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OS X Businesses Operating Systems Apple

Mac OS X Reaches First Birthday 107

Posted by pudge from the and-i-forgot-a-present dept.
hotsauce writes "Mac OS X is one year old, and the Washington Post has a good summary. What do people think now that we're at the promised '12 o'clock'? What's in the year ahead?" I dunno what's in the year ahead, but as for today, I got a new TiBook and had a kernel panic while watching the This Is Spinal Tap Special Edition DVD.
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Mac OS X Reaches First Birthday More

Mac OS X Reaches First Birthday

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  • I was running Rhapsody DR2 on Intel hardware in '98... It was a lot like MacOS X Server: Classic GUI mated to OpenStep 3.x+. OS X Server was around in '99. No Quartz, and incomplete Carbon API, but heck!

    <RANT>
    I know I'm just an old whiner, and not part of the hip new Linux scene that never touched sed or awk, but I still think of OS X as OpenStep 5.0. This is the perspective that goes along with Solaris 7 = Solaris 3.0 and Win XP = NT 5.1.
    </RANT>
    • I know I'm a young whippersnapper, not part of the Bad Old Days(tm) when you had to route your own packets (or at least emails) by hand, but I think it would be foolish to say that OS X is not OpenStep 5.0. I mean, the Cocoa API calls all start with NS for a reason :)

      And while we're renaming versions, can we call rename Windows 98 Second Edition to Windows 99? Since I prefer Perl to sed and awk, I guess that I would change Windows 2000 to Windows 19100.
    • ...and I just re-ran A/UX on an old Quadra and it was just like a System 7.1. Strangely, it's just like a 68k version of Mac OS X Server too. Pity they didn't rewrite that for PowerPC - Imagine where they would be today.

  • Hey nice looks :) (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by skunkeh ( 410004 )
    When did Slashdot's OS X section get that lovely makeover? Very nice (subtle as well) - makes a change from the slightly drab standard header graphic at any rate :)

  • Extension Hell (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @06:49PM (#3225206) Homepage Journal
    Apple also has users worried about OS X's reliance on file-name extensions (.doc, .rtf, .gif and so on) to identify file types.
    Now that's just plain sad. I've never been a big fan of the Mac, but there's no denything that the way MacOS avoids using extensions to identify files is a Good Idea. The whole concept of extensions is out of date, and leads to no end of problems. I can't believe Apple spent all that time working on OS X and managed to overlook such a basic feature.

    • Re:Extension Hell (Score:3, Interesting)

      by StorminNorman ( 83059 )
      I've spoken to an Apple employee about this, and apparently the problem with file extentions is due to a Mexican standoff between the NeXT developers in apple (pro file extentions) and the Mac OS developers (anti file extentions).

      Unfortunately, it seems the NeXT guys are winning, while Mac OS X usability suffers as a result (file extentions are the one major thing that annoys me about Mac OS X).

      Other than this stupid design flaw, Mac OS X has been great for me ever since I installed Mac OS 10.1 on my iBook (Dual USB) last year.
    • You should use file extensions because how the heck else is my computer supposed to know how to view this file I just downloaded from you ftp server?
    • you know the file(1) command (and the and its magic(5) file) that any decent UNIX comes with? OS X also comes with it BTW. What gets me is why if there is such a powerful program/database, why they didn't just use it.

      If you dl a file-type that it doesn't know about, you tell it ONCE. I've not had a need to yet though, it knows a lot more than I :-) No need for extensions, and no need to embed this information with the file itself.

      BTW the licence sez: Copyrighted but distributable; and it may not know about things like Disk-Images (it claims OmniGraffle-2.0-beta-v9.dmg: is a VAX COFF executable - version 3081, for instance).

      If Apple had a problem with using it as a basis in the core Finder, they could create something very similar... it's not THAT hard, geez.

      Nwanua
    • Extension Hell is when you receive a file from a Mac user and have no idea what format it is in. A good Mac user would let me know what it is in before they send it OR give it an extension.

      I think extensions are a good thing, like proper naming convetions in programming. You don't HAVE to put a "b" or "bln" or whatever in front of the variable (ie, "blnMyVar") when you name it, but it sure is handy when another person comes a long and has to read your code. The same applies for file extensions. Who wants to look at a folder full of names with no extensions and have no idea what format they are in? Surely *nix and Windows users have had problems like this reading from Mac accessed shares? I know I have.
      • So making everybody else compatible with Windows is all that matters? That does address the fact that extensions are a very bad way to manage file types. It too easy for naive users to screw them up. There are too many conflicting claims for some extensions -- even for different Microsoft products! There's no fallback when a extension points to the wrong app.

        Even when it's pretty clear what the extension means, there are still problems. It's a text file, but is it Windows, Unix, or Mac? .DOC probably means MS Word (native format -- there are at least two others) but what version?

        The whole idea is just not expressive enough. It's an out of date concept that MS-DOS copied from CP/M (20 years ago!) which copied it from mainframe OSs where nobody had more than a dozen or so file formats.

        Now that I understand how it works, I'm inclined to think that OS X's approach is probably the best -- add compatibility with Windows extensions, but continue to use MacOS file typing. But this doesn't change the fact that extensions are a painfully old-fashioned way to track file types.

        • > So making everybody else compatible with Windows is all that matters?

          No, but do you think each OS using it's own built in file association format is any better? If Windows switched to internal file associations, do you think Mac would be able to read it or vice versa? At least with a file extension I can visually see what it was probably intended to open in. If it's inside the file, I have no idea, and if I'm using a different platform than it was created on I might be screwed.

          In other words, I create a file on Mac in Word and it puts its built in file association. I receive it on a future version of Windows or KDE box that supports built-in file associations, but not "Macintosh" built-in file associations. Each only understands its own.

          How is this any different than the problem with Word Perfect not reading StarOffice not reading not reading Microsoft Office documents? Sure, you could save it in RTF, but nobody follows the standard (they seem to always save it in a native format), which is where the problem comes to play with built in file associations. Everybody wants their own format. Granted, there is the distinction here between users following a standard and the major OS companies, but they are often times no better.
  • I seem to remember reading last fall that OSX 10.2 would be released at around the one year anniversary. So, now that the time has arrived, do we have any idea how soon such a release will be available, and what it will include?

    In my [pipe] dreams, I imagine that it'll bring Aqua the speed & usability enhancements that it sorely needs (OSX is a huge step forward architecturally from OS9, but it's a huge step backwards in terms of interface usability & refinement...). In reality, I'd be happy with incremental improvements like a fixed/updated Perl, better Samba support, and a Finder that was just a bit less glacial. Good thing I'm comfortable with the command line -- I feel bad with anyone stuck with having to solely use the Aqua Finder... :/

    Anything else on people's wishlists for 10.2?

    • Re:10.2 imminent? (Score:3, Informative)

      by rehannan ( 98364 )
      Well, according to some of the Mac rumor sites, 10.2 will be released at MacWorld New York (July 16).
    • Anything else on people's wishlists for 10.2?

      These are the things I want:
      -- KDE in XDarwin (Not-Apple related)
      -- The ability to browse windows shares
      -- Better support for CDRs (They can hold more than 660mb, apple!)
      -- IPSec
      -- The ability to build XNU (OSX's kernel) with the tools on the developer CD
      • The ability to browse windows shares

        You already can - choose Connect to Server from one of the menus in the Finder (not sure which menu it is, my OS X box is currently out of commission), and then put in the server URL as smb://server.
        • This is true up till Win2K. I can't browse my 2K box from my OS X box. I can browse my sister's 98 box just fine.

          Oh, from the finder, type command-K and you'll get the connect box.
          • his is true up till Win2K. I can't browse my 2K box from my OS X box.

            Then something's wrong with your system. I've never had a problem connecting to Win2k shares from an OS X box.
            • Oh, connecting to smb://myname@myserver/myshare works. I just can't BROWSE my shares. I can't see what's available. I can do it with SMBrowse, but not with the base system.
          • He didn't say he couldn't connect to his Win2K box, he said he couldn't browse to his Win2K box (a la Windows Network Neighborhood). In most cases I think browsing to a machine on the network is a pain-in-the-ass thing to do, but he's right, you can't currently browse SMB networks in OS X, you have to know the machine name in advance.
        • No, connecting to a share is not the same as browsing all available shares on the LAN. Currently I use Sharity [google.com] -- look at a screenshot [obdev.at] and you'll see the difference.
      • "The ability to browse windows shares"

        It's not quite as elegant as a Finder-based solution, but you might find SMB Browse [shukwit.com] useful while waiting for 10.2. It's currently at version 0.8 [shukwit.com].

        I haven't had any major issues with it so far. Hope you find it useful.

        (And yes, I did post this [slashdot.org] in another thread; just trying to be helpful.)
      • The ability to build XNU (OSX's kernel) with the tools on the developer CD

        Have you checked out Building the XNU on Mac OS X 10.1.1 f(for mortals) [apple.com] With that pointed out... Apple should make the different parts of darwnin easier to check out (find the latest working code... Apple-201-5 is the xnu for 10.1.1 make sence to you?)... oh and it would be nice to have the cvs reflect the current state of xnu development... instead of being a week or two behind private workings at apple.

    • I'd place my money on WWDC (in May I believe).
    • Anything else on people's wishlists for 10.2?

      One thing I've heard rumors of and would REALLY like to see is a better printer subsystem. I was wondering why I couldn't print to my USB printer that's connected to my other Mac via OS X. Today, I read an article [macvillage.net] about how the printer drivers are currently responsible for the connection method as well.

      I dunno how true that is, but it is consistent with what I've heard about the limitations. It would be nice to see printer drivers only being responsible for preparing the data for the printer, and let the OS determine where to send it. Would make sense for the future, especially if we start to see things such as wireless/bluetooth printers, etc. No need to wait an eternity for the manufacturer to create new drivers only for the connection method, if the printer is essentially the same as another. Same driver, different connection. :)

      Just my $0.02. :)

      -Alex

  • 1 year, 0 crashes. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Snuffub ( 173401 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @07:13PM (#3225333) Homepage
    I dont pretend my experience is typical but since day one when i installed os X (actually a couple weeks prior to day 1... dont worry i then paid for it when it went on sale) I have had a grand total of 0 kernel panics on my beautiful little iMac(400MHz)

    that is quite an achievement for apple.

    The first beta releases of os x happily coincided with my growing interest in programming. and it was this fortuitous timing that saved me from switching over to linux (which i now use on a server) for me OS X is 100% perfect even with it's little quirks it's the perfect combination of digital media/ office production goodness mixed with an oh so tastey command line interface. i would still be satisfied with this OS if apple froze development and never released another version (well maybe 10.2 would be nice)

    So to end this random blabering i say kudo's to apple keep up the good work.

    • I've had my IceBook for almost a year now, and I saw my first kernel panic a couple of days ago, when I upgraded my Wacom tablet driver. What a shock! I'd forgotten what thos things looked like!

      I've found some niggling inconsistencies and minor bugs, but honestly, it just works(tm). It's so much better than any product to ever come out of Microsoft that there's no comparison. And the dev tools are free! And I mean a real set of professional GUI tools, better than Visual Studio. Developers should factor those costs into their comparisons when pricing Macs.
    • I'm suprised with the reliabilty. My current uptime on my home machine is 88 days (I'm running 10.1.2 and I'm waiting to hit 100 days before I update the OS). 88 is impressive because I treat this thing like shit... install shareware apps, run a shitload of programs, force quit stuff, experiment with different command line tools... all without a crash, hangup, or a restart.

      I have had two crashes (I suppose I should call them kernel panics now). Once on this machine when I first installed X (about a year ago) and once on a machine at work that I was messing around with. Other than that, my experience has been rock solid.
      • I have had two crashes (I suppose I should call them kernel panics now). Once on this machine when I first installed X (about a year ago) and once on a machine at work that I was messing around with. Other than that, my experience has been rock solid.

        Not necessarily :)

        You should only call it a kernel panic, if it was in fact a kernel panic... if you're not sure if it was a kernel panic... then it wasn't :)

        They're very memorable ;)

        But also very very rare...

        A kernel panic says "kernel panic" in white text, on black lines, which is superimposed over your gui...

        could be quite scary to a new user :)

        the entire machine is then dead... waiting for remote debugger connection ;)
    • OS X is good in the stability department. I run a dual-boot OS9 (HFS+)/OSX(UFS) system (a late-2001 iBook).

      It's never crashed unrecoverably, excpet when starting up with the composit video out cable attached, it panics every time.

      Some other things it's done: after a failed burn, it refused to eject the coaster, a simple
      # kill -HUP `ps ax | grep automount | grep -v grep | cut -c 1-5`

      in the terminal fixed that.

      There's also been some weird issues with the system not logging out. Again, drop to the terminal, and "# reboot" it.
  • you got a kernel panic cos its only OS X

    Nigel Tufnel gets upset if he has to play on equipment that doesn't go up to eleven.
  • Pudge: were you running OS9 under OSX? Our chief graphic artist is frequently rebooting OS X because AOL AIM, Netscape 4.x Mail, or someother program (probably XXX DVDs, but he won't own up to it).

    I haven't had a kp since I got my TIG4 55, but I don't use OS9.

    Oh, I tested DVD playing with Willy Wonka (Wilder) and CD-R backing up my mod_perl and Perl/CGI source code. No problems.

    • A designer not knowing how to maintain his Mac is like a painter not knowing how to clean a brush. Like a musician not knowing how to tune.

      I say your problem is the designer, not the mac. Artists take the time to know the techniques and tools of their medium. A lot of designers using computers don't care to learn about their tools. That is one distinction between artists and wankers.
  • I got my OS X CD in the mail that morning and totally eliminated OS 9 from my machine. That lasted for about 96 hours, when I reformatted the hard drive with partitions for OS 9, OS X, and Documents and other files.

    When OS X 10.1 was released, OS X became my primary operating system. As Office v.X and Golive 6 were released, I have found myself starting Classic only to use Photoshop and a 15 year old machine language emulator I need for my computer science class. I have to boot into OS 9 only to sync my Palm m500 with AvantGo.

    Once Photoshop 7 is released for OS X and I finish my version of the SC Emulator (which will be open sourced after I get credit for it), I won't have to use Classic at all. And once AvantGo gets off its ass with a version of their conduit for OS X, OS 9 is history!

    In that time, I also got dumped by my fiancee and proceeded to get a hot girlfriend who happens to be a complete geek and helps me debug my C++ code in her spare time. Looks like almost everything is looking up!
  • I've never seen one. Is there a way I cause one?
    • I managed to get a panic when I accidentally disconnected a file-shared laptop from my G4 - you get printed code over the top of the finder, and a cool repeated pinging sound starts up. OS X rocks - hardly ever goes down, and when it does, it turns into a brilliant machine that goes "ping".....wow.....
    • 1) Activate the Root Account Using "NetInfo Manager". See here [macosxhints.com] for details.
      2) Login as your admin account, open the terminal app located the utilities folder. 3) On the command line, type: su root Enter the root password you defined earlier. 4) Now type: chown normalUsername * 5) Watch the fireworks. You'll have to do a hard reboot; nothing will be damaged in your system. Open files will be lost. *Yeah, I did this one without thinking. It's the prettiest error I've ever seen. Text will print right over your GUI and lock you up. :)
      • Well, thats a bug, isnt it?

        Why am i not allowed to change the owner of system files? Ok maybe its not a smart idea, but i am a Unix sysadmin, i dont need anyone to think for me....

        Martin
        • I _wish_ the original poster was right. There is no bug in chown. Where there is a bug (which does not kernel panic)...

          Say you have a user (pgsql) whose home directory was set to / by whatever stupid installation program. Well, in the Users control panel, you wanna get rid of him. You haven't noticed that his home is /, of course. MacOS X decides to be all nice and say "We're going to change the ownership of all the files in his directory to the main Administrator of the machine" (not root - the main user account with sudo privs). All good and all, until the go chown -R $HOME, or chown -R / and suddenly all your setuid programs don't work...

          Believe me, that's no fun. sync, hard reboot (no rights to shutdown), find -xtype, etc.

          Dan
    • MacOS X Kernel Panic [mac.com].

      What this guy did, he used Virtual PC with Windows XP. He let the registration period run out on XP, so it said that he had to either register or shut down (I think, I don't own XP). So he clicked shutdown, and it caused a kernel panic.

  • The year ahead. (Score:3, Funny)

    by saintlupus ( 227599 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @10:28PM (#3226263)
    What's in the year ahead?

    Twelve more months of Taco bitching about the single mouse button.

    Oh, and hopefully some rackmountable Apple gear so I can run a server with a little style. I've been hearing rumors from inside the Compound itself...

    --saint
    • Oh, and hopefully some rackmountable Apple gear so I can run a server with a little style. I've been hearing rumors from inside the Compound itself...

      Like these [terrasoftsolutions.com]?

      They look cool, a dual G4 rack! :)
    • Twelve more months of Taco bitching about the single mouse button.

      The days of bitching about that may be numbered. The rumors circulating on some of the more reputable Mac rumor sites is that Apple is about to unveil a wireless, multi-button mouse which will shortly become the standard-issue.

      As a long time Mac user and someone who has also used Windows, I can't see what the big deal is other than pandering to the 95% of the computing world that can't live without that crutch. A second button doesn't affect my productivity one bit on Windows or the Mac OS. As far as I can tell, the second button is more of a bad design decision than anything else that opens the floodgates for bad interface design ('hey, I finally found the "preferences" dialog by right-clicking exactly in the right place!') However, I hope Apple does as usual and manages to release a multi-button mouse that somehow one-ups or redefines the current concepts about multi-button mouses out there.

      --Rick

  • Didn't it come out in 1988? And I seem to remember it be resolution-independent back then, but it has now been brain-damaged, like all the other popular OSes (including Linux), a real shame...

  • Happy Birthday OSX (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nwanua ( 70972 )
    Nothing too important here, just putting my thoughts into bytes:

    Last April, I was absolutely thrilled that I could finally use a mac which didn't crash when I moved the mouse too fast.

    Initially I was upset that the look of OSX departed from NEXTSTEP, but as the year wore on, I've grown to really love it. There are three things I most like about OSX (apart from the BSD thingie :->

    1. no need to have icons on the desktop (ick!)
    2. Mail.app
    3. and the browser-finder (cruising around my HDD in OS9 is *such* a regression that for that reason alone I avoid going into it). Heck when an app sez it needs classic, I decide I don't need that app.

    People always knock OSX for its lack of drivers and applications... as if it's Apple's responsibility to write drivers for HPs printers. Granted, the lack of drivers hampers adoption and user happiness, but it's a sort of chicken-and-egg question. From the looks of things new drivers are coming on board... YMMV.

    Here's to many more years of OSX... it brought me back from my 8-year hiatus from Apple, and equipped with a TiBook, I don't want to ever leave again :-)

    Nwanua

  • Mac and XP (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have been happily awaiting Os X development and have held out buying apple products. I even recently bought a new Windows box (1.6 ghz 640mb DDR-Ram, etc.) But, I visited Comp USA today and looked at the new flat Imac and the 22" Cinema Screen dual 1 ghz g4, and I can definitely say that I will be an apple buyer in the near future.

    OS X is now just as fast as my Windows XP (and that's FAST), and the Aqua user interface is light years ahead of XP. It is clear why Apple is a true innovator in this industry, and I tell you, Microsoft, you had better watch out. Apple is going to be the next big thing, again.

  • Check out today's Joy Of Tech [joyoftech.com], which celebrates this event.

  • What did you expect? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Lars T. ( 470328 ) <Lars.TraegerNO@SPAMgooglemail.com> on Tuesday March 26, 2002 @08:13AM (#3227558) Journal
    and had a kernel panic while watching the This Is Spinal Tap Special Edition DVD.

    What did you expect? This is Mac OS Ten, it doesn't go to eleven yet ;-)

  • Stability (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by SIGFPE ( 97527 )
    I was hoping that one year on they would have sorted out the stability issues. I have used many Unices in my life: Irix, SunOS, NeXT, Linux, *BSD but MacOS X is probably the least reliable (apart from Irix on the O2 in its later years). To still be in this position after a year is a little shameful. I have certainly had major problems while watching DVDs (major DVD slowdowns and loss of audio, failure to detect a DVD, inability to play some DVDs and inability to eject DVDs (requiring a reboot!)) among other things. What's particularly shameful is that it's less reliable than Windows 2000 which is the OS I chose to reject in favour of MacOS X.


    I still love my PowerBook but it really is painful each time I have a kernel panic or it 'goes away' never to respond until I reboot.

    • Re:Stability (Score:2, Insightful)

      by shawnce ( 146129 )
      So far my experience is vastly different on several different systems... I have had nothing but solid stability from my desktop systems, TiBook, and iBook.

      So what PowerBook do you have and what version of Mac OS X are you using? Did you update to the latest DVD player?
      • G4 PowerBook 550MHz. Latest OS, latest DVD player. I did some research on the web: the problem of having to reboot to eject a disk seems to be a standard problem. Some disks (including DVDs, CD-Rs and CDs) seem to slip by without the OS noticing. And if the OS doesn't notice they exist then there's nothing you can do to eject it.


        One DVD I can't play at all is Gladiator. Plays fine on my PS2 and it looks free of scratches (it's hardly used). I have another DVD whose menu looks corrupted. It took several attempts to get it to recognise "The Dish". I was watching "Brainstorm" the other day. I stopped it and restarted it and the video stuttered badly and the audio had gone. I hat to quit and restart the player. I have a lot of trouble with CD-Rs not being recognised although I've had no hassle with CD-RWs (probably just chance).


        And several times the Finder has just 'gone away' and killing it didn't seem to do anything.


        Still - I've had no problems for the last week apart from the "Brainstorm" one.


        I love MacOS X - but like the real thing it's not a painless relationship!

    • I was hoping that one year on they would have sorted out the stability issues. I have used many Unices in my life: Irix, SunOS, NeXT, Linux, *BSD but MacOS X is probably the least reliable (apart from Irix on the O2 in its later years). To still be in this position after a year is a little shameful. I have certainly had major problems while watching DVDs (major DVD slowdowns and loss of audio, failure to detect a DVD, inability to play some DVDs and inability to eject DVDs

      Oh? You've had better luck playing DVDs on Irix, SunOS, and NeXT?

  • have a Blue and White G3, running at 333 Mhz. I love it. On the two hard drives on this machine I have OS X, SuSE 7.3, Mandrake (cooker), and Darwin installed on it.

    The rundown:

    OS X is lovely, but slow slow slow. Even upgraded to 10.1.2 it is still just too damn slow to use. Aside from that, I love the interface and the tools.

    Darwin is just too close to BSD. I like to have good configuration tools (aside from vi). Very little documentation, and too much of a learning curve for someone who has more important things to do than configure and administer a BSD box. I admit that I haven't played with it much.

    Mandrake is a bit rough around the edges (it is the cooker version, after all). It had the best install of any Linux distribution that I've ever used. I just love the bootloader that it installed. It is a two stage wonder program that lets me pick any operating system that I want.

    SuSE 7.3 is a joy to work with. It is responsive, has great configuration tools, has almost every application that I could want, and is just fun to use. I had two problems with it. I can't adjust gamma with XFree 4.x (which is an XFree problem), and it can't run the built in firewire (well it can, but only in raw mode which doesn't do me any good). I solved the firewire problem by buying a cheapo pci firewire card, and it is up and running.

    If I had a state of the art Mac I would run OS X in a heartbeat. On my G3, I prefer SuSE 7.3.
  • Since they stop putting easter eggs in the software, apple has become serious cutting out all the fun and games. As a result any dvd not labled as a "Drama" "Action/Thriller" or "Mystery" will cause the machine to panic... took me 3 reboots just to make it half way through holy grail :) (j/k... I've never actually /had/ to reboot my os X box, I just boot into linux sometimes to remind myself that I like the way applications actually work together on a stable operating system, instead of no standard ui api in the range of standard unix applications)

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