Is Apple hiding or disabling features in the latest OS X 10.5 “Leopard” developer builds?
This interesting Digg story commentary by user panique not only answers “Yes,” to that, but explains why.
If you actually viewed the MWSF Keynote, you saw Steve Jobs tell us there were some other amazing features in Leopard that they are playing very close to the vest. He said he didn’t want to “give anyone a head start on copying them”. Of course this is an implied reference that Microsoft wishes to copy these features.
All it takes to get a copy of the Leopard Developer release is $500 and a mailing address. Not to mention that we already know that Microsoft is an Apple Authorized Apple developer (Office Mac, etc.). Given that Apple has already stated that it does not want to give any advance opportunity for Microsoft to preview any “top secret” features, the idea that they have a secret internal-only build clearly is not a theory, it is an operational imperative. And I’d hazard a guess that a healthy portion of the bugs present in the latest preview have to do with the “top secret” features being ripped out of the build.
Nicely done, panique.
March 4th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I hear the new start up screen in Leopard is an iPod.
March 4th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
1) tabbed Finder
2) Mobile Homes on iPod
yes!!!
March 5th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Yes, Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit is among the first organizations to get advanced builds of MacOS X. During the run-up to the initial Mac OS X ‘public beta’ launch, Microsoft was getting new builds of Mac OS X several months ahead of the actual public release date. The same was and is true of every major company developing must-have software for the Mac. The Big Guys don’t turn on a dime, and they need the lead time.
Thing is, that doesn’t mean that the pre-launch builds Microsoft or anyone else gets are feature-complete. The frameworks and other infrastructure are there, but there’s NOTHING that gives away useful information about the final feature set or app design. You get to see the outline of Things To Come, but not the whole elephant.