“Leopard is a uniquely powerful development platform”

In an interaction with Abhigna NG of CyberMedia, Justin Zhang, OS X Product
Marketing Manager-Asia Pacific, Apple, gives an in-depth overview of Leopard OS
and how Apple's operating system will revolutionize the world of computing.

Zhang also talks about Leopard advanced 64-bit architecture and
multiprocessor, security features embedded in the OS and 'virtualization
technology'.

Excerpts from the interview:

Does Leopard allows users to run copies of Windows XP or Vista on their Mac?

Leopard is the world's most advanced operating system. So advanced, it even
lets you run Windows if there's a PC application you need to use.

The complete Boot Camp release-previously available only as beta-debuts in
Leopard. With Boot Camp, uses can run Windows XP and Windows Vista at native
speed on your Mac.

Boot Camp supports the most popular 32-bit releases of Windows XP and Windows
Vista. When you use either operating system on your Mac, your Windows
applications will run at native speed. Windows applications have full access to
multiple processors and multiple cores, accelerated 3D graphics, and high-speed
connections like USB, FireWire, Wi-Fi, and Gigabit Ethernet.

Security is the main concern for end-users of operating systems. What are the
new features that Apple's OS has introduced?

The Mac has a great track record for security, thanks in part to a
development process that incorporates security at the design phase, but also to
Apple's commitment to making security easy to use.

In Leopard, a host of new security features and technologies are designed to
enhance the protection of your Mac and your personal information, while
remaining easy to use and unobtrusive. The system now inspects downloads in more
detail to help prevent users from inadvertently downloading malicious
applications.

VPN support in Leopard has been enhanced to connect to more of the most
popular VPN servers without the need for additional software.

New technologies like Application Signing and sandboxing help stop attacks
that try to hijack or modify the software on your system. Once you've activated
the new Application Firewall in Leopard, it automatically configures itself so
you can get the benefits of firewall protection without having to understand the
details of network ports and protocols.

Could you elaborate more on 'virtualization technology' that would allow
multiple operating systems to run concurrently alongside Mac OS X Leopard?

Boot Camp is our solution for users who need to run other OS like windows XP
and vista on Apple hardware. Boot Camp provides the best performance with native
hardware drivers supported by us.

For users who require multiple operating systems to run concurrently with Mac
OS X Leopard, there are a few third party solutions available, like VMWare and
Parallels. Due to the nature of such virtualization technology, users maybe
required to have additional hardware resource like RAM and would not experience
the full native speed performance that Boot Camp provides.

Virtualization provides the ability to run multiple operating systems
concurrently. This means that users can for example use Mac OS X Leopard for
many purposes but for that one application that is not available on the Mac
platform, virtualization fills the gap.

Finally, the new Back to My Mac feature lets .Mac members browse and access
files on their Mac remotely using the Internet.

One of your main features, 'The Time Machine' is one among 300 new features.
Could you brief us more on the same.

When we asked our users, only 26 percent claimed that they had ever perform
some kind of back-up and only four percent had automated backup solution.

Time Machine is a revolutionary way to protect your digital life. With just a
one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of
everything on your Mac. With its built-in version control, Time Machine keeps
hourly backup copy for past 24 hours, daily copy for past month and weekly copy
till backup hard disk is full. In the event a file is lost, you can use
Spotlight search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos,
and other digital media, or restore a particular version of the file.

To start using Time Machine, all you have to do is connect an external drive
(sold separately) to your Mac. You're asked if you want it to be your backup
drive, and if you say yes, Time Machine takes care of everything else
automatically, and running silently in the background.