Apple to release latest Leopard beta to developers who couldn't make WWDC

"We're also told that this secondary release is happening quite a bit sooner than it did at last year's WWDC, so I guess this might be a win for developers, all things considered."

Since they haven't said when the beta is released as a download, you can't really say that it's happening sooner than last year.

@Matt - Forgot to comment on your replies... Ok, I love the hologram bit in iChat and I love Time Machine. Those are genuinely creative additions to the OS. But that's it.... out of a whole major revision... I've got to be missing something right?

@Matt - Lol, it's a fair comment maybe I am a bit spoilt. Does anyone else out there share my opinion? If not then I will bite the bullet and boot my spoilt butt into Vista for a month.... Although, I'm not too sure that thats much of a punishment? OK, I really stuck my neck out then. Better keep it moving before someone chops it off!

@Suneet, Your #6 basically undermines most your criticism. You gush over the hologram feature! Then, in #7, you inexplicably disregard the idea of Web Clips, which gives you as many widgets as you can create yourself - not just limited to what developers create.

I think you're spoiled and need to spend a month exclusively on Vista as punishment.

Ok, I've re-written this post twice now, and each time, I've thought of something more to say that now, it's unfortunately kind of turned into a rant about how thoroughly unimpressed I am with Leopard. You'll find that the language is quite civil. I'm not trying to tear Apple and their hard-working employees down. Instead I'm just venting some frustration about having to wait for so long, for something that was promised by SJ as "Tomorrow, today", and being let down utterly and completely. All comments are welcome, good or bad! Shit, even if you just want to spit and swear at me, I understand....

1. Desktop - 3D Dock, translucent menu bar, stacks. Of course the changes to the dock and menu bar are meant to be nothing more than cosmetic. Stacks on the other hand was played up by SJ as something new, when in actual fact all Apple's done is slap some lipstick on an already existing feature of the dock. As you all know, we can place folders next to the trash and expand them like a contextual menu by ctrl-clicking them. This spring cleaning is welcome, but it's hardly worth the wait... is it? Hmm? Maybe this combined with the other new features warrants all the hype? Lets carry on...

2. Spaces - Does exactly what it says on the tin. I've used it for a week now.... correction, tried to use it for a week. I find no use for it whatsoever. I'm very happy with expose and command-H. Those people who would find spaces useful are probably already running a 'multiple desktop' app already. It's polished and being built-in means it runs great and all but c'mon Apple, this was one of the 10 (out of 300) changes that's been chosen for keynote time? Surely there was something better? Remember, we're saying hello to tomorrow here...

3. Finder - I probably had the biggest anit-climax with Finder over all the other features of Leopard. Old finder was very bare bones and I've been looking forward to a revision of it for a long time now and Apple certainly revised it. "Ladies and Gentlemen I give you a brand spanking new design for finder! ... iTunes!" What a let down. Surely the death of aqua warrants a purpose built replacement? Not a rip off of an already existing interface? iTunes looks great. It's individual, unique etc... This was the perfect opportunity for Apple to create something different and unique for Finder just as they have done with Time Machine? It sure as shit warrants it seeing as it's an integral part of OS X. I mean, it's up front and centre most of the time I'm in front of my computer, and the best they could come up with was giving it an iTunes facelift? Shame on you Apple! The only thing I like about the new finder is the way it connects to networked drives including .mac. That's all I have thats nice to say about it (which in itself is a real shame). Even the jazzy new previews we get for photos, pdfs and video files were a let down... they all look out of focus, and no, I don't wear/need glasses... They really missed out on creating something great here.

4. Quick Look - A replacement for slideshow that does its job well.

5. Mail - Includes some new features like to-dos, stationary etc... However, I argue that they could have given this to us in a software update rather than making us pay for it as part of the new OS. It's not exactly a world away from the current Mail. (This is my creative contribution... Make Mail the hub for all your correspondence. With the introduction of stationary, why not take the next step and combine snail mail with email. We can compose letters, print envelopes, create birthday cards, newsletters etc... If you really want that polished look to your mail, pay Apple to print and post it for you, just like they do with iPhoto albums. Mail - the application that sees to all your postage needs... Now that would be an update worth paying for. Makes more sense to me that Mail be in charge of those functions than Pages).

6. iChat - Keeps getting better. Love the Hologram feature.

7. Dashboard - One new widget and the ability to "web clip". I'm gonna be quite harsh here by saying that this is pathetic. There, I said it. One new Apple widget? It was about this time whilst watching the keynote that I started to cringe. It's as bad as talking about Spaces... The widget works fine, and there are a few bugs with web clip that I'm sure will be ironed out before final release.

8. Boot Camp - Not tried the Leopard version, but i'm sure it's great at what it does. I'm using 1.3 at the moment and I'm very happy with it.

9. Safari - no complaints.

10. Time Machine - The only truly inspired feature I've come across. It's what every one of these features should have been... striking, engaging, a fulfilling computing experience like only Apple can provide. In fact, the team behind Time Machine have put the rest of Apples' d

I'm thinking that the e-mail they sent out about the beta coming "soon" to ADC members was to save them having to reply to the hundreds of complaints they must have received. I certainly never received a personal reply to my own complaint - in fact, I took the e-mail about getting it "soon" to be it.

To the person who said they could understand Apple's reasoning: whilst WWDC members did indeed pay a lot of money, you should take a look at Apple's web page advertising the Leopard Early Start Kit:

http://developer.apple.com/leopard/

Note that what they are advertising when you sign up as a Premiere or Select member (to receive the Leopard Early Start Kit) is access to "the latest pre-release versions of Mac OS X Leopard". I signed up and paid for Select membership long before Apple started advertising the beta as being available at WWDC "first". Making it available anywhere else before the ADC seeds clearly contradicts the advertising that you have access to the "latest versions". A day, I could live with. If I had to wait until the end of WWDC - I could live with that, too. But it's now been two weeks since WWDC members received their beta, and - as has been testified here - there are now plenty of users who have not paid for ADC membership who are running the Leopard beta after downloading it from a torrent site. In other words, Apple have ensured that the majority of its developers do not have access to the latest version of its OS. That is just poor, there's no other way of looking at it. I very much doubt I will be renewing my Select membership next year.

@21 I can assure you it only went to Select and Premiere members ...

ADC Select and Premiere members (at least) were notified officially via email today that they would be getting the WWDC Leopard Beta "soon."

The "From:" line of this email was "noreply@adc.apple.com," so I have no way of knowing if it went to all developers, or just Select and Premiere developers.

You also need to keep in mind that the software copier (Microsoft) also very badly wants to see what is changing in Mac OS X and apple doesn't want them to see it before they have to. Because you KNOW Microsoft will try and do a "me too" look on their OS even if the backend is sh*t because too many people only see what things look like and not how they work. Think I'm wrong? How many people still use Windows? Yep, that's the answer. Because they don't know how good a Mac works.

dave, i hear you and understand apple's reasoning, i just think the logic is wrong.

wwdc is like going to a week long crash course seminar / sales pitch / trade show. you can learn a lot, network, ask questions etc. It's a 5 day event though.

adc select/premier memberships - you pay money and get all sorts of things with them, one of which are software seed keys.

that said i understand them holding off a bit last year, as the alpha was a bit buggy. however, at this point we are ~4 months away from GM and i have been using the last build for months as my main os.

so, think about this: you don't have to be a select or premier developer with' software seed key access' to go to wwdc, yet you need to go to wwdc to get the most recent leopard seed? that just doesn't make logical sense.

they want people to develop for leopard. every leopard only feature / app made helps sell leopard. let's roll with the updates.
...
i know it's my opinion and apple wants wwdc attendees to feel special. just thought i'd throw a bit of logic into the mix.