tried that one?
I learned about it from a Slashdot post, so maybe I can return the favor.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
1. I did not know that apple-return selects the top of the list! Thanks. 2. Spotlight is fast, but not as fast as a dedicated application launcher (Namely is the one I use). When I type something into Spotlight, it searches the index of the entire drive. With Namely, though, it's searching a list composed solely of applications, which means it is very fast - Spotlight gives a second delay. Also, because it's a more limited list, I can type just a few characters and narrow it down to just a few items in Namely, whereas Spotlight brings up everything that might have to do with that letter combination - no clutter. I know, I know, these are extremely petty complaints - Spotlight provides the same functionality that an application launcher does (and more!). It's just not streamlined for that, I guess.
Just because it's a point release doesn't mean it's minor. The "point point" releases (i.e., 10.4.10) are free and contain bug fixes and the occasional new feature--more akin to the a MS SP. The point release are major releases and always include goodies worth paying for.
It makes a directory for itself on the root of the drive, no partitioning needed. :)
Actually, I think the biggest development treat in Leopard is Objective C 2.0, which supports garbage collection. I've done a bit of Obj-C development, and a fair bit of C# as well, and I think that the majority of the productivity gains some developers experience when going to languages such as C# and e.g. Python from C is from no longer having to worry about memory management. This is huge news, and I'm wondering why I haven't seen more about it out and around.
I don't think it will. I've been hunting for a decent virtual desktop manager for Windows for ages now, and they all have horrible issues. The best one I've seen so far is Dexpot, but even it is annoying to use.
As far as I can make out, the problem is this: Windows doesn't have a window manager in the traditional X sense. Applications handle their own resize, show and hide events. This means that for the desktop manager to switch desktops, it has to send the appropriate show and hide events to the applications... and the applications can take their own sweet time dealing with them. If the application's busy, the window won't change state. One desktop manager I tried to use (briefly) would actually wait for all the applications to process the events, which meant that if you tried to change desktops with an unresponsive application visible, the desktop manager would hang. Not great on a developer machine.
It gets worse: Desktop managers don't appear to get the opportunity to mediate when an application tries to show or hide itself. Certainly, it was all too common in Dexpot for an application to make itself visible when it was already visible on another desktop, with the result that Dexpot would get confused and think that the window was visible on two desktops simultaneously. I tend to run Thunderbird in #1 and Firefox in #2. Clicking on a link in Thunderbird would cause Firefox to become visible in #1 and #2, which isn't really what I wanted.
I eventually gave up and now when I have to use Windows I don't use a desktop manager. The irritation of having to deal with all my windows on one desktop is actually less than the irritation of having to deal with a broken desktop manager.
okay, so I'm just trolling here - but you know it's a perfectly good question. The 'map of' feature for addresses - can that be pointed at, say, Microsoft's map servers? Or map24? Or whoever, for that matter?
Leopard: Map Any Address in Google Maps
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2652/leopard_map_any_address_in_google_maps
Because Apple's point releases are called 10.x.y, not 10.x. For instance, Tiger, which is 10.4, was released in April 2005, swiftly followed by 10.4.1, 10.4.2, etc, all the way up to 10.4.10 (the current version) and 10.4.11 (probably the last version, due probably tomorrow). These 'point point' releases provide the 'bug fixes and a few little extras thrown in' that you describe, and are free, automatic downloads through Software Update. It's these 'point point' releases that are equivalent to Microsoft's Service Packs. Leopard, 10.5, isn't a 'point release' at all in anything other than name. The only reason it's called 10.5 and not OS XV is because Apple like having the X/Ten play on words. Y'know, it's after OS 9, but it's also UNIX, ho ho ho. A quick run through http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html will show you that Leopard consists of much more than 'bug fixes and a few little extras thrown in', such as a completely new backup system, redesigned and simplified system preferences, a completely rewritten scheduler, full 64-bit architecture, and a whole lot more.
Bear in mind that numbering schemes are simply marketing and entirely arbitrary.
That G4 Mini I bought that came standard with 256mb of memory was pretty much lacking in the snappy department, and it came with 10.3. 10.4 slowed it down to the "unusable" range. Don't even want to think of what 10.5 would do to it. For snappy I had to install Linux.
Current models allow a configuration (via System Preferences) wherein a click is a right-click when two fingers are on the trackpad. And two fingers are used to scroll, as well. I find this solution very satisfactory.
Probably because the version of OS X that potentially meets those standards was only released today
Yes that's true of the 'certified Unix' bit, but I believe everything else still stands.
And I'm sceptical about the "fluid and high performance GUI", since 'teh snappay' of 10.4 would need to have increased *massively* to qualify.
Play a 720p H.264 in Quicktime, run iTunes with another video going, add several browsers showing web pages with animated Flash bits. Now use Expose to show all these windows at once. My MacBook Pro with el cheapo ATI onboard graphics can handle that, but try the same with Flip 3-D on Vista (which is nothing like as useful or elegant as Expose), even with an uber Quadro card, and you'll see why I say OSX has a high performance GUI.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Unlike my general experience with OS X, I've been having to reboot my dual G4 desktop every other day for the past week. I've repaired the disk via the install disk, but the lock up are still happening. Since Leopard is coming out this week, I've bought a new HD to install on and will try the migration assistant.
Brought to you by Team SPAM! where we believe: "Information in the noise!"
I've seen it run on a 1Ghz G4. Some of the new features are a little chuggy (spaces, stationary in mail, etc), but it works fine overall. I'm planning to install it on an 800Mhz G4 iBook, I think it'll run fine.
Both of those machines have maxed out ram. I'd recommend at least 1GB of ram for average usage patterns, more if you're into multi-tasking.
As for features that existed on both Tiger and Leopard? Many of them are much faster on leopard than tiger. Spotlight absolutely screams on leopard. Results start appearing as you lift your finger from the key, even on the 1Ghz G4. I've uninstalled quicksilver, since spotlight is just as fast now.
No, none at all, apple only have serial keys on their super expensive pro apps.
The Mac IIfx was released in March 1990, discontinued in April 1992, and it had 6 nubus card slots, each of which could have a video card, and Mac OS then would handle 6 invididual displays quite easily.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112175
Ther is a bit of a double standard, yes, but dropping support for OS 9 isn't like droping support for Windows 98. The Win32 API in Vista is basically and ancestor of the Win32 API in Vista. OS 9 apps, on the other hand, are a whole different kettle of fish.
OS 9 wasn't a modern operating system. As an OS it was, in many ways, decades behind Windows 98. The OS 9 API was based on a model where memory management and scheduling by the OS simply didn't happen... the application got a chunk of REAL memory and until it voluntarily gave up the CPU noting could touch it. To work around this, they created a really gimpy partition model. Multitasking in classic Mac OS was handled conceptually through the window system... there really wasn't an OS underneath it at all, not even as much as there was in Windows 3.1.
Jobs wanted to get rid of the ghastly classic Mac OS API in 1997, but Adobe and a few other big manufacturers dug their heels in and told him they'd abandon the Mac if he didn't come up with a way forward.
So first of all he came up with a bridge API called "Carbon". Carbon applications got an API that couldn't do all the fugly old classic stuff, but were ready to at least run on Rhapsody (what OS X was originally going to be called) once it was revamped to support it. Carbon was introduced for OS 8 and became a standard part of OS 9. After OS X came out people really pushed developers to switch to Carbon... but there were still a bunch of die-hards that insisted on running some software from 1994 that had no Carbon version.
Several times in the early 2000s Jobs pulled the last G4 Powermac capable of booting OS 9 and running classic apps native, rather than under the "classic" emulation environment. Each time there was an outcry... until 2005, when it vanished and nobody complained. Six months later he announced the Intel macs that would not ever be able to run pre-carbon "classic" apps from the dark ages.
MOST apps released *for* OS 9 are not "classic", they're carbon-based, and run under Rosetta.
Most apps released before OS 9 have been carbonised.
NO intel macs have ever been able to run pre-carbon apps.
Don't think of this like Microsoft abandoning Windows 98 apps. Think of it like Microsoft abandoning apps that needed direct access to hardware registers and video memory. The kind of stuff you have to run under Bochs even on Windows XP. It just sounds worse because Apple left it SO late to get rid of that old "application-centric" environment and actually ship an operating system that was actually an operating system.
The real double standard is the resistance of Apple fanboys to admit just how bloody awful OS 9 was.
http://www.hiram.nl/ipsedixit/artikel/793/boolean-search-in-spotlight
Undocumented, and the syntax is very picky and non-obvious.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
FYI, Mac IIs (his mentioned was a IIFX) had 6 Nubus (video cards, among other things) slots. Back in the day I used a Mac II with at least 4 displays.
hello. i'm just wondering what the minimum install size is for leopard? without ilife, iphoto etc. because i'm after a compact flash card for my macbook, i already have a compact flash to sata adaptor and was hoping to fit leopard on on a fast 8gb card as i can't afford a fast 16gb card and don't want a slow card. in my normal install i only use safari, itunes, ichat and the terminal. iphoto, photobooth etc. isn't installed. i also have a few small third-party programs, that probably don't even amount to 50 mb additional. so, anyone any ideas if i could manage to squeeze that all on an 8gb card? i'd use an external 2.5-inch drive for my itunes library, films, and either that or a networked drive for time machine.
Leopard is no more resolution independent than Tiger was. If you enable it via Quartz Debug you'll see that it's horribly buggy and unusable even with Apple's own applications. Or at least it was as of 9a559, I haven't checked with the GA version.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
But it does backup your computer. You can examine the disk from other Macs, and the first backup it makes is of your entire system so it can do a complete system restore if need be.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
I know this is slashdot, but could you please at least read about a feature before commenting on it?
Time Machine most certainly will allow a user to recover files and "will help me recover my files if my computer dies, is stolen, or is unexpectedly repossessed by nature". Indeed, you can recover a totally cratered computer - 10.5 setup will let you restore from a time machine backup as part of the OS install process.
I was also pleased to find out that Apple does indeed do incremental backups of data using a differential methodology (i.e. not making a whole copy of a changed file, but only recording the new information in the file as part of the backup). They do it using a variant of system links. This saves a ton of space and might actually let you have a decent version history to restore from.
Time Machine is like VSS, except it's actually useful to an end user - and unlike VSS, it backs up to a physically different hard drive so you are protected from hardware failure for just the scenario's you outline.
That's what Time Machine does. If you put the Leopard install DVD into a new Mac, one of your options is to plug in a Time Machine disk and restore your whole old system to the new computer. That's as backed up as any backup system I've ever used (and a hell of a lot easier).
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Yeah right like you had six graphics cards in 1991.
Yes, I did. Because I was working at Apple at the time. My IIfx had 64MB of RAM - that was quite a bit, as the 60ns RAM was both hard to come by and built in 8 bit sticks. With eight slots, you needed eight MB SIMMs. I figure that on the street, the cost of the machine as configured (see below) was well over $25,000.
In addition to the 80MB SCSI drive, my IIfx had the following graphics cards:
5x8*24 Graphics cards.
1x8*24GC (Accelerated with an AMD RISC processor)
Along with my, uh, regular work, I used this setup to play Hellcats over the Pacific, which was the first flight simulator to support multiple displays for a panoramic cockpit view. Of course, that feature only required three monitors. The rest were for fun.
Incidentally, the IIfx was not just a 40MHz 68030+68882 FPU - it also had two 6502 processors. One for each serial port.
If you'll remember, the 6502 was the Apple II's CPU.
10.5 doesn't do this. The Finder didn't change much at all (IMHO) between 10.1 and 10.4, but it's been totally rebuilt in 10.5. If the Finder has annoyed you in the past for any other reasons, chances are you'll like 10.5 much, much better (it has it's own quirks, but they're not the kind that make you want to kill the programmers).
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Actually, in Leopard you can just do the search, then hit Return to open the top hit. This is because the top hit is selected by default, rather than "Show All" as in Tiger.
"Go to your Apple Menu, select System Preferences. Now click on "Sharing" and on "Remote Access." Click "Start." Tell me the number it says at the bottom of your window. Okay, now wait 10 minutes." :-)
When I think of "backups", I tend to think "this will help me recover my files if my computer dies, is stolen, or is unexpectedly repossessed by nature".
That's why Apple goes on about making the backup to an external drive. Using the same drive is foolishness.
The Time Machine feature is more of an archive than a backup.
A real backup system needs to provide both mirroring and archiving facilities. Most "backup" software I've seen only does mirroring. Time Machine adds archiving to that.
I've used OS X a lot. Vista is more responsive, plus Vista's keyboard-accessibility is unparalelled. There's a lot of Vista criticism on slashdot, and I don't think all of it is reasonable. Vista's GUI is the fastest GUI I've ever used on any platform. The mouse is quick, the windows move speedily, there's no lag, the keyboard shortcuts work brilliantly.
This article should clear up your confusion about Time Machine.
From the article (page 3):
The Time Machine settings in System Preferences show the time scheduled for the next backup. When that time arrives, it displays a progress thermometer during the backup, which typically only takes a few seconds, unless you've generated a huge amount of new content in the last hour. Again, that's because Time Machine doesn't scan through your entire drive looking for changes, but rather only consults FSEvents for a listing of what has changed recently.
and more from page 4...
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.
Actually, their whole series on Leopard called The Road to Mac OS X Leopard is rather good. Lots of facts and history.
MS technology just happens transparently at the FS level which OS X can't do and it also extends to backups like OS X's Time Machine. If Apple could have gotten ZFS working as the default FS, they could have used the feature that ZFS and NTFS share to make the on volume realtime backups like Vista does. This is wrong. See my previous anonymous post.
Time Machine doesn't require any special changes to applications although it offers some cool stuff that way. It's main purpose is to be a complete backup system that actually gets used because it's helpful and doesn't get in the way. Vista's Shadow Copy doesn't backup to a second hard drive. Shadow Copy also doesn't restore files that have been deleted. Those are the two main purposes of Time Machine. From what I can tell Vista's Shadow Copy appears to be no lower to the file system than Time Machine and FSEvents.
Leopard was launched here at 6pm in stores too - so nyah-ya!
One thing I am noticing having installed it is that a) Spotlight reindexes all your stuff and b) if you enable Time Machine it also does a heavy-duty initial copy. These two processes happening simultaneously hit the disk pretty hard and doubtless cause it to zap all over the place. The upshot is a lot of disk thrashing and rather stuttery performance on things like the dock animation for the first two or three hours. YMMV (MacBook 13" 2GHz here). I expect it to settle down after this - but still in that initial period as I write this.
Also, the initial run of the Set-up Assistant failed to recognise my existing wireless network, and got thoroughly confused when I tried to enter the information manually as it requested. In the end I simply quit it to find that by default Leopard had turned off Airport. Turning it on again found my network and connected without any problems, so if you run into this, just tell Setup Assistant to get lost and enable it yourself.
Yeah i know where you are coming from with the non bootable thing, but you don't have to install leopard then restore time machine. As part of the installation leopard will ask you if you have a time machine folder with data you want to restore.
Don't even have to go that far anymore..
Launch iChat, Share screen..
voila
Live EVERY week... Like it's Shark Week
If you deactivate System Restore (it's also the system behind the Previous Files system), file operations will get much quicker and with a less disk thrashing.
Particularly when you are installing a new application.