Panther imminent, what next?
Ok, so Panther is already GM, or very close to Gold anyway. If you've used any recent build you already know that it's complete, stable, fast and mature. Something that I honestly couldn't say about Jaguar. Or at least, Panther is certainly faster, more complete and more mature than its predecessor. (If you haven't used any Panther build you'll find out by yourselves soon enough! 
)
Now what? Where do we go from here? I do not wish to start a discussion about whether the next major revision will sport a slightly darker metal GUI, or whether it'll support themes or things like these. I'm thinking more of "deeper" changes, more radical, revolutionary rather than evolutionary.
There will probably be a leap to full 64-bit support, so that applications will be able to address more memory. But what else? Database funcionality built into the OS Ã* la BeOS? Widespread use of metadata? These are all good things, but they have alrady surfaced in the past in various OSes.
In a way I look at Panther as a starting point rather than a finish line. All these years have been devoted to smooth things up, work on some sharp edges and optimize the code base. What can be built on top of the foundation represented by 10.3? What do you would like to see in 18 - 24 months?
ZoSo
)Now what? Where do we go from here? I do not wish to start a discussion about whether the next major revision will sport a slightly darker metal GUI, or whether it'll support themes or things like these. I'm thinking more of "deeper" changes, more radical, revolutionary rather than evolutionary.
There will probably be a leap to full 64-bit support, so that applications will be able to address more memory. But what else? Database funcionality built into the OS Ã* la BeOS? Widespread use of metadata? These are all good things, but they have alrady surfaced in the past in various OSes.
In a way I look at Panther as a starting point rather than a finish line. All these years have been devoted to smooth things up, work on some sharp edges and optimize the code base. What can be built on top of the foundation represented by 10.3? What do you would like to see in 18 - 24 months?
ZoSo
Comments
It will be thoroughly infused with rich metadata. Searches will be blindingly fast on the largest of hard drives. Organizing your data will take huge leaps forward.
Support for Multiple Processors will improve. More kernel adjustments and the addition if Fine Grain Locking and syncing with BSD 5.x. Powermacs will all be Duallies by then and 10.4 will SMOKE on them.
OpenGL 2.0 will be fully supported. 3D Labs will have a few of their cards supporting OSX with Certified drivers.
Quicktime 7 will be a whole new rewrite from the ground up. Totally documented, reentrant and threadsafe. Some backwards compatibility may be sacrificed at the expense of adding new tech for today.
Quartz Extreme will be further strengthened. Accelerating more functions from within the GPU. Scrolling will improve noticeably.
X11 will offer the option to wrap windows in an Aqua look and feel.
Safari 2.0- More of the Internals of Safari will be nestled deep within the OSX Frameworks. Speed will be better as will stability.
Live Folders- Folders that contain date from static queries. as your computer manages more data the Live Folders will offer yet another way to manage your files. Queries can range from Size, Date, Specific search words you name it. Folders results can be exported at anytime to a variety of formats.
Audio Units 2.0- Apple adds the ability to utilize a new gui library for easy Plugin/Synth creation.
Finally:
Some new features none of us is even thinking about right now.
Oddly enough, the one that I think is the most unlikely is the X11 -> Aqua. Having done enough X11 programming to scar me for life, I can't see how in the *WORLD* one would manage to make this clean... you *MIGHT* be able to get away with a decent Motif -> Aqua or such, but full X11 translation? Oy. Hurts my widdle brain just thinking about it.
Originally posted by Steve
Apple should give us a year off after Panther. They've fixed the most glaring problems and missing features (i.e. the Finder, some UI issues, window management with Expose, fast-user switching, etc.), and the speed is finally "there" with the updated QE. I wouldn't mind if incremental updates just came around in the form of applications (as iCal, iSync, Safari, etc. were just extensions of Jaguar).
Yeah..if possible, just fix any large bugs that come up, correct small ones, and give us a new thing or two. Then when 10.4 or 10.5 comes out two years later, it would be pretty good!
That is, if that were to happen.
To give a real unix feel to the next OSX. Mind you the "it just works" feeling will still be present but I would like to finetune EVERYTHING!
...see what happens when you have a slackware background...
Originally posted by Steve
Apple should give us a year off after Panther. They've fixed the most glaring problems and missing features (i.e. the Finder, some UI issues, window management with Expose, fast-user switching, etc.), and the speed is finally "there" with the updated QE. I wouldn't mind if incremental updates just came around in the form of applications (as iCal, iSync, Safari, etc. were just extensions of Jaguar).
Steve. Actually I truly believe that Panther is that year off.
Look at the amount of new features in Jaguar as opposed to Panther.
Panther, to me, seem like primarily a nuts and bolts updated with a few new tweaks. Apple is advertising it like it's coming with a slew of new features but I surmise that the changes are mostly internal. I think 10.4 brings in another group of new featurs and 10.5 will smooth these over and optimize.
I'm curious to see if my little theory is true. Apple may be on a two year cycle for Major features. They will then alternate between a Major Feature release and then an optimization release that prepares the "guts" for the next Major Release.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Steve. Actually I truly believe that Panther is that year off.
Look at the amount of new features in Jaguar as opposed to Panther.
Panther, to me, seem like primarily a nuts and bolts updated with a few new tweaks. Apple is advertising it like it's coming with a slew of new features but I surmise that the changes are mostly internal. I think 10.4 brings in another group of new featurs and 10.5 will smooth these over and optimize.
I'm curious to see if my little theory is true. Apple may be on a two year cycle for Major features. They will then alternate between a Major Feature release and then an optimization release that prepares the "guts" for the next Major Release.
So if they have such a two year cycle, why can't the odd releases (optimizations as you say) cost less then the major releases?
Originally posted by jwill
So if they have such a two year cycle, why can't the odd releases (optimizations as you say) cost less then the major releases?
Because the 'optimization' phases you refer to actually have a ton of almost invisible improvements at lower layers, and the nuts and bolts improvements and optimizations are just as important (many would say more so) than the flashy user level improvements.
They aren't any more or less important, really, just a different type of upgrade.
Remember what makes Apple so unique in the industry is the "whole widget" model. So what Apple has in store for Panther is dependent on what hardware we'll see and vice versa.
Right now my interest lies in what Apple does with Panther Server. If the rumblings about an honest to Buddha push into the enterprise markets are true then Server is where the surprises will be.
Exchange killer?
Plug-n-Play Distributed computing?
Multi-terabyte SAN management?
um.... is it time to buy Sun yet?? (Oops, sorry, OT).
Screed
Originally posted by sCreeD
What Kickaha said.
Granted, it'll remain a 32 bit app, but right now as far as I understand it, the OS can address more than 4 GB, while single apps can address each 4GB, the 32-bit limit minus the "overhead" of the OS.
But I think that especially if they "honest to Buddha"
ZoSo
1. OS level clustering support like that used for Shake. So you're computing power is additive with more boxes.
2. Animated, interactive icons. Options in preferences to have them animate when in view or by mouse-over.
3. Automatic detection of user folder on nearby bluetooth/wi-fi equiped iPod allowing custom login. (randomized temp password for login generated and displayed on iPod)
4. Support for 3D screens.
5. Soundsets (is that in panther yet?)
6. Some sort of iTV PVR ap.
Fat
Tabby
I really can't wait to see a complete rewrite of QT...fully reentrant and thread-safe. Now that OS 9 QT support is abandoned, I think Apple can ditch the old codebase and start fresh to make use of OS X features. There's always that Windows problem though...I guess Apple can keep that codebase alive but QT will never be as good on Windows as on Mac (although it's better than WiMP on Mac).
Originally posted by kim kap sol
hmurchison, Kickaha...how much do you know about QT7? Kickaha, you seem to be saying that QT7 is 'well in the works now, and coming along nicely', what is that supposed to mean? Do you have inside info?
I really can't wait to see a complete rewrite of QT...fully reentrant and thread-safe. Now that OS 9 QT support is abandoned, I think Apple can ditch the old codebase and start fresh to make use of OS X features. There's always that Windows problem though...I guess Apple can keep that codebase alive but QT will never be as good on Windows as on Mac (although it's better than WiMP on Mac).
KKS. I don't know squat about QT7. I just have a hunch that it's going to be big. I've pretty much looked everywhere for info but have come up with nothing. I started a thread in Mac Archaia which had alot of nice wishes. But nothing substantive yet.
I know that Panther's Finder is making major strides forward in usability (love those fast searches and the new "user-centric" Finder windows), but I'd really love it if things could be even a step farther. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a piece of data that I KNEW I had somewhere on my drive. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember if it was in an email, or in a Word document, or a PDF, or where. It would be fantastic if doing a search would search through EVERYTHING to help me find what I'm looking for. Scouring through 60GB of data isn't fun, and I know I can't be the only one.
I'm sure there are a million reasons why this isn't technically feasible and won't be until we all have 2+ terabyte drives being driven by 56GHz G7's, but it sure would be a damn nice feature to have.
Sorry for the ramble, just wishful thinking.
Originally posted by highfalutintodd
A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a piece of data that I KNEW I had somewhere on my drive. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember if it was in an email, or in a Word document, or a PDF, or where. It would be fantastic if doing a search would search through EVERYTHING to help me find what I'm looking for. Scouring through 60GB of data isn't fun, and I know I can't be the only one.
??
You can do this already.
You can search file contents.
In the Finder, type command-F. Click Add Criteria and add any number for criteria (you can remove previous criteria too, just click each one's minus button).
Better still, is limiting the folders upon which you are searching. Rather than waste time searching the entire disk, just search your user folder, assuming you keep all your files there. (Files on the Desktop are really in your user folder). This makes for faster searches.
All this applies to Mac OS9 too.
I'm not underwhelmed by Panther, there seem to be a lot of foundational improvements. I just feel for a .x release there should be more something.
Me? Spoiled? Nah.
Screed
Originally posted by hmurchison
X11 will offer the option to wrap windows in an Aqua look and feel.
Seems like apple is getting away from the aqua look and feel. Brushed metal is in.