Katie MarsalDetails of Apple's first Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard build for developers since WWDC have been published on the web, including confirmation of a Cocoa Finder and HFS+ compression.
The full build details published by World of Apple confirm that 10A190 now has a Finder rewrite in Cocoa, marking the first time it has moved away from Carbon since the introduction of Mac OS X.
The Cocoa object-oriented program environment has also been used for re-writes of "almost all" visible applications Apple ships with Mac OS X; the transition is expected be finished by the time Snow Leopard is available to the public.
64-bit kernel
The site leaking the details further notes that Snow Leopard's move to a 64-bit kernel is underway, although only some Macs can run natively in this mode with this early test version.
HFS+ file compression
Also, the new Mac OS X update is now known to include support for file compression to the HFS+ file system that focuses primarily on reducing the weight of Apple's system files and built-in apps in normal use. The compression applies just to read-only files and is also designed to be backwards-compatible in such a way that Tiger and Leopard systems won't render files unreadable.
New default display gamma
More conspicuous if still subtle changes have also been made, including one to the default gamma (luminance) settings for display output. Macs to date have typically employed a lower-contrast but lighter 1.8 gamma level, but the new Snow Leopard build now changes this to a deeper 2.2 gamma that was previously only an option in earlier Mac OS X editions. This is to appease both visual editors as well as the everyday user, according to Apple.
Applications
Individual apps have similarly been given a handful of changes, including rudimentary hooks for creating and viewing content pulled from Microsoft Exchange servers in Address Book, iCal and Mail. Automator can also send out its completed workflows as operating system services.
While many of these changes are significant, the new Snow Leopard build reveals a definite work in progress that reflects the several months to go before Apple's publicly planned mid-2009 release of the new software: several features are either suspended or exhibit quirky behavior.
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Not to pollute this thread with more 64 bit garbage but the latest portables are not supported which should indicate to people that hardware specific code is lagging.
In any event it is always interesting to see how MacOS evolves overtime. I still see this as a more radical update then Apple wants us to believe. Sure userland won't change significantly but in many ways it looks like a good portion of the rest of the OS will. Hopefully all of these changes secure Apples goals for a faster more reliable OS.
Hopefully part of that fastness will come from Apple successfully making much of the OS multi processor aware. Finder is one place where lag seems really excessive. Of course some of that is I/O but hopefully that can be addressed to. I'm wondering too if they will get speedups from the GPUs for things like file compression and other CPU intensive operations.
All in all it looks like Snow Leopard ought to give me a couple of extra years out of my MBP!Dave
I'm loving the Saturday OT by AppleInsider! No time off for you guys?!
Zfs.....
While many of these changes are significant, the new Snow Leopard build reveals a definite work in progress that reflects the several months to go before Apple's publicly planned mid-2009 release of the new software: several features are either suspended or exhibit quirky behavior.
So Apple has publicly confirmed that they are having a mid-2009 release for Snow Leopard? The early assumptions were for a January 2009 Macworld launch which I always thought was too soon. I wonder if they'll release before WWDC 2009 so that development sessions will be available at WWDC or will they release a near-final build to developers at WWDC for a final round of testing and then ship in time for back-to-school. They probably want to get it in with a decent gap before Windows 7 since Microsoft seems to be rushing it in time for a late 2009 release.
Zfs.....
haven't heard about zfs in months. Since before leopard.