[krove]

ZFS
More efficient Time Machine, Spotlight
Synchronization across computers
Wide-area bonjour without .Mac (it can be done, but it would be better if Apple made it simpler)
Portable home dirs
Sharable address book (either via server or bonjour)
Cocoa Touch for Mac

At the moment these are just some front-end features that come to mind, but I'm sure Apple has many others in dev.

[OreoCookie]

I hope you don't mind I've made your thread a sticky
I'll add some things to this list later tonight … 

[krove]

Haha...I thought you might.

[Chuckit]

I don't know why you'd want Cocoa Touch for the Mac. Last I heard, it's just Foundation + AppKit (with NS* replaced with UI*) plus a couple of classes to deal with iPhone-specific hardware.

[Peter]

speed and stability please

[OreoCookie]

- ZFS so that Time Machine can be more space-efficient
- Time Machining to several drives (e. g. for offsite backups)
- make Time Machine play nicer with Aperture
- improvement of new firewall (I don't want to endlessly authenticate apps that have already been added to the list)
- getting rid of all those CAPS that have appeared all over the place (I'm nitpicking now )

the other points have already been mentioned (syncing across machines would be great)

[Peter]

Independent control of each applications volume control. Its so obvious.
zsh default shell!
granular control of OUTBOUND network traffic.

[mduell]

Time Machine control (include/exclude files by type/size)
A client/server setup that works as well as Active Directory/Exchange
Improve TFF
Better iCal-Mail integration (iCal invites should look like an invitation in Mail, instead of a line of text and an attachment)
Make iCal less straightjacket like... really basic things like changing the calendar that an accepted invite lives in, letting me actually accept invites reliably, etc.
Up to date ports collection
sshfs support

[hmurchison2001]

In no particular order.

1. ZFS with Time Machine support
2. Core Data multi user
3. Intel only
4. Applescript improvements
5. More codecs supported in Quicktime
6. An uninstaller
7. Get Info - allow me to rename a bunch of files.
8. Maintain my desired window sizing and icon formatting
9. Improvement to multithreading from Kernel on up to API
10. Voice Recognition- Speech to Text
11 Cocoa Touch
12 NTFS Read/Write support
13. Metadata improvements
14. iCal, Mail and Address Book improvements (UI and stability mainly)
15. Resolution Independence

[OreoCookie]

Why is Intel-only a desirable feat? I have an Intel-based Mac, but I don't care if it also runs on PowerPCs … 

[hmurchison2001]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Why is Intel-only a desirable feat? I have an Intel-based Mac, but I don't care if it also runs on PowerPCs …

consumer indirectly benefit from developers being able focus on QA testing one compilation of code. We theoretically should get more features and higher quality code at a faster rate by having one target platform. Plus the removal of PPC code means smaller libraries and applications. We have an OS X that is more nimble and swift.

[OreoCookie]

MacOS X will be built for at least two platforms in the foreseeable future: the iPhone (which is based on an ARM chip) and Intel cpus.

Also, I think it's good if Apple maintains cross-platform compatibility, i. e. if their code compiles on other platforms if it is necessary to switch cpu architectures in 10 years again. It is prudent if Apple does not focus on just one cpu platform. Project Marklar was the very reason Steve could decide to switch to Intel and a year or so later, their whole product line has made the switch without so much as a hickup.

[hmurchison2001]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

MacOS X will be built for at least two platforms in the foreseeable future: the iPhone (which is based on an ARM chip) and Intel cpus.

Also, I think it's good if Apple maintains cross-platform compatibility, i. e. if their code compiles on other platforms if it is necessary to switch cpu architectures in 10 years again. It is prudent if Apple does not focus on just one cpu platform. Project Marklar was the very reason Steve could decide to switch to Intel and a year or so later, their whole product line has made the switch without so much as a hickup.

ARM support is already taken care of. The iPhone SDK integrates into Xcode 3.1 which has basic support for LLVM. As LLVM progresses the need for maintaining a Univeral Binary diminishes. LLVM allows developers to program to an platform agnostic intermediary format. The Developer can then choose to create an executable or have the code compliled JIT. Apple hired Chris Lattner and has supported the project for some time now. Eventually we're going to see a new front end called Clang.

I imagine that by 10.7 Clang and LLVM will offer competition to GCC. LLVM could support PPC but it seems unlikely that they'd put the work into optimizing for a ISA that Apple no longer uses. I could see them having excellent optimizations for various Intel chips (atom) and ARM for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure Project

[OreoCookie]

Overspecialization leads to death, just have a look at Windows
Focussing only on x86 would be a big, big mistake in my opinion. That doesn't exclude that it should be optimized for x86, but the code should be as platform independent as possible.

In any case, let's get back to the list.

[lpkmckenna]

Just random wants:

Finder CoverFlow with Column View, not with List View as we have now;
3rd party devs can hook into Software Update;
Use hot corners to activate much more than just Expose, Spaces, and Dashboard;
Real Keyboard Customization, not just Capslock, Control, Command, and Option;
Scrap the crazy Help Viewer and just put the help system thru Safari (or any browser);
More Dock customization please, not just app-side, everything-else-side;
Scrap iLife and fold it all back into the OS.

[Chuckit]

Actually, I'd like for them to bring Help Viewer back to what it was in OS 9. That was really useful.

[TheoCryst]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

3rd party devs can hook into Software Update;

Ooh, that would be great. Sparkle is nice and all, but until the new 1.5 beta it didn't even support Garbage Collection without recompiling the source. And 64-bit? Forget it!

My personal wants list? Hmm...

- Better Mac-to-Mac sync. I want my MacBook and my (hypothetical) Mac Pro to have the same data, all the time.
- A nice Cocoa collections framework, a la Java. Minor, but would be nice.
- ZFS, of course
- Application Groups in the Dock. It was described and even demoed for Leopard in earlier builds, but for some reason it was cut.

That's about it for now. I'm actually really happy with Leopard overall, but I'm sure I'll come up with more.

[akulavolk]

I see a lot of Time Machine requests, but not the biggest need for TIme Machine: File Vault compatibility.

For those of us who have ever had a business laptop stolen (apparently car windows are easy to break and alarms don't seem to care), encrypting business info is important. But then, so is backup. Why should I have to choose between protecting my company's product roadmap files from theft by encryption, and protecting them from loss by backup?

Yeah, I know, there are other backup solutions that help here (I use SuperDuper), but these are best for daily backups. I use Time Machine, too. nothing beats it for instant, easy backups.

If Apple can encrypt files to my local drive w/out any issues, it should be able to do it to the Time Machine drive, too.

[besson3c]

For those requesting ZFS: what are your expectations as to exactly what this will provide you? I'm just curious how you understand it and how you envision it being a part of OS X...

[Chuckit]

I expect they're looking for finer Time Machine granularity.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I expect they're looking for finer Time Machine granularity.

I think that is a big part of it, but I also see some other perks. I'm just wondering how Apple will fit these sorts of things into a consumer OS, and I'm wondering what expectations are. Are people expecting their apps to launch twice as fast? For instant RAID-0 once a new drive is connected?

[OreoCookie]

@besson
It's mostly about Time Machine in my case and the ability to have `Time Machine without a second drive' (snapshots that allow you to go back in time and recover files). Obviously this wouldn't be a backup, but I could go back in time and recover older versions of files, for instance or roll back OS X updates. Think Windows Recovery Points on steroids.

It would also replace OS X' software RAID (modes 0, 1 and JBOD and add a RAID5 equivalent to the list (RAIDZ).

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I think that is a big part of it, but I also see some other perks. I'm just wondering how Apple will fit these sorts of things into a consumer OS, and I'm wondering what expectations are.

I don't see how this should be particularly difficult. In the `worst' case, they use only a fraction of ZFS' capabilities.
You could also think about basic functionality and then have third-party vendors program apps that are based on the underlying technology.

[besson3c]

I'm not trying to suggest that the integration would be difficult, but it will require some thought as far as making some of these features accessible to non-savvy users.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I'm not trying to suggest that the integration would be difficult, but it will require some thought as far as making some of these features accessible to non-savvy users.

If Apple just replicates existing functionality, I don't think it'll be any more difficult than it is now. With additional functionality, I think it will be a challenge, but one Apple is up to.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by akulavolk 

I see a lot of Time Machine requests, but not the biggest need for TIme Machine: File Vault compatibility.

For those of us who have ever had a business laptop stolen (apparently car windows are easy to break and alarms don't seem to care), encrypting business info is important. But then, so is backup. Why should I have to choose between protecting my company's product roadmap files from theft by encryption, and protecting them from loss by backup?

If Apple can encrypt files to my local drive w/out any issues, it should be able to do it to the Time Machine drive, too.

One of the issues here is Apple's approach of using high-overhead disk images as the container for encryption. This would be much more viable if they encrypted each file separately, which would require a lower overhead container for decent performance

Originally Posted by besson3c 

For those requesting ZFS: what are your expectations as to exactly what this will provide you? I'm just curious how you understand it and how you envision it being a part of OS X...

COW/snapshots, compression, and dynamic striping.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by mduell 

One of the issues here is Apple's approach of using high-overhead disk images as the container for encryption. This would be much more viable if they encrypted each file separately, which would require a lower overhead container for decent performance

ZFS has support for transparent encryption of files (although currently not ready for production systems).

[TheGreatButcher]

How about getting rid of spotlight entirely? I have found the whole thing a mess that continues to get worse since 10.4. Not finding files that I know are there and later have to dig my way to find manually, and now only sorting my find results by Name, Last Opened, and Kind?

I have always used Last Modified and Size; this search function is absolutely worthless.

[DarkStarRed]

Hi TGB, You may like to try Synthesis Studios - FileSpot you can set it to any criteria "size, media, duration & so on yes it's not free.

[0157988944]

A non-1.0 bit-by-bit Time Machine
All the features that were originally in Leopard but got pulled
Free update.

I'd love it.

[Ted L. Nancy]

Nothing technical, just some stuff that I think is practical:

1. The ability to have the Finder sort by name while overlooking "The or "A" for filenames that begin with such. If iTunes can do it, why can't the Finder? (Likewise, it would be nice to be able to disable this feature in iTunes and other apps.)

2. The ability to name spaces and customize various finder settings (such as wallpapers) within each.

3. Permanent Reply-To in Mail.

4. A time zone selector that actually has my city's name and not the closest filthy metropolis.

5. Let's just change iTunes to iMedia or something along those lines.

6. Allow iTunes to store and play all formats of ripped DVDs. (After all, it plays my ripped CDs.)

7. For that matter, make DVD Player part of iTunes.

8. Ability for iTunes to download lyrics and allow me to view them in some type of intuitive, non-obtrusive fashion.

9. Ability to place additional separators in the dock.

10. Ability to put folders and apps on either side of the dock.

11. Ability to view the channels of Airport networks from the menubar item.

12. Ability to change the color of the dock and menubar.

13. Some type of application that has a thorough system of completely uninstalling applications.

14. Allow us to place apps in whatever folder we choose!

15. Ability to open the Airport Utility from the Airport menubar item.

16. Ability to share iPhoto and iTunes libraries without the host computer running those apps.

[Ted L. Nancy]

Originally Posted by TheGreatButcher 

How about getting rid of spotlight entirely? I have found the whole thing a mess that continues to get worse since 10.4. Not finding files that I know are there and later have to dig my way to find manually, and now only sorting my find results by Name, Last Opened, and Kind?

I have always used Last Modified and Size; this search function is absolutely worthless.

No kidding. I use it (Spotlight) solely as an app launcher. For every other purpose, I find it more of a struggle than helpful.

[MartiNZ]

I'll second a few that have been mentioned:
Volume control per app - it's pretty annoying the way it works at the moment.
More view options for Spotlight/Find - the find window is a lot less useful than the Spotlight window was in Tiger.

While on the view options thing, the ability to view by kind or size in open/save dialogs would be really useful - they really are still incredibly limited as they are, and IMO the best view they offer, 16x16 icons with labels at right, is pretty well hidden. Similarly Finder's View Options dialog appears to be a lot less useful than in any previous version of OS X - the hold-down-option to 'restore to defaults' is the most useful thing in that pane, and again, it's not at all obvious.

Stacks with the functionality they were originally showcased as having, and quick look with the functionality it was showcased as having (slide by slide view for presentations, for example) and better support for office apps. The ability to easily save Finder window geometry globally, to give Cover Flow in Finder a chance at being anything but utterly useless.

Stability and bug fixes!

[krove]

Originally Posted by Ted L. Nancy 

Nothing technical, just some stuff that I think is practical:

...

14. Allow us to place apps in whatever folder we choose!

This is a limitation of the application(s) to which you are referring, not the OS. The application developers are responsible for using proper conventions to ensure that this works. Most applications can be put into whatever folder you want.

[lpkmckenna]

Originally Posted by krove 

This is a limitation of the application(s) to which you are referring, not the OS. The application developers are responsible for using proper conventions to ensure that this works. Most applications can be put into whatever folder you want.

I think he's referring to update glitches with Apple apps. I can remember reorganizing my Applications folder, and then having Software Update barf in response.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Ted L. Nancy 

6. Allow iTunes to store and play all formats of ripped DVDs. (After all, it plays my ripped CDs.)

In particular, performant Matroska support would be great.

Originally Posted by Ted L. Nancy 

11. Ability to view the channels of Airport networks from the menubar item.

And signal type (a/b/g/n), strength, and speed.

[besson3c]

My wish list:

- ZFS support
- SSHfs support, preferably as a replacement for AFP
- Fix Time Machine bugs, and support for backing up to any network volume
- TM controls for how large these data sets should grow to
- Ports system
- Easy CLI controls for services (e.g. app firewall, screen sharing, etc.)
- Make Aqua less bloated
- Work with the Flash developers to make it consume less resources and perform much better
- Support for libvirt and KVM/Xen
- system wide software update
- make Dashboard widgets immediately responsive when invoked, or at least provide feedback that they are updating themselves
- Make Mail suck much less - you've probably heard my rants before
- Make Quicktime support more video formats
- Now that WINE is closing in on 1.0, it would be cool if it was integrated into OS X

Is there a way to conduct Spotlight searches via the command line?

[DarkStarRed]

Is there a way to conduct Spotlight searches via the command line?[/QUOTE]

Working with Spotlight scroll down for more info &
A (slightly) simpler command-line Spotlight search - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

hope this helps.

[FatGuy]

Some good suggestions.

• A better name than Snow Leopard. Lion perhaps. Or Ocelot.

• An easy way to adjust the opacity of the toolbars without the need to download stuff.

• Tiger's dock.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Ocelot will never be used as a name for OS X. It just sounds so lame. And don't give me that "Metal Gear Solid has some intimidating guy called Revolver Ocelot"-crap...his name is anything but intimidating. It's one thing to walk around talking about Leopard and Tiger and Jaguar but it's another thing to walk around talking about Ocelot.

[TheGreatButcher]

I second the vote on Lion.

Mac OS X Lion: The King of OSs!

[bluedog]

ZFS, pppffft.

How about the ReiserFS?
It can even wash your car, inside and out!

[OreoCookie]

… and make it disappear, too

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by TheGreatButcher 

I second the vote on Lion.

Mac OS X Lion: The King of OSs!

People have suggested this for every single version of OS X. By this point, I think Apple is intentionally not using the name just so the largest possible number of people will be wrong and Steve can laugh at them.

[moep]

FTR, Snow Leopard was confirmed at the Stevenote. Not sure if it's going to be 10.6 but it's coming.

[tinkered]

I would appreciate improvements around networking and sharing. With out a OSX server hosting user sign on and such, running a multi-computer, multi-user network is messy.

-Finder should not have conniption fits with shared folders getting disconnected due to networking issues or computers going to sleep. the user should definitely not be interrupted with a prompt that has only on response choice, "disconnect". If disconnecting is my only choice than just do it for me and leave me alone, and then give my a preference to auto-reconnect when the share becomes available again.

-When transferring files between systems in places that are not in a user folder, permissions for admins on the local system should be added/updated. It worked fine in 10.4, but the permission system change in 10.5 and made it much more difficult.

-Time Machine should unify multiple computer's home folders if all have the same user and are backed-up to a single volume (ie time capsule). Thus, I should be able to recover a file from my laptop to my desktop.

[tigas]

Support for G4.

[thibaulthalpern]

Why is this list called "official"? Official under whose authority?

[OreoCookie]

Under my authorata
(I'm one of the resident mods here.)

BTW, ZFS is mentioned on the Snow Leopard Server page … 

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Ted L. Nancy 

11. Ability to view the channels of Airport networks from the menubar item.