Mac OS X Lion hands-on preview
Apple announced Mac OS X Lion with considerable fanfare at its Back to the Mac event last October, and now it's dropped the first developer preview on the world — giving us a chance to sample some of the big cat's new features and UI concepts.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple unveiled Mac OS X Lion at its Back to the Mac event in October 2010, and the first developer preview has now landed, giving outsiders their first real contact with the features and UI concepts behind the fanfare. Days earlier, CNET reported that Apple was sharing Lion builds with security experts — an unusual pre-release courtship of the security community for a Mac release.
That security outreach sits against a backdrop the rumor mill ties to Apple's growing market share: talk of an emerging Mac Trojan suggests underground programmers are starting to take the platform seriously, which makes early scrutiny of Lion's code more than routine diligence.
First-order effects
- Mac developers get their first working build of Lion, letting them test their apps against the new UI concepts before the public release.
- Security researchers who received advance builds from Apple can begin probing Lion alongside the wider developer base rather than waiting for launch day.
Second-order effects
- Independent Mac software vendors face pressure to rework their interfaces around Lion's new conventions or ship looking out of date at launch.
- If malware targeting the Mac grows alongside its installed base, Apple's pre-release engagement with security experts becomes a template for how it vets each major OS revision.
Third-order effects
- Lion's UI direction points toward a structural convergence between OS X and iOS interaction models, with the desktop absorbing mobile paradigms release by release.
- A Mac platform large enough to attract malware writers forces Apple to treat operating-system security review as a standing part of its release cycle rather than an afterthought.
The trend: OS X releases are being shaped by Apple's mobile playbook — iOS-derived interface ideas plus earlier, broader security scrutiny — as the Mac's market share makes it a target worth hardening.