The pre-release documentation states the following system requirements:
- an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor
- a DVD drive
- built-in FireWire
- at least 512 MB of RAM (additional RAM is recommended for development purposes)
- a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
- at least 7 GB of disk space available, or 12 GB of disk space if you install the developer tools
Apple has published a list of the new features and capabilities planned for Mac OS X v10.5:5
All of the following features, although posted on the Apple website, are said by Apple to be subject to change.
- and ''' Photo Booth ''' are currently only available with the purchase of a new Mac, but will be included with Leopard. Front Row has been reworked to closely resemble the interface used by the Apple TV , and Photo Booth includes video recording with real-time filters.
- , an implementation of " Virtual Desktop s" (individually called "spaces"). It allows multiple desktops per user, with certain applications and windows in each desktop.7 Users can organize certain Spaces for certain applications (e.g., one for work-related tasks and one for entertainment) and switch between them. Exposé will work inside Spaces, allowing the user to see at a glance all desktops on one screen.8)
- with features similar to those seen in ITunes 7.
- , comprised of a redesigned 3-D Dock with a new grouping feature called '''Stacks'''.
- , a framework allowing documents to be viewed without opening them in an external application.10
- '''Enhancements in , along with increased support for Braille , Closed Captioning and a new high‐quality Text-to-speech voice.11
- including the additions of RSS Feeds , Stationery, Notes, and To-dos . To-dos use a system-wide service that is available to all applications.12
- , including Webclip , a feature that allows users to turn a part of any web page into a live Dashboard widget, and Dashcode to help developers code Widgets .13
- , including multiple logins, animated icons, and tabbed chats, similar to features present in Pidgin , Adium and the iChat plugin Chax ; IChat Theater , allowing users to incorporate images from IPhoto , presentations from Keynote , videos from QuickTime , and other Quick Look features into video chats; and Backdrops, which are similar to Chroma Key s, but use a real-time difference matte technique which does not require a green or blue screen. iChat will also implement desktop sharing, a feature previously available with Apple Remote Desktop .141516
- now include the ability to place restrictions on use of the Internet and to set parental controls from anywhere using remote setup.17
- calendar sharing and group scheduling as well as syncing event invitations from Mail. 18
- will be included. It is a software assistant which has been available as a Beta Release download for Mac OS X v10.4 from Apple’s website since April 5 2006 .19 It assists in the installation of Windows XP or Windows Vista to a separate partition (or separate internal drive) on Intel-based Macs.
- , which is now transparent and it is no longer rounded, which was a design feature since Mac System 1.0.
- 3 will be included.
- , a new feature for .Mac users that allows users to access files on their home computer while away from home via the internet.
- Native support by many libraries and frameworks for 64-bit applications, allowing 64-bit Cocoa applications. Existing 32-bit applications using those libraries and frameworks should continue to run without the need for emulation or translation.20
- Leopard will offer the Objective-C 2.0 runtime, which includes new features such as Garbage Collection . Xcode 3.0 will support the updated language and was itself rewritten with it.21
- A new framework, Core Animation , allows a developer to create complex animations while specifying only a "start" and a "goal" space. The main goal of Core Animation is to enable the creation of complex animations with small amounts of program code.
- Apple has integrated DTrace from Sun 's OpenSolaris and added a graphical interface called Xray . DTrace provides tools that users, administrators and developers can use to tune the performance of the operating system and the applications that run on it.22
- The new Scripting Bridge allows programmers to use Python and Ruby to interface with the Cocoa frameworks.23
- Leopard supports Resolution Independence , the ability to size system graphics in physical units such as centimeters or inches instead of pixels. This feature results in standard size graphics independent of the device on which they are viewed. Preliminary support was added in Mac OS X 10.4 to prepare developers for a "future release of Mac OS X."24
- Leopard’s OpenGL stack has been updated to version 2.1, and will use LLVM to increase its vertex processing speed.25 Apple has been working to get LLVM integrated into GCC ;26 Usage of LLVM in other parts of the OS has not been announced.
- Leopard’s security frameworks support Mandatory Access Control , Sandboxes and Code Signing .
- The Graphics and Media State of the Union address confirmed many other features possible because of Core Animation, such as live desktops, improvements to Quartz Composer with custom patches, a new PDF Kit for developers, and improvements to QuickTime API s.
- A fairly new patent from Apple refers to a new way of rendering desktop backgrounds or live desktops. The method involves a set of pre-written instructions, or recipe for rendering the desktop image. In this way desktops can now appear on the screen organically and are not stored in the RAM or VRAM leaving it free for other use.27 This is not a confirmed feature and may not be included in Leopard.
In mid-December 2006 a pre-release version of Leopard appeared to include support for Sun's ZFS .28 While Apple has not confirmed or denied speculation that ZFS would be included with Leopard, Jonathan Schwartz , CEO and President of Sun Microsystems, stated on June 6 2007 that ZFS has become "the file system" for Leopard.29 However, the senior project marketing director for Mac OS X stated on June 11 , 2007 that HFS+, not ZFS, will be used in Leopard. Apple has since clarified that a 'read-only' version of ZFS would be included. 30
Like Mac OS X 10.4, Leopard will support both PowerPC and Intel Macs. However, Leopard will not be released in separate versions, but instead will comprise one universal release that will run on either processor.31 While it is known that Leopard will support PowerPC G4 and PowerPC G5 processors, support for the PowerPC G3 is reportedly not present in the pre-release versions which have been made available to developers.32 When Apple’s Leopard website first appeared online, the 64-bit section stated, "From G3 to Xeon , from MacBook to Xserve , there is just one Leopard." The sentence was removed from the page the following day, leaving open the question of whether Leopard will support Macs with G3 processors.33 In the past, each new major release of Mac OS X has dropped support for at least some older Macs; 10.3 dropped support for Macs without built-in USB ports, and 10.4 dropped support for computers without FireWire ports.
Documentation contained with the Developer Preview DVD states that a PowerPC G4 or G5, or Intel processor is a minimum requirement. Despite this, some users have managed to install the developer preview version of Leopard on Macs with G3 processors by editing a particular file and then creating a new installation DVD with this edited file. However, even though these installations of Leopard can be installed on G3 Macs, some applications (for example Safari and iChat) will not run.http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=24736 It is not known whether this will be possible with the final shipping version of Leopard.
Leopard is fully UNIX compliant. Certification means that software following the Single UNIX Specification can be compiled and run on Leopard without the need for any code modification.34
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A241), released August 7 , 2006 .
- --- Leopard Preview Update version 1.0 (build 9A241e), released August 31 , 2006 35
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A283), released October 12 , 2006 36
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A303), released November 9 , 2006 37
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A321), released December 12 , 2006 38
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A343), released January 18 , 2007 39
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A377a), released March 1 , 2007 40
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A410), released April 12 , 2007
- Mac OS X v10.5 WWDC-beta (build 9A466), released June 11 , 2007 .
- ---This was the first feature-complete version of Leopard which was released to developers attending WWDC 2007 and was later made available to Select and Premier members of the Apple Developer Connection .
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A499), released July 24 2007 41
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A500n), released August 20 2007 42
- Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A527 client, 9A528n server), released August 24 2007 43
- Rosetta — software included in Intel versions of Mac OS X 10.4 that Enables Mac OS X software designed for PowerPC Macs to run on Intel Macs.
- Apple Intel Transition — more information on Apple’s move from PowerPC Macs to Intel Macs.
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