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Mac OS X 10.7 'Lion' Developer Preview Available

Posted by timothy on from the ok-I'm-a-little-envious-of-the-features dept.

kwolf22 writes "Today Apple is offering a developer preview of Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) to registered Mac developers. In addition, the Lion product page has been updated with new details. Among the updates is this exciting bit of news: Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion." Adds reader Orome1: the new OS X "features Mission Control, a new view of everything running on your Mac; Launchpad, a new home for all your Mac apps; full screen apps that use the entire Mac display; and new Multi-Touch gestures. Lion also includes the Mac App Store, a place to discover, install and automatically update Mac apps."

46 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Good Luch! by MacTechnic · · Score: 2

    Yes, You can download the Lion Developer Preview, but it requires the App Store App, and the process has been a little quirky. Good Luck!

  2. Fireball! by jimmerz28 · · Score: 2

    Soon my Macbook Air is going to start casting spells and wanting to play D&D with me with all the "magic" it's going to allegedly have. New Prestige class?

    1. Re:Fireball! by loom_weaver · · Score: 4, Funny

      > eq

      You are using:
      [1] <Light> a back-lit keyboard
      [2] <Finger> a Ring bearing the Apple logo (hums)
      [3] <Finger> a one-button mouse
      [4] <Neck> a black turtleneck (glows) (hums)
      [5] <Neck> a thick beard
      [6] <Body> a black cashmere and silk sweater (glows)
      [7] <Head> The Reality Distortion Field (invisible)
      [8] <Legs> Levi 501s (hums)
      [9] <Feet> A Pair of Comfy Sneakers
      [10] <Hands> iPhone 4 (glows)
      [11] <Arms> black sleeves (glows)
      [12] <Shield> a 17" MacBook Pro (hums)
      [13] <About> iPod shuffle (glows) (hums)
      [14] <Waist> 1st generation iPad
      [15] <Wrist> An iPod Nano (glows)
      [16] <Wrist> An iPod Nano (glows)
      [17] <Wielded> Shrink-wrapped Xcode (glows)
      [18] <Held> An iPod touch (glows)

  3. What is the point of OSX server? by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Without any server hardware to run it on, why is there even a server setup?

    Honestly killing the Xserve and not letting OSX server be installed on another vendors server hardware is brain dead.

    1. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Plenty of web developers who use Macs. Plenty of people who want a server but don't require dedicated hardware like the Xserve. Besides, Apple still make servers — check out the Mac mini page.

    2. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by adriccom · · Score: 2

      It runs on hypervisors like VMWare and Parallels which is great for development and testing and actually pretty popular for professional server deployments.

      I'm snagging one to light up in VMWare Fusion, for instance.

      hth,
      adric

      --
      <script>alert("I never liked JavaScript, really; it just seemed a bad idea.");</script>
    3. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by 0racle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Home and small business users. You know, those that thought Jobs suggestion to run OS X Server on a Mac Pro or a Mini was just fine.

      Apple has no real interest in the enterprise market.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    4. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      While you're absolutely correct that the mac mini isn't typical "server grade" hardware, you're wrong about your greater point. The mac mini is just fine for many (most?) people. The default server install does come with 2 disks you can raid, and has a BTO option for an external RAID5 array.

      At $600 buy 2 and still be cheaper than most "basic cheap server stuff."

    5. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by jimicus · · Score: 2

      The server features made a lot of sense if you were selling to businesses that were big enough that they needed a whole lot of extra hardware in the form of servers.

      But 90something% of businesses don't fall into that camp, and those that do probably don't want OS X Server. The server aspects are aimed squarely at the small business with a handful of staff, a slightly smaller handful of computers and neither money, time nor inclination to pay someone to set up SBS - but at the same time need something a bit more sophisticated than just the PCs on their desks.

    6. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why? Time Machine works well, and if the first Mac mini packs up, you and restore on install to the second one.

    7. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The folks buying two mac minis, instead of a real server are those who will not know the first thing about keeping backups, syncing the data between the two or doing failover.

      It might be ok to keep some dvd rips on at your house, but using it for work is crazy talk.

      You remind me of some former coworkers who thought keeping data on anything less than an IBM mainframe with Parallel Sysplex enabled should be considered negligent. There are cases where they are right. However, there are computer users who are not banks, and their inability to understand that some people had different needs than their pet use case made them a real pain to deal with.

      Shorter answer: Don't assume you have the answer to everyone's problems. You don't even know what their problems are.

    8. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by MyDixieWrecked · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Apple has no real interest in the enterprise market.

      And this is terrible news.

      Content providers for apple MUST provide video files in Apple ProRes fileformat which is ONLY able to be encoded using apple's tools which only run in OSX. I don't know how apple expects large content producers to encode high-volumes of videos for them without the xserves. MacPros are not an option as they are not enterprise ready (single PSU, no management port, they're HUGE and must be de-"racked" in order to swap drives, etc). MacMinis are not suitable for this as they don't have enough CPU/RAM. The xserves weren't even that great, but they were the right form factor.

      Apple's been seriously fucking up with regard to the enterprise lately. I've been running into issues with their commandline admin utilities --they don't give access to everything that you can do with the GUI. You can't configure which port to use for management from the CLI (the docs say you can, but it doesn't work), it renames your interface when you bond network interfaces by appending " Configuration" to the name, which doesn't happen in the gui... and now, 10.6.6 doesn't properly image using System Image Utility (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3665)

      Now, they're bundling OSX Server into OSX Lion. Who knows whether they'll continue to support ALL of the non-home user features of server like OpenDirectory. WTF.

      --



      ...spike
      Ewwwwww, coconut...
    9. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by chrysrobyn · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Honestly killing the Xserve and not letting OSX server be installed on another vendors server hardware is brain dead.

      I'm certain your arm chair quarterbacking the largest computer company in the world, and the second largest US based corporation is beyond reproach, but it would be kind to the Apple stockholders (including me) if you'd share some of your data.

      Name one advantage Apple gains by sharing their operating system. You want it, but you want the lower prices that multiple vendors imply and the exceptionally low volume enterprise level features that are missing. Let's say that adding redundant power supplies, hot swappable memory and all that jazz costs $50M in R&D. Can you state that they would recoup that investment in the first year? Could they command a $1k premium per box, and amortize it over 50k boxes they would not have otherwise shipped, and then ship another 30k boxes beyond that to count as margin? First, you're going to balk at paying three times as much for Apple hardware as you would for other brands', and the conversation goes down from there.

      Features like Time Machine seem to scream for servers, but Apple's implementation is nowhere near what a 24/7 75% usage machine needs, or even what a real database needs under any but the most idle loads.

      The kind of people who feel MacOSX is good for servers either need a low power Mini (where the hardware, OS and GUI shortfalls are easily overlooked) or a Mac Pro (for number crunching under familiar development tools matter more than the ability to go out and get more MIPS/$ at any random vendor).

      Apple isn't branding their server as something that will compete against Power, Sparc (snicker) or Itanium. They're looking for the hobbyist who doesn't really care about all the underpinnings. For them, it's enough of a server, with enough server features.

    10. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by bedouin · · Score: 2

      Dunno, many people seem to be collocating them.

    11. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 2

      How do you know they won't have real backups? Time Machine and Mobile Me are better solutions than RAID, according to your own criteria.

    12. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by tgibbs · · Score: 2

      We've run Mac OS Server for years using Mac tower hardware. While I was sorry to see the XServe go (we were thinking of buying one), pretty much any Mac, equipped with a good backup system, will function well as a server for a small business or moderate size workgroup.

    13. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by Weedhopper · · Score: 2

      The default configuration of the Mini comes two drive which you can configure as a RAID.

      And, surely, you're not suggesting RAID is a backup, are you?

      An office Mini server with a Time Machine backup is trivial to set up. Plug them all into a UPS. It's a decent solution that works for small offices.

    14. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by 605dave · · Score: 2

      You're right. That's why i have 3 firewire RAIDs attached to my mac mini server, giving me 16TB of storage.

      --
      Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
    15. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by juasko · · Score: 2

      Well, we used to have 3 bondi blue iMacs, running 2 DNS servers, 2 Web Server, Mail server, 4D database, and filemaker database.

      And af few Apple Scripts for automating picture management.

      That was before PHP4, and other scripting systems that today manipulate graphics directly. Did stuff that 5 years ahead of similar stuff started to be available mainstream by other techniques. Btw it was Photoshop that did all the picture manipulation.

      Only thing that didn't really work well with the set up where the Web servers. One was a application that run Apache, basically linux emulation Web ten. And the other was the 4D integrated web server. But back then we needed both 4D and Applescript to do what we did.

      But this is more than 10 year old stuff, today there would be better solutions.

    16. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by juasko · · Score: 2

      Same with the rack mounted server, fire takes it all.

      But you can still rack it if you want , and get load balancing in a 1U form factor.

      http://www.sonnettech.com/product/rackmacmini.html

    17. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by juasko · · Score: 2

      Hey, your obviously not a mac user.

      Mac users are quite well backed up, with version history even. Check the versions feature coming seamlessly integrated to OSX lion. Well I guess u need backups activated for that one.

      You should go and buy a mac and check how seamlessly we mac users do backups. True, a fire might just take it all, but I have uptodate backups which goes back to oktober 17, 2010.
      That is monthly, weekly, daily, hourly backups. Not just a backup I copied once and hope I have left.

      BTW, I do also have RAID. But not 1 or 5 as you might want me to, I run 3 disks in Raid 0 config for speed.

      Well I know I should have a backup stored in "the cloud" to be fire safe. But somehow I'm not too keen on storing my data onto some corporations servers, like Google or Apple. Hmm, should set up a server at my grandpa's place. Just to make backups, he's 80 km from where I live so a fire would probably not be at both places at the same time.

    18. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 2

      Most small business don't have back-up power generators, either. Most can handle risking the odd few days off-line, especially when you take into account that an enterprise server requires IT staff to manage it -- that's a huge expense that many people just can't afford. A Mac mini and a few external NAS, RAID, or plain storage drives and some basic back-up plans are a realistic and practical solution for a lot of people.

    19. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 2

      And a single fire takes them both out, or one angry employee.

      And a redundant PSU would definitely prevent that! Take that for not buying real server hardware!

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    20. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by MyDixieWrecked · · Score: 4, Interesting

      docs were read. mass-googling was done. I'm talking about apple's utilities... `networksetup` in the instance of the LOM and the network port bonding. There's no consistency in the docs about what they mean by "Service Name" which is what they call the "interface." However, there are 2 names for the interface... the user-specified one ("Ethernet 2") and the bsd name ("en1"), but the docs call them both the servicename. The only way I was able to figure out which gets used where is by trial and error.

      in many cases, apple has provided their own tools that completely replace the standard toolset. hdiutil and networksetup are 2 prime examples.

      another thing I forgot to bring up is ipmitool which mostly works unless you try to do serial-over-lan (sol) connections; it's completely unusable and you have to go to sourceforge and build your own ipmitool to do that stuff.

      I mean, I'm not an OSX n00b. Typically I'm a linux engineer, but I've been OSX on the desktop since the developer previews and the server I've had running at home for a while and I've done contract server set up on versions going back to jaguar... the thing is that this is the first time that I've had to do seriously low-level shit (building a large xserve infrastructure with customized management and deployment tools) and it's like running into a concrete wall headfirst every time a new task comes down the pipe.

      --



      ...spike
      Ewwwwww, coconut...
    21. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by Gilmoure · · Score: 2

      If aliens were to drop a dinosaur killer on your town, I doubt you remote backup would be good.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    22. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by Blink+Tag · · Score: 2

      A 'server' isn't about serving data but about securing it for 10k+ years.

      I think you're confusing "server" with "stone carvings".

    23. Re:What is the point of OSX server? by mmeister · · Score: 2

      > A 'server' isn't about serving data but about securing it for 10k+ years.
      If that's the case, then there are no servers in existence. I don't believe any piece of hardware that you have access to right now can maintain and serve data for the next 10K years.

  4. Maybe for you or me by name_already_taken · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe they're envisioning people buying a lot of widget-style apps.

    It sure seems like it would be convenient for people like my parents.

    --
    Putting moderation advice in your .sig lowers your karma!
  5. Re:Seriously? by jimicus · · Score: 2

    The basic servers offered by Dell for businesses of the size being discussed don't have redundant PSUs either. Frequently, they don't have RAID.

  6. Mixed bag by hcdejong · · Score: 2

    Full screen apps? Oh no! I hate when an application provides a nonstandard UI. The screen shot shows that even the menu bar is gone, which I find unacceptable for everything except media playback.

    Autosave, Versions and Resume on the other hand are fantastic and long overdue. It'll be interesting to see how they implement Autosave: the easy way would be to save every x minutes, the right way would be to create a transaction log and save every action (keystroke, mouse gesture), to make sure that when you crash, every action up to the moment of the crash is preserved.

    1. Re:Mixed bag by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2

      I'd be happy with a real maximize button. For Windows users, what logically should be the maximize button (green +) is actually a "right size" button that performs application dependent actions.The response on all the Mac forums to requests for how to change the behavior to a maximize button is that nobody should ever need or want to maximize an application, because it is not the "Apple Way".

      The addition of full screen apps seems to suggest even Apple recognizes there are times when using all the screen makes sense.

    2. Re:Mixed bag by DJRumpy · · Score: 2

      Is it really that difficult to set the app you want to open a file with? Command - I + Open With is your friend. No need to change all associations either as you can set it for specific files.

  7. Re:Launchpad by Cinder6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The nice thing with Launchpad is being able to reorganize your apps without actually changing the location of the application bundles themselves. For whatever reason, Bad Things can happen if you do this yourself in your Applications directory.

    That said, I probably won't ever use it much. Alfred (or any other launcher) is way faster, anyways.

    --
    If you can't convince them, convict them.
  8. But will the server provide useful SOHO features? by anegg · · Score: 2

    Mac OS X Server 10.6 features implied a shared Address Book and shared Calendar feature that would be useful to SOHO environments. However, trying to get it up and running is challenging. Once running, the capabilities are less than expected. I wonder if 10.7 will bear fruit towards making the Mac OS X Server platform a one-stop shop for those SOHO environments inclined to use it rather than Microsoft Server with Exchange?

  9. Re:Seriously? by Americano · · Score: 2

    You can have something reliable without having redundancy built in - redundancy is great, if you need the high availability, but it can get pretty expensive, and if the system isn't mission critical, why spend thousands of dollars on a big server that'll be overkill for your needs?

    For low-intensity uses - home office / small office servers, home theaters, lightweight corporate intranet servers, development / test systems, etc., a Mini (or unix/win box with similar footprint) could be perfect for your needs as a server.

  10. Re:Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    I'm just wondering when the MacPro is going to be discontinued, what consumer needs 16 cores?

    Anybody planning on running Flash.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  11. Re:Seriously? by jimicus · · Score: 2

    I know that. They're not even terribly glorified desktops, usually - just a tower case and a copy of Windows SBS.

    That does not mean that Dell has never sold a single one. Indeed, if Dell had never sold a single one I think we can safely assume the product line wouldn't exist.

  12. Re:Where the giraffes are, and the zebra... by edremy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, You can download the Lion Developer Preview, but it requires the App Store App, and the process has been a little quirky. Good Luck!

    And you can only get it in Kenya

    Well, at least our President can use it then.

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  13. OS X Lion virtualization? by ingulsrud · · Score: 2

    With OS X Server being rolled into the client release of 10.7 Lion, will the virtualization license that allows OS X Server to be run as a guest OS in VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop on Apple hardware be extended to the client OS? That would be a big help to developers and IT departments needing to maintain test configs and archives.

  14. Re:Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion? by jo_ham · · Score: 2

    It will try.

    I'm almost certain Flash has an "calculate Pi to 30,000 digits" thread that it launches on n-1 cores, where n is the number of cores you have. It then uses that last core to run some SETI at Home.

  15. Full screen apps by markjhood2003 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Finally! The inability to have a real full screen application was one of the most frustrating aspects of transitioning to Mac OS X. The next most frustrating aspect was all the Apple fans telling me my head was just wired wrong if I missed that ability. Now, we have Apple promoting the full screen capability as a major innovation:

    The app and nothing but the app. On iPad, every app is displayed full screen, with no distractions, and there’s one easy way to get back to all your other apps. Mac OS X Lion does the same for your desktop. You can make a window in an app full screen with one click, switch to another app’s full-screen window with a swipe of the trackpad, and swipe back to the desktop to access your other apps — all without ever leaving the full-screen experience. Systemwide support allows third-party developers to take advantage of full-screen technology to make their apps more immersive, too. So you can concentrate on every detail of your work, or play on a grander scale than ever before.*

    1. Re:Full screen apps by farnsworth · · Score: 2

      Finally! The inability to have a real full screen application was one of the most frustrating aspects of transitioning to Mac OS X.

      The upcoming "Full-screen" feature is not the same as Windows' "maximize" button. It causes the app to use 100% of the screen, hiding the doc and the menubar and window decorations and anything else that is not the app. It is the same thing that some other apps (eg, Lightroom, Photoshop) have done on their own for a while. This is just Apple adding similar functionality to the apps that ship with OS X. More third-party apps will probably support this too, because, depending on the app, it can be a very nice way to do things. It is technically subtly different from "maximize", but the user experience is quite different.

      --

      There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.

  16. Re:Launchpad by Weedhopper · · Score: 2

    Yeah, definitely looks like this iteration is for people whose first Apple device was an iDevice to make them feel more comfortable with the OS. Everything from the gestures to the new UI components.

    I don't picture myself using a lot of these features, such as full screen apps, Launchpad or Mission Control. Well, maybe MC (what goofy name) if it's better at windows management than Spaces+Expose.

  17. Re:Where the giraffes are, and the zebra... by amliebsch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Obama is, and always will be, a Keynesian.

    --
    If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
  18. Re:Cat theme by caseih · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually until Snow Leopard, Apple seemed to be naming their OS after German tanks. Now I'm not saying they are... I'm just asking questions and you should too.

  19. Re:Where the giraffes are, and the zebra... by exomondo · · Score: 2

    I'd be happy for a <sarcasm> tag, but that would never work.

    It's in the HTML6 proposal.


    Im sure the lack of said tag will see this get inundated with '[citation needed]' responses.