Apple releases Mac OS X 10 Lion Developer Preview 2 to developers

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Apple on Wednesday released the second developer preview of its upcoming Mac OS X Lion operating system due this summer, but contrary to recent reports, the pre-release software is not a Gold Master.



The beta software, labeled Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 and carrying build number 11A419, is available to registered developers through the Mac App Store after requesting a redemption code.



It was accompanied by Mac OS X Lion Server Developer Preview 2, also carrying the same build number, as well as Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 2 -- a pre-release version of the Mac OS X development environment provided by Apple.



Contrary to recent reports published by TechCrunch, however, the new builds are not Gold Master candidate status and instead contain roughly a dozen known issues each.







For instance, Apple reportedly told developers that Thunderbolt devices are not fully supported, users with NTFS volumes (such as BootCamp) may experience a panic during reboot or shut down and videos purchased from the iTunes Store will not play on early 2011 MacBook Pro models.



Apple also reportedly warned developers that the new Recovery HD feature in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will not be created on unsupported partition schemes and that iPhoto 9 will crash when users try to create a book, card or calendar from an event or album, and when clicking a photo's info button.



People familiar with the matter report that known issues with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server include: installation problems when using local or caching Software Update, new sharepoints not inheriting group permissions and support for just Safari when using Wiki Server and Profile Manager. Additionally, Lion Server does not yet include support for Podcast Producer Server, NetBoot/NetRestore from install source, and booting into a NetRestore.



Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will be the eighth major release of Apple's flagship operating system. The Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker unveiled the upgrade in October of last year at the Back to the Mac event. The first developer preview was released in late February and contained several previously undisclosed features, including AirDrop and FileVault.



Last month, security researchers reported being invited by Apple to examine Mac OS X 10.7 for security flaws in an unprecedented move by the company.



Earlier this week, Apple announced it would be showing "off a preview of the future" of Mac OS X at its Worldwide Developer Conference June 6-10 in San Francisco's Moscone West just over two months from now.



Rumors suggest that the event will focus on software (including Apple's new mobile iOS 5, which has not yet been publicly announced), rather than being a "hardware event."



Tickets to WWDC sold out the day they went on sale. The event is limited to the capacity of the Moscone West building, and the constraints of making around 1,000 Apple engineers available to developers and presenting more than 100 technical sessions during the week-long event.



For more information on new features in the forthcoming update, see AppleInsider's Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion series.
«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 51
    [greg][greg] Posts: 78member
    very exciting... can't wait to try this out at an apple store. i may just have to upgrade!
  • Reply 2 of 51
    Given the list of bugs this would make it Gold Master ready if it was Windows.
  • Reply 3 of 51
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    Given the list of bugs this would make it Gold Master ready if it was Windows.



  • Reply 4 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    Given the list of bugs this would make it Gold Master ready if it was Windows.



    No, it wouldn't.



    Anyway, I've installed it and there are a lot of improvements. Safari is much better and Graphite has returned, although iCal no longer seems to honor such a setting, using Aqua no matter what.
  • Reply 5 of 51
    nobodyynobodyy Posts: 377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quillz View Post


    No, it wouldn't.



    Anyway, I've installed it and there are a lot of improvements. Safari is much better and Graphite has returned, although iCal no longer seems to honor such a setting, using Aqua no matter what.



    I have yet to download it, probably will later tonight. I noticed that lion was extremely bad at memory management with larger things such as firefox and safari before, as well as with normal computing things going on, how are things going for you?

    Mission control also seemed to be pretty slow, has that sped up?



    Many of the problems I encountered before were performance issues and a couple of in your face bugs lol.
  • Reply 6 of 51
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    Not only was TechCrunch's prediction off, it was ridiculously off. Are they new to Apple?



    Developer previews - many, many beta builds then gold master. How could they expect a bug riddled developer preview and then gold master 2 months later?
  • Reply 7 of 51
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member
    there are so many BS rumors about Apple's plans for this year flying around right now, you need more than an umbrella. you need a whole damn tent.



    they get a tiny pice of info and blow it up far beyond that into a whole dramatic story. it's hit-whoring pure and simple.
  • Reply 8 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quillz View Post


    No, it wouldn't.



    Vista - nuff said.
  • Reply 9 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    Vista - nuff said.



    Mac OS X 10.0



    All OS have bugs, there is no perfect software.



    Speaking of bugs, I've still found that the contextual menus in System Preferences do nothing. This was reported in the previous build and still hasn't been fixed yet. Other bugs that still persist are the vectored cursors and videos not working properly in iTunes (although the latter was noted in the seed notes.)
  • Reply 10 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nobodyy View Post


    I have yet to download it, probably will later tonight. I noticed that lion was extremely bad at memory management with larger things such as firefox and safari before, as well as with normal computing things going on, how are things going for you?

    Mission control also seemed to be pretty slow, has that sped up?



    Many of the problems I encountered before were performance issues and a couple of in your face bugs lol.



    I have not noticed any drastic speed increases with Mission Control, nor has there been any consistency between the use of "Spaces" and "Desktops." I think Mission Control was essentially ignored in this preview and will be focused on in a later build.



    Also, on a slightly unrelated note, DP2 was also available in a Server configuration, which previously goes against what Apple had said earlier... That it was uniting the client and server builds. DP1 did not have a separate server release.
  • Reply 11 of 51
    macinthe408macinthe408 Posts: 1,050member
    I hear RIM, Dell and Microsoft are already criticizing Apple for releasing the Lion Developer Preview with known issues.



    "Apple thinks its game is pristine. Well, how are you a billion-dollar company and still release software full of known issues? Apple's closed system prevents the world from helping it release quality software, developer preview or not; had Apple opened its libraries and DLLs and registries, it wouldn't have this issue. Instead, they heap upon developers an OS full of bugs and asks them to ferret out these issues," said all CEOs of second-place and worse envious companies.
  • Reply 12 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macinthe408 View Post


    I hear RIM, Dell and Microsoft are already criticizing Apple for releasing the Lion Developer Preview with known issues.



    Would be pointless to complain about an unfinished build at this time. But then again some will complain about anything.
  • Reply 13 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    One thing I've also noticed is that DP2 by default puts your user name on the menu bar, and I haven't found a way to disable it yet. This is useful if you have a shared machine and use user switching, but if you don't, it seems to create unnecessary visual clutter.
  • Reply 14 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quillz View Post


    Mac OS X 10.0



    All OS have bugs, there is no perfect software.



    Speaking of bugs, I've still found that the contextual menus in System Preferences do nothing. This was reported in the previous build and still hasn't been fixed yet. Other bugs that still persist are the vectored cursors and videos not working properly in iTunes (although the latter was noted in the seed notes.)



    10.0 was beta and Apple made no effort to hide this. They said it was beta and they sold it as a paid beta.



    Vista was sold as a fully blown OS when in actual fact it was a $1000(NZ) beta (Ultimate edition).



    HUGE difference.



    I'm not saying Mac OS X is bug free but considering the lengths Apple goes through to get beta testing done by giving the product to real world developers it is actually more than Microsoft has done. Yes they provide betas but their betas are more like alphas and are thus far from what people will be using in the real world.



    Also what the hell are you talking about contextual menus in System Preferences? When has System Preferences ever had contextual menus? Why would you even need contextual menus in System Preferences?
  • Reply 15 of 51
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quillz View Post


    Also, on a slightly unrelated note, DP2 was also available in a Server configuration, which previously goes against what Apple had said earlier... That it was uniting the client and server builds. DP1 did not have a separate server release.



    I think this maybe because it's a developer preview.



    It kind of makes sense that when you're merging two systems for the first time you'd build them seperate to ensure that their feature sets are sound then merge them and work out any kinks. It probably won't be until Developer Preview 3 or 4 until we see Server merged with the main Mac OS X. Just because it isn't there in Developer Preview doesn't mean it's not going to be in the final release.
  • Reply 16 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    10.0 was beta and Apple made no effort to hide this. They said it was beta and they sold it as a paid beta.



    Vista was sold as a fully blown OS when in actual fact it was a $1000(NZ) beta (Ultimate edition).



    HUGE difference.



    I'm not saying Mac OS X is bug free but considering the lengths Apple goes through to get beta testing done by giving the product to real world developers it is actually more than Microsoft has done. Yes they provide betas but their betas are more like alphas and are thus far from what people will be using in the real world.



    Also what the hell are you talking about contextual menus in System Preferences? When has System Preferences ever had contextual menus? Why would you even need contextual menus in System Preferences?



    I meant the contextual menu you get on the Dock icon, it doesn't work, but appears to be a known bug.
  • Reply 17 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    I think this maybe because it's a developer preview.



    It kind of makes sense that when you're merging two systems for the first time you'd build them seperate to ensure that their feature sets are sound then merge them and work out any kinks. It probably won't be until Developer Preview 3 or 4 until we see Server merged with the main Mac OS X. Just because it isn't there in Developer Preview doesn't mean it's not going to be in the final release.



    But what I'm saying is DP1 had merged the two, now they are separate in DP2.
  • Reply 18 of 51
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    There's absolutely no way this will be released this summer. It would be prudent that they take their time with such a major release. Glad Apple stated a preview would be demo'd at WWDC. Late fall would be more likely when the puppy is released.



    We'll get the real feature list at WWDC including those things not mentioned the last time Lion was previewed.
  • Reply 19 of 51
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTel View Post


    There's absolutely no way this will be released this summer. It would be prudent that they take their time with such a major release. Glad Apple stated a preview would be demo'd at WWDC. Late fall would be more likely when the puppy is released.



    We'll get the real feature list at WWDC including those things not mentioned the last time Lion was previewed.



    nah it will be out by the summer - july or august. Apple sticks pretty close to its announced scheds for major items. and it's got other good stuff to hype in the Fall.



    yes, the full and final beta will be released at WWDC. not quite the GM, but close. and yes, we should expect some final surprises then.
  • Reply 20 of 51
    quillzquillz Posts: 209member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTel View Post


    There's absolutely no way this will be released this summer. It would be prudent that they take their time with such a major release. Glad Apple stated a preview would be demo'd at WWDC. Late fall would be more likely when the puppy is released.



    We'll get the real feature list at WWDC including those things not mentioned the last time Lion was previewed.



    I really don't think so, I think an early summer release is more than possible. Not to mention Apple did say they were on track for a summer release. Not that a delay couldn't happen or hasn't happened before, but overall, the Lion Developer Previews are, so far, far more stable than the equivalent Leopard or Snow Leopard builds were.
Sign In or Register to comment.