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OS X Businesses Operating Systems Apple

Happy Birthday Mac OS X 172

Posted by pudge from the sure-why-not dept.
phillyclaude writes "Thanks to Wikipedia's Anniversaries page, I just realized Mac OS X turns three today! How could I forget such an important birthday?" Mac OS X 10.0 was released on March 24, 2001.
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Happy Birthday Mac OS X More

Happy Birthday Mac OS X

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  • Shouldn't that be .3 today (Score:4, Funny)

    by BoomerSooner ( 308737 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @04:50PM (#8660356) Homepage Journal
    Since it is 10.3?

    • In that case... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Windows was 2003 last year?

      Everybody complains about my Mass: the h4x0rs taxes; Gay-marriage YRO; and the BIG SIG.

  • Birthday Present (Score:5, Funny)

    by k_killmore ( 731490 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @04:51PM (#8660369)
    Now all Apple needs to do is deliver those 3 ghz G5s today and it will really be a day to remember. ;)

    • Re:Birthday Present (Score:4, Funny)

      by System.out.println() ( 755533 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @04:52PM (#8660377) Journal
      Better yet: deliver them for free :D

      I want one....

    • Re:Birthday Present (Score:5, Informative)

      by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) * on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:03PM (#8660506)
      You'll be seeing 2.5gHz G5s first (perhaps next week, according to the rumour sites). The 3gHz machines aren't expected until end of summer, or thereabouts.

      I'd be _very_ interested in playing with a generic PPC970FX board (www.970eval.com [970eval.com]) with Linux, though, if it became affordable.

      I'm _really_ hoping the new machines at end of summer come with PCI-E, so we can all get on with the task of migration at the same time as major processor upgrades.

      • Re:Birthday Present (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Selecter ( 677480 )
        I read the article on those 970eval boards: you can get 2 G5 Powermacs for the price of one board. Slap Yellow Dog on em and you are done. Why do you want the board? Why would you not be just as "tied in" to that board as you would a Mac? I'm not sure what your reasoning is about, but I love my G5 and OS X. I obviously dont get the Linux stuff.

        I think the 3ghz models will have PCI Express support. Steve loves to be first with the wiz bang gizmos and he wont use AGP if he can avoid it. That unit will be m

        • Re:Birthday Present (Score:1, Redundant)

          by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) *
          See, here's where it helps to read the entire post you're replying to before asking questions. Please to note:

          > though, if it became affordable.

          The eval board isn't, as you note, affordable. Neither are PowerMacs, though they are 'more' affordable.

      • Re:Birthday Present (Score:4, Interesting)

        by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @06:07PM (#8661212) Journal
        I picked up a Dual 1.42ghz mac last year, and the thing is fast. I normally run a few shells in iterm, and mozilla/imap, and fink for my unix applications, and some media players. It's a great box to use as a desktop. I also like the look of the older G4 cases.

        But if the 1.42ghz system is fast and smooth, a 3ghz must compile applications under fink in seconds. I bought a few games for mac to test it out, Ghost Recon, RTCW, plays smoothly. The system is stable, and I hardly ever get the little beachball busy cursor.

        While I dont care for the mac way of user input and keyboard commands, I have found work arounds. I just wish I could use the more standard methods of GUI usage. I found some apps to make it more like other OS's. And I'm happy my Intellimouse and MS natural keyboard works on it, and drivers are downloadable from microsoft's site, if you want the extended features.

        Also, while its mostly BSD underneath, and if you are a BSD user, you can figure most stuff out, HFS/HFS+ and the GUI takes a little getting used too. Getting proper termcap files are a little bit of a hassle, and a decent VGA fixed width type font (mac's are not fixed font oriented), but all in all, its a great OS.

        I couldn't switch full time to OSX, because I play CS. But as a normal desktop, I use it all the time. Most of my applications run under screen on a linux box, so I just need a good term program.

        • Re:Birthday Present (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @07:44PM (#8662186)
          You know, there were some things in your comment that made me wonder if you have any idea what you're talking about. No offense.

          I just wish I could use the more standard methods of GUI usage.

          What? Seeing how the Mac has been around longer than any other presently extant user interface, I'd say the Mac way is the standard way!

          a decent VGA fixed width type font (mac's are not fixed font oriented)

          Courier, Monaco, and Andale Mono are all installed on your machine by default. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them. In fact, Courier 14 with antialiasing is far easier to read on-screen than any other font. (VGA? What?)
          • You know, there were some things in your comment that made me wonder if you have any idea what you're talking about. No offense.

            Seeing, I've used a GUI of some sort or basic text input/output on C64, Apple, Amiga, DOS, Win31-WinXP, Linux, BSD, Solaris and a old fitjistu mainframe The Mac is different on keystrokes combinations and cursor position movement. So, why would the Mac be the standard, if the rest of the world is the same?

            Courier, Monaco, and Andale Mono are all installed on your machine by def
        • I dunno what you do, but I have a SP 450 MHz G4 with a rage 128, and it runs RTCW smoothly enough. I almost bought a dual 1.25 G4, but held off to see the specs for Doom3. I admit to being a mac/id whore. This box was ought to play quake3, and my next upgrade will be for doom. I also have an irix box, a linux box, and at work I use windows. I guess what I am trying to point out is that clock sped is not that important. The overall performance of a mac is not just down to clock speed, the RISC architecture
      • I'm pretty sure that they already have this, named PCI-X.

        It is PCI Express which I assume you're referring to, a quick google search confirms this.

        • PCI-E != PCI-X (Score:5, Informative)

          by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) * on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @07:10PM (#8661813)
          Nope. PCI-X is a much older technology, and very different from the new serial connector technology called PCI Express (abbreviated PCI-E). Macs _have_ had 64-bit 66mHz PCI for quite some time, though that's still nowhere near as sophisticated as PCI-E.

          PCI-Express, however, will be replacing both AGP _and_ PCI slots, so all your peripherals will be using the same technology, albeit in different form factors (16x connector for AGP replacement, 1x or 4x connectors for most everything else). I believe it's 250MB/s (each direction?) per 'x' of connector length in PCI-E, so this will be a substantial improvement in bandwidth on PCI-E systems.

          • Re:PCI-E != PCI-X (Score:3, Informative)

            by PygmySurfer ( 442860 )
            PCI-X is NOT 66 MHz PCI.

            "The PCI-X protocol supports high-performance PCI devices, increasing speeds from 33MHz to 133MHz and throughput from 266 Mbps to 2GBps."

            It may not be PCI-E, but it's definitely not plain old 66 MHz PCI.

  • thanks for helping with the math. (Score:4, Funny)

    by dotgod ( 567913 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:01PM (#8660489)
    Mac OS X 10.0 was released on March 24, 2001.

    Thanks, Pudge...I wasn't sure if 2004 - 3 was the proper operation for determining the original year based on an anniversary.

  • Expose (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tblease ( 721199 ) <tblease@bgnet.bgs[ ]du ['u.e' in gap]> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:07PM (#8660555) Homepage
    Ah, the birthday of OS X. Here's to wishing that Windows had something similar to OS X Panther's Expose!

  • Happy OS X user (Score:5, Interesting)

    by GreatDrok ( 684119 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:10PM (#8660600) Journal
    OS X is the first OS that came with a computer I bought in the last 20 years that has actually stayed on the machine rather than either with BSD or Linux. OK, I confess I have a Windows XP/Linux dual boot machine, but I use XP only for games and some casual web browsing with Firefox, no e-mail, no work. That machine defaults to Fedora 1 but my Mac defaults to OS X and that is fine by me. Terrific. Panther is a vast improvement over the previous versions, and they were hugely better than Windows XP.

    It will be interesting to see where we stand with OS X 10.6 when Longhorn finally releases. Most interesting is the fact that MS makes a big song and dance about OSS destroying the software industry whereas Apple has built a very nice symbiotic relationship with OSS. Proves the lie. In reality what threatens MS is serious competition that can't just be bought out.

    • Re:Happy OS X user (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:30PM (#8660852) Homepage
      10.6? I seriously doubt that people will be running 10.6 when Longhorn comes out. It will be more like 10.2834 (*rimshot*).

      Seriously though, by the time Longhorn is supposed to come out (2 or 3 years, assuming no more delays) OS X will be 5 ot 6 (or more) years old. I would think by then it would get bumped to XI.

      • Re:Happy OS X user (Score:4, Informative)

        by mrgeometry ( 689087 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @07:06PM (#8661776)
        I would think by then it would get bumped to XI.

        There's been a lot of talk to the effect that Apple is not likely to abandon the catchy-sounding "OS X" name. ("O S X I" doesn't sound as cool as "O S X"....) So will they call it "OS X Eleven" or "OS X Two point Oh" or what? Who knows?! As much as the OS might deserve a full new version number, the marketing aspect of it definitely pulls in the direction of keeping "OS X" as long as possible.

        zach

        • Re:Happy OS X user (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          It's gonna be "Mac OS X 11.0."

          The name of the operating system is "Mac OS X," and it's pronounced "Mac Oh Ess Ten." The version number is not part of the name. The version number, presently, is 10.3.3. In a few months it'll be 10.4, and in a few years it'll be 11.0. But they're not gonna change the name of the OS when that happens.
          • I admit I like the idea of calling it "OS X" (not a number). I know that's not right, but from a marketing stand point I could see why they might like a nice name like that (with the great X logo, etc).

            If I was in charge of the decision but told to try to keep it sort of the same, I would call it "Mac OS X2" or something like that. That X makes such a perfect logo. Maybe "OS X+" or some such. You know, keep the "Mac OS X" part as the platform (like saying "Windows" or "Linux") and then adding the version n

        • It would probably make more sense to call it, OS X 2.0 instead of OS XI. I love the Windows XP name. It works on several levels and sounds cool. Windows 6.0 is just weak. Microsoft will have to stick with the XP name for at least a couple of iterations. I don't know about the Mac crowd. Hasn't it been the tradition to just refer to MacOS by its version number (ie, System 7, etc) and not by some catchy brand?

        • Re:Happy OS X user (Score:5, Funny)

          by tantalus ( 466821 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @02:37AM (#8664962) Homepage
          There's been a lot of talk to the effect that Apple is not likely to abandon the catchy-sounding "OS X" name. ("O S X I" doesn't sound as cool as "O S X"....)


          On the contrary, "O S X I", obviously pronounced "Oh, Sexy" sounds very cool indeed.
        • Who knows. Maybe they'll pull a Squaresoft and call it Mac OS X-2.
          1. There's been a lot of talk to the effect that Apple is not likely to abandon the catchy-sounding "OS X" name. ("O S X I" doesn't sound as cool as "O S X"....) So will they call it "OS X Eleven" or "OS X Two point Oh" or what? Who knows?! As much as the OS might deserve a full new version number, the marketing aspect of it definitely pulls in the direction of keeping "OS X" as long as possible.

          I'd think this would be an ideal branding opportunity;

          1. OS X
          2. i

          ...to promote the i-mac-product-of-the-month bra

        • Perhaps they could just pull a Solaris, and drop the bit in front of the decimal point. Panther becomes OS X 3, and whatever the next one is called (Tabby?) would be OS X 4.
      • I doubt Apple will drop the OS X name until they drop the BSD/Unix/whatever foundation, which given their current progress with it, is probably not going to be for a very long time.

        They'll find a way to keep OS X, OS X even beyond 10.9, I'm sure.
  • One year ago today was the day I "switched" and picked up my brand spankin new iBook :) Wierd... Don't you think?

  • Switching views (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OmniVector ( 569062 ) <see my homepage> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:22PM (#8660743) Homepage
    It's pretty amazing how polar opposite many slashdotter's views about Apple have changed since the release of OS X. The science and *nix community has really embraced this newcommer to the *nix world.

    Who else here used to hate macs until OS X, and now uses it as their primary machine? I'm sure I'm not alone.

    • Re:Switching views (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dstreelm ( 606768 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:37PM (#8660910)
      yes, i never used a mac before osx, i bought my powerbook over a year ana a half ago, and i have absolutley no regrets. i was a hardcore windows user and now i just laugh at my friends whose computers crash, my roomate just virus checked his system and he found over 2000 viruses, i have none. that being said, i would rather that alot of windows xp users not 'switch' because i like being the outnumbered and decenting. i know my system is betterand i could care less about most windows users. however i would like to see apple continue to grow and gain more acceptance
      • Does your system have a spell checker?

      • Re:Switching views (Score:2, Interesting)

        by brasten ( 699342 )
        I actually just recently switched to a PowerBook after posting a question about them on Ask Slashdot. The slashdotters responses helped convince me it was worth the investment, and it absolutely has been. While the pure performance of the machine hasn't been what I would hope for in a $3000 notebook, it has been far from bad, and everything ELSE about the machine (size, look and feel, and the best OS I've seen, ever...) had made it MORE than worth it.

        While I try not to get caught up in all the "PowerBook

    • Re:Switching views (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:45PM (#8660992) Homepage
      Well, I didn't LIKE Macs (in a way) untill OS X.

      I basically used Macs (mostly my good old LC II) untill about the time the Pentium came out and that's about when I got my first PC (a 386 clone) and I've been a PC person every since.

      Now I had USED Macs during that time, I just didn't own one. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Macs (their design elegance, I though the interface was quite nice, etc) but I wouldn't have bought one (except as a second/spare/extra/toy comptuer) because of the OS. OS 8/9 wasn't BAD, but it wasn't as modern as Windows 9x or what I could do on Linux. I wouldn't have wanted to use it for a main computer. Add to that the speed difference that started to appear and that I played lots of games and that I liked to build computers and a Mac just wasn't an option.

      But the OS (my biggest problem) because OS X which I have to admit I drool over. If I could buy it to put on my PCs (even if it cost $350 or so) I'd do it. It's got the Unix core (which thanks to Linux I've come to LOVE) but the great modern no fuss desktop. I don't play that many computer games any more (and those that I do then to be things that will get ported to the Mac anyways, even if I have to wait 6 months). I have moved to using a laptop almost exclusively (so building is out of the question, not to mention that I just don't have too much time to do that with my main computer, only "extra" computers). And now with computers getting so much faster than what I need most of the time (a G4 would be more than enough for me most of the time, but I drool over that G5). I've basically made up my mind that my next computer will be a Mac (probably laptop. I can't wait for iBook G5s. I'm not hurting so I can survive).

      In summary I didn't "hate" Macs, but I wouldn't have bought one. They were outdated and dying for me compared to the "Wintel" side of things. But now Macs are back (with a VENGENCE). OS X fixed my biggest problem with Macs (the rest I could have survived). And not only did it FIX the problem, it added a Unix core that I envy. And while most things on Windows "Just Work" pretty well, these days when I don't have much free time to screw around with computer issues the "it nearly ALWAYS Just Works" of a Mac is majorly appealing too. Fixing my own computer problems (you know, the oddities of Windows and installing hardware/etc) is no longer challenging or entertaining in ANY way, it's just an annoyance. Years ago there was often something I would LEARN by going through all that stuff (even if I shouldn't have had to), but now it's just a pain.

      Hold on little iBook G5... I'll be comming for you!

      • Re:Switching views (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Van Halen ( 31671 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @09:02PM (#8662868) Journal
        OS 8/9 wasn't BAD, but it wasn't as modern as Windows 9x or what I could do on Linux. I wouldn't have wanted to use it for a main computer.

        I've always felt exactly the same way about System 7 through OS 9. I had used it a fair amount in college, and never really disliked it. Nice interface, but not nearly enough power to get at the internals for me to use it as my main machine. I was a Linux person (and later FreeBSD) and you could pry that from my cold, dead fingers.

        Still, I bought a PowerMac 7600 running 7.5 back in 1996. It served one specific purpose (and still does today, running OS 8.6) as the centerpiece of my home recording studio, running Digital Performer. It was always my music machine and nothing else. Everything else was done on my Unix PC. Actually starting in 2000, I began dabbling in movie editing, using this little program from Apple called iMovie. So then the Mac had exactly two functions.

        I had been lusting after OS X since I first starting reading about it, with the Developer Previews. Of course, my little Mac wasn't going to run it well enough to bother, but I wanted it. Finally in 2002, we decided that we wanted to make a video of our upcoming wedding, but we wanted to do it cheap. Of course this was the perfect opportunity to sneak in my desire to try OS X, especially since I'd already become proficient with iMovie. So we got a new Power Mac G4 and a DV camera (the wedding DVD turned out great).

        Now the G4 is my primary machine. Terminal is still my most used app, but the rest of it is so much nicer than anything else. The FreeBSD PC sits headless in the corner as the household firewall/router/server. It's setup nicely and I don't want to tinker with it anymore for day to day stuff (that was fun in college, but not so much anymore). We bought an iBook for the wife about a year and a half ago, and we'll never go back. Interestingly, I still keep the 7600 around for music stuff. I had planned to upgrade my Digital Performer for OS X and move all the music stuff to the G4, but the 7600 works so well that I never bothered. It worked great for writing some music for the wedding, and I actually mixed the sound for the wedding video on it because iMovie doesn't give as much control. Perfect!

        And then there's work. It's a Windows world. Everyone has a PC, and Mac/Apple are practically dirty words. We use Unix workstations in my group, mostly Sun and SGI. But those are getting to be pretty overpriced in the workstation market for the performance you get. We needed some Unix laptops that could still run Microsoft Office, so I managed to justify a couple of PowerBooks. Then we needed a file server with a couple terabytes that could serve our Unix machines and PCs. Hmm, Power Mac G5 + Xserve RAID. Management wanted to know why we weren't going with a Windows server. Aside from the lower cost vs. comparable Dell or IBM solutions, I think the lack of viruses was a big selling point. Serves NFS automounts, SMB, integrates with NIS, printers, web server, runs our scientific codes faster than any big iron workstation we have. I'd like to see a Windows machine do all of that as well!

        So uh, happy birthday, Mac OS X. I know my computing life is much easier and enjoyable because of it. Though now it's kind of frustrating to use anything else. :) With OS X I get to have my cake (gui interface, expose) and eat it too (command line)!

      • g5 ibooks will be a ways off. g5 powerbooks might be demo in july(june?) maybe... likely it will be imac g5's first, and at the same time, or the next expo we will see the large powerbooks get g5s(15/17"). the 12" pbook will be last, then the ibooks and a long time from now the emacs.

        that is my guess.

        NOTE: i bought my 12" aluminum 1ghz powerbook in january, love it to death, would use it 24/7 if at all possible, and it is worth a few extra bucks over an ibook. Also, i have noticed i get a bit above 'avera
        • My brother has one of the origional PowerBook Titainiums and it's VERY nice. I could see my self buying a PB, but the thing I lust over the iBook for is it's size. I might get a 12" PB. It's just than in my mind, iBook means small, PB means medium/large. I'm still not used to the 12" PB idea.

          I said iBook mostly because of the size. I love my large Dell laptop (I knew it was large when I bought it, I liked it) but my needs are changing and a small/light laptop is starting to appeal to me, and that's probabl

          • it is all about the right size. my sis's boyfriend(quite the freebsd guy, actually) has a 15" tibook that is nice, but for me just too big. He is the opposite(himself a pretty tall big guy), he thinks the 12" is too small... Go to a mac store and play around with them, the 12" ibook is pretty close but slightly larger than the 12" powerbook.

            O, and upgrade your ram thirdparty. Apple charges too much for builtin ram upgrades, and Mac OS X very much takes advantage of all available ram(though runs just fine o
        • I've seen stories that IBM is actually working on an updated version of the 75x chip (IBM's G3) to include altivec, etc. etc....should appear in the 1.5Ghz range, clock up to about 2.5Ghz. Not 64-bit, but fast enough to keep up with most things, and most importantly of all, low power (and cool!).
          • the ibook's G4 chip may be what you are referring to. It is not the same chip as what runs the same clockspeed 12" powerbook, rather, a modified G3 chip with Altivec included. Adding Altivec gave it the base criteria to be a 'G4' chip and while the same clockspeed, i believe the powerbook chip equivalent is still a bit faster. I could be wrong though.

    • Re:Switching views (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DavidLeblond ( 267211 ) <me&davidleblond,com> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @06:02PM (#8661173) Homepage
      I use to despise Macs (rightly so.) I didn't even give them much thought when OS X came out.

      But after upgrading to XP I started looking more and more at apple.com, and when XP went belly up on me last November I bought an iBook.

      Never looked back.

    • Re:Switching views (Score:5, Interesting)

      by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @06:15PM (#8661291) Homepage
      I was a Windows loather who used mainly SGI and Linux, but when I decided to get into video in a big way in 1998, I decided to get a Mac because I was told the experience would be seamless.

      It was, by 1998 standards, anyway, and I really liked the overall design of the system. But I still used the Unix machine for emacs and programming.

      When the public beta came out, I put it on my dual processor G4 and switched almost entirely to the Mac immediately. I've been really happy with it ever since, so now I have a G5 at home, a G4 tower at work and a G4 PowerBook for the road.

      Great systems, all of them. I couldn't be happier.

      D

    • Re:Switching views (Score:3, Interesting)

      by kalidasa ( 577403 ) *
      Always wanted a NeXT. Couldn't afford them, then they disappeared into Apple. I started shopping for a Mac on March 24, 2001 and ordered my iBook the day the white iBooks came out.
    • back in school, me and a friend of mine used to go back and forth all the time. i was firmly on the PC side, even DOS/Windows (i've since gotten better), she was mac. this was about system 7 and 8 days. she loved the fact that things "just worked", i liked the fact that i could make the thing do anything i wanted by editing text files, poking at the registry, and mucking around with things in DOS.

      then i got a job. :-)

      i got hooked on Unix myself, then eventually Plan 9 and Inferno (still hooked). and i cam
    • count me in. By OS 9 mac os was just so messy since it had so much crap tacked on to the original gui style. OSX is sweet and i use a G5 as my primary com now. I love it.

  • Mac OS X Release History (Score:5, Informative)

    by Goo.cc ( 687626 ) * on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @05:23PM (#8660750)
    I have a page that lists all revision of Mac OS X (client) since the public beta. I created it because I periodically save screenshots and I couldn't always remember which OS revision the screenshot was created with.

    Anyway, you can access it at http://www.goo.cc/macosx.html

  • Powerbook rumors? (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by mildness ( 579534 )
    Any guesses as to when the next PB will be out and what it might include?

    Suffering severe OS X lust I am days, nay hours, away from my first Mac in 10 or so years.

    Cheers,

    Bill

  • I've been with Apple for a while. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by alchemist68 ( 550641 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @08:31PM (#8662622)
    I've been with Apple for a while now. My first Apple computer was an Apple IIgs when I was in high school. My second Apple computer was a PowerBook 520c. My third and current Apple computer is a Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White), originally had a Motorola 400MHz G3, but upgraded to an IBM 500MHz G3 thanks to Other World Computing and the good folks at IBM. The one thing I've liked about Apple is that it consistently produces good products. Looking at the commercialization of the Windows Desktop (Icons, Icons EVERYWHERE), I admire Apple simplicity and elegance in design. Everything about Apple about coupling simplicity, elegance, and functionality. Their computers, in my experience, are also very reliable. All of my Apple computers still work. Mac OS X is quite impressive, and fast, and for my current web surfing, document writing, CD copying (for my car) and CD ripping (for my car), the 500MHz G3 is plenty fast for my needs, though I REALLY want a Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5. My G3 is now 5 years old, still runs Apple's latest and greatest operating system, and it gets FASTER with every release. The Borg cannot make those claims.

  • present (Score:5, Funny)

    by witort ( 92504 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @09:11PM (#8662923)
    I just wish I didn't have to buy it a $129 present every year...

    • Re:present (Score:3, Interesting)

      by oacis ( 212298 )
      Surprisingly,

      I don't mind upgrading the Mac OS X operating system every year, simply because they really do add features that are worthwhile to the new build, not just adding a new look and feel (a la windows). When was the last time that you actually upgraded to a new windows version and it was actually faster? (Generally to upgrade to a new windows system, you really needed to buy a new computer).

      You are looking at $AU 455 for an upgrade to the Windows professional, and even then you don't get everyth

  • Too bad... (Score:5, Funny)

    by PrintError ( 708568 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @11:48PM (#8663951) Journal
    Too bad, because I heard Apple's going out of business.

    Again...
  • I, for one, really enjoy OS X. OS9 wasn't bad, but comparing it to OSX is like comparing brussel sprouts to masala dosa. So, happy birthday, kid -- here's to your 0.4th birthday!
  • I've been using MacOS X since I went from a Dell 133Mhz laptop to a G3 iBook (700) and my life changed.

    I have used macs since middle school in the middle nineties, but I had to convert to Windows because my parents wouldn't buy me a new mac.

    After I got my iBook though, I found this funny little "Terminal" application, I discovered Darwin, 6 months later I picked up a trashed PC box, and installed redhat, then FreeBSD, and fell in love.

    Thanks Apple, not just for an awesome OS with my awesome computer; but
  • She'll actually be sweet sixteen on 12 October.

  • Been on Mac a loooong time (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TomorrowPlusX ( 571956 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:08AM (#8667093)
    I just want to put my 2c out and say I've been working on macs since... maybe 1989 -- that was when I was in high school and first learned pascal and c programming on an ancient ( at the time even ) Mac Classic, with about 492 (?) k of ram.

    I remember writing a Tron game with friends in my highschool cs class where, since the mac didn't have the CPU to do collision detection via line-to-line intersections in real time and not enough memory to make a bitfield for testing, we ended up using the screen memory itself for collision detection. The game rocked, actually.

    Since I'm a professional graphic designer by day, I've *always* been on mac, except for a short detour from 2001 to 2003 when my boss insisted I work on a PC... Thank god I got out of that one.

    I have to say, nonetheless, that while the migration to OS X was painful, ultimately, it's been good.

    Happy birthday! And many more beleaguered years!

  • office depot customers bought 3 days early! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @02:29PM (#8669882)
    If you recall - office depot (or was it staples?) accidentally put Mac OS X 10.0 on the shelves the day it arrived in their stores - about 3 days before hand IIRC. This was the hot news on the Mac OS X websites the day this all happened.. i think smog levels went up around all the Office Depots the second the news hit.

    Man...it HAS been a long time - i forget all the details - except for the one where my wife asked "Wait, did you just buy it twice? I thought you had ordered it from Apple thru your friend there?"

    me: "But dude, i got it NOW!!!! Long before everyone else!!!"

    Ah... i miss those days.... no sleep prior to a major OS release to be first in line at Frys....

    man, i'm old now. i don't do fun things like that any more.

  • 3 years and still no: (Score:3, Insightful)

    by valkraider ( 611225 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @02:49PM (#8670150) Journal
    Three years, and still no major children's games. Well, there are a couple - Finding Nemo and The Learning Tree ones... But most of the "major" titles - (which means the ones that feature the characters the pre-schoolers are addicted to) - are all still OS9, even though they were released more than a year or two after OSX.

    It is frustrating at the least - to keep Classic on a computer so my daughter can play "Blues Clues"... or "Dora the Explorer"...

    But in every other aspect - OSX rocks - it got me to switch to a Mac. And then to buy three more of them. And then buy a couple iPods, an iSight, and a bit of software... I would say OSX has been successful, at least in *my* household. All my x86/Windows machines have since been given to Goodwill...

  • Keep the Faith (Score:2, Interesting)

    by NaughtyNimitz ( 763264 )
    I am an Apple user since 1983, and even through the dark days (20 mac types in one year; corroded Copland, rushed Rapsody, ...) i kept the faith that one day Apple was going to make the a new statement telling the world it is again a player on the OS market.
    And that day was when MacOS X was released.

    Praise all people involved! From the iCEO to the employer that wraps the box.

  • I Made "The Switch" (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bigfinger ( 536378 )
    I Switched when I walked into the Apple Store @ Valley Fair Mall Last Fall. The New AI Powerbooks had just came out. "WHOA!" is all I could say. So I walked out with my first laptop, my first Mac, and my new Love The Powerbook G4 15" Firewire 800 with a combo drive running OS X.2 at the time. The date was Nov. 2nd of 2003. Not long after I bought her an X.3 upgrade on launch night. Although we have had our differances (White Spots, and Fadding Back Light), I still love my Powerbook. I wouldnt traid her for

  • OS X 10.0 may have been released on that date, but I wouldn't call that the "real" OS X... most people, including myself, considered that version more of a beta than a final release, even though Apple had already released an official "beta" some months before that. IMO, OS X didn't become a "real" OS until version 10.1.

  • I'm such a geek that I remembered that it was OSX's birthday, but TOTALLY forgot that it was also my mother's.

    *sigh*

    I'll be in the doghouse for a while, I'm sure. Figuratively speaking, of course.

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