Section 1.12. What Does the Future Hold?

1.12. What Does the Future Hold?

It's been more than four years since Apple unleashed Mac OS X upon the masses. In that time, the operating system has developed rapidly and fruitfully. Each release has brought increases in speed, refinements, and powerful new technologies. At the same time, the success of the iPod and iTunes and the failures of Microsoft have put Apple and its colorful OS in the limelight. Mac OS X is poised to continue raising the bar as more and more people are exposed to Tiger.

It will take some time for developers to harness all of Tiger's power and release the next generation of applications to amaze us. However, few outside Apple's headquarters in Cupertino know how the next generation of Mac OS X itself will evolve. While it's likely we'll see improvements to the new technologies introduced in Tiger and continued refinement of the OS and its applications, my crystal ball doesn't offer many peeks at the groundbreaking features Mac OS X Leopard (Version 10.5) is sure to bring.

With the introduction of Apple's transition to the Intel processor, one of the features slated to make an appearance in Leopard is Rosetta . Rosetta is an emulator that allows software compiled for the PowerPC processor to run on Intel Macs without requiring a recompile. While not every application will be compatible with Rosetta, it is certainly a useful shim for those developers who won't be able to port all of their code to Intel-based Mac OS X in time for its launch.

One thing's for sure, when WWDC 2006 comes around, all eyes will be on Apple as it prepares the OS that will compete with Microsoft's Windows Vista (formerly known by its codename, Longhorn ) in late 2006 or early 2007. Now that we've taken a look at the Mac OS of our past and glimpsed at its future, let's focus on the Mac OS of today: Tiger!