Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, WWDC, Leopard, Developer
Ars: 'Leopard will be late'
Everyone seems to have that "reliable inside source" feeding them tasty morsels of information about possible release dates for Leopard. For most other rumors, these disparate (and in most cases non-existent) sources would all be saying wildly different things. It gives credence then to both the validity of the tipsters and their rumors these days that they all seem to be saying the same thing; Leopard will be late– at least relative to earlier estimates of when we'd see it. Infinite Loop over at ArsTechnica breaks down some of the logic behind these new predictions of a later (can you say WWDC?) release, including an analysis of the normal ramp-up to Gold Master production and where Apple seems to be in the process on this cycle. According to one Ars tipster, current builds are "Barely beta."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jacqui said 4:36PM on 3-22-2007
Technically, June isn't late. June 21 is the end of spring.
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Steven G said 5:00PM on 3-22-2007
Personally although I would be sad if it was delayed, this release is SO important (response to Vista), it must be top dollar!
It that takes another couple of months, so be it....
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Aron Trimble said 5:11PM on 3-22-2007
Seriously, does ANYONE remember when Longhorn (excuse me, Vista) was supposed to be released in 2004?
Just as Jacqui said, we've got PLENTY of spring left so quitcherbitchin!
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Frank said 5:41PM on 3-22-2007
Every time Apple uses a season (i.e. spring, fall, etc.) to describe the time frame for a product release, it's almost ALWAYS the last day of that season.
One of the earlier versions of OS X was on track for a "summer" release, and it was indeed released on Sept. 21, the last day of summer. I can't remember which year (or which OS!)
When Apple said Leopard would be released in the "spring" I 100% assumed they meant June 21. I stand by that assumption. The WWDC attendees may get a slightly earlier copy, but the plebes will get to buy it on June 21.
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geezer said 6:35PM on 3-22-2007
@#1 yeah that's right - it'll be still spring when Leopard hits the light at WWDC 07 ;)
Anyways - I rather wait a month or two more for a good and decent Leopard release than like say I'd have to wait several years(!) for a new Windows operating system like Vista?
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JeffDM said 9:38PM on 3-22-2007
To add to that, if you go by fiscal quarters, the last day of June is often the last day of the Spring fiscal quarter.
Still, I hope they don't shove out a premature version just to hit a deadline, I'd rather wait, which is what I'm probably going to do anyway.
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Jesse said 9:54PM on 3-22-2007
well this may be a n00b question, but should I wait for it? I currently have a 12" pwbk g4, but I'm going to be getting to a macbook as a graduation present from the 'rents...
is it worth waiting another 3 months?
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jsg said 11:43PM on 3-22-2007
For me, the biggest news is that - if Ars is correct - Apple seems to be removing user-installable input managers from the system. This would make many beloved applications broken, if not impossible. Among them: textpander, SAFT, pithhelmet, spellchecker, the VI input manager, and also maybe all the APE modules...
As someone who has $200+ invested in these programs, Leopard just got a lot less compelling.
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Kendall Tawes said 11:50PM on 3-22-2007
XP was released Microsoft said quite prominently that their next operating system (what is now Vista) was to be released in 2003 and by mid 2002 they delayed that 2004 but were confident on making that date and were all ready sporting screen shots of the next OS at that time called Longhorn in magazines such as PC World. (I still may have that issue.) They showed off some very basic widgets and some basic gui enhancements. By late 2004 they started to say, it may be delayed to 2005 but did not rule out a 2004 release until half way through it. But then came 2005 and they said, OK it'll be 2006 for sure and this time it will come with some great innovative features that no one else will have. Then came 2006 and they said, guess what this time we are definitely absolutely going to release Longhorn which will be called Vista by late 2006 (for enterprise only and will remove most of the best features we had spent nearly 2 years bragging about.) So then in 2007 Vista in a consumer form was released and now we are getting worried about Leopard being a month or two late. By now Leopard could come out in 2008 and still look like a massive triumph to the rubbish Microsoft took half a decade to get off the ground. Honestly how could anyone consider Microsoft's current OS well done or worth the wait.
Vista is to Microsoft what Copland was to Apple but at least Apple realised it wasn't going well and to abandon that and go with something new and luckily for us Mac users that was OS X.
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Kelmon said 4:22AM on 3-23-2007
I'm not in the slightest bit surprised by this "news". We've known for quite a while that the current releases of Leopard aren't ready and there's also the spectre of the "Top Secret" features that may or may not exist. If these features really do exist (and Apple really had better deliver something if they don't want to look foolish) then it would be prudent to assume that they are either so trivial that they don't need public testing or that there will need to be further test releases for Leopard that include them. The suggestions of a March/April release date have never looked likely and I have no idea why analysts, who are supposedly intelligent people, keep making the statement that we'll see an early release since it is clearly nonsense.
I still see June as being the earliest release date but won't be in the slightest bit surprised if it comes later. Regardless I believe that we will have good information come WWDC and more information is what is needed at this time (Apple wasn't this tight-lipped about previous OS X releases).
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JT said 4:25AM on 3-23-2007
#7: hell yeah you should wait!!! you can expect new harware and a new ilife suite plus leopard, so wait for it all...
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mandaris said 10:27AM on 3-23-2007
I think I had my doubts as soon as I heard that wwdc was pushed back a couple months last year, soon after that I heard the news that some of the executives were leaving (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1954332,00.asp)
The tech talks that Apple has been hosting have been working as a double edged sword. On one hand, it seems like most developers who've gone to them are giving praise to the upcoming platform and even making their next release Leopard only, but on the other I'm worried that these "secret features" might not be something I care about.
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Ed said 10:36AM on 3-23-2007
I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an even later release September or so... I'd say thats the latest we'll see it anyway. I imagine thats when we'll get to see the new iPod too...
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Shawn King said 11:58AM on 3-24-2007
Hey, nice job of misrepresenting what Ars said.
Nowhere in their article do they say "Leopard will be late", as per your misleading headline. All Ars says is it won't arrive in April.
As Apple has never given a date (beyond "Spring '07") it can't very well be "late", can it?
FYI, you're taken more seriously if you don't lie about other web sites.
--
Shawn King
Host/Executive Producer
Your Mac Life
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com
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