How shall Mac the Knife debunk Monday's crop of alleged Mac OS screen shots? Let him count the ways!
Better yet, the Knife will leave the dissection of these dubious goodies to the razor-sharp talons and prehensile tongues of his keen-eyed readers. Just check out this dizzying selection of withering observations, starting with this lollapalooza of a list from the insightful Rick Roe:
I'm afraid that, interesting as they may be, the purported OS X pictures turned up in your latest column are obviously hoaxes. A few reasons why:The round menu bar is neat but unlikely to show up in an Apple product any time soon.
The "protected memory" pane of the Memory control panel (in the Gizmo shot) wouldn't exist. Memory protection is such a low-level function of an operating system's kernel that on-the-fly enabling/disabling of it would be impossible. Even waiting for a restart to change it isn't likely, as that would be effectively the same as writing two OSes in one (and compatibility would suffer). The "System buffer size" is also a hoax, since under a modern protected-memory OS there is no need for the user to be involved in allocating memory; indeed, it's likely impossible to do.
Why would all the BeOS icons be showing up in a MacOS release? why are there a number of 8.0-8.1-style Platinum icons mixed in with the Theme icons? Why does "SimpleText X" have different icons in each of the screenshots it's in? Why would there be an Icon labeled "MacsBug Obelete" in the System Folder, and why would that System folder be renamed?
In the Hi-Tech shot, the different windows and buttons all have different fonts, only some of which are anti-aliased.
The "Process Manager" is full of errors. It mixes system fonts (one of which looks deceptively like the way BeOS rasterizes its system font) and components from different Appearances (the progess bars from Platinum, the radio buttons from Gizmo, and the rest from Hi-Tech); it has a sideways titlebar sticking INTO its window from nowhere; and its visibility buttons and use of scrollbars for percentages SERIOUSLY violate Apple's own Human Interface Guidelines. Like protected memory, preemptive multitasking (vs. cooperative) is so low-level a function that it can't be switched off. (Cute that it shows "Photoshop 6 ..." as one of the applications, though.)
There likely wouldn't be a "Virtual Memory" label in the "About this Computer" dialog in OS X, and it certainly wouldn't show the same number as the "Built-in Memory" label.
Extensions like GoMac (the Windows-esque taskbar) and those that put Icons in the menubar will not work in Mac OS X, period (unless rewritten from sratch into a yet-to-be-announced API).
But wait! That's not all. Consider this gazpacho of clues from various observers:
"MacOS X isn't going to run on the 603ev out of the box. Apple has said it will be directed to G3s. You'd expect demos, then, to show a G3. Furthermore, the 603ev was never given an indicator by Apple as it was an internal Somerset designation. It is also a laptop chip."
"Look at the folders; they are inconsistent. Some are an older look, some are a newer look. (Highly unlikely given how MacOS and NextStep are made.)"
"I find myself wondering if the source of the OS X 'screenshots' is himself a Mac fan or foe. I couldn't help but retch at seeing the all-too-PC status bar at the bottom of the Hi-Tech desktop. (A Mac with a Start button? If this is true, then the Fed investigation into Microsoft should be extended to include subterfuge in Apple's R&D departments.) Similarly, is the background color on the same desktop the default color for Windows, or am I just being paranoid?"
"RE the round menu widget: Can't even keep a consistent text baseline on the outer ring!"
"Process Manager: we no longer have to set memory sizes for our apps, but now we allocate cycles? (not to mention the big HI no-no of using a scroll bar to set values instead of a slider... and what the hell's that window widget on the right-hand side? And, uh... Photoshop 6?)"
"In the screenshot, we see that there are 18 Million Kernel Cycles + 188 Million Available Cycles = 200 Million total Cycles. Hrm, something just doesn't add up. More likely the screenshot (or that section) is fake. To be a usable figure, the totals would also have to list USER cycles, in addition to Kernel Cycles (not to mention it should all add up correctly). A "cycle" isn't even a good unit to measure performance with. Percentages (10 percent Kernel, 20 percent User, 70 percent Free) are much more useful."
"The memory sizes in the About box are all way too small for something with Mach running under it. No way OS X runs on a 40-Mbyte machine right now."
"The techno screen shot has BeOs Launcher on the desktop. The R|P|A|D window is full of Be icons, with the exception of the 'System Folder.' IMHO, there's too much crossover (pun unintended) to be real. I think it's a Be hack."
"Hmm. I think someone is playing games again ... That third screen shot has 2 cursors in it. On the other hand (grin), maybe it's the new UI for ambidextrous users."
"This is a little like 'hokus-focus,' the kid's game in the sunday comix where you try to find six differences between two pictures ... I'm sure I haven't found all the problems, but I'm sure other loyal readers will chime in."
Your confidence has been rewarded, o Loyal Reader; the Knife thanks each and every one of you very sweetly for your ruthless insight and fearsome attention to detail!
Coming up Friday: Actual photos of COS running on a palmtop iMac!
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