[MJCP]

It merited only an aside in Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote here at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The real information about the next version of Mac OS X, if any, was flashed later in the day only to developers, and only under a nondisclosure agreement that promises vengeance unto the third generation if broken. So, what we know about that operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, is: It exists. And the widespread pre-WWDC rumours were on target when they said that Snow Leopard, unlike, oh, every other major OS X revision, will feature … no new features. Read more

[Some Random Bloke]

Good article, whole heartedly agree.

[gazza]

.................was flashed later in the day only to developers, and only under a nondisclosure agreement that promises vengeance unto the third generation if broken.......

It is rumoured that Apple was so paranoid about disclosure of this story (and others?) that developers were even escorted to the toilets to make sure that they didn't sneakily pass off any info!!!!

I will happily pay a "reduced ($30?)" upgrade fee for a sleek, trimmed down, bugless OSX10.6 if it means fewer and smaller successive updates. The whole 10.5 scenario has been messy from the beginning, as discussed elsewhere in these forums ad infinitum. I will then be able to make more entertaining use of my (rural) broadband connection allocation which has been regularly and extensively chewed up by OS 10.5 updates.

Like Xenophos I think that this article presents a great summary of the 10.6 story, well done Dan Turner.

gazza

[rhysbartels]

i would happily pay $130 for better multi-core, openCL support, and slimmer code

[gazza]

MacRumours today reports on more details of Snow Leopard's Grand Central and OpenCL.

Apple's Grand Central is a new thread management architecture which simplifies the developer's task to support multi-threading:
Snow Leopard’s Grand Central Dispatch does the same thing [as modern networking] for processes, packetizing tasks into Blocks and routing them to available processing cores as efficiently as possible. It can also manage the big picture for the whole system, adjusting how it balances its tasks as the performance load increases. This would be close to impossible for Individual developers to do themselves.
With the recent trend towards multi-core CPUs, exploiting multi-threaded designs is required to take advantage of today's processors. As expected, OpenCL will allow developers to also pass off tasks to the computer's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). However, it appears OpenCL code will be stored as bytecode to allow for just-in-time compilation (same as Core Image) allowing applications to be specifically optimized to the graphics hardware it is being run on. Similarly, Grand Central will oversee OpenCL tasks as well, to optimally route code to the best available processor.

Head over here for more details and links to relevant sites.

gazza

[the_cable_guy]

why would you possibly pay money for it then?

[gazza]

why would you possibly pay money for it then?

If you want the upgrade you have no choice, Apple always charges for upgrades, not the "dot" updates. So if you want the benefits, you have to pay. We would all expect that this particular upgrade will be less than previous ones, though

gazza

[mickdevlin]

If you want the upgrade you have no choice, Apple always charges for upgrades, not the "dot" updates. So if you want the benefits, you have to pay. We would all expect that this particular upgrade will be less than previous ones, though

What about 10.1? If you were upgrading from 10.0, you got the update for free. The only people who had to pay for it were those who hadnt yet installed 10.0.

Apple did charge a nominal fee for those who were updating from 10.0 ($15 IIRC), but that was just to cover shipping and handling of the CD. Does anyone remember when Mac OS X came on CDs?.

[rhysbartels]

What about 10.1? If you were upgrading from 10.0, you got the update for free. The only people who had to pay for it were those who hadnt yet installed 10.0.

Apple did charge a nominal fee for those who were updating from 10.0 ($15 IIRC), but that was just to cover shipping and handling of the CD. Does anyone remember when Mac OS X came on CDs?.

what is this cd thingo you talk about??

[mickdevlin]

what is this cd thingo you talk about??

Apparently they look a bit like DVDs.

[rhysbartels]

ah you mean the current technology jobs is trying to axe too...

[gazza]

What about 10.1? If you were upgrading from 10.0, you got the update for free. The only people who had to pay for it were those who hadnt yet installed 10.0.

Apple did charge a nominal fee for those who were updating from 10.0 ($15 IIRC), but that was just to cover shipping and handling of the CD. Does anyone remember when Mac OS X came on CDs?.

I stand corrected "Master." Any other exceptions to my statement or was I mostly correct. LOL

gazza

[the_cable_guy]

but if there are no new benefits then what is the point of paying money for it might as well wait for 10.7

[gazza]

but if there are no new benefits then what is the point of paying money for it might as well wait for 10.7

I don't think anyone has said, "there are no new benefits." The advantages with Snow Leopard as I see it will be a much sleeker (faster?) OS per se, and definitely faster/better in design because of its focus on getting the most from the multi-core processors. There will be fewer bugs to sort out, much smaller incremental updates, and overall great stability and integration in the OSX world.

gazza

[the_cable_guy]

I don't think anyone has said, "there are no new benefits." The advantages with Snow Leopard as I see it will be a much sleeker (faster?) OS per se, and definitely faster/better in design because of its focus on getting the most from the multi-core processors. There will be fewer bugs to sort out, much smaller incremental updates, and overall great stability and integration in the OSX world.

gazza

fair enough

[mickdevlin]

but if there are no new benefits then what is the point of paying money for it might as well wait for 10.7

You might not have to pay anything. Refer to the previous posts on this topic.

[the_cable_guy]

I no but since it is a major update for OS im assuming that you will have to pay for it

[Ken Gracey]

Well if apples web site is correct and why shouldn't it be, there will be as a few of you have said little to no change to 10.6

http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/



TL

[the_cable_guy]

oh k kool

[rhysbartels]

there will be as a few of you have said little to no change to 10.6

big changes, just no planned new features for the average consumer to get all exited about