OS X Leopard delayed until October

Apple today announced that the next version of OS X, Leopard, will not release until October due to resources being pulled to support the iPhone development. Naturally, this has gotten many Mac message board posters to act like Steve Jobs canceled Christmas.

Me? I fall in the “meh” category. I was certainly hoping the OS would come out sooner than that, but since the iPhone is a bigger deal right now and its delay would be incredibly bad PR, Apple had no choice but to pull resources to work on it. Since the iPhone runs a version of OSX, logic would dictate those resources would come from the Leopard team.

I’ve seen people ask: “Why didn’t Apple just hire more people?” and as anyone who’s done any sort of Project Management will tell you, simply hiring more people during the critical phase slows the project, not speeds it. These people need to be trained, acclimated to the company, and gain an understanding of the code base.

I want the OS to come out when it is damn good and ready. Tiger works just fine for me. The only bad part is now it’s likely to hit around the time of the Office upgrade so I’ll be doing two upgrades closer together than I had hoped.