Prévu pour le printemps, sans réellement de précisions, le nouveau Mac OS X doit apporter un vent de fraicheur dans les fondations du système. La firme de Cupertino vient d’ailleurs de donner aux testeurs sélectionnés une nouvelle version bêta.
Estampillée précisément 10A261, la bêta n’apporte visiblement pas beaucoup de changements « visibles ». Rappelons à ce propos que Snow Leopard n’a pas vocation à être clairement différent. Apple se concentre sur les fondations de son système et rénove une partie du code, en plus de se débarrasser complètement de l’héritage PowerPC et de refaire entièrement certains pans du système, notamment QuickTime.
La nouvelle bêta est a priori plus stable que les versions précédentes. Apple demande officiellement aux testeurs de se focaliser sur quelques domaines en particulier, notamment la connectivité avec les serveurs Exchange, puisque celle-ci est implémentée dans Mail, iCal et le Carnet d’adresses. Le site italien Macity indique par ailleurs que quelques changements apparaissent toutefois dans les Paramètres systèmes.
Rappelons que deux des principales nouveautés de Snow Leopard sont Grand Central et OpenCL. Ce dernier, récemment finalisé, est un langage permettant au système d’exploitation ou une application de faire calculer par la carte graphique des opérations qui, en temps normal, seraient gérées par le processeur central. Grand Central doit permettre aux applications de mieux tirer parti des processeurs à cœurs multiples.
Malgré les indications claires d'Apple sur le fait que Snow Leopard ne comporterait pas de vraies nouvelles fonctionnalités, de nombreuses rumeurs courent au sujet d'une modification de l'interface générale, avec un thème légèrement différent et unifié sur l'ensemble du système. Ce nouveau thème porterait le nom de Marble.
Announced Improvements
To stay on the performance subject, here is the first improvement Apple intends to add to its OS, and the most important in my opinion. Snow Leopard will feature Apple’s Grand Central set of technologies that will, as Apple says, “squeeze every last drop of power” from your multicore Mac system. Grand Central will take care of allocating Snow Leopard’s tasks across multiple cores so that your Mac will profit of all the power your processor is capable of delivering as soon as possible.
In Snow Leopard, Apple will also reduce the applications’ footprint so that the overall system size will shrink, and thus the OS will be able to use the available memory more efficiently. Another big advantage of this change for the better is that precious disk space will be saved; hence, users will have more disk space available for their multimedia content.
The extended 64-bit technology is another thing Apple announced as an improvement to be available in its next to be launched OS. This new technology added to Apple’s operating system means that Snow Leopard will be able to support huge amounts of RAM memory when compared to today’s standard.
As Apple declared, Snow Leopard would allow its users’ computers to boast up to 16TB of RAM memory (in theory). This will drastically improve the overall performance of the system by allowing it to keep the data in use by the currently active tasks inside the much faster RAM memory. This translates into an enhanced user experience, which is the main thing all OS distributors should have in mind when deciding to deliver improved versions to their users.
OpenCL is another fresh technology that will come with the new installation of Apple’s OS, a technology that will offer developers the chance to use the GPU immense computing power, which, at the moment, is not used at its full potential. This technology will be the one to enable future applications to take all that power and put it at better use.
While we are talking about development technologies, let us mention the fact that Apple has also decided that most of the Snow Leopard applications would be rewritten using Cocoa. This transition is the thing that stays behind the slow extinction of Carbon applications and Carbon loving developers all over the world.
Snow Leopard also shows love for all the multimedia focused users that wait anxiously to see whether any goodies will be embedded into the new OS to make their life easier. If you are one of them, the Quicktime X platform is your answer. This is the one thing that will make you love your Mac even more (if that is humanly possible) by delivering enhanced multimedia playback capabilities and support for modern codecs.
The out of the box Microsoft Exchange support for every Mac running the Snow Leopard is the thing all Mac users need in order to be able to access Mail, Address Book, and iCal from anywhere using their iPhones.
Extra improvements
Having covered the notable things that Apple announced Snow Leopard would come with, let us dive into the wish pool and quickly list three more that I would want to be added to the next cat’s specs list.
The first thing is an integrated malware protection system. I know many of you do not think of malware on the Mac platform as such a big problem - for now. I know that you consider OS X as being one of the virtually spyware/virus free OSes out there. The thing is that it does not hurt to be prepared in the event of a malware outbreak, and, if Apple gives a hand to its users, it will be even better.
Just in case you believe your Mac is not vulnerable to such attacks, just think of the fact that Apple issues a Security Update for OS X from time to time. Why do you think that happens? Because OS X has security holes that Apple makes sure are patched so that its users are as safe as possible at any given time.
The next thing that Apple should focus on is a better gaming support on the Mac platform. This might be the one subject that all Mac users would give their thumbs up to considering the fact that many of the big games available on the Windows platform do not have Mac versions.
You might not have bought your Mac to play games but ask yourself this: why shouldn’t Mac users be able to play the games they can on their Windows-based systems? The facts tell this: Apple is known to have a not so friendly attitude towards the game companies that wanted to develop and/or port games to the Mac.
The third, and last thing, I would want Snow Leopard to bring is compatibility with any popular hardware architecture out there. This should allow a person that has bought the Snow Leopard OS from Apple to go home, format their Windows powered computer and install Snow Leopard instead.
I know that this is nothing less than blasphemy to all hardcore Mac fans out there, but I also think that one should stop for a moment and consider all the advantages that would come out of this. This will translate into an easier upgrade of your system’s hardware when needed, and a quicker increase in numbers for the Mac OS user community, which means the user base will also increase.
This should mean that, if Apple’s new OS becomes the default OS of a large number of people, the loss experienced by the Cupertino-based company due to the low hardware sells should be covered, if not surpassed, by the OS sells.
