Mac OSX Snow Leopard - Your Predictions

[muziksculp]

Hi,

Apple's next OSX Snow Leopard will be surfacing soon ! I'm sure there will be a big OSX 'Snow Leopard' buzz during the upcoming June 8th, WWDC event.

So...

Any guesses as to when it will be officially released ? June 8th, or later ?

How soon after OSX SL's release, can we expect DAWs such as Logic Pro, Cubase, Digital Performer, Live, ...etc. updated to benefit from what OSX Snow Leopard offers ?

How much longer do you expect to wait, to finally move into 64-bit territory on Mac OSX SL ?

Do you think the transition to OSX Snow Leopard will be smooth, and swift, or do you think it's going to be a pretty bumpy, and long ride as far as music applications are concerned, audio devices, AU/VST plug-ins and instruments ... etc ?

What are your predictions ?

Thanks.

[shanabit]

I predict it will require many updates to get it running properly

[rhizomeman]

I talked to the "mac expert" where I work and he said Snow Leopard is basically what Leopard wanted to be but they sort of ran out of time. Supposedly, it won't have any new features (at least not many) but is being designed specifically for 64 bit speed...glitches of course, but I'm looking forward!!

[AnAverageJoe]

Originally Posted by rhizomeman

I talked to the "mac expert" where I work and he said Snow Leopard is basically what Leopard wanted to be but they sort of ran out of time. Supposedly, it won't have any new features (at least not many) but is being designed specifically for 64 bit speed...glitches of course, but I'm looking forward!!

You mean to tell me that Leopard is running at 32bit speed now? I thought all Mac OS were written in 64bit.

[Elser]

I expect it will be bumpy and expensive. Every innovation has been. It's been 10 years since ATA came out some people still tout SCSI as the holy grail of hard drive interfaces.

[ProducerBoy]

Originally Posted by shanabit

I predict it will require many updates to get it running properly

Sounds about right.

[rhizomeman]

I think if you have a intel core2 inside, then you are at 64bit (the "2" means 64bit). If you just have an intel core then no, you're at 32. Someone chime in and correct me if I'm wrong.

[Sascha Franck]

From what I know, OSX is not a 64bit OS at all. Might be that there's some 64bit code ticking somewhere under the hood already, but all applications under the current version are running at 32bit, regardless of the CPU used.

- Sascha

[HobbyCore]

Originally Posted by AnAverageJoe

You mean to tell me that Leopard is running at 32bit speed now? I thought all Mac OS were written in 64bit.

It has very little to do with "speed". It's about memory management. Currently Leopard uses 32-bit address space per process. It does support 64-bit architectures however and can use extended address space, but not per process.

[HobbyCore]

Originally Posted by Elser

I expect it will be bumpy and expensive. Every innovation has been. It's been 10 years since ATA came out some people still tout SCSI as the holy grail of hard drive interfaces.

So?

A bunch of die-hards claiming a piece of (insert hobby/profession here) from their hay day is superior to a new-fangled contraption is nothing new.

S-ATAII is superior to scsi in every way except processing overhead, which is due to the extensions provided by proxy of the format's specifications.

[rhizomeman]

Well according to the apple website Leopard is 64bit:

Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Technology - 64-Bit

[Reptil]

firewire over bluetooth

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by Elser

I expect it will be bumpy and expensive. Every innovation has been. It's been 10 years since ATA came out some people still tout SCSI as the holy grail of hard drive interfaces.

ultra SCSI was pretty fast!
I sold my Umax S900 (from 1998) for a crate of beer but that harddrive (& controller) was WAY faster than the powerbook (G4) and Imac (G5)
8 gb of pure insane speeeeeeeeed whahahaha

[Will]

I think Snow Leopard will be Intel only, fully 64 bit, using OpenCL so that the graphics card can take some processing power (good for music where you need low graphics but high processing).

Off topic, I am also looking forward to Exchange like functionality (not the version they are using now) & address book sharing worth a damn. I am also secretly hoping for (but almost certainly not going to get) a mail server based on something rather than postfix.

As ever, I don't think its going to work straight out of the box, but it would be nice if it was a little easier than Leopard was.

[The Spark]

iVista!

(I kid... I kid...)

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by Elser

I expect it will be bumpy and expensive. Every innovation has been. It's been 10 years since ATA came out some people still tout SCSI as the holy grail of hard drive interfaces.

At a level that consumers can afford SCSI "is" the Holy Grail command set. SATA was designed to be cheap to make and implement but it was never meant to overtake SCSI as a performance protocol.

Originally Posted by Sascha Franck

From what I know, OSX is not a 64bit OS at all. Might be that there's some 64bit code ticking somewhere under the hood already, but all applications under the current version are running at 32bit, regardless of the CPU used.

- Sascha

correct ...current Leopard has support for some 64-bit processes. Snow Leopard finally gives us 64-bit from the kernel to the GUI

Originally Posted by HobbyCore

So?

A bunch of die-hards claiming a piece of (insert hobby/profession here) from their hay day is superior to a new-fangled contraption is nothing new.

S-ATAII is superior to scsi in every way except processing overhead, which is due to the extensions provided by proxy of the format's specifications.

SATA is not bi-directional so it's still not a good interface for multi drive arrays and SCSI's commend set is still superior. Just ask any Fibre Channel or iSCSI vendor.


My guess is that we'll see Snow Leopard by September and depending on how good the WWDC build is we may see it slightly soon. Apple has already frozen the API from what I've read and you gotta figure that by Aug we'll be in the Release Candidate phase. Once the Golden Master hits it'll be roughly a couple of weeks for disc pressing and packaging and shipment to stores.

[Gandy]

I reckon SL will be very smooth, but with above-minor glitches here and there. I think it'll be 64 bit, it's about time.

[AnAverageJoe]

Originally Posted by HobbyCore

It has very little to do with "speed". It's about memory management. Currently Leopard uses 32-bit address space per process. It does support 64-bit architectures however and can use extended address space, but not per process.

So what would be the advantage of me putting the upgrade in my MacPro? I hate upgrading cause something is always not going to work right after the install is done.

[C Heat]

I predict once Snow Leopard is released we'll have to wait 12 months to get another buggy Pro Tools release, by that time Apple would have released Dessert Leopard... and the cycle will continue ad nauseam

[Tui]

Originally Posted by rhizomeman

I think if you have a intel core2 inside, then you are at 64bit (the "2" means 64bit). If you just have an intel core then no, you're at 32. Someone chime in and correct me if I'm wrong.

No, you are absolutely correct. I have an 8-core Mac Pro, consequently Leopard runs on my machine at 256 bit. thumbsup

[JPeters86]

OSX expensive? How do you mean?

It's like $130 in the Store, is that expensive?

[AnAverageJoe]

Originally Posted by C Heat

I predict once Snow Leopard is released we'll have to wait 12 months to get another buggy Pro Tools release, by that time Apple would have released Dessert Leopard... and the cycle will continue ad nauseam

If it's not broke, Don't fix it! My friend is going through hell trying to get his G5 and ProTools 8 to work properly. All because he upgraded. As for me, I won't upgrade until I feel I need to!

[elambo]

Originally Posted by AnAverageJoe

If it's not broke, Don't fix it! My friend is going through hell trying to get his G5 and ProTools 8 to work properly. All because he upgraded. As for me, I won't upgrade until I feel I need to!

He "upgraded" to a G5? So he's coming from a G4 then? I'm going to guess that your friend may have a lot of outdated software/hardware to deal with.

I predict Snow Leopard won't be exciting by any stretch of the imagination.

[SFTPH]

Originally Posted by JPeters86

OSX expensive? How do you mean?

It's like $130 in the Store, is that expensive?

The family pack is a great deal IMO. I can update all 4 of my machines for $50 a piece. I'll update to 10.6 when it comes out, but only so I can (hopefully) make the most of my Nehalem machine and logic.

[shanabit]

Originally Posted by AnAverageJoe

If it's not broke, Don't fix it! My friend is going through hell trying to get his G5 and ProTools 8 to work properly. All because he upgraded. As for me, I won't upgrade until I feel I need to!

I was running Protools 8 (Current version) on OSX 10.5.6 here with a DIGI 002 Rack with NO issues on a PowerMac G4 Dual 1.42
Im upgrading to a G5 Dual 1.8 this weekend. Ill let you know. Snow Leopard will be the end of non-Intel boxes IMO

[fiddler59]

I am running Logic 8 and Reaper 3.01 with a TC Konnekt 48 with Leopard 10.57 on an IMac C2D 2.66 . I ain't moving until TC has a good driver for Snow Leopard that is well proven !!

DB

[Ol' Betsey]

Originally Posted by AnAverageJoe

So what would be the advantage of me putting the upgrade in my MacPro? I hate upgrading cause something is always not going to work right after the install is done.

Unfortunately the advantage will be all ours! Why? Because then you can tell us whether it works outta the box or not. And chances are it won't... Not bein' a hater but I've been (we've all been here) many a time.

The thing I'm not looking forward to is all the posts saying "Hey I've just upgraded to Snow Leopard and now (insert program) doesn't fukking work and fukking (insert software/hardware company) are crap and aren't doing anything about it... They suck. Don't they know I'm a professional and I need to use this machine day in day out? This is how I make my living!"

And THEN all the posts replying... Well we KNOW what they're going to say... "Why did you upgrade in the middle of a project?"

People. Professionals. Let the dust clear before upgrading. Please?

R.

[voicegenius]

Snow Leopard = after after ...

stick with Leopard for a while...

[shanabit]

Originally Posted by Ol' Betsey

The thing I'm not looking forward to is all the posts saying "Hey I've just upgraded to Snow Leopard and now (insert program) doesn't fukking work and fukking (insert software/hardware company) are crap and aren't doing anything about it... They suck. Don't they know I'm a professional and I need to use this machine day in day out? This is how I make my living!"

And THEN all the posts replying... Well we KNOW what they're going to say... "Why did you upgrade in the middle of a project?"

People. Professionals. Let the dust clear before upgrading. Please?

R.

So true LOL. Bleeders I call them

[AnAverageJoe]

Originally Posted by elambo

He "upgraded" to a G5? So he's coming from a G4 then? I'm going to guess that your friend may have a lot of outdated software/hardware to deal with.

I predict Snow Leopard won't be exciting by any stretch of the imagination.

No he has a G5 1.8 and he upgraded to Leopard and got PT8 and he was saying how the computer runs slower than tiger, etc. He hasn't been having many problems lately, but it took him a while to get settled. Plus his Lacie Disk crashed and he lost 5 years of worth of music. So it wasn't cool in march when things turned down. Anyway back to the topic!