June 17, 2008

Snow Leopard and Multiple Processors

Larry Jordan has a few thoughts on the next year's version of Mac OS, Snow Leopard, in his latest newsletter (via SF Cutters):

"...one of the dirty little secrets of OS X: more processors do not mean faster speed from the same application...

This is what the recent announcement of the next version of OS X seeks to fix... However, there's a down-side to this as well. According to initial reports, Snow Leopard will only support Intel/Mac computers... Older applications that rely on those Carbon libraries, like Final Cut Pro and many others, will need to be massively rewritten to support the new operating system...

Snow Leopard requires Apple to rewrite FCP in a big way - this is just as major an effort as getting Final Cut to work on Intel/Mac's in the first place; probably bigger. This kind of major rewrite in a program's life comes along only rarely. With luck, Apple will use it for more than just achieving compatibility. It is my hope that Apple will use this opportunity to fix a lot of the long-standing bugs and weirdness in the program, as well as finally turn some attention to improving the interface."

There's more background on Snow Leopard at Macworld, and tidbits on the promised QuickTime X from OS X iPhone at Create Digital Motion, and Ars Technica.

Update: Apple Insider noted "Ten Big New Features in Mac OS X Snow Leopard" by Roughly Drafted.

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