Leopard's new look

[Qion]

I really hope this was the "secret feature" Jobs was talking about at the developer conference. I was a bit disappointed with how Tiger came off looking, and if our holy next-gen OS has the same appearance it's going to bother me, a lot.

I also really hope that it will not resemble the new iTunes layout. I guess I've gotten used to it, but I'm still not happy. It's gaudy and unprofessional looking.

[Mikuro]

Personally, I wouldn't care if they didn't introduce any new appearances. I just hope they cut down on the number of appearances they use, one way or another. Apple keeps introducing new looks without scrapping any old ones. It's building up and becoming a mess.

Imagine if when OS 8 came out, half the programs still looked like System 7. Or if OS 8's Platinum appearance was still used in 10.0. (Well, in a way it was, with Classic, but that was different.) Wouldn't that have been stupid? I don't think the current state of OS X is much less stupid, personally.

As for the "Dark Unified" look of iTunes 7...I'm not sure. I can't quite figure out whether it's intended as the eventual replacement of Brushed Metal, or if it just exists to make the Windows and Mac versions look more similar.


I kind of expect something big, though. I just can't see Apple NOT milking Core Image for all its worth (and then some). The problem is, they'll need to maintain two different appearances, à la Windows Vista, to accomodate the older hardware they support. Hmm.

[symphonix]

Personally, I wouldn't care if they didn't introduce any new appearances. I just hope they cut down on the number of appearances they use, one way or another. Apple keeps introducing new looks without scrapping any old ones. It's building up and becoming a mess.

I agree with this statement so completely that no more needs to be said.

However, I don't see how a new look would really mean "two different appearances a-la Vista". At present, we have a couple of core-image effects that don't show up on older hardware - the ripple effect on Dashboard or the transition of changing desktop backgrounds, for instance. However, the *look* is exactly the same on either old or new hardware, only the effects are missing. Windows, on the other hand, has a completely different look for people on old hardware, with different colour schemes and so on. I expect Apple will do it the right way though.

[Qion]

Right. I can see an extrapolation of what happened to the Dashboard and the ripple effect; some Macs can do it, some can't. It would be a shame if the appearance of the Finder were any different between machines, of course... then again, I can't imagine a G3 running Time Machine either.

Honestly I wish Apple would create something inducive to both creativity and the work environment. An environment that reflects their Pro market -that is the Metal-on-Black statement- would be very well suited for the majority of the their userbase. I couldn't stand seeing a blue finder window or something of the sort, at least in an XP sorta way. The iTunes interface of late looks a lot to me like a merge between aluminum and Internet Explorer. I really dislike it.

[powermac]

I am hoping that the brush metal look goes away. I have to admit I am tired of it. It is kinda of dark and looking for a fresh new interface with Leopard.

[fryke]

I would be okay with OS 8 Platinum, Rhapsody Dark Platinum, Panther Aqua, Tiger Aqua, Unified... As long as they _finally_ get back to *one* appearance. The Batman Utility Belt™ feeling of Brushed Metal is over. It was fun in the nineties or whenever they first used it.

What I'm really afraid of is that Vista might force Apple to bring more "glow" and "effects" to the general look and feel of Mac OS X.

[Mikuro]

However, I don't see how a new look would really mean "two different appearances a-la Vista". At present, we have a couple of core-image effects that don't show up on older hardware - the ripple effect on Dashboard or the transition of changing desktop backgrounds, for instance. However, the *look* is exactly the same on either old or new hardware, only the effects are missing. Windows, on the other hand, has a completely different look for people on old hardware, with different colour schemes and so on. I expect Apple will do it the right way though.

That's true. It depends on how they use it, I guess. If they just add a little extra zazz, like the Dashboard ripple, then it'd make sense to just turn it off on some hardware. If they do something more extensive, maybe not. I don't know how much "more extensive" they could really get, but...I'm sure there's someone at Apple whose job it is to think of something. If the usability of a new interface in Leopard relies on Core Image, then things would get complicated.

Some have suggested that the Time Machine interface will not work on older graphics cards. I don't know if that's true, but in any case, it's an example of something that uses graphical power to create a more usable (not just prettier) interface.

[fryke]

I doubt that the "more usable" part of Time Machine's interface couldn't be done with graphics cards 3 or 4 years old. And the functionality clearly _must_ be there even without the fancy graphics. If they say: "You don't have the right graphics power in order to do backups", we _know_ that they've gone mad. :P

Btw.: The graphics are only used to _retrieve_ files in a funky way, the backing-up part should basically still be quite FX-less. So maybe it's just a matter of retrieving stuff by hand or using a third party utility which uses Time Machine's backups.