Tag Archives: leopard

Steve Jobs and the WWDC Keynote

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I’ve been reading on other sites that Steve Jobs may have lost his magic because of his keynote speech yesterday at the WWDC. I have two alternate theories for his keynote performance.

By the way, I thought that his performance was fine and allowing other people to discuss the new features of OS X and the Mac Pros was fine. Steve Jobs is smart enough not to do a keynote where there aren’t enough announcements to justify the use of Reality Distortion Field (“RDF”).

Theory 1: Steve Jobs did not have his Reality Distortion Field in full effect because he was angry with his Mac OS X team.

Why do I think this? In January, Apple hyped the Leopard preview at WWDC 2006. The Leopard preview yesterday was a bit underwhelming – it had some cool features, but nothing that captured the attention of the tech world. Steve Jobs discussed that there are a lot of “Top Secret” things that they didn’t want Redmond to copy just yet.

Apple is usually unafraid to show off their new OS technologies because their technologies are difficult to copy on short notice. Vista is not completed and any new feature shown off at WWDC 2006 would never make it into the first release of Vista. Microsoft couldn’t even implement its own WinFS file system.

Steve Jobs could have easily been so frustrated with the delay of Leopard from pre-Vista to post-Vista that he could not get his RDF up in full effect. He did not believe in the product and could not show off buggy new features and have a Microsoft-like experience during a keynote speech.

Frustration could have led to the underwhelming keynote.

Theory 2: Leopard is actually a lame duck and OS 11 is coming sooner than we think.

I’m aware that OS X is only up to 10.5, and a jump to OS 11 seems premature. Banners around WWDC had messages such as “Hasta la vista, Vista” and “Introducing Vista 2.0.” A totally new Mac OS would knock Redmond for a loop.

Think about it. It’s one thing to show that Vista and OS X have many similarities. However, Apple could really mock Redmond with a major revision to its OS by jumping to 11. Perhaps the delay to OS 10.5 is because the OS team has been divided once again. An uninspired team is working on OS 10.5, while the other half is working on the next generation OS, OS 11.

With all the rumors surrounding OS 10.5 and its features, perhaps the features are true, but belong to another Apple OS. I’ll even name the new Apple OS after OS X. Welcome to OS neXt. It would keep the “X” and give Steve Jobs a chuckle throwing the Next name in there.

The OS team did port over OS X to intel almost seamlessly (I say almost because Classic does not function under the intel OS X). With the new intel architecture, the Mac OS team has the chance to create a new OS from scratch. This OS neXt would include virtualization of Windows and Linux programs. If it’s a program, it will run on OS neXt. There’s no reason to run anything else.

With Apple’s switch to intel they are able to say a Mac is the only computer you need. With a brand new OS, Apple could say that the Mac OS is the only OS you need because it runs everything under the sun.

Steve Jobs to double click “.exe” file at WWDC.

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Get ready for this headline in a couple of months. Some are fearing that Apple’s endorsement of Parallels as a way to run Windows on their Mac shows that Apple will not have a product similar to it. However, just because Apple thinks something is a cool product, that does not mean that they will refuse to create their own product. I think I had seen Steve Jobs show off the iPod with Bose accessories and other boombox-style systems before the Apple Hi-Fi.

My wife had told me of the scenario she expects at WWDC. Steve Jobs goes online to show off either a built-in bit torrent system or a new version of Safari. He decides to download a file. The file appears on the desktop. Steve laments that the file is an “.exe” file. “Well, maybe I’ll just click it anyway,” he says. The audience erupts as the Mac OS 10.5 can run Windows programs without Windows.

Leopard would not compete with Parallels. Parallels allows you to run Windows on top of Mac OS X. Leopard would allow you to run Windows programs like X11 programs. I would expect this WINE-like functionality to be available only on the Intel version of OS X.

Cut and Paste Files: a “feature” of OS X 10.5?

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Recently, on macosxhints.com a Mac OS X user found a way to enable the “Cut” command in the Edit menu in Finder. Full tip can be found here. When enabled, the item you cut gets placed into the trash. It appears to be half-done.

I find it sad that there is no cut and paste ability by the Finder. I am not sure I understand what kind of demented logic refuses to give Mac users a simple cut and paste feature that has been available on Windows as long as I can remember (I’ve used Windows since 3.1). I am not looking forward to the touting of this new “feature” in OS X 10.5. It should not be a feature. It’s a necessity.

And while I’m ranting, give me two buttons with my trackpad. Using two fingers on the trackpad as a right-click or control click is a decent stop-gap solution. However, why not give the users two buttons on a laptop? I’ll even accept the idea that two buttons may confuse users. My solution – put two buttons on the “Pro” models and a rocker switch on the non-Pro. Just give me my right click and cut and paste features. Copy Windows, Apple. If Apple believes that a second mouse button will confuse the people who are shelling out $2000 for a laptop, they’ve got issues.

Finder needs work

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Recently, a couple of faked screenshots of Mac OS 10.5, Leopard, were making the rounds on the Internet. Included in the fake shots was a new tabbed Finder interface.

When I switched from Windows to Mac, Finder was one of the things I hated most about OS X. It was too simple and underpowered. You have to open two Finder windows to do anything. There are few ways to customize Finder (besides putting a ton of items in your toolbar and your sidebar). There is no “Advanced” view that gives you more functionality. (As an aside, I find it quite irritating that you can only save items to locations listed in your sidebar using a drop down menu instead of a sheet).

One of the better Finder replacements is Path Finder. Unfortunately, it does not completely replace the Finder because OS X does not truly give you an option to use a replacement program for Finder. You would have two programs running. A few months ago, there was news that Apple was looking for a new Finder team. I e-mailed them and the guys at CocoaTech (makers of Path Finder) and implored them to bring the Path Finder people to Apple to replace the Finder. More likely than not, Apple will just copy Path Finder without payment just as they copied Konfabulator (later Yahoo Widgets Engine). Apple apologists will say what a great innovation, while others (like me) will say Apple stole a great idea.

Tabbed file browsing is not a complete answer. Split view panes, as can be found in Windows with Explorer, are necessary for moving files. Additionally, Apple has the awful folder replace function. Instead of integrating the contents of two folders who share the same name, Mac OS X replaces the folder with the newer one (after warning you that it will do this). There is not even an option to integrate the folder contents.

I am not asking for Finder to become Path Finder. I just want a program that can act like Windows Explorer or Finder that gives you advanced options. Hide it from the newbies and give some power to the users.