A few random thoughts concerning the next version of Mac OS X…

(Granted Microsoft never technically “slipped” because, well, they never promised anything to anyone at all–even right up to the end–it was pretty clear that Microsoft was hinting that Longhorn would be ready for a 2004 release way back in 2003. Further, when Gartner publically said in 2004 that Microsoft’s Longhorn (later Vista) release wouldn’t happen until 2007, Microsoft bitch-slapped Gartner pretty hard. So while technically no release date was officially announced, it was pretty clear that Microsoft intended to get Vista out the door no later than 2005–then slipped somewhere between two and three years.)

I do find this all very intriguing though. The next version of OSX was supposed to ship in about a month. Realocating engineers to iPhone for two months now appearantly means that it’s going to be delayed almost 6 months, which seems to be quite a disparity.

It seems to me that they are using the iPhone to cover for other delays in the project. I also wonder about the relative sizes of the engineering teams devoted to the two projects, and of course there are general software engineering productivity issues too.

The reallocated engineers will have to wrap up existing projects so they can come back to them in a few months, then they’ll have to ramp up on their new iPhone projects. Once those are done, they have to ramp back up on their OS X work. In between there are summer vacations to deal with. And of course you have mythical-man-month issues from throwing new bodies at a late stage project.

Vista was delayed for years ( plural ) and it’s still awful.

At least when Apple has a delay of a few months its for a publicly stated reason.

How does one compare a 4 month delay to a 5+ year postponement? You’re in danger of sounding like Chicken Little running around warning everyone the sky is falling because you got hit on the head with an acorn.

When Apple announces that Leopard is delayed until 2009, then we can begin the comparisons. But until then, it’s just Chicken Little talk.

Secondly, this is not the first time Apple has diverted resources to finish a project. The same happened after Aperture 1.0 was released. Apple essentially pulled the talent from the FCP team to literally rewrite Aperture, and the result was a vastly improved 1.5 within a few months time. So I’m not sure what Om is trying to point out about diverting resources.

We even had similar hyper-ventilation when Apple TV was delayed by 2 weeks, with the same snide “insightful” observations about Apple being like Microsoft. Well, turns out a 2 week delay was nothing more than a mere 14 days, and when it shipped, Apple TV worked as advertised.

The only thing worse than the blind arrogance of Apple fanboys is the deaf and blind arrogance of the Apple haters or the passive agressive snidery of jealous detractors.

Throwing more engineers has always been a recipe for disaster … But expertise can help speed things up… Also we are talking about integration of OSX and the iPhone, some resources should have been diverted there. Also considering how hard the iPhone engineers must have been driven … some R&R is definitely due :)

If apple tv is any indication – some anti hacking tips will also help.

And Om what no Vista delay jokes. They are so entertaining…. There goes half the entertainment of Steves WWDC keynote.