6 ms·

Mac OS X Lion Gold Master seeded to developers

74 points by joejohnson 15y ago

schrototo 15y ago
One should note that Apple sometimes has multiple "Gold Master" seeds, so this does not necessarily mean release is imminent. (Though I think chances are pretty good, since Lion's been rumored to be released sometime in the next two weeks.)
- masklinn 15y ago
  > Though I think chances are pretty good, since Lion's been rumored to be released sometime in the next two weeks. On the other hand, DP4 was reported not to be very stable.
  - Zev 15y ago
    As someone running DP4 as their primary OS (running it full-time makes it easier for me to run into edge-case issues with apps I care about), Lion lacking stability is news to me.
    - masklinn 15y ago
      Noted.
    - davepeck 15y ago
      Interesting. I'm using DP4 to make sure my app (getcloak.com) is compatible -- I've found DP4 to be quite buggy: Kernel panics not evidently tied to third party drivers, crashes in Safari, plenty of UI glitches etc. Oh, and Ableton Live doesn't work, not that this is necessarily Apple's fault. This is on a late-2010 MacBook Pro. My impression talking to friends is that this is not an uncommon experience, though clearly not everyone has these issues. That said, I used to work at Microsoft. Next to the (years of) beta builds of Vista I had to suffer through, Lion is practically paradise. ;-)
      - podperson 15y ago
        I guess I'm somewhere in between. I've a couple of kernel panics but it's been pretty smooth overall. Safari has been usable again since DP3.
    - llambda 15y ago
      I can second this. I used DP4 for about a week with no problems whatsoever. I am now using DP5 as my primary, again with no issues. I was even using a seed from February that was stable. My experience with Lion has been very good so far. I'm wondering what specific hardware people are having problems with? Perhaps laptops?
    - jsz0 15y ago
      There were a couple of issues with NVIDIA graphics drivers in DP4 which could cause kernel panics, UI glitches, etc. Fixed in the latest DP4 update. The folks over at netkas.org forums do a lot of exploring in those kexts. It seems like Lion and the 10.6.8 update share basically the same drivers at this point.
  - wfarr 15y ago
    DP4 was also likely tagged at least a month before its release to developers. Their DP releases aren't current. They're older, generally more stable snapshots. EDIT: This means that they've been improving stability long since the last DP, and have been using the bug reports and crash reports from the DPs to diagnose and fix problems as well.
- mahrain 15y ago
  The time between GM seed and release could be much shorter this time around, because they don't need to press millions of shiny plastic discs and ship them around the world.
mishmash 15y ago
The online activation was broke as late as DP4 meaning you couldn't do a legit clean install. Clean is the only way I roll, so hoping its fixed...
- koenigdavidmj 15y ago
  They have online activation now? Stay classy, Apple.
  - Zev 15y ago
    No, Apple doesn't. What Apple has is a "download server components from the web during install to lower initial download costs" step.
    - mishmash 15y ago
      See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2720006 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2720006
  - bonch 15y ago
    No.
- ugh 15y ago
  Hm, I could do a clean install but that was with DP1 or DP2. Are you sure there's online activation?
  - llambda 15y ago
    There is no online activation. Apparently there is a confusion between re-downloading from Apple servers (requires verification of the legitimacy of the request) then subsequently restoring and installing from local media (assumed to be legitimate, no Internet connection required). If you install from local media you don't need an Internet connection, you don't need to provide an Apple ID, and there is no verification of installation. (At least in the DPs, I can't speak for what the final public release will look like obviously.)
cpr 15y ago
Interesting. My experience with a couple of releases (10.4 and 10.5, I believe) was that the seeds would be wildly unstable, and built a long time ago, and then, out of the blue, the GM would be stable. I.e., Apple seems to clean up a lot of things at the last minute and roll them into the GM.
unwantedLetters 15y ago
The release date will perhaps be 10th of July (written as 10/7/11 in some parts of the world), or perhaps 7th of July just to signify that it's 10.7. I wonder if Apple will do something like that.
- alanfalcon 15y ago
  For April Fools this year, Blizzard announced the Starcraft II Patch 1.4.11 patch notes and the World of Warcraft Patch 4.1.11 patch notes. I thought that was clever, and a great way to take advantage of a coincidence in the release schedule. In fact, given Blizzard's love of April Fools it wouldn't surprise me if they shifted some patches around in order to set up that joke. http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2325614706 http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2325614706 http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325684862 http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325684862 However, I don't expect Apple cares at all about this potential coincidence. They certainly wouldn't target a release date around it.

74 points by joejohnson 15y ago

One should note that Apple sometimes has multiple "Gold Master" seeds, so this does not necessarily mean release is imminent. (Though I think chances are pretty good, since Lion's been rumored to be released sometime in the next two weeks.)

masklinn 15y ago
> Though I think chances are pretty good, since Lion's been rumored to be released sometime in the next two weeks. On the other hand, DP4 was reported not to be very stable.
- Zev 15y ago
  As someone running DP4 as their primary OS (running it full-time makes it easier for me to run into edge-case issues with apps I care about), Lion lacking stability is news to me.
  - masklinn 15y ago
    Noted.
  - davepeck 15y ago
    Interesting. I'm using DP4 to make sure my app (getcloak.com) is compatible -- I've found DP4 to be quite buggy: Kernel panics not evidently tied to third party drivers, crashes in Safari, plenty of UI glitches etc. Oh, and Ableton Live doesn't work, not that this is necessarily Apple's fault. This is on a late-2010 MacBook Pro. My impression talking to friends is that this is not an uncommon experience, though clearly not everyone has these issues. That said, I used to work at Microsoft. Next to the (years of) beta builds of Vista I had to suffer through, Lion is practically paradise. ;-)
    - podperson 15y ago
      I guess I'm somewhere in between. I've a couple of kernel panics but it's been pretty smooth overall. Safari has been usable again since DP3.
  - llambda 15y ago
    I can second this. I used DP4 for about a week with no problems whatsoever. I am now using DP5 as my primary, again with no issues. I was even using a seed from February that was stable. My experience with Lion has been very good so far. I'm wondering what specific hardware people are having problems with? Perhaps laptops?
  - jsz0 15y ago
    There were a couple of issues with NVIDIA graphics drivers in DP4 which could cause kernel panics, UI glitches, etc. Fixed in the latest DP4 update. The folks over at netkas.org forums do a lot of exploring in those kexts. It seems like Lion and the 10.6.8 update share basically the same drivers at this point.
- wfarr 15y ago
  DP4 was also likely tagged at least a month before its release to developers. Their DP releases aren't current. They're older, generally more stable snapshots. EDIT: This means that they've been improving stability long since the last DP, and have been using the bug reports and crash reports from the DPs to diagnose and fix problems as well.
mahrain 15y ago
The time between GM seed and release could be much shorter this time around, because they don't need to press millions of shiny plastic discs and ship them around the world.

mishmash 15y ago

The online activation was broke as late as DP4 meaning you couldn't do a legit clean install. Clean is the only way I roll, so hoping its fixed...

koenigdavidmj 15y ago
They have online activation now? Stay classy, Apple.
- Zev 15y ago
  No, Apple doesn't. What Apple has is a "download server components from the web during install to lower initial download costs" step.
  - mishmash 15y ago
    See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2720006 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2720006
- bonch 15y ago
  No.
ugh 15y ago
Hm, I could do a clean install but that was with DP1 or DP2. Are you sure there's online activation?
- llambda 15y ago
  There is no online activation. Apparently there is a confusion between re-downloading from Apple servers (requires verification of the legitimacy of the request) then subsequently restoring and installing from local media (assumed to be legitimate, no Internet connection required). If you install from local media you don't need an Internet connection, you don't need to provide an Apple ID, and there is no verification of installation. (At least in the DPs, I can't speak for what the final public release will look like obviously.)

cpr 15y ago

Interesting. My experience with a couple of releases (10.4 and 10.5, I believe) was that the seeds would be wildly unstable, and built a long time ago, and then, out of the blue, the GM would be stable. I.e., Apple seems to clean up a lot of things at the last minute and roll them into the GM.

unwantedLetters 15y ago

The release date will perhaps be 10th of July (written as 10/7/11 in some parts of the world), or perhaps 7th of July just to signify that it's 10.7. I wonder if Apple will do something like that.

alanfalcon 15y ago
For April Fools this year, Blizzard announced the Starcraft II Patch 1.4.11 patch notes and the World of Warcraft Patch 4.1.11 patch notes. I thought that was clever, and a great way to take advantage of a coincidence in the release schedule. In fact, given Blizzard's love of April Fools it wouldn't surprise me if they shifted some patches around in order to set up that joke. http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2325614706 http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2325614706 http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325684862 http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325684862 However, I don't expect Apple cares at all about this potential coincidence. They certainly wouldn't target a release date around it.