Categories
Apple

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is pretty nice, however I don’t think it really has a killer feature (though John Siracusa’s exhaustive review lists pretty much every change). Notification center is in my opinion the closest to it, and not for notifications itself, but because it can serve as a sort of dash board for calendar making it really accessible. I think that will change my workflow a bit. Lots of subtle UI polish which is nice and appreciated. For those who use Calendar’s location field for phone numbers it’s nice that it’s always completely visible now and never cut off. Apple’s been resolving this slowly over time. OS X 10.6 was terrible when it came to this.

I still don’t understand why my desktop picture reverts every OS upgrade. I’m also a little disappointed HFS+ hasn’t been replaced with something more modern.

Overall a smooth upgrade.

Categories
Software

Restart Nostalgia

Restart Mac OS 7

For all of us who spent so much time restarting computers to diagnose them over the years, this page will bring back some of the “glory days”. Relive the restarts of all the popular OS’s and versions.

Categories
Open Source Software

Kernel Upgrade Fun

A few days ago I did a kernel upgrade from 2.6.24 to 2.6.32.1. Surprisingly the load on the server has dropped slightly. The server is generally under minimal load, just the way I like it so a drop is particularly surprising. It was restarted just a few weeks prior, so I don’t think the restart had an impact on load. Unscientifically it appears the box is under the same level of usage as prior to the upgrade. The two spikes that delimit the restart are due to some log processing.

Server Load

Categories
Apple Security Software

Apple’s Life Cycle and Security

I don’t think I need to say I’m a Mac lover. I’ve been very satisfied with my Macs, and love OS X. But I got to agree with CNET about Apple’s recent trends.

Product Life Cycle
Apple’s been pretty firm about the 5 year rule for hardware. After that period, your not really getting hardware support. It’s a pretty solid rule, and one you can depend on (for good or bad). Developers, both hardware and software are well aware of it.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of an official product life cycle for software. Microsoft has a clear product life cycle. I sincerely hope Apple matches Microsoft and adopts a similar policy. For at least that length of time (if not longer), and sticks to it. The mystery involving product life is a real turn off for companies. How can you evaluate what Macs will cost? A good security issue may require the entire office upgrade their OS version. In such cases, a product cycle would allow an IT department to know very well what it will cost to keep Macs afloat. And dispel some cost myths.

I would like to propose a Security/Product Cycle Policy for Apple to adopt:
A product will be officially supported for 5 years after general availability. During this time, full support will be provided. This is the same as Microsofts policy. During this time. All security and bug fixes are available. No new features are required (though could be offered). For example, a WebCore update would fall in this category. Keeping Safari up to date and fixing rendering bugs. New OS X features such as Exposé, would not. That’s for a new product, and new product cycle.

A Security Phase would proceed for a period of minimum 2 years, during this time, only security bugs will be fixed. Keeping Safari up to date, and fixing crashes wouldn’t qualify. Only bugs that provide a security risk.

So in theory, a company can have a system for 7 years, and be able to maintain it for the original cost. Of course they will most likely want new features, and would upgrade in that time. But they have a buffer up to 7 years. This compares with Windows XP’s current product cycle.

A very inclining offer for IT departments. Buy a pretty powerful computer, and know for 5 years you have hardware support for new OS versions. For 7 years, your current OS will be secure. And we mean Mac OS X secure. Not Windows Secure 😉

Apple needs to use it’s strong point. A solid UNIX security model. Take advantage of the fact that it can do so. Security is a big advantage the Mac platform has. It will cost more to support older OS’s. But in the end, will make the OS much more attractive than it is now.