Like how many native 64 bit apps will be available for the huge user base of G5 owners with Tiger? Tiger will only further fracture the Mac user base into a hopeless muddle that developers will steer clear of like the plague.

Available first half next year, wow that's June 2005, about the same time as the 3GHz G5, right?

What is the connection between the two applications?

Actually, this shows excellent forward planning. After all this is a developers conference.

In terms of fracturing the user base, I find the comment somewhat odd. More than 12 million users have migrated to OS X and pro users (the focus of much development effort) will welcome the enhancements.

Shipping well in advance of Microsft's Longhorn, Tiger demonstates Apple's advanced technology being delivered to market in a timely way.

Apple's ability to demonstrate key features of the new OS and provide developers with both information and tools illustrates why Apple is vendor of choice for creative pros seeking cost-effective and productivity pleasing solutions.

Poor RC is just upset that Microsoft isn't releasing anything to write home about in the OS department. Therefore, he gets cranky and lashes out at us Mac users. Please understand...

You missed something, the developers were very happy. That was the objective of the keynote - not impressing PC lovers . . .

Also it helps to read a bit on Apple's web site. Developers will be developing a single source code and multiple compiles. When a Mac user installs the software the install program will automatically select the processor type and install the correct version. Not only is this rather slick, but (you'll be sad to note) it also means that G3 and G4 uses will be well served.

Time to take your meds, RC . . . time to take your meds.

In my own not so very humble opinion, considering the amount of innovation and the increasing ease of use with each major OS update, it is only fair that customers/users participate in the R&D costs of the company. I’d much rather pay my $8-10 monthly dues and have an incredible working environment than save these few bucks and have to deal with something like Windows, Linux or even OS 9 (which was nice when it didn’t crash …).
Considering that the average Mac user changes computers every 5-6 years or more, I don’t think this is asking much (especially since this is not a required upgrade, nobody takes a knife to your throat to make you). You seem to like the company to be innovative and bring us new features all the time but to resent having to pay for them … when they spend over $100M per quarter on R&D. As a user and shareholder, I strongly approve … :0)

his own overpriced work.

In a normal (i.e. non-microsoft) development cycle, you add a bunch of new features, and then spend a good pile of time bludgeoning the bugs out of them.

With longer development cycles, apple will be able to do quite bigger things between revisions, and will be able to experiment a bit more without a big scary deadline hanging over their head.


In a microsoft development cycle, you just basically add a bunch of bugs, and call them features.

By itself, maybe or maybe not, depending on your particular needs. But what this does is provide an incredible architecture for software developers. Spotlight, Core Imaging and Core Video are building blocks with which developers in all markets are going to have a field day. Automator is the tool Applescript has needed ever since OS X was introduced. Customized automated workflows are about to go mainstream.

Imagine text-edit sized tools having access to all the imaging and transforming effects Core Imaging has. These are programs that will probably be only a few hundred lines long, or less: The hardest parts are already built into the OS, and Apple just handed the keys to the developers.

Imagine managing your job with tools that can easily search, analyze and summarize all component files you have for a project, without any effort on your part (PDFs, text files, MSWord docs, MS Excel files, even photoshop documents and others). Now add Rendezvous to that mix and do the same thing over every machine in your office. Businesses are going to notice this. Project Managers are going to notice this. Apple's Spotlight driven Finder may or may not be a clunky way to search all this stuff, but other developers are going to grab these underlying technologies, build custom interfaces and tools, and run with them, thanks to the APIs introduced today.

Tiger may be a tough sell all by itself, but in non-consumer markets, the software that requires Tiger's features will be cutting-edge stuff, and may quickly become essential.

A majority of these items don't interest me. Hopefully there will be more stuff in the "150" features being brought to Tiger.

xcode 2.0 seems like the best real enhancement. They are really pushing the search features, was finding items so difficult in the past?

Uh, yeah. Trying to find "that one certain file" out of 5 million files when you have only part of the name and a hundred thousand matches pop up..... So, yeah, it's difficult no matter how organized you are. I use iView Media Pro to assist me, but the more help the better....

It's easy to purchase a terabyte or two of data now - managing files is typically one of the biggest headaches for those with tons of media files.

I say, the more aspirin, the better! LOL

Spotlight and the metadata/database file system is easily the most revolutionary concept brought to a mainstream desktop OS in years. FINALLY we are getting away from the pathetically aniquated folder hierarchy system, which is a completely hopeless organizational method for hard drives which contain hundreds of thousands of files. No longer will I have to navigate, navigate, navigate to get to a file or press back, back, back to return to where I was. Everything is instant and accessable, always dynamically updating, always showing me the exact collection of files I need. It's brilliant, and if you don't think so, I would suggest installing Launchbar and using it for a few days. Now think about going back to using the finder. See the difference?

Quote

RealityCheck wrote:
Like how many native 64 bit apps will be available for the huge user base of G5 owners with Tiger? Tiger will only further fracture the Mac user base into a hopeless muddle that developers will steer clear of like the plague.

Huh? G5s can run existing software just fine. Likewise, new 64-bit software will be able to come in the form of FAT applications which contain both 64-bit and 32-bit binaries. I don't see how fracturing will come from this at all. See http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/64bit.html for more info.

Just watched the presentation.

Wonderful! Anyone who can't see the significance of the new features, bot hto end-users and developers, should simply not be even thinking about criticising Tiger.

As an end-user, I want Spotlight, I want Automator, I want deliciously simple applications that will allow me to do deliciously complex things with images; I can see that others will gain considerable benefit from the new video format and the enhanced iChat.

Definitely worth the money.

RC's just pissed that OS X is way ahead of Windows. And Windows is way ahead of Linux. And thus OS X is WAY WAY ahead of Linux.

RC you should get a Mac! Then you could use a *nix OS that is user friendly AND has a huge selection of software!

So if developers are going to avoid Tiger, why did the attendance for WWDC increase when compared to last year?

Hmm OK wait let me put on my RC hat for a sec

"Developers must be drinking the Apple Kool-Aid and have gotten caught in the RDF along with all the other iLemmings."

How'd I do?

Quote

Biff wrote:
RC's just pissed that OS X is way ahead of Windows. And Windows is way ahead of Linux. And thus OS X is WAY WAY ahead of Linux.

Now now, Linux may not have the ease-of-use down but I like it a lot and use it on a secondary computer. Windows is ahead of Linux in some areas, but far behind in others. If something happened to Apple and I had to choose a new computing platform, Linux is the first place I'd look.

Hehe, fair enough.

Don't be fooled by the WWDC 2004 attendance that Mac development is going anywhere but down. Apple gave away hundreds of free student tickets so Apple wouldn't be embarrassed. Next year Jobs may even pay people to attend.

Check the facts:
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/03/01.10.shtml

Yeah darn. Encouraging students to learn OS X development. Yeah thats a bad sign! We're doomed! HAHAHAHA!

I still haven't seen the 150 that were to be in Panther. I did find the crash during Sleep, if Sleep decides to happen feature though.

Plus I didn't see the level of enthusiasm that everyone is proclaiming. The only real spark of non-polite genuine applause was when the new iChat was unveiled. Oh and maybe when he showed the new monitors. But you can tell he wasn't getting the response that he had expected. Otherwise, it was boring and nothing that is making me upset that it'll be a year before it's out.

My only real fear is, "Do I have to endure pathetic updates like 10.3.4, until?"

When did companies start doing this?

Next thing you'll be telling me that they give away free passes to trade shows!

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
I still haven't seen the 150 that were to be in Panther. I did find the crash during Sleep, if Sleep decides to happen feature though.

Plus I didn't see the level of enthusiasm that everyone is proclaiming.

Guest, from my perspective at the event, Steve had that audience wrapped around his little finger. Read our live coverage of the WWDC where I noted when and where the audience was receptive and appreciative of different announcements. iChat AV, Image Units, Video Units, Spotlight, the .Mac SDK, etc... (read the coverage for a full list).

If you were there and interpreted events differently than I did, then so be it. If you are judging from the Webcast, then I imagine things didn't come off through the cameras the same way it did live. That keynote was a raging success from the standpoint of developers.

Lastly, Tiger seems to me to be an update mostly for developers, more so than Panther or Jaguar. Many of the new technologies being added in Tiger are for developers to use.

As for the 150 new features: That's definitely marketing hype, as it always is. There are most likely 150 actual new features, but I can't imagine that users would ever actually notice more than, say, 30 of them. The rest will be minor and behind the scenes things.