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Mac OS X Leopard

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Template:Future software

Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"
DeveloperApple Computer
OS familyBSD
Working statein development, previewed during the 2006 WWDC (August 7)
Source modelClosed source (Darwin foundation is open source)
Latest releaseN/A / N/A
Kernel typeHybrid kernel (XNU)
LicenseAPSL and Apple EULA
Official websitewww.apple.com/support/leopard/

Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" is the upcoming sixth major release of Mac OS X for Apple's Macintosh computers. Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated during his keynote speech [1] on June 6, 2005 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that Apple intended to release Leopard at the end of 2006 or early 2007, and that he would be speaking about the operating system in greater detail during his keynote speech at the 2006 WWDC on August 7.

Processor

Leopard will be available for PowerPC machines, as well as new Intel machines. It is not known if both the PowerPC and Intel versions will be a single disc using Universal Binaries, but evidence so far suggests this will be the case. The Apple DVD developer install kit took advantage of this feature, meaning a user can install the operating system on either a PowerPC or an x86 system using the same disc. Universal binaries allow software manufacturers to make one binary which is compatible with both platforms, greatly easing the transition to the Intel architecture.

Features

Leopard will include a software assistant called Boot Camp[2], a piece of software that was revealed as a public beta on April 5 2006, that assists in the installation of Windows XP Home or Professional Edition (SP2 only). This software, which only works on Intel-based Macs, prepares a separate partition for the installation of Windows XP on the Mac's hard drive. This allows Windows XP to run natively, rather than emulated with Microsoft Virtual PC or virtualized with VMware or Parallels Workstation. This means that applications can run at full speed, although only one operating system can be run at a time.

Although intended for the installation of Windows XP, Boot Camp can be used to assist in the installation of other versions of Windows such as beta versions of Vista[3] as well as other operating systems such as ones based on Linux[4] and Solaris[5].

As Steve Jobs mentioned during his 2006 keynote speech, Leopard will include the following features:

  1. native support for 64-bit applications while also able to run 32-bit applications without emulation or translation.
  2. Time Machine - an automatic backup utility that works mainly with Finder, but also with other programs (such as iPhoto) and even third-party applications; it backs up every file overwritten by the user, allowing users to "go back in time" and restore files (any number at once) from a specific date in the past.[6]
  3. Leopard will ship with numerous applications already in the box, including Boot Camp, Front Row, and Photo Booth.
  4. virtual desktops called "Spaces", similar to the feature already present in some Unix X11 window managers.
  5. upgrades to Spotlight, including the ability to search other computers (with permissions) and advanced search options as requested by many developers.
  6. Core Animation, a key component of Time Machine, but also a significant feature on its own; when a user (creating a screensaver, for example) specifies a "start" and a "goal" space, core animation automatically deals with the intermediate steps (color, opacity, etc.), enhancing these applications while shortening the source code.
  7. "Universal access" – significant improvements to applications like VoiceOver, along with increased support for Braille and closed captioning
  8. Enhancements to Mail – including the additions of Stationery, Notes, and To Do's.[7][8]

Speculation

Garbage collection for the Objective-C runtime was rumored to be a planned feature of v10.5, based on the man page for Apple's version of GCC that was included with Xcode 2.2[9]: 

       -fobjc-gc
           Enable garbage collection (GC) for Objective-C objects.  The
           resulting binary can only be used on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and
           later systems, due to additional functionality needed in the (NeXT)
           Objective-C runtime.

However this man page was changed to remove all mention of 10.5 with the release of Xcode 2.3 in May 2006[10].

Another theory is that the new OS will feature a redesigned Finder that relies almost entirely on Spotlight search technology. The new Finder would help users search through the metadata of their files (name, file type, creator, creation date, modification date, associated keywords, size, etc.) in real time, as they currently can in iTunes. Along these lines the Finder might display files and their metadata in much the same way as iTunes displays songs; with the ability to quickly sort on and modify that data. [11] [12]

A more ambitious rumor is that Apple plans to gather secondary metadata through a number of analysis techniques. For example, analyzing the tone and pitch of an MP3 to determine the genre, using speech recognition to extract the lyrics from a song, using OCR to index and search images, or analyzing a photograph to determine if it was a night or day shot, etc. [13] [14]

A future version of Mac OS X is expected to include user-accessible resolution independence, i.e. the capability to size system graphics in physical units--inches, for example, as opposed to pixels. This feature results in standard size graphics independent of the device on which they are viewed. While there was some support for this in 10.4/Tiger, the developer documentation for 10.4 stresses that this is preliminary support in preparation for a "future release of Mac OS X". [15]

See also

  • Rosetta – an emulator for Mac OS X (included in Intel-based releases of Mac OS X 10.4) that allows Intel-based Macs to run PowerPC-native software.
  • Apple Intel transition – more information on Apple's move from PowerPC-based Macs to Intel-based Macs.

References

  1. ^ Apple Computer, Inc. "Apple WWDC 2005". Apple. Retrieved 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ Apple Computer, Inc. "Boot Camp". Apple. Retrieved 2006-04-11.
  3. ^ AirmanPika. "Vista Installed". OSx86 Project Forum. Retrieved 2006-04-09.
  4. ^ "Triple Boot via BootCamp". OnMac.net. Retrieved 2006-05-13.
  5. ^ Jan Setje-Eihler. "Solaris Nevada build 36 running on an iMac". Retrieved 2006-05-13.
  6. ^ MacRumors.com. "WWDC 2006 Keynote - Live Coverage". Retrieved 2006-08-07.
  7. ^ "WDC 2006 Keynote - Live Coverage". Retrieved 2006-08-07. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  8. ^ "Live from WWDC 2006 - Steve Jobs keynote". Retrieved 2006-08-07.
  9. ^ John Siracusa (May 06 2006). "The garbage man cometh". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2006-06-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  10. ^ Jesper (May 24 2006). "Purer Garbage". Retrieved 2006-06-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  11. ^ macosXrumors. "Exclusive: Leopard to feature a totally redesigned Finder, based on Spotlight". Retrieved 2005-10-20.
  12. ^ Prince McLean. "Multiple Finder window selects coming in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard?". AppleInsider. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
  13. ^ arn. "Apple Spotlight Patents Hinting at Leopard?". MacRumors. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
  14. ^ "Spotlight Voice Recognition and OCR". Hrmpf. Retrieved 2006-02-21.
  15. ^ John Siracusa (April 23, 2006). "Declaration of resolution-independence". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2006-07-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
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