12/18/2008, 3:55pm, EST
Thursday, December 18th
Apple rushing Snow Leopard to beat Windows 7?
Apple may feel under pressure to release Mac OS X Snow Leopard as soon as possible, writes The Guardian. The British paper notes that developers have been receiving hints that Mac OS X will be shipping sooner than expected, which was "about a year" after this summer's WWDC event. Khronos Group president Neil Trevett, meanwhile, comments that the ratification of Apple's key OpenCL standard happened in just six months, whereas other standards have taken as long as 18 months to formalize.
In late November, Apple's director of Unix engineering, Jordan Hubbard, delivered a claim during a presentation which suggested a first-quarter 2009 release date.
It is believed that Apple wants to be ready to show off Snow Leopard at January's Macworld expo, but the greater pressure is said to be Windows 7 -- which Microsoft itself may be hurrying to ship in June, rather than late 2009 or early 2010, according to Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle. While Microsoft's motive is thought to be addressing criticism of Windows Vista, Apple may want to create a gap in which Snow Leopard is virtually unopposed.
The company is nevertheless believed to be unable to ship the OS before February, in part because OpenCL was ratified so recently. Hardware makers will need to gain certification to claim OpenCL compatibility, and the tests alone should take over a month, says Trevett. Video card makers will also need to write supporting Mac drivers, created in parallel alongside ones for Windows and Linux.
Filed under: software
Other story tags: Mac OS X, Vista, Windows, Windows 7, Snow Leopard
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Why
It's not like Windows 7 is going to be any better than Tiger was.
the big day
Snow Leopard is intel only, this seems to me like a good time to license the OS to Dell and others. This also makes the transition of Steve Jobs less damaging for the company.
I think Steve isn't in charge for a long time, the company has become to big. Spending time on Disney and his family has also its importance i would think. Going with a bang is what we would expect from the man. :-)
re: Why
It is important if Apple license osX, sales are slowing and it seems like a good time to do it. We would hate it but the shareholders won't. Steve has saved the company, what more can we ask?
Disaster
This is a disaster in the making. Its bad enough Leopard was a nightmare when it was released. Rushing even more is simply asking for trouble.
Why is Apple eager to beat Windows 7. That garbage isn't even remotely considered as competition. Any idiot that buys into Microshit products today deserves them.
Please, take your time and finish Snow Leopard properly. Otherwise whatever will be released will be tagged as a Microshit product!
consider the source
If any part of this speculation is based on drivel from Rob Enderle you can discount it heavily.
But I agree, and I'm sure Apple management does too: shipping too soon and having a PR disaster when/if it's buggy is the worst case scenario. Ship as soon as it's ready and no sooner. Announce a release date in January that aggressive, but hittable, then hit it.
Enderle = Idiot
Why do people pay any attention to anything Rob Enderle has to say? He's an idiot who makes stuff up along the way (all of which are anti-Apple, btw).
There's no reason to beat Windows 7 to market. At this point, it's Microsoft who has to play catch up.
Cr@pware
Apple may be rushing to release snow leopard, but I doubt 'worry' about being beat to the punch by windows 7 has little to do with it.
Windows 7
I think some of you are forgetting the fact that as much as you might love Mac OS X, Windows is installed on a lot more computers, and there are people who prefer it - if only, sometimes, because Windows systems are cheaper and/or allow more customization. Apple has to provide a clear and unmistakable feature advantage to draw people away.
speculation is fun!
On a slow business day nothing is more enjoyable than predicting when and why Apple will release (fill in the blank product). Agree Ron E is famous for not having a clue but then again who outside of Apple Inc, knows when a product will ship. I don't think Snow Leopard will allow time travel or anything quite that revolutionary but a little extra speed and apparently laying the foundation for some future technologies is always welcome. 10.6 will probably come around 6.10.
RE: Windows 7
Ah Roger, this being a Mac centric site, which for the most part equals Mac Geeks, I don't think anybody here doesn't know what the Mac/Windows users base ratio is.
You are correct, a lot of people like windows, it's when you ask why they like windows that you start to see some interesting answers. For instance, most windows users have never tried any alternative OS much less a Mac; some hard core "Geek" still remember dos and their Windows Kung Fu is truly impressive; but the number one answer I get is simply, "I'm just use to it", simple fact is, a lot of people just don't care. One of the reason Vista is such a nightmare for M$ is b/c they changed the OS so much, that it gave the I'm-just-use-to-it people a reason to try something else.
And if you don't get it, it is easier for people who just want to get things done on the computer on a Mac..... YES IT IS, I have friends that I've convinced to switch and they are computer retarded, but they are doing some amazing things on their machines. A good example is my sister, she had to have her husband attach photos to the email on their PC, but when she got her own MacBook she not only had that cover, but was doing all kinds of everyday things with iPhoto from editing to ordering prints. Most people know what they want to do with a computer, but get frustrated with the excessive configuring and more times than not just give up. A Mac has a way of drawing people in to become interested in how the machine works, it's self discoverable, and yes, much more intuitive than a PC. Don't get me wrong, the Mac OS is not perfect, but when compared to what is available, it's pretty damn good. Again, most people are not "Geeks", so the more straight forward the system the more they can be creative with out learning what a dll file is. And lets not forget the whole system security issue.
Oh I'm sure there's a lot of folks who would want to challenge all the above, but it really doesn't matter, you put two non-computer people in a room with about equal skill, and the one sitting in front of the mac will actually figure it out faster and produce more work than the person on the PC.
As for rushing out SL, I really don't see why Apple would do this; it makes no sense.