Free Republic

What you need to know about the changes to Apple's next OSMore details have emerged about Mac OS X 10.5, the next major update to the Mac operating system that Apple has dubbed “Leopard.” While Leopard won’t be let out of its cage until October, two Steve Jobs keynote addresses and Apple's Leopard web site have given us some idea of how this latest cat will behave. In the following pages, we’ll describe what's publicly known about Leopard’s new features—and the lingering questions that we’re still trying to answer. We’ll also take a look at the OS X 10.5 features...

In 2004, when Apple Computer showed off its latest ``cat,'' Tiger, it couldn't help but taunt Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash., software giant was working on its long-awaited next-generation Windows operating system, Vista, known then as ``Longhorn.'' During Apple's annual developer's conference in San Francisco, when its Tiger operating system was unveiled, the company jabbed at its mighty competitor with posters that read: ``Redmond, start your photocopiers,'' ``Introducing Longhorn'' and ``Redmond, we have a problem.'' In roughly the same time frame that Microsoft has labored over Vista -- its predecessor, Windows XP, was launched in 2001 -- Apple is on the...

A team of Apple executives will demo the Mac OS X 10.5--which will support both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs--at a keynote on opening day. Apple Computer Inc. on Monday made it official: It will preview the next Mac OS X operating system, code named "Leopard," at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in August. Although long-expected by Apple followers and promised by chief executive Steve Jobs in 2005, the announcement was the first formal acknowledgement by the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer and consumer electronics maker that it would actually have something to show at WWDC. A team made up of Jobs;...

In recent weeks, the core feature set and low-level changes to the Mac OS X codebase have been firmed up in preparation for focused efforts to produce a "WWDC Preview" release in early August to be shared with developers in attendance of Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (Aug. 7-11). This Preview Release will not include all of the high-level features and extra software that will be present in the final release due out next summer; nor will it be anywhere near production quality in terms of hardware support or crash-free reliability. But it will, without a doubt, be the most...