fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Some questions to ponder...

1. How big is the shit-eating grin on the lips of Bill Gates, and does every Windows fan in the world know the definition of Schadenfreude?

2. "Cupertino has a cat, too. But it fell asleep."

3. Apple releases MacOS point updates about every 3-4 months. The last update was 10.4.9...does this mean there will be a 10.4.10?

4. First Apple dropped "Computer" from its name, now they have stated that working on a phone is more important then working on the operating system that powers their personal computers. Is this another sign that MacOS hardware and software is continuing to fade in importance at Apple?

5. Will developers finally really see "secret features" in June?

6. Does Steve Jobs wish he really had a "time machine?"

7. As far as I can remember, this is the first time since the mid 1990s - and the first time ever since Steve Jobs came back to Apple - that Apple has publicly missed an announced ship date of the MacOS.

Mike, Leopard is clearly a repeat of Copland, per your number 7.

Hopefully they'll make Leopard really worth the wait. I mean, come on, October will be getting pretty close to three years since Tiger came out. Apple's abandoning it's current install base in favor of untested waters.

I hope none of the stupid pundits are dim-witted enough to bash Apple for this delay, after the fiasco that was Longhorn.

haven't we seen the cute girl in Sailor Moon outfit before ?

Alex, apologies. I didn't have time to reduce a new image. Also, i wanted to save a new image for a longer post.

Finally, http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=39433

Normally I wouldn't mention those here, but since I talked about Pundits and shills...

Those statements would work fine if only Apple made the announcement or was headquartered IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

However, announcing the Spring release date (several times) while standing in California, USA means that Apple planned to ship Leopard in the California, USA-version of Spring.

Partner, you are being really dodgy with your claims in this article.

Er, I think it may have been a joke, partner.

thanks rosyna, i'm only here for the girls.

I love it! Great comeback!

I'm an old time Mac user. Anybody remember FullWrite Professional? I was a Mac user group meeting way back where they were demoing FullWrite Professional. At the Q&A session, somebody of coursed asked when it would ship. "November," the company rep replied. And somebody from the audience called out, "What year?!?"

So, next time Steve makes some comment like "Spring" or "June" or something like that, be sure to call him on it.

:^)

With Apple becoming more and more a media company one has to wonder just how much longer they will developing, and selling an OS. There are some who feel Leopard is the last of the Apple OS systems.

I am perfectly fine with Apple's decision to delay here, personally. The iPhone generated so much publicity that, honestly, if they'd delayed iPhone instead of Leopard, there'd be a much bigger backlash than the 4% of the computer market waiting for Leopard. As has been said, Tiger works just fine and Leopard is worth waiting for, particularly if they can devote the extra time to QA and making sure there's no "dot-zero disasters" (10.4.0 destroying Firewire hard drives, for example.)

Besides, Apple could have done worse -- they could've pulled a Microsoft, released in June with a half-complete product with tons of features no one wants and the features everyone wants suddenly missing or horribly immature and malfunctioning (if you want "suddenly missing" on Microsoft's part, google "WinFS"; if you want "horribly immature", use Vista and smile every time it asks you "cancel or allow?" when you've just clicked run on a program you've run 100 times on that same computer before.)

I personally think it's great that Apple's moving to new markets, it makes the company and the brand more viable and relevant, which actually makes sure the Mac doesn't die. (It's true -- iPods keep the Mac afloat, because not that the Mac isn't profitable for Apple, but iPods are a lot moreso and that's where Apple's cash reserve comes from.)

I think I'd throw a party if Apple discontinued their Mac hardware sales aside perhaps their more "unique" items like the iMac and XServe and transitioned to licensing the OS as their main Mac sales channel. If they did it right -- a qualification type program, where Apple "blesses" particular models from participating manufacturers or combinations of parts for system builders -- the machines and OS would be just as reliable, more people might try the Mac OS, and we could actually smile when someone says "Dude, I'm getting a Dell... (with Mac OS)"

I am actually happy. I use many software by little developer houses including a massive ww2 simulation. There was no chance they could fix/workaround Apple rushed OS bugs and at the end, as I know this "community", they would get the blame.

As I said on that games forums, only Blizzard sized companies can force Apple to fix their bugs ,e.g. they would dictate what would be in 10.5.1 disaster fix :)

Actually glad and no, I am not expecting 10.5 to be super stable when released in October.

Sorry for comment spam, imagine they lock down WWDC developers and force them to fix Leopard bugs so it can be truly released in October :)

Sorry for being off-topic, but there seemed no other way to address Unsanity users or Unsanity developers publicly.

This article:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/03/22/leopard-not-ready-for-april--barely-beta-not-final-or-gold-master

makes mention of a mooted change in OS-X 10.5:

"One more tip we got regarding Leopard, is that InputManager plugins are no longer allowed. That's right... no more little hacks from anybody besides Apple. No more Apple menu hacks. No more Safari plugins. (InputManager is not exactly the same as APE, by the way.) "Apple isn't really broken up about it since InputManagers were often used for nefarious purposes anyway," our sources said, but the loss of InputManager control will break a lot of shareware and commercial software that currently makes use of that control. "

I'd like the Unsanity weblog to comment about this. All I can say is that it's FruitMenu that makes OS-X bearable. The idea of a non-customisable Apple menu that display a hierarchical menu of my HDD doesn't bear thinking about.

Some advice to the FruitMenu using community about whether this spells the end for our favorite utility would be welcome.

What does that comment have whatsoever to do with FruitMenu? It even explicitly says they're not related, so I'm not sure what we'd comment on.

That is some wrong propaganda, Input Manager plugins STAY, they will just ask end user whether to enable that functionality or not, a security window just like (but not same) as Startup Items security fix. IMHO it is a good thing, it is far better than some lifeless developers spreading FUD about security.

I understand commercial developer houses tend to stay away from telling the truth about non-release software (OS) since it would be breach of NDA but manipulating popular sites like Ars Technica for your (whoever tipped) own agenda is a worse thing.

Basically, Input Managers stay and end user is asked whether to enable them or not.

Best of both worlds. That is how Apple manages to sell a Mach/BSD Hybrid to 60 year old ladies.

thanks rosyna