Chicago (IL) - Not wanting Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 to steal too much of the spotlight, it appears Apple has a few more aces up Snow Leopard's sleeve. Despite Steve Jobs stressing during Snow Leopard's announcement at Apple's developers conference in July of 2008 that the operating system will "pause on innovation" and focus on under-the-hood optimizations, indicating speed being the operating system's killer feature, new details are now emerging that hint of several interesting end-user features which go beyond optimization.





It appears that the next major OS X update, dubbed Snow Leopard, will pack more than meets the eye after all, casting doubts over Apple's insistence that the software is all about multi-core GPU and CPU speed optimizations. For example, we have recently learned that Snow Leopard will sport geolocation features via its CoreLocation API (which is actually borrowed from the iPhone OS) in addition to the multi-touch API that exposes multi-touch gestures found on newer MacBooks to third-party programs.



The latest details leaking out from the current Snow Leopard developer build suggest a more comprehensive support for Sun's advanced ZFS file system in the server version of Snow Leopard. In addition, its consumer counterpart will allegedly offer all features seen in QuickTime Pro free of charge, and will reduce bloat and hard drive waste by fetching printer drivers online as they are needed.





One QuickTime has it all



We know that Snow Leopard will come with QuickTime X that enables broader support for audio and video codecs plus hardware-accelerated decoding and playback. But we didn't know that it also packs QuickTime Pro features free of charge. Apparently Apple decided to ditch two flavors of QuickTime, a free one that ships with OS X and a paid Pro upgrade version, in favor of a single release that contains all Pro features -- including full-screen playback, basic audio and video editing and recording, as well as advanced sharing, exporting and saving features.



According to MacRumors, the latest developer seed of Snow Leopard has all these features unlocked. QuickTime no longer shows Pro's corresponding menu options dimmed out as in all OS X versions so far. In addition, QuickTime in Snow Leopard removes Buy QuickTime Pro and Registration menu options entirely, as well as the associated QuickTime registration control panel in System Preferences. These changes suggest Apple may in fact have ditched the paid QuickTime Pro upgrade altogether.






QUICKTIME PRO FEATURES FREE OF CHARGE

Snow Leopard will ditch QuickTime Pro paid upgrade in favor of a single QuickTime version that will have all the features of Pro version. This means OS X users will no longer stare at dimmed out options in the QuickTime menu, like full-screen playback, audio and video recording, advanced saving, sharing and exporting features, etc. This is a long overdue decision that should have been made years ago.





Printer drivers on demand



Another interesting feature is Software Update's ability to fetch printer drivers online the moment a new printer is detected. Previous OS X versions came with several gigabytes of printer drivers. While users could deselect their installation during the OS install, most average users just accept the recommended setting which ultimately populated their hard drives with thousands of unused printer drivers, contributing to the overall bloat and unnecessarily large footprint of OS X. Truth be told, Windows adopted the same practice, but Vista and Windows 7 still require users to install all bundled printer drivers during OS installation.



According to quotes by AppleInsider, by default Snow Leopard will install only the basic subset of printer drivers, including drivers for printers that are attached to the machine at the time, along with those that were installed on a previous version of OS X and drivers for printers found on a local network via Bonjour. However, when you attach a new printer to the system, Software Update will immediately kick into gear to load the appropriate printer driver found online.



Apple began experimenting with on demand printer driver loading with the current OS X Leopard version. Its Software Update feature can also update HP printer drivers, for example. Snow Leopard now takes that feature to the next level by allowing any printer manufacturer to distribute the latest OS X drivers via its Software Update application. Mac veterans will recognize that this is certainly an interesting development as Software Update has been exclusively delivering Apple's system updates so far. On the other hand, pundits could argue that it's nothing out of ordinary as Microsoft's Windows Update has long been able to update third-party device drivers found on a user's machine.



The bottom line: Mobile Snow Leopard users who treasure every gigabyte of hard drive space will learn to appreciate the on demand printer driver loading in Snow Leopard. We welcome the feature as it will significantly reduce hard drive waste and the overall OS X bloat which in its current Leopard instance requires a whopping 9 GB of hard drive space for install. [This roughly compares to 2.1 GB for Ubuntu Linux 8.10, 650 MB for Windows 2000, 2.5 GB for Windows XP and 15 GB for Windows Vista, 16 GB for Windows 7 beta. -Editor]







PRINTER DRIVERS ON DEMAND

OS X Snow Leopard will reduce bloat and shave hard drive space requirements by no longer copying several gigabytes of printer drivers during installation of the operating system. Instead, only basic subset of printer drivers will be installed. When users plug in a new printer, the system will poll Software Update for the latest driver for that particular printer model.



READ NEXT PAGE:  ZFS for Snow Leopard Server, Speed remains the killer feature...

---

ZFS for Snow Leopard Server



OS X Leopard features the support for Sun's open-sourced 128-bit ZFS file system, albeit in read-only mode. Most users are unaware of the feature because it must be enabled through the command line and lacks a GUI interface -- it can't even be found in the Disk Utility, meaning ZFS in Leopard is not a toy for faint-hearted users. Being a sub-par implementation means that, for example, you can't empty the trash graphically on ZFS volumes, or eject their media unless you know your way around the command line. Fortunately, Snow Leopard Server could fix this with the inclusion of the latest ZFS version with both read and write modes enabled.



ZFS also exposes graphically in Disk Utility -- meaning users will easily be able to format disks using ZFS, removing the need for command line wizardry. ZFS volumes will appear on the desktop and will behave as expected. Users will be able to empty the trash, eject the volume, and carry out all manner of normal activity. However, ZFS support will not bring immediate end-user benefits. The file system enables creation of RAID-like logical volumes that can span multiple physical drives and features such as self-healing, continuous integrity check, snapshots that provides access to previous versions of a file, and redundancy to increase the likelihood of repair during hard drive failure - which is all important in server environments but is often counter-productive to desktop users.





In reality, bringing the advantages of ZFS to average users will require in-depth integration of ZFS with system applications. This would require significant code changes in existing applications, so it's unlikely ZFS will showcase its power in the consumer Snow Leopard version before it is fully deployed in the server version. But there is no question that proper ZFS support is coming to Snow Leopard, and no doubt that it will bring interesting enhancements and benefits to Mac users mid-term.





Speed remains the killer feature



As we previously reported, you will upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard because of GPGPU and multi-core optimizations which come courtesy of OpenCL and GrandCentral respectively, along with top to bottom 64-bit support. Core OS optimizations should trickle down in Apple applications that are allegedly being rewritten in OS X's preferred run-time environment called Cocoa, including Finder which might see user interface enhancements and a refined appearance consistent throughout the entire operating system. Some will like QuickTime X, a new version of Apple's multimedia system that borrows support for more modern video and audio codecs from its iPhone counterpart, in addition to GPU acceleration that will further offload heavy HD video decoding from the main processor. Out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange won't hurt either.



These features are all known and should squeeze additional horsepower from your existing system in a way that's felt in an everyday work. If Apple is timing its Snow Leopard release with the iMac hardware refresh as it is currently believed, then the all-in-one desktop will put Snow Leopard to real use on its rumored quad-core Intel processor and Nvidia graphics, which should serve as a showcase for both Snow Leopard and the new iMac.