Apple previews Mac OS X Snow Leopard with QuickTime X
During its developers conference on Monday, Apple previewed Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which will build on the success of OS X Leopard with a focus on performance and stability.
Rather than add new features, the Cupertino-based Mac maker said the goal of Snow Leopard will be to enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation.
Specifically, Snow Leopard will be optimized for multi-core processors, tap into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enable breakthrough amounts of RAM and feature a new, modern media platform with QuickTime X. Snow Leopard will also include out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.
?We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,? said Bertrand Serlet, Apple?s senior vice president of Software Engineering. ?In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world?s most advanced operating system.?
Snow Leopard's multi-core processor support will be delivered alongside a new technology code-named ?Grand Central,? making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs.
The new version of Mac OS X will further extend support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard.
Furthering OS X?s lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard will also raise the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.
Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard will also include Safari with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.
Also, for the first time, Mac OS X will include native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.
Rather than add new features, the Cupertino-based Mac maker said the goal of Snow Leopard will be to enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation.
Specifically, Snow Leopard will be optimized for multi-core processors, tap into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enable breakthrough amounts of RAM and feature a new, modern media platform with QuickTime X. Snow Leopard will also include out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.
?We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,? said Bertrand Serlet, Apple?s senior vice president of Software Engineering. ?In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world?s most advanced operating system.?
Snow Leopard's multi-core processor support will be delivered alongside a new technology code-named ?Grand Central,? making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs.
The new version of Mac OS X will further extend support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard.
Furthering OS X?s lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard will also raise the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.
Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard will also include Safari with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.
Also, for the first time, Mac OS X will include native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.
Comments
1) Will it work on PowerPC Macs?
2) How much will it cost?
3) Will we really have to wait a year for a JavaScript engine that's in nightly webkit builds?
4) Will anyone upgrade if there are no new features?
Now that it looks like the clock-speed race is over in CPU land, and it's switched to a number-of-cores race, research and development into how best to leverage that parallel processing is vital.
Anyone know where to go to get more juicy info on Snow Leopard? How long was the presentation? Hopefully ars will have something at some point.
But...
1) Will it work on PowerPC Macs?
2) How much will it cost?
3) Will we really have to wait a year for a JavaScript engine that's in nightly webkit builds?
4) Will anyone upgrade if there are no new features?
Exactly what I was thinking. The answer to 4 is probably yes if it is very cheap or free. If it's 129 and doesn't add much but helps performance on apps that need it, you'll probably see people running those apps upgrading, but most average users skipping it.
It does seem odd that they are hyping the javascript update so much when it's something that should be included with 10.5.x.
Hopefully they'll clarify the intel/PPC thing today at the session, anyone know when it's over?
Rather than add new features, the Cupertino-based Mac maker said the goal of Snow Leopard will be to enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation.
That strikes me as a subtle way of saying that our current OS is more buggy and crappy than we'd like and we're going to take a year and fix it all.
Sheldon
(To hell with Exchange support - work on WMV so we can see the rest of the media files floating around.)
otherwise known as "Snow" job while they work on Multi-Touch interfaces.
Exactly! Oldest trick in the book. Calculated misdirection!
Bug fixes, security and stability should always be patched in and seeing as how we are only on 10.5.3 we have alot of numbers left to go.
I wonder if they are simply running out of ideas to fit in an OS. I think Tiger was their shining achievement and they didn't deliver near as much with Leopard.
Or perhaps there is more than they are telling us. Rumors of dropping PPC support. They do mention improving compatibility with modern hardware and I did read an article just today that suggested Apple may indeed be moving to opening up OSX to run on PC's. Whatever the case I think something is certainly up.
I for one am very happy to see a major software company focussing on performance rather than piling on more and more useless crap, aka "features".
Don't be so sure of yourself. Apple constantly lies.
But...
1) Will it work on PowerPC Macs?
2) How much will it cost?
3) Will we really have to wait a year for a JavaScript engine that's in nightly webkit builds?
4) Will anyone upgrade if there are no new features?
1. Probably not is my guess, but since this is a performance upgrade perhaps Apple is actually looking to keep PowerPC in the picture. After all, faster performance can only be better for older machines.
2. $129 or less, and I don't see why they would charge less
3. No, you have it in your nightly webkit builds :-D. Personally, Firefox 3 is still going to be the browser of choice either way because of its extensions + speed.
4. I will if it's faster, that's for sure. There must be some people who feel the same. Apple probably feels pretty secure vs. Microsoft in the features department, Snow Leopard is probably meant to make Vista's stability and speed look even worse.
I am personally more excited about Snow Leopard than any other Mac OS X release. I wish other software companies would freeze their features for a while and optimize their software like this. Apple's going for Vista's jugular here and they'll slice it.
Well, as long as 10.6 is free that's fine.
That strikes me as a subtle way of saying that our current OS is more buggy and crappy than we'd like and we're going to take a year and fix it all.
Sheldon
I'm hoping that QT will support more media formats natively, especially WMV without a plug-in. Not that I like those other formats, but having to juggle 3rd-party shims and incompatibilities after various upgrades gets a little old. Perian is a great effort, but ultimately it should be rendered unnecessary if Apple picked up the ball.
(To hell with Exchange support - work on WMV so we can see the rest of the media files floating around.)
Maybe Apple should do this for the pro version and pay MS a licensing fee. I guess it would be a start. I personally just use VLC media player but I do understand it is a pain for people who are actually working with videos more than I do.
That strikes me as a subtle way of saying that our current OS is more buggy and crappy than we'd like and we're going to take a year and fix it all.
Sheldon
I don't think you will find many who disagree. 10.5 was a mess when released. Glad they are taking this approach.
I'm hoping that QT will support more media formats natively, especially WMV without a plug-in. Not that I like those other formats, but having to juggle 3rd-party shims and incompatibilities after various upgrades gets a little old. Perian is a great effort, but ultimately it should be rendered unnecessary if Apple picked up the ball.
(To hell with Exchange support - work on WMV so we can see the rest of the media files floating around.)
Otherwise knows as "Snowpard"
now that it has native support for Microsoft, hopefully it won't be known as Deaf Leopard
As it's described, I think the focus will be on new Mac computers going forward, making them that much better - to really optimize new hardware with a mean and lean Snow Leopard to create screaming new computers. They can get rid of the parts of OS X that are in there for PPC and other older systems. Current computers will still work fine under Leopard (which will still be improved with updates). Current Intel machines may be improved with Snow Leopard, but the real benefit will be for brand new Macs.