Change from Late Summer to Summer?

[Sheppard]

I am not sure if this has been covered. But, has Apple changed its advertising from ML being released in the 'Late Summer' to just 'Summer'? Also, is there going to be a full iCloud app where you control all the ins and outs for devices? So syncing particular groups of notes for example?

Cheers

 

[nuckinfutz]

I too thought that they modified their estimated ship date some.

My guess is that ML is going to have some things that are shared with iOS 6.0 that cannot be divulged yet. So I suspect they will announced Dev Preview Release 4 or 5 at WWDC with the additional features inserted.

Documents in the Cloud will probably be fully fleshed out and developers will know what they're working with at this time and also know how it works on iOS 6

 

[Cougarcat]

Cook reiterated "late summer" at the last conference call. I think it's always just said "summer" on the site.

Also, is there going to be a full iCloud app where you control all the ins and outs for devices? So syncing particular groups of notes for example?

I highly doubt it. Apple has emphasized that their approach to the cloud is something that should not be managed.

 

[Riemann Zeta]

If it is like Lion, it will be rushed and released prematurely, sometime in July. Perhaps one final beta (DP4) in June and then a little tiny beta software update (DP4.1) a week or two later. It is interesting that ML is only up to the ~200 mark in builds and probably will be GM in the 230-250 range. I think that versions of Mac OS from Tiger onward have all been in the ~400-500 range.

But there really aren't that many things that are completely new from Lion to ML, so maybe it didn't need as much development time (more of a clean-up release).

 

[TheMTtakeover]

Cook reiterated "late summer" at the last conference call. I think it's always just said "summer" on the site.



I highly doubt it. Apple has emphasized that their approach to the cloud is something that should not be managed.

I really would it could be managed. Anyone else wish that?

 

[njean777]

If it is like Lion, it will be rushed and released prematurely, sometime in July. Perhaps one final beta (DP4) in June and then a little tiny beta software update (DP4.1) a week or two later. It is interesting that ML is only up to the ~200 mark in builds and probably will be GM in the 230-250 range. I think that versions of Mac OS from Tiger onward have all been in the ~400-500 range.

But there really aren't that many things that are completely new from Lion to ML, so maybe it didn't need as much development time (more of a clean-up release).

Thats what I always thought ML was, basically leopard-snow leopard. ML is just a cleaned up version of Lion.

 

[thekev]

If it is like Lion, it will be rushed and released prematurely, sometime in July. Perhaps one final beta (DP4) in June and then a little tiny beta software update (DP4.1) a week or two later. It is interesting that ML is only up to the ~200 mark in builds and probably will be GM in the 230-250 range. I think that versions of Mac OS from Tiger onward have all been in the ~400-500 range.

But there really aren't that many things that are completely new from Lion to ML, so maybe it didn't need as much development time (more of a clean-up release).

Cleanup release like Snow Leopard. It's basically the equivalent of a Windows service pack. I know I'll probably get downrated for that. Snow Leopard had a lot of bugs when it was released. Many things had to be updated for compatibility. In the end it was a much better release than Lion. The features that were added were mostly things that didn't quite make it into Leopard.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Actually, I see OS X Mountain Lion not as a service pack, but rather part of a tick-tock cycle; much like how Intel does processor releases (and Apple has handled new iPhones since the 3GS). I don't think Apple's trying to synchronize OS releases with Intel CPUs, but rather is adopting Intel's tick tock model as their own.

As for the change from Late Summer to Summer for Mountain Lion's release, this suggests that Apple's finally gotten over their headaches developing Leopard / Snow Leopard and new iPhones at the same time. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say their development process is now a well-oiled machine; slick enough to coordinate releases of both once per year on a regular basis without slipping. Apple couldn't have achieved this feat without both some internal reorganization of their development teams and leadership from Tim Cook, IMO.

What I suspect Apple is doing internally with their development teams is this: There are now a total of 8 development teams, each with a well-defined role. 4 of the teams work on OS X; the other 4 on iOS. The 4 OS X teams are divided as follows:

• Team 1 works on The Next Big OS X Release (Mountain Lion)
• Team 2 works on maintenance of the current OS X release (Lion)
• Team 3 works on security fixes for the previous OS X release (Snow Leopard)
• Team 4 works on planning for The Release After The Next Big One (name unknown, and will almost always be unknown)

The 4 iOS teams are divided as follows:

• Team 5 works on The Next Big iOS Release (6)
• Team 6 works on maintenance of the current iOS release (5.1)
• Team 7 works on planning feature updates for The Next Big iOS Release (6.1, 6.2, etc.)
• Team 8 works on planning for The Release After The Next Big One (7)

When release time comes around, each team rotates into a new number. 1 -> 2, 2 -> 3, 3 -> 4, 4 -> 1 for the OS X teams. As for the iOS teams, 5 -> 7, 7 -> 8, 8 -> 6, and 6 -> 5.

 

[pdjudd]

Cleanup release like Snow Leopard. It's basically the equivalent of a Windows service pack. I know I'll probably get downrated for that.

That's because it's stupid and factually incorrect. Microsoft service packs are compilations of already released patches compiled into one big package.

There is simply no Apple equivalency unless you want to include the combo updates to the main OS that they release.

 

[heisenberg123]

Cleanup release like Snow Leopard. It's basically the equivalent of a Windows service pack. I know I'll probably get downrated for that. Snow Leopard had a lot of bugs when it was released. Many things had to be updated for compatibility. In the end it was a much better release than Lion. The features that were added were mostly things that didn't quite make it into Leopard.

ML adds new features regardless if you like them or not, service packs from windows do not add new features they patch things in the background you dont really notice.

 

[thekev]

ML adds new features regardless if you like them or not, service packs from windows do not add new features they patch things in the background you dont really notice.

I thought it was mostly cleanup. I read a rumor about updated OpenGL frameworks, which I hope is true. You're right that service packs mostly patch things under the hood. My impression was that mountain lion involved a lot of this, much like Snow Leopard before it. Snow Leopard also brought full 64 bit support. Anyway I'm really hoping it offers some improvements over Lion.

 

[pdjudd]

I thought it was mostly cleanup. I read a rumor about updated OpenGL frameworks, which I hope is true. You're right that service packs mostly patch things under the hood. My impression was that mountain lion involved a lot of this, much like Snow Leopard before it. Snow Leopard also brought full 64 bit support. Anyway I'm really hoping it offers some improvements over Lion.

It si similar to SL, but SL did bring in a few visiable features - most of the improvements on SL were with the foundations of OSC and incorporating support for new APIs and enhancing things OS wise. Certainly they fixed bugs, but that was not the primary aim of the OS - there are lots of under the hood things that are different.

Just because you cannot see the changes doesn't mean that they aren't there.