How much of Lion is left to see?

[jbg232]

OK, for all you longtime apple veterans, I would like a historical analysis of how much apple has "sneak-peaked" in the past. From my recollection, the preview of Leopard actually was pretty complete with them even having to take away major components on initial release (time machine over external hdd linked to airport extreme, and ZFS support which was ultimately canned).

Everyone is saying that we haven't seen 1/10 or ____ (insert fraction of your choosing here) of Lion yet, but I want to know how accurate this claim is. IE, in older versions of OS X 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, how much of the actual OS was previewed during the sneak-peak events. I suspect it is far more than less and that the major improvements in Lion are, fortunately or not, the main ones that were demoed already.

 

[maflynn]

In prior sneek peaks apple unveiled all of the major features leaving small tweaks and changes to be experienced by the consumer.

So to that end, I believe what was shown off, was a fairly feature complete OS and that we'll not see any new major features.

 

[Tom8]

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I'm sure there's one or two pretty major things that didn't make the keynote. I don't think there's going to be a ton more new features. Maybe some new gestures will be announced too.

 

[jbg232]

My suspicions are confirmed as I just don't see apple not highlighting a major feature during an event dedicated for Lion itself. I could always be proved wrong though...

 

[0007776]

We saw all of the main features except for possibly 1 or 2, they may make more interface changes between now and release, like they did with leopard. The rest of the features that we haven't seen will be small optimizations to make it run better.

 

[richard.mac]

the features they show at keynotes are the main selling point consumer features. whats good is there are lesser known features added. Leopard had like 300 or so features (although half of them were significant) and Snow Leopard had no selling point features, but many new back-end and usability features.

So they may have shown all the big features of Lion or there may be a few more, but what i am excited about are the lesser known features that Apple may publish or are discovered later by users. one such i saw mentioned here is all edge resizing of windows (mentioned by a user who correctly proposed there will be a Mac App Store), which might be a bore to Windows users, but much needed on Macs.

 

[maflynn]

My suspicions are confirmed as I just don't see apple not highlighting a major feature during an event dedicated for Lion itself. I could always be proved wrong though...

That's my perspective. Jobs ever the salesman really wants to show off the new OS. Why have a major feature waiting in the wings and not show it off. Especially given the meager features he was showing off to start with.

I mean with Leopard they were touting 300 new/enhanced features. With 10.7 we have an app store (not really OS dependent), Launchpad, Full-screen apps and Mission Control. Not really an overwhelming list of features to tout, even when you throw in facetime for OSX or autosaving

I mean if apple were to include resolution independence, or a new file system, etc, don't you think they would have used that event to show it off.

In this case what we saw for the most part is what we'll get. Sure there will be some small updates, polishes to existing features but nothing major.

 

[Mal]

Apple would definitely hold back demoing a major feature that was going to be included if it wasn't ready in time for the demo. I can definitely see some new features being introduced between now and the actual release date, if they simply weren't ready to be demoed. We know Steve's passion for perfection, and that applies double and triple to his demo's compared to the release of a product.

jW

 

[jbg232]

Apple would definitely hold back demoing a major feature that was going to be included if it wasn't ready in time for the demo. I can definitely see some new features being introduced between now and the actual release date, if they simply weren't ready to be demoed. We know Steve's passion for perfection, and that applies double and triple to his demo's compared to the release of a product.

jW

But he did demo time machine saying it would be able to be used with an airport extreme way before it was ready (it took a year after Leopard's release to get that functionality). I think they would want to show everything they can reasonably release. My initial post was asking if anyone knew how what they sneak-peaked in Tiger, Puma, etc, compared to what was ultimately released. I assume the features to be almost identical.

 

[freedevil]

I agree, the new features are disappointing. Barely anything new here, why can't they add a simple theming capability.

 

[PurrBall]

Seeing how buggy the features they demoed were, they probably didn't want to commit to anything else until they can get it relatively stable.

 

[lewis82]

Seeing how buggy the features they demoed were, they probably didn't want to commit to anything else until they can get it relatively stable.

None of the features were buggy. If you're talking about the gestures not responding, then it's the guy's shaky hands who are at fault.

 

[rjheys]

Folders

None of the features were buggy. If you're talking about the gestures not responding, then it's the guy's shaky hands who are at fault.

There were quite a few bugs I noticed during the keynote, one that immediately springs to mind was when he clicked out of a folder in Launchpad and it would cause the list of apps to zoom to the last page. this happened three of four times during the keynote.

 

[jaw04005]

I think Lion will be as big of an OS X update as Leopard (and cost $129 accordingly), and I bet they hold a WWDC event for Mac developers before its release next summer that will showcase the more geeky features (new Core frameworks, etc) and previously unannounced user features.

Jobs even hinted at that in an e-mail reply to a Mac developer:

"We are focusing primarily (though not exclusively) on iPhone OS this year. Maybe next year we will focus primarily on the Mac. Just the normal cycle of things. No hidden meaning here."

http://www.macstories.net/news/steve-jobs-email-apple-design-awards-wwdc-2010/

There's been some discussion about splitting up iOS and Mac conferences. Who knows if that's true. I think many would prefer that, but Apple basically shuts down the week of WWDC to allow its engineers to teach at that conference.

That's thousands of personnel that aren't doing their day jobs because they're either preparing for or attending WWDC. Not to mention, the engineering ramp up to have things ready for WWDC and iOS and Mac OS X share a lot of the same frameworks.

 

[HelveticaNeue]

There were quite a few bugs I noticed during the keynote ... when he clicked out of a folder in Launchpad and it would cause the list of apps to zoom to the last page.

I also noticed when he made a folder in Launchpad, when he dropped Keynote onto Numbers to make a folder, the folder icon only showed Numbers. Then when he added Pages to the same folder, the folder then showed Numbers and Keynote but not Pages.

 

[Lord Appleseed]

I also noticed when he made a folder in Launchpad, when he dropped Keynote onto Numbers to make a folder, the folder icon only showed Numbers. Then when he added Pages to the same folder, the folder then showed Numbers and Keynote but not Pages.

That also reminds me of the missing light indicators in the dock...bug or none?
But then again...if they chose to remove the indicators, how will you be able to see what programs are running/frozen state? I dont feel like bringing up the Activity-monitor all the time.

 

[maflynn]

I think Lion will be as big of an OS X update as Leopard (and cost $129 accordingly), and I bet they hold a WWDC event for Mac developers before its release next summer that will showcase the more geeky features (new Core frameworks, etc) and previously unannounced user features.

Waiting until June for WWDC to showcase 10.7 will be too late. Developers need more advance warning to update their apps for the new OS.

I'm a doubting thomas on this, apple underwhelmed us with SnowLeopard, and so trying to generate excitement they failed to really showcase 10.7. I mean if the purpose of the event was to highlight OSX and decided not to show off all major features (even those that are not finished) they messed up. Why showcase a product and not highlight all major features.

As it stands the excitement level on 10.7 is not that high (from where I sit)

 

[HelveticaNeue]

...if they chose to remove the indicators, how will you be able to see what programs are running/frozen state?

I share your concern and I don't think it's a bug. I believe Apple seeks to dissolve the boundary between an app being open and closed, thus no indicator is needed. I am mostly fine with that part. However, what about apps that don't utilize freeze states but remain running in the background, like Mail? How will I know if Mail is running in the background or closed?

I am also concerned with some apps re-opening from saved states like Preview and Pages. When I close document in Pages, I don't want it to reopen the next time ... that seems annoying. And what about looking at porn ... the next time your girlfriend opens Preview or VLC she'll see what you were looking at.

Oh well, I suppose I will just trust Apple to design an elegant solution that just works and save by complaints until I experience the final build.

 

[Zackmd1]

Did anyone else notice the missing icons in the menubar? When I was watching the keynote I noticed there were no wifi, time, time machine, and bluetooth icons in the menubar, the only icon that was there was spotlight. Is this a bug or a feature of Lion?

 

[Lord Appleseed]

I share your concern and I don't think it's a bug. I believe Apple seeks to dissolve the boundary between an app being open and closed, thus no indicator is needed. I am mostly fine with that part. However, what about apps that don't utilize freeze states but remain running in the background, like Mail? How will I know if Mail is running in the background or closed?

I am also concerned with some apps re-opening from saved states like Preview and Pages. When I close document in Pages, I don't want it to reopen the next time ... that seems annoying. And what about looking at porn ... the next time your girlfriend opens Preview or VLC she'll see what you were looking at.

Oh well, I suppose I will just trust Apple to design an elegant solution that just works and save by complaints until I experience the final build.

!

Did anyone else notice the missing icons in the menubar? When I was watching the keynote I noticed there were no wifi, time, time machine, and bluetooth icons in the menubar, the only icon that was there was spotlight. Is this a bug or a feature of Lion?

I guess thats just because it is alpha/beta(whatever state),a lot things didnt work properly like the folder-creation thingy, as previously mentioned.

 

[lewis82]

And what about looking at porn ... the next time your girlfriend opens Preview or VLC she'll see what you were looking at.

That is part of Apple's strategy to bring freedom from porn™ to everyone! You can't block these websites, but you can set things up so that viewing porn is discouraged...

 

[Nermal]

As it stands the excitement level on 10.7 is not that high (from where I sit)

I have the same feeling. I haven't watched the video, but I did read the live notes from a couple of different sites and didn't see much in there at all. Fullscreen support, updated Exposé, a launcher... and what else? This is a serious question; the notes I read didn't list any other new features.

I'm sure that more will be added before release but as it stands, the announced features are absolutely not convincing me to buy the upgrade.

 

[canyonblue737]

I think the major "ideas" were shown. He left out demos of the autosaving, program state saving etc. which are very, very significant so that leaves a lot out to show. I also think there is a very good chance for a significant redesign of the overall theme, away from aqua, and toward what you are seeing in iOS / iTunes / iLife for better or worse, that is always good for a last minute demo and similar to what they did for Leopard/SnowLeopard (show major developer needed features a year off, then show some consumer "wow" features about 3-4 months prior to release.)

 

[daleycss]

Magical Feature

What happened to this magical feature they were hiring someone for???? You would think that there must be something really big about lion that would make it really worthwhile. I mean, all of the features they showcased werent that outstading. I really dont think they were. So what is the big item they wrote about in their job application, There is something lurking out there.

 

[Zackmd1]

What happened to this magical feature they were hiring someone for???? You would think that there must be something really big about lion that would make it really worthwhile. I mean, all of the features they showcased werent that outstading. I really dont think they were. So what is the big item they wrote about in their job application, There is something lurking out there.

I was wondering about that too. I bet there is some big feature that wasn't showcased because it wasn't ready. We all can do is just wait and see... there might be something in January at the normal event.