Apple Has Already Started Work on Mac OS X 10.8
Apple has already begun work on the next major revision to Mac OS X which is being labeled as version 10.8.
Apple only just released the final version of OS X 10.7 (Lion) to customers in July. OS X Lion was the first version of Mac OS X to be distributed through the Mac App Store and it included a number of new features for the Mac. These included an iOS-like application launch screen known as Launchpad, full-screen apps, a new combined interface for Dashboard, Expose, and Spaces known as Mission Control, enhanced Multi-Touch gestures, and improvements to a number of core applications such as Mail.
While Apple has yet to announce plans for the next major version of OS X, evidence of 10.8 first began appearing in our web logs in August, and have since accelerated. This graph shows an increasing number of web visits from Mac OS X 10.8 users over the past several months.
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8) AppleWebKit/535.6.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.2 Safari/535.6.2
While it is trivial to falsify these records, the requests originated from Apple, Inc. IP addresses and surrounding areas. Also, the overall clustering is consistent with limited internal testing. We saw a very similar pattern for the early OS X 10.7 requests which began in October, 2009:
Note that the first appearance of 10.7 was almost a full year before the first developer preview, and nearly 20 months before the public release.
So far, there have been no hints as to what we might expect to see in Mac OS X 10.8. Historically, Apple's major OS X releases are released every other year: 10.3 in 2003, 10.4 in 2005, 10.5 in 2007, 10.6 in 2009, and 10.7 in 2011. Based on this pattern, we expect Apple to preview Mac OS X 10.8 sometime in 2012, with the final public release happening in 2013.
Another question is what Apple will call OS X 10.8. Apple has been naming their major OS X releases after feline animals such as Tiger and Leopard. "Lion" naturally seems like it may be the end of the line for those names. While Apple had previously trademarked the names "Lynx" and "Cougar", the company has since abandoned those trademarks. It should be noted that Lion hadn't been trademarked until after their first public announcement, so the choice of name could still be wide open.
Top Rated Comments
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28 months ago
It's interesting to see metrics like this but it shouldn't come as any surprise.
Sure, perhaps better title would have been. "Apple Employees Should be Working on OS X 10.8 But Instead Are Browsing MacRumors.com." :)
arn
28 months ago
I hope they stop with the ipadification of OS X.
And a concise list of things WRONG with OS X:
1) Mission Control is an absolute mess.
It needs OPTIONS in system preferences to give us back the ability to view
all open windows at once without grouping them together, just like in
Expose. Anyone who multitasks between multiple documents in photoshop,
illustrator, indesign, etc. will know exactly how annoying it is to switch to a window in a different application.
2) Simplify Mission Control.
No need for it to pull back the wallpaper when activating it, and
especially no need to show thumbnails over other desktops up top when
users only use ONE desktop.
3) Version needs to go (or be turned off).
Give users options in system preferences for versions/auto save. This is a
huge problem for privacy. I would want it turned completely off.
4) The sidebar icons.
It looks like a dumbass graphic designer with no sense of functionality
designed these. Why are they all grey? Its really difficult quickly
scanning through the list of icons to find where to go.
5) RAM optimization.
Lion is a memory HOG. One reason many of us were excited about Snow Leopard
was because it built on the greatness of Leopard itself and made the
experience better. Lion is just complete bloatware compared to Snow
Leopard.
6) Launchpad is useless for many users.
It really needs to be capable of being turned off COMPLETELY, or
trashed/uninstalled. Simply removing it from the dock does not disable
it. The proof of this is when download an application through the app
store; launchpad pops up automatically. I have no need for it, I use
shortcuts in the dock already. Im sick of the ipadification of Lion.
7) Battery life on MacBooks.
Go to any forum and you will see a massive number of users experiencing
terrible battery life. Lion is clearly not optimized, at all.
8) iTunes bloat.
While I'm at it; I hate iTunes. It'd be fine if it werent such a bloated peice of **** if it didnt include all the crap for itunes music store, support for ipods, iphones, ipads, app store, movies, etc. It'd be really great if apple could put together a simple application with a library JUST for the purpose of listening to music. For now, I use Vox.
9) TRIM Support.
Apple has been selling laptops with SSD drives for about 4 years now, and STILL hasnt added support for TRIM, something that should have been standard the day they started selling those macbook airs with SSDs. Fast forward to today, and there is NO EXCUSE for not implementing this. Windows has had TRIM for years. Where is Apple today considering their stance on being cutting edge and innovative and all that propaganda?
And a concise list of things WRONG with OS X:
1) Mission Control is an absolute mess.
It needs OPTIONS in system preferences to give us back the ability to view
all open windows at once without grouping them together, just like in
Expose. Anyone who multitasks between multiple documents in photoshop,
illustrator, indesign, etc. will know exactly how annoying it is to switch to a window in a different application.
2) Simplify Mission Control.
No need for it to pull back the wallpaper when activating it, and
especially no need to show thumbnails over other desktops up top when
users only use ONE desktop.
3) Version needs to go (or be turned off).
Give users options in system preferences for versions/auto save. This is a
huge problem for privacy. I would want it turned completely off.
4) The sidebar icons.
It looks like a dumbass graphic designer with no sense of functionality
designed these. Why are they all grey? Its really difficult quickly
scanning through the list of icons to find where to go.
5) RAM optimization.
Lion is a memory HOG. One reason many of us were excited about Snow Leopard
was because it built on the greatness of Leopard itself and made the
experience better. Lion is just complete bloatware compared to Snow
Leopard.
6) Launchpad is useless for many users.
It really needs to be capable of being turned off COMPLETELY, or
trashed/uninstalled. Simply removing it from the dock does not disable
it. The proof of this is when download an application through the app
store; launchpad pops up automatically. I have no need for it, I use
shortcuts in the dock already. Im sick of the ipadification of Lion.
7) Battery life on MacBooks.
Go to any forum and you will see a massive number of users experiencing
terrible battery life. Lion is clearly not optimized, at all.
8) iTunes bloat.
While I'm at it; I hate iTunes. It'd be fine if it werent such a bloated peice of **** if it didnt include all the crap for itunes music store, support for ipods, iphones, ipads, app store, movies, etc. It'd be really great if apple could put together a simple application with a library JUST for the purpose of listening to music. For now, I use Vox.
9) TRIM Support.
Apple has been selling laptops with SSD drives for about 4 years now, and STILL hasnt added support for TRIM, something that should have been standard the day they started selling those macbook airs with SSDs. Fast forward to today, and there is NO EXCUSE for not implementing this. Windows has had TRIM for years. Where is Apple today considering their stance on being cutting edge and innovative and all that propaganda?
28 months ago
Lion's the end of the line?! YOU'VE MISSED OUT THE BEST
OS X 10.8 - KEYBOARD CAT
OS X 10.8 - KEYBOARD CAT
28 months ago
I hope they stop with the ipadification of OS X.
I wholeheartedly agree, I hope that they go back to their Snow Leopard roots for this next version of OS X.
28 months ago
Most of the features in Lion are good, except Launchpad.
Launchpad is fantastic. I use it all the time to launch applications not in the dock. Beats opening up the finder and scrolling through a tiny list.
Also, those who say they hope Apple will reverse the 'iPadification' in their next OS are really disconnected with reality, and havent been paying attention. If anything, it will clearly increase. The endgame is the merging of both iOS and OSX. Anyone who can't see why that would be Apple's goal in the big picture.. wwll, there's nothing to say. I'm not even sure what people here WANT in a desktop OS, and neither do they. Innovation on the desktop will now stem from innovations in the mobile space, which will spred to both. People say they're disappointed with Lion, yet don't offer a single feature they would have liked to see. Lion is the best desktop OS Apple has ever made. I could never go back to SL. What the hell are 'SL roots anyway'? Some of you are utterly clueless.
28 months ago
I hope that 10.8 comes with alot more innovation, 10.7 was just disappointing and seemed like a minor realease. I believe 10.7 is the first time I have not bothered to upgrade an OS on a mac, the fact that it was pushed via the app store also disapointeded me.
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