Tag: Lion

Categories
Opinion

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

A previous article said Lion would be released July 14th. That date has come and gone, but where is Lion? Steve Jobs in his presentation at WWDC said Lion would ship “some time in July.” When in July? Guesses from July 6th to July 14th to July 26th have all been thrown in the air. Even the best Apple pundits have been stumped.

I think an unintended consequence of releasing software as download only has presented itself: there is no physical stock of install discs to tip the Apple community as to when a release will definitely happen.

What does it matter? Well, for one, Mac Geeks such as myself are forced to check the rumor mills constantly for some sign of Lion approaching. It also shows just how much control Apple has over its products. I must admit that they have been playing their hand very close to the chest to have fooled so many websites. Another implication is that those wishing to prep his or her Macs for the upgrade have no idea when they’ll need to get it done by.

However, sources are now guessing more confidently that July 26th will be it.

What do you think? Will uncertainty cloud the release of future download only upgrades, or does it not matter to know when an OS upgrade will release?

[Image Source]

Categories
News

How to: Virtualize Mac OS X Lion

A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs like a physical machine. VMs are separated into two major categories; these categories are based on their use and degree of correspondence to any real machine. A system virtual machine provides a complete system platform which supports the execution of a complete operating system. A process virtual machine is designed to run a single program, which means that it supports a single process. Any software running in a virtual machine is restricted and it cannot break out of its virtual world.

 

The virtualization story for Mac OS X is about to change, a lot. This is a positive change as Lion’s licensing changes the rules for virtual machines. In some circumstances for certain enterprise deployments, virtual Mac OS X environments are held in a very high light. By giving access to Mac only applications, the demand increases without having to supply Mac hardware on a one-to-one basis.

 

Leopard started the virtualization for Apple. Apple began to permit limited virtualization of Mac OS X, with two major caveats: you could only run VMs on Mac hardware (no blade server racks full of HP gear serving out Mac desktops). By doing this, it cost a steep price because you needed a Mac OS X Server license. Since it was so expensive, few people took advantage of it.

 

Lion’s new EULA is prepared to change all the rules. 10.7 users will be allowed to run one or two virtual Mac instances on each physical Mac. The tools will be helped by VMware Fusion, Parallels, VirtualBox or others. The people that will benefit from this are developers, IT managers and others who need to keep a known-good test environment or try out new apps in a controlled fashion. Like this article? Hate this article? Leave a comment and we will let you know as soon as possible.

Categories
Opinion

Lion only $29, App Store download

In my previous article about OS X 7 Lion, I mentioned how one of my concerns for the new operating system was the price. If it sold for anything over $100, I wasn’t going to really consider it. Well, looks like I don’t need to put any more thought into whether or not to buy it because the price is right. For only $29 you get a full step up in an operating system that touts many new features. That alone is a pretty crazy notion.

But wait, there’s more! Apple is again shifting paradigms on their heads. Lion will only be available as a 4 GB Mac App Store download this July. No install disc. No flash drive. Nothing physical at all. You can read more about the specifics of downloading Lion at Apple.

The catch? From what I can tell, only anyone with the latest version of Snow Leopard will be able to access Lion. I can only guess that this means if you have Leopard, it will cost you $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard and then another $29 to get Lion. Even at $60, that’s still a value, but a bit daunting. There really isn’t a shortcut to it either, because it’s all based in the Snow-Leopard-only-Mac-App-Store. It will be interesting to see if there’s some work around to archive the Lion install on a flash drive.

Furthermore, the Intel Core Duo folks are finally forsaken to upgrades. In Apple’s typical fashion, they’re cutting out the hardware they consider “cruft.” Snow Leopard seemed to portray that only Intel Core 2 Duo Macs would be able to install it. I shirked the warning and was able to get Snow Leopard running just fine on my Core Duo MacBook. While, I don’t have my MacBook anymore, I still couldn’t imagine running Lion on it. The Core 2 Duo folks are still in the running, but it’s only a matter of time.

It was hard to get a good impression of Lion without a developer copy and without any more information than the Apple site provided. But with WWDC underway, Apple has finally revealed more of their hand to the general public.

I’ve seen what I need to see. In addition to the cool new features, the price can not be beat. Now we’ll see how hard it will be to download it the moment it becomes available.

[Image Source]

 

Categories
News

Sent it through AirDrop

Today, Apple has released seeds of it’s latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. One of the features of Lion that was not covered in his keynote at WWDC last year was the feature called AirDrop. With AirDrop, you can simply drop files to another user who is using AirDrop – pretty clever.

Send it by air.

With AirDrop in Mac OS X Lion, you can send files to anyone around you –  wirelessly. AirDrop doesn’t require setup or special settings. Just click the AirDrop icon in the Finder sidebar, and your Mac automatically discovers other people nearby who are using AirDrop. You’ll even see contact photos for those who are already in your Address Book. To share a file, simply drag it to someone’s name. Once accepted, the file transfers directly to the person’s Downloads folder. When you’re done with AirDrop, close the Finder and your Mac is no longer visible to others.