Steve's OS X Leopard Demo
Wednesday August 09, 2006 | Permalink
Steve Jobs gave a preview demo of the new Mac OS X Leopard (v10.5) at the Apple WWDC in San Fran on Monday. Steve was playing cheapskate by not sharing too many of Leopard's new features for fear other companies may copy them.
Now, I'm a huge Apple supporter, and I always enjoy the usual ribbing Apple gives to other companies from time to time. I especially enjoy when Apple gets put in its place too.
I really liked the new features Steve demo'd for Leopard even if some of those features aren't really part of the OS itself (iChat, Mail).
So I wasn't too surprised to wake up this morning and see a few people (like The Register and Paul Thurott) who've been complaining that these features amount to little more than a point release or that they've already been implemented or planned for Windows already. I'm sure their comments sprung up from all the Apple comments about Microsoft copying their ideas.
Well some of those negative comments are indeed warranted (we've had multiple desktops in Unix for years now), while others are not (super easy, integrated backup solution). To them I say, "Come on guys. Calm down".
Do we really want Apple to announce features months or years in advance, only to have to pull them out of the product because of scheduling or technical reasons. I'm sure Apple has scratched a feature or two off its list from each major release of OS X. We just haven't heard of it. Microsoft's pulling features from Vista left, right, and center and is getting unbelievably bad press over it. Thats not what we want for Apple.
I'm sure Apple is keeping the cool stuff to themselves until closer to the release date.
I think the reason Steve demo'd the features he did is obvious. Its safe to show off those features because they've already been done elsewhere. Apple is [usually] obsessively protective of its secrecy. You could be sure Apple is going to demo new and exciting features at MacWorld San Francisco early next year to drive up the buzz for the release.
Now, I'm a huge Apple supporter, and I always enjoy the usual ribbing Apple gives to other companies from time to time. I especially enjoy when Apple gets put in its place too.
I really liked the new features Steve demo'd for Leopard even if some of those features aren't really part of the OS itself (iChat, Mail).
So I wasn't too surprised to wake up this morning and see a few people (like The Register and Paul Thurott) who've been complaining that these features amount to little more than a point release or that they've already been implemented or planned for Windows already. I'm sure their comments sprung up from all the Apple comments about Microsoft copying their ideas.
Well some of those negative comments are indeed warranted (we've had multiple desktops in Unix for years now), while others are not (super easy, integrated backup solution). To them I say, "Come on guys. Calm down".
Do we really want Apple to announce features months or years in advance, only to have to pull them out of the product because of scheduling or technical reasons. I'm sure Apple has scratched a feature or two off its list from each major release of OS X. We just haven't heard of it. Microsoft's pulling features from Vista left, right, and center and is getting unbelievably bad press over it. Thats not what we want for Apple.
I'm sure Apple is keeping the cool stuff to themselves until closer to the release date.
I think the reason Steve demo'd the features he did is obvious. Its safe to show off those features because they've already been done elsewhere. Apple is [usually] obsessively protective of its secrecy. You could be sure Apple is going to demo new and exciting features at MacWorld San Francisco early next year to drive up the buzz for the release.
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