In article <4074963.gPnYOXdPz5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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> Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Many of these same developers applauded the "150+ new features" in
> | Tiger and the "300 new features" in Leopard at past WWDCs. Now they
> | were applauding zero new features for Snow Leopard? What explains
> | this?
> `----
>
> http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars
>
> GNU/Linux is already ahead.
Really? Let's look at some of the areas Linux is behind Snow Leopard.
1. Compilers (see page 9 of the above article). Linux is still stuck in
GCC-land. Apple is fully supporting clang + LLVM, which generates better
code and is more versatile (and is under a BSD license, so plays nice
with others).
2. Support for multiple CPUs/cores (see page 10-13). Let's see you take
an existing C program in Linux, and make it work as easily and
efficiently on multiple cores or CPUs as the example on page 13.
3. GPU programming (see page 14 and 15). Apple has OpenCL. Fortunately
for Linux, Apple turned this over to the same group that oversees
OpenGL, and AMD has a beta available for Linux. However, Apple is still
ahead at this point.
4. Useful implementation of Wake-on-LAN (see page 22):
When a Mac running Snow Leopard is put to sleep, it attempts to hand
off ownership of its IP address to its router. (This only works with
an AirPort Extreme base station from 2007 or later, or a Time
Capsule from 2008 or later with the latest (7.4.2) firmware
installed.) The router then listens for any attempt to connect to
the IP address. When one occurs, it wakes up the original owner,
hands back the IP address, and forwards traffic appropriately.
That beats the hell out of the usual way you have to use Wake-on-LAN:
ssh to another machine on the same segment that is awake (or telnet in
if you are Terry...), and from that machine send a Wake-on-LAN packet to
the sleeping machine.
When you say Linux is "ahead", are you using some sort of Manchester
slang where the meaning of words is inverted, kind of like the way kids
here like to say something is "bad" when the really mean "good"?
And let's not forget the areas Linux is still playing catch up to
Leopard and Tiger:
1. DTrace. Almost there for Linux, finally.
2. Core Audio better in almost every way than even the union of all
dozen or so Linux audio "solutions".
3. Anything like Core Animation, Core Video, or Core Image in Linux yet?
Note that it's not just about finding some program that does some of the
functions of this--it's also about integrating into the system so that
they are available in a uniform way to almost all applications.
--
--Tim Smith
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