Katie MarsalAccording to sources privy to pre-release builds of Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" operating system, the release will feature "Fast Logout and Autosave" technology and support for Access Control Lists file-based permissions, AppleInsider has learned.
Fast Logout and Autosave
Fast logout and autosave is a performance-related feature designed to improve the user experience of Mac OS X Tiger.
Presently, closing windows in Mac OS X an expensive operation, especially if the application must prompt the user about unsaved changes for each document window. Tiger's fast logout and autosave feature will improve logout, shutdown, and restart operations by reducing the number of confirmation dialogs presented to the user, all the while protecting the user's unsaved data in open applications.
According to sources, most of the applications that will ship with Tiger will already support Fast Logout and Autosave. On the other hand, third party developers will need to update their applications to gain the benefits of the new feature.
Access Control Lists
Tiger will also introduce support for Access Control Lists (ACLs)—a robust system for implementing file-based permissions that offer many improvements over the existing BSD permissions currently used by the Mac OS X file systems.
Among the improvements delivered by ACL's is support for ownership of files and directories by a group, enhanced interoperability with Samba and Windows, and support for multiple owners of a file or directory, each with potentially different permissions.
Additionally, ACL's will add support for static inheritance of file permissions from a parent directory and provide more control over a file than just read/write/execute permissions.
ACLs are a common feature of enterprise computing because they provide flexible and highly configurable rights management for servers. The technology also removes many of the limitations of the existing BSD permissions by allowing access to files and directories by multiple groups and users. In addition, it lets the system administrator grant specific rights to each user and group without requiring the creation of special new groups.
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25 Comments
Yay for ACL support! I've been waiting for Apple to upgrade the permissions system, and adding ACLs seems like the perfect way to do it.
So ACL are better than Mac OS X's current file permission system?
So ACL are better than Mac OS X's current file permission system?
Yes, absolutely. ACLs allow for much more permissions customization than is possible with the current system. For example, an ACL can allow a file to be owned by more than one group - something not possible with the current system.
Hurrah for ACLs. I hope this is evidence of a serious effort on Apple's part to create a server and client OS that can funtion in most small to mid-sized businesses. For the most part, they are there already. ACLs were big on my list as the current permissions were too restrictive. Now, make mounting of shares easier (more intuitive) and we've got a winner on the OS side.
It is funny, I read that 2003 Small Business Server is a huge hit. Personally, I think it is horrible (although I find 2003 Server a fine OS). Apple has all the right parts; with a little polish it could compete very well with SBS2003.
I guess I'm still smarting over my company's decision to ditching Panther Server/ OS X in favor of SBS2003/ XP...
I wonder if Apple is going to have to enhance the GET INFO panel to adjust for ACL settings.