Inexorably approaching the event, which is waiting for a long time. Everyone is waiting for - reporters of magazines about computers, people interested in computers, program developers, and, perhaps, every person who has seen more than one operating system.

And, of course, Apple computer users are waiting for him.

I am talking about the release of Apple's new version of the operating system - MacOS 10.5, or, more humanly - Leopard.

However, if for the "macs" this is really an event with a capital letter and a product that touches them directly, then for everyone else it is just curiosity.

Meanwhile, new major versions of operating systems are not even released every year. In some cases, you have to wait five years, and five years is the period for which even the most pragmatic and calm people get bored.

Therefore, since the first public talk about the upcoming operating system, the public’s curiosity has only intensified. People put themselves beta versions, people wrote reports, people discussed Leopard on blogs.

And now the opinion is heard more and more often - “10.5 does not offer anything fundamentally new, this is only a pleasant, but not revolutionary update.”

With the help of this article I would like to clarify a little the real significance of this “update”. For Macs. For the curious. For the future of operating systems on personal computers.

Big things

After such a lengthy introduction, I want to dramatically change the style of presentation of the material and move from water to meat. So, let's start the conversation with things known to everyone whose significance, it seems to me, has been somewhat underestimated.

Time machine

As you know, in Leopard will be built in an ambitious time machine. This is an application that penetrates the system everywhere and allows you to roll back the state of any file or object to an arbitrary point in time.

Usually in this place they say that such functionality has been present in Windows for a long time and is called Shadow Copy. However, the fun of everything Apple does is not that it has never been before them. The magic of this company lies in the fact that the products that it produces - really can be used. So with Time Machine.

Absolutely everyone agrees that data backup is very important. And almost all - never do this. Causes? Very simple:

• it’s usually not clear where to save the data. DVDs? Too much fuss. Optional hard drive? It usually seems too wasteful. And only network storage of information more or less took root.
  It’s usually quite difficult to set up automatic backup. It does not require too much knowledge or experience, but it is simply lazy, since the nuances are the sea.
  usually the restoration of information, if it is nevertheless needed, is real torment. Even if you saved the information - it takes a lot of time to find it, make sure that this is exactly what you need and return it to its place. If we are talking about system files - this is also dangerous. If we are talking about text documents, it can be very difficult to make sure that the found file contains exactly the version of the program, article, letter.
  
  Time machine solves all these problems. In short:
  
  • Time machine can create backups not only on an external hard drive, but also on a network drive - be it MacOSX Server or just a shared directory.
    Installing Time Machine is very simple. If you want to save absolutely everything - just a click of a button is enough. And you will never even have to remember saving information until you need to restore it.
    The backup process is completely independent. You can pull out the disk to which the data is being saved or lose connection with the network where the data is currently being saved. As soon as the storage becomes available again, backup will continue. And you will not notice anything.
    With one click of the mouse, you can order Time Machine to backup at any time.
    You can use Time Machine in order to make ten computers identical to it from one computer. Just restore (with one click!) Backup on these ten computers.
    
    Time Machine is the first human way in history to protect your information. And much more.
    
    And this is a revolution.
    
    

    Spotlight

    
    In the previous (current) system - MacOSX 10.4 Tiger for the first time there was something called Spotlight. This is a mechanism for instantly searching for anything on any grounds. Do you need a PDF document where it was written about ducks? You just write “ducks” and instantly get this document. Do you want to run an application that lies in the Applications directory among hundreds of others? There is no need to pick up a mouse and dig into this heap - write the first few letters of the application name and press Cmd + Enter.
    
    Spotlight has changed the way people use computers. And Spotlight at Leopard will continue his work.
    
    Again, briefly, a list of new features:
    
    • Network Search. On a network of several "macs" you can search for files without thinking about where they are. Are you at work. You need a distribution of some application. Or a report on a topic. Or do you want to see everything related to this topic. Just enter keywords and get what you are looking for. Instantly.
      Serious query language. Now you can use Boolean logic - the operators "AND", "OR", "NOT". Now you can search by metadata directly - “width”, “height”, “author”. Now you can specify the ranges - "more than", "less than". Now you can use the dates.
      
      That is, you can write literally the following "business report AND date of change is more than 10 October" or "photo And width is more than 1000". And the result you get instantly.
      Spotlight now also searches your web browsing history. Including the content of these pages. How often this happens: yesterday you were on some site, but forgot his address. Today you need to go there again. Google can help, but not always - it’s too difficult to find what you are looking for on the entire Internet. But finding it in the history of your own queries is much easier.
      
      Windows Vista introduced a similar search. Automatically indexes the contents of your computer and instantly displays results. I worked closely with this system for more than six months. And he could not accustom himself to use it. Because it is unbearable.
      
      You don’t need to get used to Spotlight. It just works.
      
      

      Quicklook

      
      A small but very serious innovation of Leopard is the Quicklook file preview system. Being in the file browser window, you press the space bar and instantly see the contents of the selected file.
      
      This would not be anything special if not for one moment - this is a modular system. The developer of any application that uses its own data type can (and obviously will do so) write a special plug-in that will be integrated into the Quicklook system. Thus, the Leopard user is guaranteed a very quick and easy way to look at any file without launching (often lengthy and painful) the application itself. This applies to images, videos, documents, music files - just about anything.
      
      

      Web clip

      
      In MacOSX 10.4 Tiger, there was another, really serious, innovation - Dashboard. In fact, this is the second “desktop”, which is displayed at the click of a button and can contain small widget applications.
      
      For many, Dashboard has become an indispensable tool. It was not useful to many. However, there is hardly a more suitable place where you can put information about the current state of the system (iStat Pro), weather, calendar, small notes.
      
      A new simple and ingenious widget will appear in Leopard - Webclip.
      
      This is a small button on the Safari browser control panel. By clicking on it, you can select part of any web page, literally “cut out” a piece - and place it in the Dashboard.
      
      Think a minute - of all the sites you visit regularly, how many could be moved there? Lebedev's Business Lynch? Easy. Popular entries from blogs.yandex.ru ? What is your current karma with habr.ru ? Schedule your favorite movie theater? Weather with gismeteo.ru (which you trust the most)?
      
      WebClip is a great example of a little thing that is as simple as it is ingenious.
      
      

      "Little things"

      
      The leopard also includes dozens of "little things", some of which are innovative, some are bug fixes, and some are just an evolution of old features.
      
      I will try to list some of the things that interest me without adhering to a special order.
      
      

      Google Maps Addresses

      
      Each time you see an address - in the Address Book or in a letter in the mail, you can see it on Google maps with one click.
      
      

      Strongly Improved AppleScript

      
      AppleScript is a simple scripting language that allows you to operate on almost everything that happens on MacOSX. If you want something strange, and the application itself does not allow this, there is a very high probability that (if you have basic programming experience) in ten minutes you can write a script that implements this oddity.
      
      In the new version: full Unicode support. Many system settings can now be used in scripts - Dock, Security, Expose, Accounts, Networking, iChat. Changed error reporting system. The Folder Actions system has been greatly changed - now a separate server is responsible for this.
      
      

      Extremely Advanced Automator

      
      Automator is a simple application that allows people who are not familiar with programming to easily create simple scripts with the mouse. For example, you can easily create a script that will take a screenshot, resize it, save it to a file with the desired name, upload this file to your FTP and put a link to it in the clipboard.
      
      In the new version, Automator learned to directly record user actions, so that later they can be used in a script. Variables have appeared. Now you can run the script on a schedule - once every 5 minutes, for example. A large set of new actions has appeared - for working with RSS, built-in video cameras, PDF and many others.
      
      

      Dashcode

      
      A new application has appeared - Dashcode, with which you can create your own widgets. Very simple and comfortable. In fact, anyone familiar with Javascript can easily learn how to design and develop their widget. In a couple of hours you can do a fairly complicated thing.
      
      

      Springloaded dock

      
      Now if you take a file with your mouse, point it at the icon in the Dock and press the spacebar - the application that you hover over will start. Accordingly, it will be possible to drop this file somewhere there. Perhaps the importance of this will be understood only by valid MacOSX users. Drag'n'drop in this system is truly 100% used.
      
      

      Wikipedia in Dictionary

      
      Together with MacOSX comes the standard Dictionary application - a dictionary. Now this dictionary can load Wikipedia articles.
      
      

      New DVD Player

      
      Very much changed the interface of the standard DVD Player. New full screen interface. A convenient mechanism for selecting scenes during full-screen viewing. The mechanism of zooming the image to full screen - in order to get rid of black fields. A system for reading even heavily scratched discs. Improving image quality with new deinterlacing algorithms.
      
      

      New Finder

      
      Finder, the main MacOSX application, an analogue of Explorer on Windows, has been greatly redesigned. Firstly, it now looks like iTunes - with a well-designed Sidebar. Secondly, it supports CoverFlow. Third, for .Mac subscribers, you can access your home computer files from anywhere, wherever you are.
      
      Added "breadcrumbs" - displaying the full path to the current file. Finally, you can safely open network access to any directory in the system.
      
      

      New FrontRow

      
      Leopard has a new Frontrow interface - a full-screen access system for your media library. Now it is more like Apple TV and can, in particular, show content from any iTunes on the current network.
      
      

      New iCal

      
      The iCal application, a calendar with advanced planning features, has been greatly changed. There are so many changes that it makes little sense to list. The main thing, perhaps, is support for shared calendars via CalDAV.
      
      

      New iChat

      
      An application that has received more innovations than any other. iChat is a built-in MacOSX IM client that supports many protocols - from Bonjour (a protocol that automatically connects people on the same network) to Jabber. The most striking innovations are the use of Photobooth effects, the ability to show each other your screen (for example, to demonstrate how to use some application), the ability to record audio and video conversations, iChat Theater - a system for demonstrating almost any content (more precisely, that supports Quicklook) to the interlocutor - from video to Excel files.
      
      

      Russification

      
      Leopard - the first version of MacOSX, which flaunts a complete Russification of the system, including tools for checking spelling. In addition, a new layout of the Cyrillic keyboard has been added to the system, which will save the switches - such as in Windows.
      
      

      New Mail

      
      The standard mail client of the system - Mail, is now much smarter. He learned how to create HTML letters (and several dozen ready-made templates are offered). From letters you can now create To-Do objects (which will greatly help the followers of Getting Things Done). Also, Mail is now able to read RSS feeds, create short notes (Notes), create archives of letters.
      
      

      New Airport menu

      
      An ancient dream of MacOSX users - now in the Airport menu (wi-fi network) which networks are closed and which are not.
      
      

      Parental controls

      
      In Leopard, a very well-developed system for monitoring the actions of children appeared in comparison with the old one. Now, poor kids can be limited to filtering “unwanted” content on Wikipedia.
      
      

      Updated Photobooth

      
      One of the funniest, and maybe useless apps of recent times is PhotoBooth. This thing imitates a photography booth and allows you to have fun playing around with the built-in (or external) webcam.
      
      In the new version: support for new funny effects, support for backdrops - background images, video recording, taking photos in serial mode, the ability to display slideshows and export recorded video to an animated GIF (on profile picture).
      
      

      Brand New Preview

      
      With the introduction of Quicklook, this application will be used less often, but, meanwhile, it is important. This is a simple program that allows you to view images and PDFs. Much has changed:
      
      • New user interface
        Smooth zooming and scrolling
        You can add annotations attached to a specific point to images and PDF documents. PDF annotations are saved inside the PDF.
        More options for manipulating images, for example, you can quickly remove the background from the photo, leaving only the central object.
        Possibility of editing PDF: changing the order of pages, deleting pages, combining several PDFs into one
        Mass operations with images
        Support for GPS data in photos
        
        

        Spaces - Virtual Desktops

        
        Linux users are not used to it. However, in Windows and MacOSX it was. As separate applications.
        
        Now it is built into the system - a mechanism for creating and managing multiple desktops. You can:
        
        • create new desktops, call them names and move between them
          to look at all of them at once in realtime. Something like Expose.
          Bind applications to their desktops. Toys always run on one, Photoshop is always on the other.
          Easily move applications between desktops.
          
          

          Search application menu

          
          Now, painfully recalling where this or that command is located in the Photoshop menu, you can simply use the quick search and find this command very simply and quickly.
          
          

          New Terminal

          
          Terminal is an application known to all * nix'oids for accessing the text console of the operating system. In the new version:
          
          • normal support for various languages ​​(there used to be problems with Russian, for example)
            full support for tabs - creating, combining, converting tabs to a window and back,
            all settings of a specific terminal can be saved in Workspace, which you can use later
            
            

            New TextEdit

            
            This application is in some ways an analogue of Notepad. However, it is much more decent - it can Rich Text, can read .doc files and all that. In the new version:
            
            • Auto save. Saves documents on a schedule.
              Supports OpenDocument and Word2007 formats;
              Converts web addresses into links;
              Automatically converts quotation marks to “correct”;
              Smart copy-paste - takes into account spaces around cut and pasted text
              
              

              Ruby on rails

              
              The system now has a built-in Framework for developing web applications - Ruby on Rails. Together with Mongrel (special web server) and Capistrano (remote control and deployment mechanism).
              
              

              Conclusion

              
              I have not listed everything. A complete list of enhancements is described on a dedicated page: www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html
              
              I hope this description gives some insight into what Leopard is. This is a really serious step forward, and some of its capabilities will definitely greatly change the way we use computers. Now backup is available to lazy people. Desktop Sharing is available to non-administrators. Not only geeks, but also ordinary people will start using virtual screens. Widgets will become really useful - because of Webclip. Russian will work out of the box.
              
              All the best and until October 26 :)