Mac OS X v10.5

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Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"
(Part of the Mac OS X family)
Screenshot
Preliminary screenshot of Mac OS X Leopard.
Developer
Apple Inc.
Web site: www.apple.com/macosx/leopard
Release information
Preview version:	build 9A377a (undefined) [citation needed]
Source model:	Closed source
License:	APSL and Apple EULA
Kernel type:	Hybrid kernel (XNU)

Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" is the name of the upcoming sixth major release of the Mac OS X operating system for Apple's Macintosh line of computers. Mac OS X v10.5 will supersede the currently shipping version, Mac OS X v10.4. Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" was shown to developers for the first time at the 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference; Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated that Apple plans to "ship it this coming spring", referring to the second quarter of 2007.^[1]

Contents 1 New features 2 Compatibility 3 Speculation 4 Version history 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] New features

Leopard will include a software assistant currently known as Boot Camp^[2] as part of what Steve Jobs refers to as the "Complete Package." This assists the installation of Windows XP or Vista to a separate partition (or separate internal drive) on Intel-based Macs.

Boot Camp was first revealed as a public beta on Apple's web site on April 5, 2006. Although intended for the installation of Windows XP, preview versions of Boot Camp have been used to assist in the installation of other operating systems such as Windows Vista^[3], Linux^[4] and Solaris^[5].

Features announced at the 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference include:

• Native support by all libraries and frameworks for 64-bit applications, allowing 64-bit Carbon and Cocoa applications. Existing 32-bit applications using those libraries and frameworks will continue to run without the need for emulation or translation.^[6]
• 

  

  Time Machine screenshot
  Time Machine: an automated backup utility which allows the user to restore any file that has been deleted, misplaced or replaced by another version of a file.^[7][8] A video of how the time machine works can be found here.[1] This video was demonstrated in the 2006 Worldwide developers conference.
• The Complete Package: Front Row and Photo Booth, currently only available with the purchase of a new Mac, will be included with Leopard.
• Spaces: an implementation of "virtual desktops" (individually called "spaces") for Mac OS X, allowing users to have multiple desktops per user and be able to place certain applications and windows in a desktop.^[9] Users can organize certain Spaces for certain applications (i.e., one for work-related tasks and one for entertainment) and switch between them. Exposé will work inside Spaces, allowing the user to see at a glance all desktops on one screen. ^[10])
• Upgrades to Spotlight, including advanced search options such as Boolean operators and the ability to search other computers (with permissions).^[11]
• Core Animation: a technology that allows a developer to create complex animations while specifying only a "start" and a "goal" space. The main benefit of Core Animation is to enable developers to create complex animations with small amounts of program code.
• Universal access: significant improvements to applications including VoiceOver, along with increased support for Braille, closed captioning and a new text-to-speech engine.^[12]
• Enhancements to Mail including the additions of RSS feeds, Stationery, Notes, and to-dos. To-dos use a system-wide service that is available to all applications.^[13]
• Dashboard enhancements, including Webclip, a feature that allows users to turn a part of any web page into a live Dashboard widget, and Dashcode to help developers code widgets.^[14]
• iChat enhancements, including multiple logins, animated icons, and tabbed chats, similar to features present in Gaim, Adium and the iChat plugin Chax; iChat Theater, allowing users to incorporate images from iPhoto, presentations from Keynote, and videos from QuickTime into chats; and Backdrops, which are similar to chroma keys, but use a real-time difference matte technique which does not require a green or blue screen. iChat will also implement desktop sharing, a feature previously available with Apple Remote Desktop.^[15][16][17]

Enhancements to Parental controls include the ability to place restrictions on use of the Internet and to set parental controls from anywhere using remote setup.^[18] Jobs did not provide details on the enhancements to iCal.

A technology overview posted to Apple's Developer web site^[19] confirms many more improvements that will appear in Mac OS X 10.5, including the following:

• Leopard will offer the Objective-C 2.0 runtime, which includes new features such as garbage collection. Xcode 3.0 will support the updated language and was itself rewritten with it.^[20]
• Apple has integrated DTrace from Sun's OpenSolaris and added a graphical interface called Xray. DTrace provides tools that users, administrators and developers can use to tune the performance of the operating system and the applications that run on it.^[21]
• Leopard will include the Ruby On Rails web application development framework.^[22]
• Leopard supports resolution independence, the ability to size system graphics in physical units such as centimeters or inches instead of pixels. This feature results in standard size graphics independent of the device on which they are viewed. Preliminary support was added in Mac OS X 10.4 to prepare developers for a "future release of Mac OS X."^[23]
• Leopard's OpenGL stack has been updated to version 2.1, and will use LLVM to increase its vertex processing speed.^[24] Apple has been working to get LLVM integrated into GCC;^[25] Usage of LLVM in other parts of the OS has not been announced.
• Leopard's security frameworks support Mandatory Access Control, sandboxes and code signing.

In mid-December 2006 a French developer using a recent (at that time) pre-release version of Leopard spotted support for Sun's ZFS^[26]. It is unknown whether the final version of the operating system will employ ZFS as the main file system over which the OS will be installed or whether it will retain the HFS+ Journaled file system.

[edit] Compatibility

Like Mac OS X 10.4, Leopard will be available for both PowerPC and Intel Macs.^[27] While it is known that Leopard will support PowerPC G4 and PowerPC G5 processors, it is unknown whether Leopard will support the PowerPC G3 processor. Support for the G3 is reportedly not present in the pre-release versions which have been made available to developers^[28]. When Apple's Leopard website first appeared online, the 64-bit section stated, "From G3 to Xeon, from MacBook to Xserve, there is just one Leopard." The sentence was removed from the page the following day, leaving open the question of whether Leopard will support Macs with G3 processors.^[29] In the past, each new major release of Mac OS X has dropped support for at least some older Macs; 10.3 dropped support for Macs without built-in USB ports, and 10.4 dropped support for computers without FireWire ports.

Documentation contained with the Developer Preview DVD states that a PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel processor is a minimum requirement. Despite this, some users have managed to install the developer preview version of Leopard on Macs with G3 processors by editing a particular file and then creating a new installation DVD with this edited file. However, even though these installations of Leopard can be installed on G3 Macs, some applications (for example Safari and iChat) will not run.^[30] It is not known whether this will be possible with the final shipping version of Leopard.

Leopard is set to be fully UNIX compliant as Apple intends to submit Leopard and Leopard Server to the Open Group for certification. Certification will mean that software following the Single UNIX Specification can be compiled and run on Leopard without the need for any code modification.^[31]

[edit] Speculation

It is rumored that a future release of the OS will feature a redesigned Finder that would rely heavily on Spotlight search technology. It is speculated that a new 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 those data.^[32][33] The Finder shown in the developer's build demonstrated at WWDC 2006 did not appear to be updated.

Related to rumors of an updated Finder based on Spotlight are rumors that Apple plans to gather secondary metadata through a number of analysis techniques; for example, determining the genre of a song by analyzing its tone and pitch, using OCR to index and search images, or analyzing a photograph to determine attributes such as time of day it was taken.^[34][35] Apple has not made any announcements as to this rumored technology.

The release of iTunes 7 and its move away from traditional Aqua interface motifs (e.g., "Brushed Metal" and blue gel highlights) in favor of an updated source list and non-Aqua scrollbars has fueled speculation that the final version of Leopard will see an update or replacement of the Aqua interface first introduced in Mac OS X Developer Preview 3. It has been speculated that such an interface, rumored to be called "Illuminous", will sport more glossy black elements in the user interface, as well as discontinuing the use of Lucida Grande as the default system font.^[36]. At one time, Apple posted a job offering for user interface designers who would help develop the next interface for Mac OS X.^[37]

Also some rumour sites are speculating release dates for Leopard, back to May, June (WWDC) or even October. This could be down to the "Top Secret" features, wrapping up Leopard is taking longer that expected, or even compatibility problems between Leopard and Windows Vista.

[edit] Version history

• Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A241), released August 7, 2006.
  • Leopard Preview Update version 1.0 (build 9A241e), released August 31, 2006^[38]
• Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A283), released October 12, 2006^[39]
• Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A303), released November 9, 2006^[40]
• Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A321), released December 12, 2006^[41]
• Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A343), released January 18, 2007^[42]
• Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A377a), released March 1, 2007^[43]

[edit] See also

• Rosetta — software included in Intel versions of Mac OS X 10.4 that enables Mac OS X software designed for PowerPC Macs to run on Intel Macs.
• Apple Intel transition — more information on Apple's move from PowerPC Macs to Intel Macs.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mac OS X 10.5 preview page
• Mac OS X Server 10.5 preview page
• 2006 World Wide Developer's Conference keynote session
• Macworld 2006 session

History of the Apple Macintosh Operating Systems
Classic Mac OS (History): System 6 · System 7 · Mac OS 8 · Mac OS 9
Mac OS X (History): Public Beta · v10.0 · v10.1 · v10.2 · v10.3 · v10.4 · v10.5
Mac OS X Server: Rhapsody · Mac OS X Server 1.0 · Mac OS X Server
Other OS projects: A/UX · Taligent · Copland · MkLinux · Darwin