OS X 10.2 public observations

[griffman]

SpyMac (http://www.spymac.com/) has a reporter at the WWDC keynote with a connected laptop; they are updating their main page constantly with 10.2 updates. Some of the more interesting snippets I've seen so far: Mail is updated, with advanced rules and global searching, color highlighting and integrated spam filtering [Yes! Global search and advanced rules were two biggies on my list]
New graphic acceleration [I wonder if this means 2D acceleration in the Finder?!]
Multithreading support [A multithreaded Finder would help eliminate the dreaded spinning wheel]
Integrated search [A connection to 'grep' or 'locate' from the GUI for finding things fast without Sherlock?]
Spring loaded folders [Minus one more thing for the OS 9 users to desire!]I don't normally read SpyMac, but this is a very interesting keynote. Hope someone gets some screenshots later this week!

-rob.

[Craig R. Arko]

Also (from MacCentral):

"Expect one more interim release between now and then, (Jaguar) release coming late this summer."

"Mac OS 9 isn't dead for our customers, but it is for [developers]. Today we say goodbye to Mac OS 9 for all future development," said Jobs. (What does this mean for Classic? -- CRA)

"The new version is more network-friendly with Windows systems. Mail services will work with Exchange servers." (No accounting for taste - CRA)

"... USB printer sharing, also."

"Finder improvements -- integrated search, multithreading support, automatic thumbnail creation, spring loaded folders."

Sherlock 3, QuickTime 6.

"Quartz Extreme: Takes the compositing engine in Quartz, and accelerates it in graphics cards. Combines 2D, 3D and video in one hardware pipeline via OpenGL. "Everything on the screen is being drawn in hardware by OpenGL." Requires AGP 2x and 32MB of video RAM." (time to buy new iron, I guess -- CRA)

"Inkwell. Handwriting recognition technology. Recognized by any application that uses text, even basic UNIX applications like Terminal." (finally!! -- CRA)

"Jaguar also features database technology which can be used for any app, system wide. Tied into Bluetooth. LDAP searching built in too."

"iChat: AIM-compatible messaging built in to Jaguar."

"Jaguar Server: Net Install and Net Boot support. Every single server can install off of that. Built in Open Directory (LDAP). Server-optimized Java Virtual Machine."

"Jobs: "A week from tomorrow there'll be some news on the server front." May 14th: Apple introducing a dedicated server, rack mount model" (woohoo - I get my wish! -- CRA)

[griffman]

Man, I >>want<< one of those CDs! ;-)

I can hear the complaints coming already, though, as I'm nearly certain we'll be paying $19.95 for this one. I'd send in my money today if they asked and let me!Quartz Extreme by itself would be worth that price!

And a rackmount server?! Wow!

-rob.

[Craig R. Arko]

Here's (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06jaguar.html) the formal press release on Jaguar. They still dont call it 10.2.

Re: Sherlock and Finder searching; it sure looks like the Finder will use 'locate' for searching a volume, and the Sherlock may be morphing into very similar to Watson. Which is a good idea.

[griffman]

Hmm ... the SpyMac site makes it sound like they said 10.2, but that PR blurb certainly doesn't. I'm going to revise my guess. They'll call it OS X 10.5, and I bet we'll pay between $29.95 and $39.95 for it, and we won't see it until September, based primarily on this wording:“Jaguar” will be available to customers in late summer 2002...I hope I'm wrong on both counts, but "customers" as opposed to "users" implies real dollars to upgrade, and "late summer" usally means "early fall".

It's going to be a longggg summer!

-rob.

[Craig R. Arko]

OK, this (http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/zeroconf-charter.html) is some documentation on what Apple is calling "Rendezvous" technology (aka ZEROCONF). Notice the Apple and Sun co-chairs.

PS - So what do the rest of you think? :D

PPS - Apple's Jaguar Page (http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/).

[xchanyazy]

Just a quick thing - I just saw that iChat supports file transfers. I wonder if that means Apple paid AOL a bit to allow us to use the real AIM service (toc instead of oscar, or the other way around), or if the file transfer is just between users of iChat. Either way, very cool stuff.

[xchanyazy]

Also (this is from Apples Jaguar page that CRA mentioned), Sherlock 3 is Watson. Check it out, there's a screenshot on that page.

EDIT: Also, check out the picture of the "Fast Find" deal.. it adds the iTunes search box to finder windows (and AddressBook, but that's not nearly as cool.)

[Phil St. Romain]

All very interesting! Sounds like 10.5, all right. And just when I'd registered Watson. :rolleyes:

I recall paying full price for 8.0, then again for 8.5 (don't ask me why) I think that $29.95 upgrade price might be optimistic, Rob.

Ahh well, things are definitely moving ahead. That USB Printer Sharing will be especially welcomed, here.

[Craig R. Arko]

Well, Watson is worth it anyway!

So, the combination of Inkwell and Bluetooth sure give some interesting input possibilities. Like a wireless notepad device (let's call it, I don't know, an "iPad"). :D

[mervTormel]

Originally posted by Craig R. Arko
...documentation on what Apple is calling "Rendezvous" technology (aka ZEROCONF). Notice the Apple and Sun co-chairs.

PS - So what do the rest of you think?
i think "well, crap!" we are being pre-maturely retired. our function is being commoditized. time to look for a new profession. <groan>

[mervTormel]

Originally posted by Craig R. Arko
...So, the combination of Inkwell and Bluetooth sure give some interesting input possibilities. Like a wireless notepad device (let's call it, I don't know, an "iPad").
i was just going to say that. i wonder if there'll be iPod rev C with pressure-sensitive screen and blue teeth. is the screen big enough to write? i guess it is for graffiti style input.

or... an optical bluetooth pen that can write on any surface. yeah. that's what i want. combine that with 'paintable' LCD and we have digitalPaper™. where's my drool bucket?

[Craig R. Arko]

I guess I'll be content to buy this upgrade, as long as I don't need an MCLE (Microsoft Certified License Engineer) to figure out the pricing scheme.

Merv, if you're getting out you wanna throw some business my way? Gotta start saving for hardware replacements. :D

[dschep]

does any one else think that iChat's interface (from that one screenshot) looks very bulky. the pictures and text bubles

[mervTormel]

Originally posted by Craig R. Arko
...Merv, if you're getting out you wanna throw some business my way?
"...many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Merv has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung. ...Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Merv has fancy plans... and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey."

http://www.evilzero.com/NewsRadio/Episodes/Ep57.htm

the bay area is a black hole. no jobs for me. they want someone to know everything, have 10 years experience in a technology that hasn't even been around for two years, and work 16 hours a day for a bus driver's salary. commoditized, i tell you. any function that is covered by a "«Subject» for Dummies" book is ruined.

[Craig R. Arko]

Originally posted by dschep
does any one else think that iChat's interface (from that one screenshot) looks very bulky. the pictures and text bubles

It's pretty ugly, all right. I could do without the ubiquitous brushed metal interface as well. I sure hope there are ways to customize that.

[bakaDeshi]

Damn PR, always wowing us with the kool new things. I can get rid of my keyboard now and just use a pen right?;) Overall, it looks impressive. I hope the things will be much more responsive with hardware acceleration and Quartz Extreme. I just hope they also fixed the little bugs as well. Such as when you copy files and the file exists already. Umm, well which one is newer? September is sooo for away...

[sbur]

I guess I'm most excited about the Rendezvous technology and the multithreaded finder. The fact that they now have GCC3 running well makes me hopeful that the code has been further optimized, so we should see a significant boost just due to that! My complaints about the finder speed are minor, so hardware excellerated quartz isn't as attractive to me at this point. (Though I do recognize the huge benifit that some people will gain.)

Also, as I mentioned somewhere else, I really don't have much of a digital life, so iChat isn't that appealing to me.

Over-all, I'd have to agree that it will be a 10.5 release, and I would gladly pay for it. It isn't just the "bug fixes" that may prognosticated. It actually has some fundamentally new things that are worth a full upgrade.

That's my $.02. Then again, I'm not an investment banker so my $.02 doesn't go very far. :)

[Craig R. Arko]

There's a nice thread (http://bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/000106.html) at XLR8yourmac wherein Arshad from ATI explains where the Quartz Extreme video card requirements come from.

[bassi]

Here's a cool link on a french site which shows a front end to the "Unix" firewall in 10.2

http://www.macadsl.com/images/jaguar_firewall.jpg

This is a great implementation