

Mountain Lion is not like iOS - zaidrahman
http://geeqer.com/2012/02/mountain-lion/

======
kylec
This, and the other articles that have popped up like it, are straw man
arguments. Very few people are saying that Apple's going to combine iOS and
Mac OS X into a single OS. When people talk about the "iOSification" of Mac OS
X, we're talking about bringing over the visual style of iOS (see Contacts and
Calendars) and reducing functionality (see the new AirPort Utility). So, yes,
Mountain Lion is different from iOS, but it's safe to say that in terms of
user interface it's _less_ different than Lion and iOS or Snow Leopard and
iOS.

~~~
bo1024
Yes, I don't think the author has thought much about these kinds of issues.

Two particular nitpicks that come to my mind are reverse scrolling and
automatic termination. Reverse scrolling -- drag down to scroll up -- may be
natural on a touchscreen, but why bring it to the PC and switch away from the
way you had done it before (and everyone else does it)? Automatic termination
-- shutting down apps in the background without asking you -- also makes sense
on a mobile device, but is just a bad idea for computers.

By themselves, these kinds of things don't mean much, but these sorts of
decisions and some coming mntn lion "feautures" seem to show a pretty clear
trend of bringing mobile-inspired features to OS X, regardless of whether they
make sense in that context.

~~~
easp
Your examples don't resonate for me.

With respect to scrolling, clearly how everyone else does it doesn't matter to
Apple, since they are willing to change the way they have always done it. So
why did they do it? Because it makes obvious sense on a touch device, and
because there is nothing wrong with it on laptop or desktop. The annoyance
lasted about 5 minutes for me.

As for the automatic app management, why doesn't this make sense on OS X?
Because that's how it has always been done? Again, not at all persuasive. And
honestly, the OS has long been responsible for resource management, why
shouldn't it terminate and launch apps transparently?

I think though that you and many others are missing the point about
transparently terminating and restarting apps. It is just part of being able
to restore ones workspace after a restart, which is itself just part of
creating a seamless pervasive personal computing environment.

------
strags
"The fact that everyone is missing the point of Mountain Lion is crazy."

The author is the one missing the point. Nobody is suggesting that we'll all
be using our MacBooks in exactly the same way as our iPads (ie. by touching
the screen).

There are, however, obvious ways in which OSX is moving toward an iOS-like
environment. The App Store? Sandboxing? The ability for Apple to kill-switch
apps?

------
nhangen
This is a flat opinion piece.

~~~
zaidrahman
And thus the "editorial" status!

~~~
nhangen
notice that I said 'flat', which I believe to be the bigger issue.

------
Karunamon
And yet, every release of OS X since Lion seems to pull in more features from
iOS. Launcher, the notification bar, even some of the apps are starting to
make an appearance.

Saying they're not like one another is a bit silly with this in mind.

~~~
batista
_And yet, every release of OS X since Lion seems to pull in more features from
iOS. Launcher, the notification bar, even some of the apps are starting to
make an appearance._

1) Some of the apps only make sense to appear in OS X. Why shouldn't OS X have
a messages app (which actually is just iChat integrated with the Messages
protocol)? Or a Notes app? Nothing special here.

2) The notification bar was needed in OS X even before iOS appeared. Even
Windows Vista introduced a notification sidebar. So, no surprise OS X adopted
one too.

3) Launcher is indeed an idea borrowed from iOS, to add something OS X needed,
namely a quick way to launch apps (and that is not by browsing with the Finder
in the Applications folder). OS X user used a lot of similar apps, and the
folder Dock "stacks" was half-way there.

So: apps and ideas are gonna be exchanged between the two.

The important thing is:

OS X and iOS _ALREADY ARE_ the same OS. The share the same Mach/BSD kernel,
the same services, most of the same runtimes, the same filesystem, etc. They
are like two different "distros" of the same OS, for a different architecture
and with a different UI.

So, whether OS X and iOS are "united into onto" will not be on the OS level
(they are already the same kernel etc), but at the UI/runtime level.

At the level, there are some signs that the two Cocoa runtimes are converging
(for example, iOS used to not have garbage collection, whereas not it has
(sort of, with ARC)).

But there are no signs that OS X UI and iOS UI are gonna get reunited in the
most important distinction, the touch UI thing. Apple has added touch gestures
through the trackpad, but there won't be a touch screen. The way
monitors/laptop screens work it's just not possible to hold your hand and
touch one for stretches of time --you can even get cramps. That cannot be
changed: it's the laws of how our body works.

What we CAN get, is some kind of laptop with a detachable screen that turns
into an iPad --and then supports touch interaction.

Until something like that is available, OS X will not get like iOS UI-wise in
the only thing that matters: the touch UI. Borrowing some concepts like
notification screen, a launcher, or sheets and stuff, does not matter. They
could just as easily have been developed for OS X in the first place.

~~~
Karunamon
>But there are no signs that OS X UI and iOS UI are gonna get reunited in the
most important distinction, the touch UI thing.

Keep in mind, with Launcher, you're basically 75% of the way there. The apps
are mostly compatible (look at the number of straight ported iOS games on the
MAS for confirmation here) with no UI rework done.

Bringing in Notifications brings it to ~%80ish, IMHO. It's becoming that the
only real difference between the two systems is Finder.

~~~
batista
_The apps are mostly compatible (look at the number of straight ported iOS
games on the MAS for confirmation here) with no UI rework done._

The games ported from iOS and Launcher, maybe, but most apps are not "mostly
compatible".

A few examples: Safari, Mail, Photoshop, iTunes, iPhoto, Pages, Numbers,
Garageband, etc. Also everything third party: Chrome, Photoshop, Word,
Evernote, etc etc...

Non of those are designed with touch interaction in mind. This shows in the
layout of the menus, toolbars and buttons, and is even more evident in the
_size_ of buttons and control elements. They are not made to be controlled by
a coarse pointer, such as a finger.

------
glhaynes
We'll know that iOS and [Mac] OS X have truly been unified when they ship on
the same install media. Oh wait...

------
xenithorb
This guy conveniently forgot to add what he thought the point of OSX Mountain
Lion was, with his little quip at the and about people not having the mental
acuity, like himself, to comprehend such matters. I couldn't reply to this
asshole, so I'm saying in here, probably on deaf ears.

~~~
batista
And this somehow makes him an "asshole"? Very polite of you, you sure have
this "manners" thing covered, kind sir.

That said, why should an OS release have a "point"?

Besides, you know, advancing the capabilities of the platform, supporting new
features, and selling more copies (and hardware units)? You know, like they
always do?

