Right now, every Mac fan is looking forward to the major next revision of OS X, Mountain Lion, which will continue what Lion started and keep on blurring the line between Apple’s Mac and iOS ecosystems. But what’s the end goal here?
Cult of Mac reader Cameron Leask put his design chops to the test to imagine what a completely unified OS X / iOS experience would look like. The result: OS XI, an operating system that merges OS X and iOS’s best features while finally ditching the Mac filesystem and embracing an iOS-like approach to data and apps.
It certainly looks sleek, but we’ll let you be the judge of that. After the jump, take an imagination-fueled tour through the future of the Mac with OS XI. Let us know what you think in the comments.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
41 responses to “Meet OS XI: iOS And OS X Combined [Gallery]”
Interesting
Apart from the poor photoshoping skills of whoever created this, there are some interesting things here. The placement of Siri doesn’t make any sense though. Neither does the dock, because right now the iOS dock resembles the OSX one.
Gnome 3 anyone?
My idea of Siri on Mac http://cl.ly/BMWl
Love everything but the Dock.
I hesitate to write anything off before giving it a good once over, and my skills with cloud storage are lacking, but no file system? I have a hard time imagining the organization and usability of a system that does not allow me to see at least some of its insides.
I want to go back to Linux.
No file system? My data held hostage by my apps? I always loved the way iphoto organized my photos, lol. Since apple and microsoft are turning our computers into phones, I’ll be glad when sunbeam turns my toaster into a computer so I can be happy again.
You’ve got the nerve to criticise someone else’s skills and you come with a load of crap like that.
NOPE
“Lightening quick” is what happens at dawn. If the author meant “as quick as the electrical discharge that occurs during thunderstorms,” that’s spelled “lightning.” Yes, this stuff does matter.
No Way
While there are definitely some interesting ideas here, I have to disagree with the toolbar implementation. I mean isn’t that what made original windows tablets so pitiful? A desktop environment made for use with a mouse (small pointer) ported directly to a device made for finger input (larger pointer)? I like the use of Siri and the dock isn’t bad, but I think there is work to be done yet.
Siri has a potential on Macs to do a simple tasks like, open this window, show me this pictures from that date. For example if you want to see some movie on Mac in bed and you don’t want to use remoter. Do some task faster.. copy this file and put there! Maybe. But I thing swipe with for finger to open widgets screen is more faster then ask Siri for wheater :D
Thanks CoM for this!
I’m the person who made this concept, and I agree the no file system thing may be tricky at first, eventually it will make the experience better. The file system has been becoming less and less important for the past 20 years or so.
(And I noticed the spelling mistake of lightning!)
I’m 14 and obviously don’t want to use my age as an excuse but I’m still learning the Photoshop side of things. Any suggestions let me know!
should call it OS Xi
(;
No. What would be the point of buying a mac? Macs need to differentiate from iOS or else there would be no reason to buy them. This would be the end of Macs as we know it..
There will always be a difference between mobile devices from Apple and Macs. They will just start to work better together seamlessly.
Where do I find that wallpaper?
This is pretty sad.
There will *never* be an OS XI (Mac OS eleven), those who think so misunderstand almost everything about OS X, Apple and Macs. If there *were* to be an OS XI, I sure hope it going to be better than this thing.
The whole concept is kind of lame. All they are saying here is throw in Siri and iCloud (which are actually both half there already and likely due in the very next iteration of OS X), and then turn the widgets back to how they looked in Tiger and call it a day?
By what means is this “revolutionary” (or even really new)? What qualifies it to be called “OS XI”? It’s todays OS with a couple of minor additions.
Sorry, but that is the wrong direction (as initiated already by Lion).
I use an iPhone and an iPad (and even bought Apple’s “productivity” apps – but I don’t find these apps usable).
For me these devices are good to consume media, surf the web and write emails.
But no post pc era, is these devices are going to replace computers this would be the post productivity era!
Oh come on, the Oster is going to be head and shoulders above the Sunbeam!
I’m sure that the MacBook Touch will be the future of Apple !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R92jQtQuhuA
So…………how do I access my files then if I don’t have an internet connection to the cloud? The cloud will never work for mainstream until every computer has an “Always On” internet connection that never fails!
The idea is just the file system is hidden – all files remain ‘offline’ still.
A library-like file system unique (but connected) to each app is something I’ve been hoping for. Why should a regular user even be aware there’s a file system? If you want to play a song, open iTunes, want to view a picture, open iPhoto/aperture! There is no reason why Keynote, Pages etc, shouldn’t have something similar. Finder is outdated and works poor, but instead of revamping it, why not just remove its necessity?
If they do that, I’m first in line!
But iBoard? Who uses widgets anyway? What I’d like to see is being able to run my iOS apps on my Mac. Dream come true.
Spelling and grammar errors……come on, son! Concept looks nice enough though.
I would’ve called it iOS X.
While is a nice idea I hope apple don’t do anything like this. Keep the Mac And iOS separate as they should stand on their own rather than bring each ther down.
I hope they never get rid of the file manager on Mac, all my productivity apps would be rendered useless instantly if they ever did this move, I mean it would be near impossible to have the same kind of flexibility in Final cut as we do today under this system.
awful… not even close to Apple design & user experience… besides if I am looking for iPad why I would buy a MacBook?
No,No and No! Except if they give you a dual option interface!
I own an ipad and an iphone and I love them but…
I am a Pro and I do own a Mac Pro as well. In terms of usage some things are not that practical!
What I believe and wish is:
1. The Pro line of Macs to stay alive (rumors have them dead, big,big, really big mistake)!!!!
2. A finder interface closer to the utility Total Finder!
3. A launch manager that is really factional. Launchpad is useless if you have lots of Apps! (I run Jumper)!
4. A dock closer to the utility Hyperdock!
5. Notifications for all or only user chosen Apps .
6. Faster, snappier, smarter spotliht!
7. ICloud sync for almost everything.
8. Better Safari and iTunes
9. More graphic cards options in hardware and drivers.
10. Better security and faster patching (the problems are arriving as the Mac becomes mainstream)
11. Better RAID support for internal and external drives
12. Better multiple monitor support
13. More International support (spelling, grammar, dictionary)
14. Better testing before release!
15. ….. and the list could go on!
The so called post PC era might apply to a regular household and smartphones and tablets but we do work with computers as well!
Other than that, KUDOS to Cameron for doing a very nice implementation in Photoshop!
Very good for someone only 14! Keep up the creativity Cameron, and as you go on you will find the file system far more useful than you think now!
Love these concept articles. Nice work Cameron. Ignore the muppets that feel confident in throwing abusive comments from behind a keyboard. Some of the comments in here are disgraceful.
No file system… No sale!!
this looks like shit. this designer has no taste whatsoever.
that dock looks like a 3rd rate linux design, made by a 3 years old retard.
the drop down menus look even worse. what’s up with that 3 feet long origin arrow? one has an outline, one doesn’t. both miss a shadow backdrop.
the siri icon on the desktop ?! let’s put a spotlight ugly icon there too. why not implement it in the notification center?
the clock on center:
1. is separated from the date.
2. it would be a pain in the ass for application’s menus. it will move to the right? it will disappear? they tried that with the apple menu and didn’t work.
widgets on desktop? nice, but why put an ugly as hell frame around them? it makes no sense…
where is the Trash?
a black toned theme would be nice, but not that simplistic.
a file system is the basic feature of any os. while it isn’t accessible on iOS, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. but that limitation will never happen on a desktop os. they should make file management even easier, not impossible. finder will never die.
let’s thank God for the awesome designers from apple, and let’s hope this kind of designers stay away from our os.
A nice concept, but that’s how this idea will stay. Combining your mobile and desktop OSes into one platform just doesn’t create a good user experience. Take a look at Windows 8 – the Metro UI is beautiful and (some would say) innovative, but behind it is the confusing, feature-deprived Aero interface. Switching between them is a harsh turn. Apple will continue to make the same *features* available across mobile and desktop operating systems, but the core of those two experiences are too different to use one merged OS on both.
Very badly done dude! Very poorly designed. You do not know to use design tools…
On the other hand, many things are missing:
-The dock with aspect of glass will not disappear.
-Mac icons will not change at all.
-On the desktop it will always display the home screen icons.
-Siri icon will be on the keyboard, not on the screen… is useless.
– And many small details more…
In short, you’re embarrassing as concept creator, quit making them.
most folks don’t ever actually go into Finder to do anything so for them this ‘mode’ wouldn’t be an issue.
personally i like the “concept”, i think if done correctly there could be a very reasonable combination of the 2, especially if the integration of the mobile technology with the pc desktop means that they could develop it in a way that (against apple’s thing of “we want u to be upgrading your machines every 2 years anyway”) means that some “older” macs with their hardware capabilities could prove to be a little bit more productive and responsive again. i have a C2D macbook 2.2ghz that i love dearly, but sometimes can feel a little left in the dark with the bloating features that each OS seems to be gathering as OS-X moves along
The cloud is not the future.
for the ones who are saying it looks like linux, http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wfeLAJMsur0/TcuLk2RvyDI/AAAAAAAAA5c/P2O0m4En21A/s1600/fff.jpeg it is linux.. the Gnome desktop with a OS X “like” theme
It is not a Gnome desktop which is heavily themed.
– Gnome does not have unified menu bar.
– The Apple menu makes no sense — that would not be in Linux.
– There is obviously no Siri app.
– Linux desktop’s aren’t heavily cloud enabled (thank god).
– The date is not next to the clock.
– The date is different in the taskbar and the dock.
– Those are Mac widgets.
– The “Dock” menu option would not be there.