Review: Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar 745
Oh, it wasn't entirely un-Mac-like. But it was different enough that I wasn't comfortable in it. I love Mac OS because of its ease of use and applications and interface and all of the little things. I sit in front of this darned computer for most of my waking hours, and if I am not comfortable with it, then it's no good. Life is too short.
Mac OS X v10.0 was a disappointment to me, and many loyalists to Mac OS. Many things in the interface just didn't work at all, or as well as, they did in Mac OS. Many still don't work right, including cmd+arrow keys to open and close arrows in Finder windows (half works: cmd+opt+arrow should open or close all hierarchical folders) and in dialogs with progress bars, such as file copying (doesn't work). The file dialogs, stuck in a column view, are, in my opinion, a glaring design flaw. In many places in the OS, you can't merely hit "return" in an active dialog to select the default button (if there is a default button at all), or "escape" to cancel.
But these problems were just the beginning. In 10.0, performance was bad, even on G4s. This improved significantly in 10.1, but Mac OS v9.2 still seemed faster. The entire Mac OS X UI -- while eminently "lickable," like no OS before it -- was tiring to look at. Anti-aliasing made things harder to read, especially on LCDs, even with the unnaturally large fonts in the Finder; many of the UI elements, including the aqua ones, often distracted the eye.
But in 10.2 (Jaguar), much has changed. The aqua elements are sharper, crisper ... perhaps shinier. Many of the UI elements, such as the Dock, are more subdued. The Finder has more options for changing the appearance of elements such as font size. Gosh, complaining about font size sounds petty, but darnit, it is so much nicer to look at.
The cursors are improved: the busy cursor has gone from an ugly rainbow pinwheel to a cute rainbow pinwheel (and how long before Steve makes it monochrome?). The arrow cursor has a better outline around it. The I-bar cursor still needs work; I lose it on dark backgrounds. In Mac OS, that cursor would change from dark to light when it passed over something dark.
Similarly, I also now lose my selection box in the Finder; in previous versions of Mac OS X, a selection box in a white space would appear grey. Now it is white, and invisible. Oops.
But while in the Finder, one of my old favorites is finally back: multiple Get Info windows. If you select multiple items at once, you still get the single window with all the items, but you can at least now open many Get Info items for individual items, one at a time. And you can get the old behavior of a single floating window ("Inspector") by holding down Option.
I still can't copy the content of a text clipping in the Finder. That's just insane. Open the clipping. Read it. Cmd-c to copy the contents to the Clipboard. This is a no-brainer.
It's all of these little touches that make a significant difference in whether I can comfortably use the OS on a daily basis. And for the first time ever, despite the problems that still exist, I am mostly comfortable.
And man, is Jaguar fast. Everything is just more responsive. Previously, clicking on UI elements would begin a delay that isn't there anymore. It's noticeably quicker. Even Classic seems quicker, despite the fact that Mac OS is no longer included with Mac OS X.
But I still can't do everything in Mac OS X, even with Classic. My UMAX (*spit*) scanner won't work, and likely never will; I use it seldom enough that it's probably a better use of my time and money to boot into Mac OS to use it, for now. I am having trouble getting reliable fax software to work, so I booted into Mac OS to use FaxSTF last weekend (I was going to install the 10.0 installer I have and then the Jaguar update when it comes out, but 10.0 won't install at all on Jaguar, so I am probably out of luck with that, though I am keeping my eye on Cocoa eFax, too).
But most important to my comfort is that all of the apps I know and love from Mac OS -- BBEdit, Interarchy, DragThing, Mozilla, Eudora -- work natively in Mac OS X. The operating system exists to host applications. They are the reason I use the computer. I want the same apps, and, thankfully, I have them. Further, much of Mac OS is still there, like QuickTime, AirPort, Keychains, AppleScript, and Internet Config (although this works somewhat oddly in some cases, and there's not much of a UI for it).
But the big question is: why should I use Mac OS X? If I am just trying to recreate Mac OS, why not just stick with Mac OS?
There are two answers. The first is a single word: Unix. I don't need to describe in detail why Unix is a Good Thing to Slashdot readers, but I will say that XDarwin and fink are two of the most important features of Mac OS X, and having a stable operating system is a joy. The stability of Mac OS certainly was pretty good -- ignore the hypocrites who used to praise Mac OS but now decry it -- but it can't match Mac OS X. That I can put my laptop to sleep, and wake immediately, and still have many TCP/IP connections open, is incredible to me.
The second answer is that new features are added to Mac OS X to make it too compelling to ignore.
The i* software suite -- iChat, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iCal, iSync, iProbablyForgotSomething -- are in many cases some of the best products to hit personal computing in many years. iMovie and iDVD are leaders in their niches. iTunes was a bit flat in its earlier versions, but gets more compelling in its feature set every year. iChat is actually a nice chat client: unobtrusive, mostly well-integrated into the system and Address Book, and easy on the eyes (it's also a little buggy; expect a few crashes). iPhoto is a nice beginning, but really needs better features for more flexible exporting of image metadata to be well-used. iCal and iSync aren't yet released, but by all accounts look very promising: how long before I ditch my PDA, or at least Palm Desktop's contacts and calendar apps?
Then there's Rendezvous -- the "zero configuration" networking -- which is only beginning to get significant use, but is sure to be a staple of many applications for years to come. Despite having some problems with printer sharing (making a comeback, finally) via Rendezvous -- I mistakenly had some computers on my network with a 255.0.0.0 subnet mask while others were 255.255.255.0, and this was enough to throw it off -- it requires zero configuration once you're configured properly.
Sherlock is now finally its own separate beast, with Find integrated into the Finder (imagine that!) and no longer is it scraping web pages, but it is enabled with web services goodness.
All of these features and more are only available in Mac OS X. If you want them, you need to switch.
Still, some things simply don't work in Mac OS X v10.2. The upgrade went smoothly, but various third-party apps, and even some Apple programs, had trouble. My chosen replacements for the Dock -- DragThing and LiteSwitch X -- both needed updates (Proteron says LiteSwitchX update should be available any day now). WeatherPop needed updating. WirelessDriver -- a serious boon to PowerBook G4 users who need to work more than 20 feet from a wireless base station -- no longer works, and it's not been updated in many months.
Apple Remote Desktop 1.0.x doesn't work; you'll need to run Software Update to get version 1.1. Unfortunately, even the new version only half-worked for me; the client side seems fine, but the Admin app says it is not installed properly. I wanted to just uninstall the whole thing and start over, but there is no uninstall option, that I could find. So I deleted all the files that the Installer installs, and then tried to reinstall, and the Installer says it is already installed. So now I have nothing, and I can't change it.
I thought for awhile that Apple's ScriptMenu didn't work, too; it was still sitting in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ where I had left it, but it was not launching. I searched for ScriptMenu on the discs and hard drive for information or a replacement, and on Apple's site, but found nothing. I was later informed the name had been changed from "ScriptMenu" to "Script Menu": the replacement was in the /Applications/AppleScript/ directory. Oops.
fink has a few problems, as one might expect with an OS update that sees a move from gcc2.9 to gcc3.1. Most of the things I tried worked fine without recompiling, including XFree86. But xterm and bash broke because of dependencies relating to the change gcc3.1, and manconf (a wrapper for Mac OS X's man) broke, because the Jaguar man doesn't accept the -C option to specify a configuration file. The workaround is to install fink's man, or at least remove /sw/bin/man in the meantime. The fink team is working to resolve the issues, and updates are forthcoming. An update for xterm is available on the XonX page.
SSHAgentServices, which sets an ssh-agent for the entire login session, stopped working; but the author of SSHPassKey, which I use to provide the ssh password to GUI apps, said he would integrate ssh-agent services into the next version of his application. Some of TinkerTool was obsoleted by 10.2, as Apple has added some of those preferences into their UIs, things like Terminal transparency, and what to do with newly mounted CDs and DVDs, so there's a new version available.
Currently, SharePoints doesn't work. This configures NetInfo to allow you to share arbitrary folders with any users via file sharing. So now I don't have a reasonable file server, unless I want to give everyone admin access to see all the volumes on the machine. But the author says he has discovered the problem, and a new version is forthcoming. This makes me quite happy.
There's also the long-standing and unresolved problem of AvantGo not working with Mac OS X. It's amazing that this is still broken.
I'm not making any firm commitments, but I am using Mac OS X as my primary OS right now, and it's the least painful it's ever been. That's more of a compliment than it seems. But there's enough that doesn't work, enough that's raw -- especially with third-party software -- that I'd recommend people who don't like pain to wait at least a few weeks, if not a month or so, to allow all of the issues to be worked out, tech notes to be published, and workarounds to be posted.
"Linux will not be able to take over the PC deskto (Score:3, Insightful)
I have tried to run Linux as a desktop system since 1996 and have never been completely satisfied. The day I bought my G4 with OS X 10.1.5 is the day Linux died on the desktop for me. I can ssh/sftp to my servers (linux/solaris) and use wonderful apps that are unmatched on linux (Photoshop, Acrobat-Full, InDesign, FlashMX, Office-waiting for StarOffice).
Linux is 10 years behind OS X and I cannot wait for my 10.2 upgrade to come in the mail (thank god I waited to get my G4 until the 17th).
Re:Modern OS? (all inclusive) (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just like (to use another car analogy) when Ford released the *new* Thunderbird. Yes it has been around for 40+ years and yes it IS NEW!
Amazing how some people cannot seem to catch on that things can be modified into something new.
iMicrosoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you install your OS and get iChat, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iCal, iSync and whatever i* software they put in next:
a) are you going to look for/know of alternatives?
b) are you going to use them, especially if they won't integrate as well with the OS and other apps as well as Apple's i* series will?
Surely the point of taking Microsoft to court for bundling IE and therefore slaying the browser market was not just to get at Microsoft, but to prevent OS vendors from dominating and killing off large sectors of the software market?
Unix = modern? (Score:3, Insightful)
I was excited about the prospect of a "modern operating system" (read: Unix) [...]
Unix is modern? Compared to what? Unix is old, tried, tested, and true. That's what makes it so good.
Re:iMicrosoft? (Score:3, Insightful)
These are a few of my favorite things... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are still a few kinks though. Many of my favorite Haxies stopped working. Several apps with kernel extensions need to be reinstalled. And a warning: Jaguar Printer Sharing is completely incompatible with OS 9 Printer Sharing, in both directions. I was hoping this would be the update to let my home network finally work, but it's not going to happen.
Re:iMicrosoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
iChat = AIM
iTunes=MacAmp or XMMS
Outside of those, the rest of the software is functional enough for toying around and playing as a home user. iPhoto isn't taking any business away from Adobe. iMovie and iDVD are low-end versions of high-end software that Apple already dominates the market in.
The big thing is that, mostly because of the way that the OS works, nothing in any of those programs keeps you from using an alternative solution, and they do nothing to hinder the performance or sabotage operation of other apps. If you don't like iMovie, drag its folder to the Trash.
Also, with the sole exception initial-purchase-consumer-attraction, and Internet Explorer, I can't think of any way that Apple uses its installed base for business reasons. They don't take you to their own ISP for a search engine when your DNS lookup fails. They don't advertise partners and services in iChat's windows. They don't put all sorts of other ads and offers on the screen when you use iTunes. Internet Explorer defaults to Apple's Netscape homepage (ironically enough), and it comes with a default set of saved URLs, but all that's easily changed.
Re:Nice Review (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:iMicrosoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
We've talked about this before. Every company is the sole provider of its own products. This does not make it a monopoly. I can only buy Beetles from Volkswagen. That doesn't mean Volkswagen has a monopoly on Beetles. "Monopoly" isn't a word you'd use in that situation.
Similarly, Apple makes Macs. Nobody else makes Macs. That's because a Mac is a product, not a class of products. If Apple were the only company that made personal computers, they'd have a monopoly on the personal computer market. But that's not the case. So no, Apple doesn't have any kind of a monopoly, over anything.
Re:iMicrosoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps I was wrong and there is one other subtle difference between Apple including free apps with the OS and Microsoft. Appple is not doing it to drive a competitor out of business. Microsoft was threatened by Netscape & by Sun's Java (& the internet in general) with the rumbling of crossplatform compatibility and open standards threatening to make the PC world competitive for other OS's. So they buried Netscape by including a free browser (& making it *part* of the OS) they cut off the cross platform threat of Java by "embracing & extending (& extinguishing) it, so it would no longer be crossplatform.
Apple on the other hand is not threatened by Watson or or Adobe or any of the other developers their iApps compete with. Their motivation is not to create a "good enough" free product to drive a competitor out of business but to create superior products to compete more effectively with that other OS. Inadvertantly it hurts (some) developers they 'compete' with on the mac but that is not their intent - they want as many apps on the mac as possible. And in most cases they are not scaring away developers, for every developer that stays away from the Mac because they dont want to run the risk of competing with a bundled iApp there is probably another developer that come to the mac hoping his little App will be bought by Apple to become that bundled iApp - like SoundJam MP (iTunes) Macromedia FinalCut Pro (iMovie and Apple FinalCut Pro) & all the audio & video developers Apple is buying up right and left.
Re: iMicrosoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
a) most of these programs are stand-alone apps that can be removed without fuss. If you own Photoshop, you can delete iPhoto without breaking anything.
b) integration between the iApps is no more than what Apple allows other programs to do. In fact, I think Apple uses these programs as technology showcases/examples to inspire developers.
Apple's philosophy behind including programs is markedly different than Microsoft's. MS adds programs to the OS in an effort to squeeze out competition, but Apple wants to make its hardware more attractive-sell more units. That's why they include these iApps without integrating them into the OS. You really can take them or leave them.
Re:Smile (Score:4, Insightful)
Also your machine wouldn't look cooler then the imac.
But then not everyone has style
-S
Re:OS 10.2 and Audio Apps (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Unix = modern? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Smile (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to deal with all the incompatibilities that exist between various pieces of hardware and their drivers, then yes, you can build a system on the cheap. If you want to buy something that will Just Work(tm), and will continue to do so for at least 3 or 4 years, Apples are a good deal.
Re:Color me Crazy (Score:2, Insightful)
I just recently got a $3000 PowerBook with MacOS 10.1 and I've never had such a good time with a computer. The hardware is beautiful, the OS is great and the applications are amazing. I have everything I want except a videoconferencing program, and I mean everything. For some reason, MacOS applications seem to be much _better_ than Linux/Windows equivalents. Has anybody seen Proteus for example? Best IM clone I ever saw. I'm not going back, and you can't make me!
Look, I'm sorry for all you poor bastards who can't afford a Mac. If you can't afford a proper meal, you'll have to make do with instant noodles. I'm sure linux is great for third world/low income people, but for the rest of us, Mac rocks!
Re:iMicrosoft? (Score:4, Insightful)
"I know I'm going to get flamed to pieces for this, but isn't the i* software suite just doing what Microsoft did with Windows and Internet Explorer?"
No, it's not the same. The closest to what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer is the *integration* of PDF into the OS.
The iApps are bundling, and can be unbundled. Drag to trash and delete.
IE is integrated and there's no way to remove it *safely* and retain full functionality in Windows XP, for example. Likewise, PDF is integrated into OS X and is used extensively for print preview, render to screen, and save to file.
"If you install your OS and get iChat, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iCal, iSync and whatever i* software they put in next:
a) are you going to look for/know of alternatives?
b) are you going to use them, especially if they won't integrate as well with the OS and other apps as well as Apple's i* series will?
"
You mean,
a) are you going to look for *better* alternatives?
b) are you going to use software that doesn't integrate as nicely with other software?
Firstly it requires that there are better alternatives; there are, and the hard part is finding them.
It's not Apple's perogative to *cripple* it's software so other people can make a profit. Apple does a favor to the user when it releases best of class software like iTunes3, iMovie2, or iDVD2. iPhoto is not yet best of class. Don't forget the users.
As per integration, isn't it the responsibility of the developer? Apple is a developer like anyone else (except they have lots of resources). Right now there are programs that *do* integrate with the iApps, via plugins, but if another developer wants to write a better iTunes and it doesn't integrate with the iPod, with the CD burning software, with Rendevous, or iSync, why is that Apple's fault?
"
Surely the point of taking Microsoft to court for bundling IE and therefore slaying the browser market was not just to get at Microsoft, but to prevent OS vendors from dominating and killing off large sectors of the software market?"
"
The difference being that Microsoft integrated and bundled with the intention of killing of competition while Apple bundles and integrates with the intention of offering better product.
Apple would love it if you created a better iTunes or iPhoto or iDVD for them; it woule remove the responsibility and support costs from their budget! In fact, if you think of it, that's *how* iTunes, iDVD, and iMovie exist; Apple bought 3rd party software, and in the case of iDVD and iMovie, didn't exist on the Mac, and rebundled/released it for the Mac. Same with their purchases of eMagic and Nothing Real; they're going to release Shake, Rayz, and Logic software and technology for the Mac because there's currently nothing there.
"Yes, they're certainly no way near as bad as Microsoft's bundling techniques, but I still worry for the creators of software like XMMS, Winamp, AIM, ICQ, Pixie, MPlayer, and any other software the i* suite replaces, especially those that are commercial enterprises."
In any case, it's their responsibility to remain competitive, no? Apple, unlike Microsoft, has done nothing illegal with it's bundling, and certainly nothing illegal with it's integration of PDF. Acrobat Reader still works, and Apple doesn't prevent (and, in fact, releases with Reader installed on the drive) Reader from being installed or used, doesn't write legal clauses to prevent resellers from installing Reader.
Apple has no qualms with Adobe, with Premiere, with Photoshop, with Illustrator, with Acrobat, with Office, etc. They are all free to code to the Mac and Apple won't *squish* them because they threaten Apple's market. That's all Microsoft's game.
"I wasn't suggesting consumers should have to compile their software, far from it. I like to sometimes, but when there is an RPM available I usually use it - so much simpler and quicker. It would be fairly easy for Apple to start a database much like freshmeat which would serve as an easy starting point for OSX users to find the software they want. An icon on the desktop/dock, a bookmark in all the browsers, perhapos a helpful start page, a mention in the manuals, there are many ways of making it easy to people to find alternatives. "
That exists. Second entry in the Apple Menu. It's also linked at the Apple->OS X tab, quite prominently.
Re:Tired of being told to switch (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Smile (Score:5, Insightful)
1) You're case seems to be in the extreme, just like the horor stories of windows machines that crash every 15 minutes, or on linux users that can even launch netscape wthout creating kernel panics. And of ocurse there's the other end of the spectrum, winodws users who claim never to have had a crash in their life. Linux users whol claim that it was easier to use that windows and mac users who swear up and down that their machines are 100% perfect and never crash. Each of these cases is on the extreme end of computing, and while some of them may be valid (as in your case) they are not the normal user experience.
2) There is something in the mac that keeps you buying. As you said, your first iMac had problems, but implying you have more than one. You speak of beige G3s and B&W G3s, plus you continue to buy the OSes, so there must be something in the mac which you like. And like alot because any PC user buying computers with those problems from Del of Compaq would have stopped long ago. It is for thise reason that people buy macs. Not for just style, but for whatever it is that they see in the mac that makes it worth ignoring a couple lousy hardware setups.
I agree with you in your stance of not wanting to buy OS X.2 quite yet. However, I offer a suggestion. Go to compUSA and buy yourself a copy of X.2. If I recall correctly CompuUSA has a 14 day return policy on software. Take the software home, and try it out. See if it work son your machines. If it doesn't, take it back to CompUSA for your refund, if it does, you could keep it, or take it back and shop for a better deal. Either way, you get to find out whether the system will work properly, and there is little risk involved.
Re:Smile (Score:5, Insightful)
> that if something does not work it is very easy to select the correct drivers.
I don't want to know that stuff anymore
Somewhere in the back of my mind I know my PowerBook G4 has ATI graphics hardware (a RADEON with 16MB I think), and my Power Mac has an NVIDIA GeForce something with at least 32MB. I know this because I read it in the specs when I bought the machines. I was interested at the time only to make sure that each machine would display fast graphics with great quality in full color at the highest native resolution of their displays, and that's what they do. It just works all the time and it's one less thing to be responsible for. I use multiple computers now, with all kinds of other hardware
> I have built quite a few PC's that Just Work as soon as I install an OS
Look, you don't understand the "Just Work(TM)" thing. When I got my latest Mac -- a PowerBook G4 -- I took it out of the box, hit the power button (battery already had a 2/3 charge), it asked me what I wanted to name the computer, what I wanted to name my account, what I wanted my password to be, and then I was at my desktop. There's an AirPort (Wi-Fi) menu at the top right of the display, which I used to tell the PowerBook the name and password of my wireless LAN (it would have found the Wi-Fi network automatically and just asked me the password if the base station was set to advertise itself like most do). That's about five minutes, tops, and I'm already on the Internet using IE, Flash, QuickTime, iTunes, Mail, etc. The QuickTime subsystem is already there, with its knowledge of every audio and video and media file format I've ever run into, there is a huge collection of high-quality fonts, Apache is ready to be turned on with a click of a button, Java2 is there, UNIX tools, and on and on.
Here's a good example of Just Works: Mac OS X applications are single icons that can be stored anywhere in the file system that you have permissions to place things. You don't have to "install" them, you can move them, you can rename them, and they still work. You can drag them from your desktop to your notebook and they still work. You can put 3,000 other applications on your system and that first one will still work, because even though there are facilities to share libraries, the app still carries the ones it came with within itself as (at minimum) a backup, if it can't find any newer libraries in the shared spots. Until you have used a Mac day-to-day-to-day, you don't realize how much time and trouble a thing like that can save you. It is also nice to put things where you want them on your own system.
From a non-geek perspective (someone who doesn't know all the excuses that programmers make when things fail), dragging the IE 5 application from a Windows desktop to a Windows notebook that only has IE 4 should be all you have to do to run IE 5 on the notebook. What is it about transporting IE 5 across my own local network that broke it? Yeah, I know that "IE 5 for Windows" is really 1,000 various files all over the place on a Windows machine, but there is no excuse for that. On the Mac, IE 5 is a single icon. Why would I want to manage or even look at more than one icon for "IE 5"? Ugh. That's why there is a "Mac faithful"
Re:Smile (Score:2, Insightful)
The first thing I do when I install a fresh OS (be it Linux, Windows, OS X, Solaris, BSD, or Irix...) is minimize the 'extras' that the system so likes to install. Cut out the extensions, turn off buggy features like Indexing and Sleep, kill off the half-dozen printers that are installed, and allocate the appropriate amounts of memory to my primary apps. (just mentioning the Mac-steps here!) I've had my Macs start crashing with just a basic system install, but naturally I don't so much blame the Mac OS as I blame the *software*-- "professional" software like Photoshop, MSIE, Office, 3d Applications... No Adware allowed. The problem is that the SYSTEM cannot recover from the crash and I have to reboot. Things crash under WinXP, but I only need to reboot perhaps once a month, if that. (This is not an exaggeration.)
I've got my hopes up for Jaguar, too. If it's really worth the money, I'll spend... I've just got my doubts after the past few releases.. So far my favorite release has been Rhapsody.
-Sara