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Apple's banner: 'Hasta La Vista, Vista!'
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

B l o g
Apple introduces quad-processor Macs, shows off new 'Leopard' version of OS X


August 7, 2006


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard

   Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed the company's newest version of the OS X operating system today at an Apple Computer convention in San Francisco. Unlike most Apple announcements of the past, this one took direct aim at Apple's lumbering competitor.
   "Hasta La Vista, Vista!" proclaimed a huge banner as Jobs unveiled Mac OS X 10.5, code-named Leopard, at Apple's World-Wide Developer's Conference at the Moscone convention center.
   Apple was poking fun at Vista, the next version of Windows, which is five years late arriving and won't be available for Windows users until 2007. Windows experts have added insult to Microsoft's injury by pointing out that much of Vista is little more than a copy of OS X Tiger, the current version -- the one about to be replaced -- of Apple's operating system.
   Which is why Apple is celebrating so wildly -- cheers from the crowd almost drowned out the presentation today -- with its new Leopard operating system. While much of Vista is obviously copied from OS X Tiger, nothing in Vista is a match for OS X Leopard.
   Jobs said Leopard will be released to the public next spring. Developers got a copy today.
   A cool feature in Leopard is virtual desktops. Linux has had such a function for years, and the one-time pretender to the Apple OS crown, the Be operating system (BeOS), had a phenomenal multiple desktop feature. Apple users have clamored for a similar feature for a long time.
   Virtual desktops let you instantly switch from one desktop, with its own icons and running programs, to another. You can have one desktop just for e-mail and Web browsing and another just for iTunes, while using a third for games and a fourth for video editing, for example.
   Read more.