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Microsoft Businesses Apple

Windows Journalist Takes On Tiger 702

Posted by Zonk from the you-can-have-more-than-one-OS-in-the-house dept.
BRSQUIRRL writes "Paul Thurrott has posted a review of Mac OS X 'Tiger' on his SuperSite for Windows. He gives it a score of 4 out of 5. Interesting to get a Microsoft Windows journalist's take on Tiger, especially one as hardcore as Thurrott. In the article, he actually confesses that he has 'been a Mac fan [his] entire life.' Interesting, considering some of his criticism of Apple's work in the past."
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Windows Journalist Takes On Tiger More

Windows Journalist Takes On Tiger

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  • Apple fans are like Cubs fans. Everyone is routing for them at one point, and pretty much hates them the rest of the time.

    • Re:everyone is an apple fan at some point. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RailGunner ( 554645 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:41AM (#12244801) Journal
      Absoultely. From the summary: Interesting, considering some of his criticism of Apple's work in the past."

      An example as proof - I am a huge fan of the Detroit Tigers - and you should have heard me bitch when they traded half the team away for one season of Juan Gonzales (who mailed in his performance when he wasn't milking a debilitating pinky injury), when they hired Phil Garner to manage (ugh), when they fired Sparky Anderson, etc.

      Still, I wanted (and want) the Tigers to succeed. This guy is probably no different - he wants Apple to succeed, he just critizes what he believes are dumb things.

      Just because you are a fan of a team, company, or some other entity does not mean you should blindly overlook their faults.

    • love the computer/OS, hate the company. (Score:5, Informative)

      by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:51AM (#12244940)
      Apple fans are like Cubs fans. Everyone is routing for them at one point, and pretty much hates them the rest of the time.

      Meh. I don't think this is the greatest analogy.

      The best way to summarize my attitude about Apple (as an owner of almost 8 Macs now, starting with the LC) is "love the product, hate the company". Namely, service and support- which are the worst in the industry, and always have been. They're advanced machines, a great operating system. The company itself though, clearly does not subscribe to the "don't be evil" philosophy Google's PR department has been expousing.

      My PB 1400 kept crashing while sleeping. I sent it in for repair to TEXAS, the only place you can get it repaired. Each time it came back, the HD was wiped, and on the second trip, they broke the 3rd party ethernet card's jack. On my third attempt to get it serviced, the Apple "customer relations" agent who was supposed to hear out my side of the story...started screaming at me.

      My Powerbook Lombard had a screen clutch fail. Like many other Lombards, this causes the video screen cable to get chewed up. Before this, a thick white line suddenly appeared down one side. Apple wouldn't fix any of it.

      My Powerbook 17" makes crackling and squealing noises with CPU activity. The hinges loosened up during the warranty period, and when I went into the apple store, the guy said "oh, well, ours in the store does it too." How does a retail demo unit's condition become acceptable...wait a sec, how does "ours fails the same way" suddenly not make it "normal" and not covered by warranty? Then I found out the little power plug on the A/C adapter, called a "duckbill", isn't covered by Apple. "We don't cover that part." "My warranty covers everything. It doesn't say, 'does not cover the power adapter'." "We DO NOT cover THAT PART. They break a lot." "On a three grand laptop you're going to tell me a $10 part isn't covered because it wasn't designed properly and breaks?" Then there was getting the little rubber feet replaced(those are covered, yay!)- I spent 20 minutes waiting for the guy to finish doing PAPERWORK to replace $2 in parts, and I had to initial and sign 5 different "invoices" and statements that I had -actually- received the service in question.

      I had a friend who couldn't return her powerbook after 12 days because, despite clear proof on the Apple Store homepage, the customer service reps claimed shipping time was included in the 14 day evaluation period. Slimy. Needlessly so. Guess what? She hates Apple with a passion now, and tells everyone who will listen about how they're a bunch of crooks and liars. She's right.

      • Re:love the computer/OS, hate the company. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Michalson ( 638911 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:16AM (#12245245)
        I had a friend who couldn't return her powerbook after 12 days because, despite clear proof on the Apple Store homepage, the customer service reps claimed shipping time was included in the 14 day evaluation period. Slimy. Needlessly so. Guess what? She hates Apple with a passion now, and tells everyone who will listen about how they're a bunch of crooks and liars. She's right. The dealers are on your side with this. The most recent class action lawsuit against Apple by its official dealers includes the "warrenty starts as soon as it leaves Apple" crap, which has made many dealers look bad and lose customers (if it takes 10 days to get to the store, and another 20 days for it to sell, that's 30 days off the advertised warrenty period)

      • Re:love the computer/OS, hate the company. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Queer Boy ( 451309 ) * <dragon,76&mac,com> on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:29AM (#12245391)
        I've worked in retail for 9 years and I can tell you how to get what you want. You go into a store, you tell them what happened, you tell them what they are going to do about it (be semi-reasonable). You do not ask them to do anything, you do not assume they are going to be helpful. No need to be angry or have an attitude, you just take the upper hand. If they tell you after they are done with paperwork, you inform them they will do the paperwork after they help you.

        This always works.

        The ATI card on my Dual 2GHz G5 failed. It was 4 months after I bought it. I knew it was the card because the AGP card from my Cube worked. I took my G5 to Apple, I told them the video card was bad and they needed to replace it. That's what they did. No charge.

      • Re:love the computer/OS, hate the company. (Score:5, Informative)

        by killjoe ( 766577 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:37AM (#12245493)
        That's odd, as new Apple customer my experience has been so much different. When my powebook 15 got the now famous white spots on the screen I called apple. They sent me a box with pre-paid shipping, I put the laptop in the box and put it in the mail. I got it back faster then I thought and with a brand new screen.

        Also when my wife accidentally turned off the UPS for my powermac it would not come back on. I called applecare and some guy walked me through resetting the motherboard.

        My two experiences with Apple in the last two years have been great. Maybe they turned over a new leaf.
      • [quote]
        My Powerbook 17" makes crackling and squealing noises with CPU activity.
        [quote]

        This is the cpu going into/out of rapid sleep cycles in order to conserve power and stay cool. Annoying as heck sometimes.

        You can solve it by installing the CHUD tools from the developer area [apple.com] on the Apple site.

        CHUD installs a new preference pane called "CPU" under system preferences. Open that up, and UNcheck the button marked "nap". Instance silence! Of course, your fan will come on more often --and stay o

      • Re:love the computer/OS, hate the company. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by cyngus ( 753668 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @12:21PM (#12246085)
        I have to completely disagree with you. I had a PowerBook G3 (Lombard) that I slipped down the steps and broke the screen on. I called Apple, they overnighed me a box, shipped it to Texas. It was in Texas for less than 24 hours, was overnighted back to me. A couple of days later the screen quit working, no video displayed. I called Apple, no questions asked a box arrived the next day. The PowerBook spent just over 24 hours in Texas and was in my hot little hands the next day. Optimally the screen wouldn't have malfunctioned after the first replacement. However, I was able to get my computer back in perfect condition in less than a week.

        Contrast this to my friend's Dell repair experience. She bought a top-of-the-line laptop. A couple of months later the motherboard went wonk out, of course that was only determined after three trips to service where the replaced the video card, then the hard drive, and then the processor. When they finally determined it was the motherboard they decided to replace her whole machine. They replaced the machine with a refurb! She was furious, she didn't pay for a machine someone else had used, she payed for a new one. After much wrangling Dell gave her a new machine. So, whereas my support experience with Apple took less than a week and everything went smoothly, hers took two months and her computer was barely useable most of that time.

      • Re:love the computer/OS, hate the company. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rsborg ( 111459 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @12:28PM (#12246179) Homepage
        The best way to summarize my attitude about Apple (as an owner of almost 8 Macs now, starting with the LC) is "love the product, hate the company". Namely, service and support- which are the worst in the industry, and always have been.

        That's funny, they must have paid off [consumerreports.org] ConsumerReports [consumerreports.org] then. Note: the links require subscription, I can't find articles that are free-reg.

        Here's a summary of what the articles say:

        For Desktops (3/05):

        "Quick Picks For reliability and support: 12 Apple (built-in 17-inch LCD display) $1,675 Apple provides top-notch reliability and support. Its computers are currently less vulnerable to viruses and spyware than Windows-based models. On the downside, however, the Apple has limited internal expandability. If you add an extra hard drive, it must be an external one."
        For laptops 3/05:
        "For reliability and support: 18 Apple $1,300 Apple has been a reliable brand and has the best record for tech support."
        Dude, I'm not denying your experience, but sadly that is probably better than par-for-the-course in the industry. My sister had issues with her iBook (her long fingernails scrached off the lettering on the keyboard) which AppleCare refused to fix... but would she switch to another laptop? Doubtful.

    • Re:everyone is an apple fan at some point. (Score:5, Funny)

      by gludington ( 101178 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:43AM (#12245584)
      Everyone is routing for them at one point, and pretty much hates them the rest of the time.
      Oh c'mon -- AppleTalk wasn't that chatty...

  • Well ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by SengirV ( 203400 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:19AM (#12244555)
    You always hurt the ones you love =)

  • Bull! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by avalys ( 221114 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:20AM (#12244559)
    "Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger includes, in my opinion, only two major new features, Spotlight and Dashboard, and both were clearly influenced by other existing products and services"

    Bullshit! What about Automator? What about Core Image/Core Data? What about VoiceOver?

    • Re:Bull! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by d_p ( 63654 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:27AM (#12244651)
      Don't get to worked up. This guy is the biggest hack out there. He wouldn't know an API from a hole in the ground.

    • Re:Bull! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jest3r ( 458429 )
      I am using 10.3.8 on my Mac Mini and 12" Powerbook ... but I agree that once you look past the marketing hype Tiger really only offers a couple of new major features (features that you can touch and feel right away I suppose).

      Sure there are numerous enhancements under the hood - CoreImage being the biggest IMO, however, are these going to make a huge differece in my day to day operations the day I install?

      One can hope that Tiger will offer a feature that has been part of all other OSX releases but never h

      • Re:Bull! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by mekkab ( 133181 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:55AM (#12244982) Homepage Journal
        automater looks like alot of work.

        Hardly!
        Have you seen the QT movie on apple's website? It looks like a dream!

        I've cobbled together some applscript in the past starting from zero, and in under an hour I got a non-trivial script working.

        Automater looks like it would take about a minute.

        I'll let you know how it goes when I get my mac mini (I was waiting for Tiger), but this looks like perl, except its easy.

      • Re:Bull! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dry_cough ( 723391 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:12AM (#12245184)
        I used to think the same thing. When I moved from Jaguar (10.2.x) to Panther (10.3.x), there were those few major enhancements that I noticed right away. And then I continued to work with Panther. Nothing really grabbed me as a big change from Jaguar.

        Then I was forced to use a Jaguar system after months of using Panther. Almost instantly I realized all the little things that make Panther a much better system than Jaguar. None of them notable enough to grab a editorial headline, but the sum of them are substantial. I suspect the same will be true of the Tiger update.

    • Re:Bull! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 )
      "What about Automator?"

      Most users probably won't use it. It's not like Mac OS didn't have AppleScript before.

      "What about Core Image/Core Data?"

      Users won't see these features. Particularly Core Image, which offers few advantages for users with iBooks, eMacs, Mac Minis, or most older Apple products. Core Data is developer focused.

      "What about VoiceOver?"

      Nice, but it will have limited appeal to most users.

      Compare Tiger to Panther:

      Panther:
      - Expose
      - Massively improved finder
      - Safari
      - iChat AV
      - Fast user sw
      • "What about Automator?"

        Most users probably won't use it. It's not like Mac OS didn't have AppleScript before.

        Have you seen the demonstration video? It shows just one example (bulk renaming files) that I have seen COUNTLESS people ask how to do on photography forums. And it makes it really, really easy... I'd say that if any system is ever going to get people scripting who have not before, this is it.

        Yes there was AppleScript before. But that still involved writing code - very simple code, but code an

      • Re:Bull! (Score:5, Informative)

        by As Seen On TV ( 857673 ) <asseen@gmail.com> on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:46AM (#12245623)
        Automator is really just a nice UI for AppleScript

        No, it's not. I'm not sure where this rumor got started. Maybe somebody misunderstood it during the demo.

        Automator is the modern equivalent of the venerable UNIX command line. You know what makes the command line cool? Pipelines and loops. You can route the output from one command-line tool to the input of another and create pipelines, and you can loop those pipelines over input. You can type, for example,
        for i in *.jpg;
        do sips "$i" --resampleHeightWidthMax 300 --setProperty format tiff
        done
        (The sips command is the Mac's command-line image processing utility. Other platforms have their equivalents.)

        What Automator does it it lets you create the equivalent of UNIX command lines without having to learn a command-line language and without being locked into just what the command-line gives you. In place of UNIX tools like "find" and "sips," you use Automator actions. Instead of building command lines, you build workflows.

        For instance, to implement the same basic operation as an Automator workflow, I'd start by dragging the "Get Selected Finder Items" action to the workflow pane, then follow it with a "Scale Images" action, then a "Change Type of Images" action.

        Then I can save my workflow as a Finder plug-in, which means it's available from the Action menu in any Finder window. I can select any file (or group of files), choose the workflow from the Automator sub-menu of the Action menu, and off we go.

        That's a ridiculously simple example, sure, but in a work environment it can be amazingly useful. For example, say your job is to post news stories and accompanying photographs on the Web. Each photograph has to be scaled and converted from CMYK to RGB, applying the correct ColorSync profile in the process and embedding IPTC copyright metadata. You could do that today with a program like Photoshop using scripting, or you can do it with Automator in much less time and with a much higher degree of desktop integration. Just click an image and run the "Make ready for Web" workflow. Easy.

        Automator actions can be either compiled AppleScripts or Objective-C code fragments (strongly recommended). Into any workflow you can insert a "Run AppleScript" action if you absolutely have to call AppleScript; you can even insert a "Run Shell Script" action if you absolutely have to call a shell script. But the actions themselves are little tiny code fragments written in Objective-C that implement runWithInput:fromAction:error.

        Think of a UNIX command-line tool that accepts standard input and sends standard output and standard error and you'll have the idea. An Automator action is basically a command-line tool without the nasty command-line interface.

        Will most people use Automator? Frankly, probably not. But most people don't create command-line pipelines and scripts either, even the ones who know how. But for those who want to, Automator is there.

        Frankly, I never thought I would like it. It just didn't interest me. But then one day I had to do a tedious repetitive task, and ever since I've been a big-time Automator junkie.
      • Panther:
        Expose, OK, though I prefer Peter Maurer's Witch.
        Massively broken Finder, Jaguar's was much more practical and less "in the way".
        Safari... uh, that came out in Jaguar.
        Fast User Switching... a big disappointment, free UNIX has had virtual consoles for years before OS X existed... and they work better.
        Preview... that came out in Jaguar as well.
        I can't comment on iChat AV, Filevailt, or Inkwell... I don't use them.
        Slight performance increase for some models.
        Several free third-party tools that worked under Jaguar required shareware upgrades for Panther.

        If it wasn't for the fact that Panther came along when I upgraded to a Mac mini I'd still be using Jaguar.

        Tiger:
        Spotlight... a killer new functionality that I'm truly hungry for.
        20-50% improvement in GUI performance [mactouch.com].

        Just those two points alone make it worthwhile.

    • This is Not Really a Review of Tiger, Is It? (Score:5, Funny)

      by HopeOS ( 74340 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:10AM (#12245163)
      This guy writes like a car reviewer that has never seen under the hood of a car.

      "Ah, still using four tires, I see. And there's a steering wheel, too. Still, the color is nice, and the radio looks expensive."

      I prefer reviews that do more than comment on the styling and goo-gahs. I expect him to drive the damn thing, pop the hood and see what has changed. Offer an explanation of why and how these changes improve the user's day-to-day work experience.

      I propose that the reason he's discounted the other 198 claimed features is that he has not the foggiest idea what they do or how they fit into the future of Mac OS X.

      -Hope

  • I've been a mac fan my whole life too! (Score:4, Funny)

    by TWX ( 665546 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:21AM (#12244576)
    ...except on versions of their operating system below 10.0 that weren't AUX...

  • High Value (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BoRegardless ( 721219 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:22AM (#12244584)
    Peter Drucker, the creator of management science study, noted people don't buy "products". They buy "value".

    Apple is finally being recognized by more and more people as offering high value, compared to the competition.

    Ease of use and stability with a wide range of capabilities (arguably widest of personal computers...maybe) is starting to make a consumer impact.

  • It should be noted... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nijika ( 525558 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:22AM (#12244589) Homepage Journal
    that some of Apple's greatest critics are also it's biggest fans.

  • It's pretty much his favorite OS... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by IdJit ( 78604 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:23AM (#12244597)
    bred for its skills in eyecandy.

  • One question (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) * <jhummel&johnhummel,net> on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:23AM (#12244601) Homepage
    Interesting review - a little odd at points where he points out what Tiger does and seems to insert "Well, they took this from Windows" kind of comments (or perhaps this is a misperception I'm picking up), but this one line about Spotlight caught me:

    Not coincidentally, Microsoft is working on similar, if further-reaching, technology for Longhorn. Apple's solution, however, is here right now and it appears to work quite well.


    I don't mean to sound obtuse, but from what I've read of Spotlight and Microsoft's efforts in file indexing, the goals and results are the same: every file indexed so you can do instant searches (much like what BeOS could do, only a bit faster I believe).

    So how is Microsoft's service "father reaching"? Is he including possible network indexing so you can find every file on the network as well (perhaps something for Windows Longhorn Server) - and is this ability to be used in OS X Tiger Server?

    I just found it an odd statement, and perhaps someone could clarify. Otherwise, interesting read - Tiger is looking like a good upgrade. $129 worth? Undecided yet, but interesting.

    • Re:One question (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      So how is Microsoft's service "father reaching"?

      The Microsoft searching will be so good it will allow adopted children to find their own father's with just the click of a mouse.

      Good thing Luke didn't have that in A New Hope.

    • Re:One question (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 )
      My understanding is that WinFS has more features for the developer. If you have an application that you'd like to tie to Longhorn, you can use WinFS as an object store, and you can expose those objects to the search interface. Files *are* an entry in the database. Spotlight is a separate database of file-related metadata. If you start poking at the documentation for WinFS, you'll see how big a deal it is (and why it keeps getting postponed).

      WinFS is to Spotlight as .NET is to .Mac; Apple saw Microsoft work

  • Some meaningless stuff in there. (Score:5, Funny)

    by rokzy ( 687636 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:23AM (#12244604)
    "My history with Mac" - ugg... skip to the end.

    and skim-reading, wtf is this?

    "Apple touts the ease with which you can upgrade your existing Mac OS X installation to Tiger, or perform a clean install. But if you're not really paying attention during Setup, you can quite easily do the wrong thing, especially if you want to do a clean install."

    if you're not fucking paying attention when installing a new OS you can make a mistake!?!?! oh noes, what were Apple THINKING!!!???

    • Re:Some meaningless stuff in there. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fork420 ( 452102 ) * on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:35AM (#12244731)
      You make a good point here. I guess the installer for Windows has to be user-friendly because the user spends so much time running it...over and over again.

      I think that the author of the article is so used to having to reinstall windows that he forgets that OS X users typically only install their OS once per machine.

      I have to admit that the install process is something I never would have even considered including in a review of OS X, *especially* since he didn't even mention CoreData/CoreAudio/CoreVideo or a host of other new features.

      I understand he has to keep the article short to keep the attention of the Dell-buying, XP-running PHBs of the world, but come on...comparing Tiger it to a service pack release from MS? What an Asshat.

  • Win Vs. Mac (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Shuh ( 13578 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:24AM (#12244610) Journal
    According to this guy, every Mac OS system since 10.0 has been an update. And by that reasoning every earlier system revision from 1.0 to 9.0 was an "update."

    But he's used to the system changes being more dramatic like in the P.C. world:

    1) DOS (command line)
    1.5) Windows 1.0, 2.0 (aborted)
    2) Windows 3.0 (whoops kinda shitty, do over)
    2.5) Windows 3.1 (works!)
    3) Windows 95 (Now like MacOS!)
    4) Windows 98 (Now with a web-browser built-in!)
    5) Windows ME (What is the diff here again?)

    Notice 1.5)-5) are all nothing but DOS running a new graphical shell. And other than "service-pack" level changes, I'm hard-pressed to describe how Win 95/98/ME differ at all.

    6) Windows 2000 (Now using NT instead of DOS!)
    7) Windows XP

    Because XP came out about the same time OSX did (you didn't think the "X" in "XP" was an original marketing idea, did you?) this guy assumes OSX can't have progressed any faster than XP has.

    But the truth is OSX has had to progress much faster because it was a brand-new OS to the PowerPC. Windows XP by comparison, had already been out in the market for nearly a decade as "Windows NT," before it got the Windows 95 "Finder" slapped on top of it to be rebranded "Windows XP."

    So the best way to think of OSX vs XP is that OSX is a generation ahead of XP in many ways, but it was pretty much brand-new in its 10.0 incarnation. By comparison, XP was not a new OS, and Longhorn will not be a new OS either. "Longhorn," such as it is will be a series of system updates to various XP subsystems.

    Additionally, the current thinking on the Longhorn update is to allow people with XP to update these subsystems themselves with special installers, effectively making this a piecemeal update cycle and hardly a whole new unified OS rollout at all. Now who's trying to pass off a series of subsystem updates as a new OS?

    • Re:Win Vs. Mac (Score:4, Insightful)

      by avandesande ( 143899 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:31AM (#12244707) Journal
      Well if you add NextStep into the picture, OS X's heritage is as old as NT. What difference does it make anyway?
    • It's OpenSTEP, formerly NextSTEP. Circa mid-1980s. It's a very mature platform, with one of the better application frameworks around.

      But, yeah, it's hard to argue that Apple hasn't been putting serious new capability with each new revision. It's certainly not "updates." It's "upgrade" type work.

    • Re:Win Vs. Mac (Score:3, Insightful)

      by nine-times ( 778537 )
      But he's used to the system changes being more dramatic like in the P.C. world:

      1) DOS (command line)
      1.5) Windows 1.0, 2.0 (aborted)
      2) Windows 3.0 (whoops kinda shitty, do over)
      2.5) Windows 3.1 (works!)
      3) Windows 95 (Now like MacOS!)
      4) Windows 98 (Now with a web-browser built-in!)
      5) Windows ME (What is the diff here again?)

      Notice 1.5)-5) are all nothing but DOS running a new graphical shell. And other than "service-pack" level changes, I'm hard-pressed to describe how Win 95/98/ME differ at all.

      6) W

  • Glad to see... (Score:5, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:25AM (#12244622) Homepage Journal
    ...Thurrott come out of his closet.

    It's the sign of changing times - Mac lovers no longer have to hide their feelings for fear of being ridiculed and discriminated against by society.

    Expect to see more examples of Mac pride across the country, as more people come to terms with who they are, and stand up for their rights.

    • ABBA (Score:4, Funny)

      by 3770 ( 560838 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:43AM (#12244834) Homepage
      As far as I'm concerned, we aren't truly living in a tolerant and enlightened society until ABBA-fans openly can admit that they are fans and still feel safe and respected.

    • Re:Glad to see... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Psykechan ( 255694 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:56AM (#12244988)
      I agree wholeheartedly.

      To celebrate this new idea of Mac Pride, Apple should create a version of their logo that, instead of being white or aluminum, is a rainbow of colors to symbolize openness like other "pride" movements have done.

      Who knows, a logo like that could be so popular that people would get a tattoo of it.

  • About face? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by daveschroeder ( 516195 ) * on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:26AM (#12244634)
    An interesting previous tidbit [winsupersite.com] from Thurrott:

    And since announcing its Longhorn desktop search intentions, Microsoft's worst fears were realized. Other companies began copying the Microsoft desktop search strategy, knowing that the never-ending Longhorn delays would help them get to market sooner and appear to be nimbler and even more innovative, though it's sort of astonishing how transparent that latter claim is. Chief among these competitors are Apple and Google.

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced in June 2004 that the next version of Mac OS X, due sometime in 2005, will include a desktop search feature called Spotlight. The Spotlight feature set is a rough subset of the desktop search features Gates discussed in late 2003, but presented to the user with Apple's standard graphical excellence. Spotlight, according to Apple, is a "radically new and lightning fast way to find anything saved on your personal computer. Email messages, contacts and calendars, along with files and folders, all show up in Spotlight results." Spotlight's biggest claims to fame, presumably, are its near-instant search results and support for document meta data, both of which are, again, planned features of Longhorn. But no matter. While Apple has been busy copping Windows features since Jobs returned to Apple in late 1996, the company's tiny market share ensures that very few people will benefit from Spotlight, despite Apple claims that it will deliver on desktop search a year before Microsoft ships Longhorn.     ...in December 2004.

    Then in February 2005, he started to change his tune [winsupersite.com]:

    I'd like to highlight some of the features that I feel set MSN Search apart from its competitors, chiefly Google [...]

    What happened to Apple?

    And in today's review [winsupersite.com]:

    Apple decided to adopt a similar approach in various places throughout OS X Tiger--including the Finder, Mail 2, and elsewhere--providing Mac OS X users, for the first time, with true instant search functionality. Similar in execution to the instant desktop search feature Microsoft plans to ship in Longhorn next year, and to third party Windows products like MSN Toolbar Suite and Google Desktop Search, Spotlight works as advertised. It delivers near-instantaneous search results from the places you'd most often need to find files or other information.

    [...]

    Now, this kind of functionality is exceeding cool, because it's the first step toward divorcing ourselves from worrying about the hard-coded locations of files and other data stored on the computer's file system. If you think about it, it's kind of silly that we have to even worry about such a thing, and though recent file system niceties like the My Documents folder in Windows (simply called Documents in OS X) try to simplify matters, the truth is, computers should be good at finding the information we need. We shouldn't have to do all the work.

    Not coincidentally, Microsoft is working on similar, if further-reaching, technology for Longhorn. Apple's solution, however, is here right now and it appears to work quite well. Score one for Apple.

    Why the about face?

    • Thurrott's thinking may be... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Infonaut ( 96956 ) <infonaut@gmail.com> on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:36AM (#12244743) Homepage Journal
      Why the about face?

      His current protestations aside, Thurrott has a long history of bashing on the Mac. My thinking is that he's starting to realize that the Mac platform is moving ahead more rapidly than Windows, and may be close to achieving what he considers to be parity with Windows.

      So if you make your living writing about Windows, it doesn't really do to talk about how far Apple has come with the Mac, or how it may in fact be better than Windows. You focus instead on a different opponent altogether. Microsoft has told the world that it has its sights set on Google. Everyone knows Google is the reigning champ of the consumer Internet application, and that they're trying to route around Microsoft's client OS dominance.

      If you're Thurrott, you talk about how nice Apple is on the client end, giving it just enough kudos so as to not lose your credibility entirely, but you also demean the importance of Apple by focusing on Microsoft's war with Google.

      Thurrott has always been a difficult guy to figure out, so my guess may be completely off. But it's the only one I can come up with that makes any sense.

    • Re:About face? (Score:3, Informative)

      by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 )
      "I'd like to highlight some of the features that I feel set MSN Search apart from its competitors, chiefly Google [...]

      What happened to Apple?"

      Apple doesn't provide web search. MSN does. Thurrott isn't comparing desktop searching in the quoted article.

      There is no "about face". Thurrott's earlier comments agree 100% with his comments today - Microsoft did announce "Fast Search" functionality in 2003, but the numerous delays that have plagued Longhorn have allowed other comapanies (Google, Apple) to ship t

  • You are hardest on those you truly love (Score:5, Interesting)

    by csoto ( 220540 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:26AM (#12244637)
    It's not surprising at all that Mac fans would be critical of Apple. You're critical about things you care about. Yes, there are a bunch of braindead Mac-Macs, but they're not what I truly call the Mac Fanatics. I stopped counting the number of Macs I've owned when it hit 13. I've been invited to Cupertino three times already. You better believe that I bitched directly to VPs and product managers when I was there. The upside is that Apple finally started to listen to all the bitching, usually providing exactly what we were asking for.

    So, don't be surprised that Mac fans are vocal and hard on Apple. They just want the Mac to get better...

  • Minor Revision? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DavidLeblond ( 267211 ) <me@dCOFFEEavidleblond.com minus caffeine> on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:26AM (#12244643) Homepage
    Alas, despite the wait, Tiger is a minor revision, like all previous OS X updates.

    I have some quips with this statement (its a favorite of Thurott's too.) Windows 2000 to XP was a minor revision (5.0 to 5.1 I believe.) So was, arguably, Windows 95 to 98. And 98SE to ME.

    Also, since it seems Microsoft is releasing most of the cool Longhorn features to Windows XP... XP to Longhorn may very well be a "minor revision" as well.

  • What an idiot! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by avalys ( 221114 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:26AM (#12244648)
    I posted a negative comment earlier about this article, but the idiocy gets worse and worse as you go on.

    "Though it is marketed by Apple as a major release, Tiger is in fact a minor upgrade with few major new features, more akin to what we'd call a service pack in the Windows world"

    What Windows service packs have come with major new features? A firewall in SP2? Please. Hell, what Windows OS releases have come with major new features?

    "It will not change the way you use your computer at all, and instead uses the exact same mouse and windows interface we've had since the first Mac debuted in 1984"

    Err...yeah. Sorry, the telepathic mind-reader is coming in 10.5.

    "Don't get me wrong, please: Again, Tiger is a solid release. It's just not a major upgrade. And it's certainly not worth $129."

    Right. Tiger is not worth $129, but Windows XP is worth $250 or whatever over Windows 2000.

    "nor does it include the iWork '05 productivity applications, which include Pages (a weird word processing/page publishing hybrid)"

    Weird? Pages is weird?! What the hell is Word, then? Certainly not a word processing/page publishing hybrid, oh no.

    • Re:What an idiot! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by avalys ( 221114 )
      Even more!

      "Tiger may lack some of the niceties that make Windows more appealing to new users"

      *cough* *splutter* - what!?

      And really, the guy claims that Tiger is akin to a service pack in the "Windows world", yet most of the functionality it contains will only be delivered by Microsoft in (wait for it) - a new OS! (Longhorn)

      And Longhorn still won't have Dashboard, or Automator, or Core Data/Core Image, or Expose, or anything else that makes OS X great.
    • Windows OS releases have come with major new features?

      DOS 5.0

      1) Built in menu editor which worked (major upgrade for Dos 4)
      2) Built in upper & enhanced memory manager (QEMM lite)
      3) Task switcher (Desqview lite)
      4) /? help syntax

      A major upgrade NQA.

  • criticism and being a fan... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:30AM (#12244693)
    They're not mutually exclusive. I am a fan of Linux, but that doesn't stop me from issuing criticism when it's warranted.

  • Whoa! (Score:5, Informative)

    by standards ( 461431 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:30AM (#12244694)
    As a Windows user and fan, I have to take exception to the "XP service packs are more substantial than the OS X upgrade".

    This is far from the truth. In my experience, Windows XP is just a facelift of Windows 2000. Sure, the default colors are different and the buttons look different, but it's all the same stuff - just a minor upgrade to colors and a bunch of bug/feature fixes.

    XP service packs are just that - they fix stuff that is totally broken or flawed, or worse, they layer in new software that I don't want or that break my older apps.

    So although I agree with him that Windows XP is a good and solid OS, touting the transition from Windows 2000 to XPsp2 as multiple "major upgrades" looks just like fantasy. I consider them all to be in the "minor bug/feature/UI fix" category.

  • Evolution, Not Revolution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spencerian ( 465343 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:35AM (#12244740) Homepage Journal
    I didn't find many complaints about this article. Unlike his usual rants, the writer was even-handed mostly in giving praise where praise was due.

    However, the writer proves he's still too enamored with the Microsoft software release philosophy in comparison to what Linux and Mac users enjoy.

    Consider: When a new Mac OS update is imminent, users are practically enthusiastic on installing on their computer and seeing what new tricks have come from Apple. Generally speaking, these users expect goodness in each update. That's less of the case now in the OS X days than the old OS 9 days, but Mac users don't generally fear their computer or the company that makes it. We like evolution and strive to keep our computers one-up with the others. While a lot more propellerhead and not as intuitive, the power users of the Linux camp also enjoy the fun flavors they get from the latest bug fix of SAMBA or whatever. Using Linux and Mac OS X, to take two common examples of the UNIX families, are fun to tinker with.

    A Microsoft Windows user is besieged. And I mean not just with spyware and worms, but also with Windows Updates. They're doing the same thing as Apple's updates (make no mistake--both companies are giving you bug fixes), but there are so many updates for this mysterious vulnerability or that compromise that a typical home user is overwhelmed by not only by the OS prompting them to the point of annoyance that you have new Windows Updates as well as the number of patches and attacks. And Windows can be so finicky and problematic that most users don't WANT to rock the boat by applying some update. This situation has improved a bit with Windows XP, but there's still too much information.

    Microsoft's marketing expects you to find a revolution in every box they sell. I don't know about you, but revolutions as a whole are a bitch to endure, no matter what form they take. Evolution, on the other hand, gives you change without making you feel swept up by it.

    You'll know what I mean when the Windows Longhorn project is finished. It may be new and powerful, but most of us just want to write a letter, not launch and land a Space Shuttle. Simple is good.
    • I'd say if anything Microsoft one attempt at revolutionary change failed (the move from Dos to OS/2). Apple has had 2 during the Microsoft era: Apple II -> Mac and OS 9 -> OS X. Microsoft has worked very hard to maintain compatability between version and make sure their changes are very evolutionary.

      Power users look forward to upgrades. General users dislike change and pgrades just create work and hassles for administrators. Mac has a power user culture. Linux desktop users are powerusers. Lin

  • Tiger is more than Thurrot thinks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by amper ( 33785 ) * on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:38AM (#12244765) Journal
    I think maybe Thurrot, while being a self-described "Mac fan", does not know quite as much about the inner workings of Mac OS X than he ought to before attempting such a review.

    Mac OS X 10.4 is certainly much more than a "minor upgrade with few major new features", especially when you look past the somewhat superficial nature of the "gee-whiz" features like Spotlight and Dashboard. The improtant changes are under the hood, in the form of Core Data, Core Image, better SMP support, etc.

    I certainly do, however, agree with him in chiding Apple for their frequent UI experimentation that seems to throw one usability concept after another out with the bath water, so to speak.

    But as far as likening Tiger to "what we'd call a service pack in the Windows world", consider the contents of the Slashdot story that appears on the front page along with this article, Survey Shows Admins Avoiding SP2 [slashdot.org].

    While Apple may indeed find that "Tiger's retail success is far more important to Apple than Windows' retail success is to Microsoft", my prediction is that Apple, on the day of Tiger's release (or very, very shortly thereafter), will have sold enough copies of Tiger at $129 or $199 to cover 24% of their installed Mac OS X user base, while Microsoft, having given away Windows XP Service Pack 2 for free eight months ago, still can't seem to convince enough of their users to adopt it to even hit the one-quarter mark.

    I have already ordered the upgrades for my three compatible Macs, how about you?

    • Re:Tiger is more than Thurrot thinks (Score:5, Interesting)

      by amper ( 33785 ) * on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:41AM (#12244819) Journal
      I should have also mentioned the early benchmarks which show massive increases in CPU speed for G4's, healthy increases in memory speed for G5's, and no performance hit at all on G3's. In fact, even G3's will see massive increases in UI speed, as will all Mac OS X users when upgrading to Tiger.

      Thurrot may consider Tiger "certainly not worth $129", but I wonder how much he's willing to pay to upgrade his Windows machines to make them 25-50% faster?

  • Watch out for Dashboard (Score:4, Funny)

    by CypherXero ( 798440 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:39AM (#12244780) Homepage
    FTFA: "Dashboard, a controversial new feature that owes more than a little to a third party application called Konfabulator."

    I fail to see how it's "controversial". Unless the author as something against little widgets on his screen.

    Widget hater...

  • Inconclusive conclusions from TFA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:41AM (#12244808)
    From TFA's "Conclusions" section:
    Though it is marketed by Apple as a major release, Tiger is in fact a minor upgrade with few major new features, more akin to what we'd call a service pack in the Windows world. ... [Tiger] adds a few major new features, and applies a nice spit polish to hundreds of other small features.

    Is this not a contradiction? The Windows XP SP1 (and SP1a) [microsoft.com] and SP2 [microsoft.com] feature lists look a lot to me like the Mac OS X updates such as the most recent 10.3.8 [apple.com] (incidentally, also free like MS's Service Packs).

    If OS X Tiger has just a few new features, (the two TFA discusses as most important are Spotlight and Dashboard), then what is Longhorn? [hint: Microsoft doesn't even know [microsoft.com]]

    in closing, the review gives props to Apple for OS X but in the end, TFA's author is unable to keep himself from borg-like Apple bashing.

  • Gotta ask... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sethadam1 ( 530629 ) * <ascheinberg@gmai ... inus threevowels> on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:42AM (#12244825) Homepage
    If Tiger is merely a "Service Pack," and Microsoft just released this "amazing" XPSP2, then how come the majority of the features in Tiger, namely Dashboard and Spotlight, won't be available until the next MAJOR release of Windows?

    These features are not Service Pack level features, and if they were, God bless em, Microsoft would have ripped them off and crammed them into XP by now.

  • You read it here first (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zanthany ( 166662 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:46AM (#12244866) Journal
    Tiger may lack some of the niceties that make Windows more appealing to new users, but it does reward those with existing computer skills with a minimalist user interface that, as advertised, "gets out of the way" and lets you get your job done.

    Well bust my buttons. I didn't know there were "niceties" in the XP UI that make it more "appealing" to new users. Colors? Whiz-bang? Buttons the size of Delaware? Conversely, is he purporting that OS X is better for the power user -- to "get your job done?"

    I always thought it was the other way around. My bad, dude.

  • Spotlight and Rhapsody (Score:4, Informative)

    by argent ( 18001 ) <(peter) (at) (slashdot.2006.taronga.com)> on Friday April 15, 2005 @10:59AM (#12245028) Homepage Journal
    I don't consider Rhapsody and "Yellow Box" missteps. What we have now in OS X, Cocoa, that's what it comes from. The problem wasn't anything to do with Rhapsody, it was with Adobe. Adobe refused to port their apps to what became Cocoa, forcing Apple to make this huge unweildy sidestep through Carbon that kept the abysmal OS 9 alive for years longer than it deserved, and where we ended up now is EXACTLY where we'd be if Apple had been able to convince Adobe and a few other key developers to stick with the program... except years later *and* most of the key apps that Apple bent over for ended up getting dropped anyway.

    Spotlight is a HUGE step forward. It's killer functionality, and needs OS support to work right, but just a touch. OS X provides that support... without creating a new "search-based" file system.

    Because you don't (despite what Be and Microsoft say) need a new file system to manage metadata, you just need a mechanism for applications to talk about it... WHEREVER it's stored. That's why Find on palm OS already exists, and has existed since 1996, despite Palm OS having a file system that's hardly worthy of the name. And that's why Spotlight works and Microsoft's dithering on WinFS.

    And if I hadn't bought a Mac Mini I would have skipped Panther altogether because Panther *is* a relatively minor release. Tiger, with Spotlight, is a different kind of cat altogether.

  • Point - counterpoint (Score:5, Interesting)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:15AM (#12245234)
    In essence most of the criticisms he says is true, but without real context.

    Dashboard
    Um, right. Since PCs and Macs have had tiny utility applications since the early 1980's, it's unclear why Dashboard widgets can't simply work on the normal Mac desktop (which is how Konfabulator works, incidentally). Having to move into and out of the Dashboard to perform these tasks seems a bit unnecessary. Why segregate them like that?

    I guess in the Mac world not everything belongs on the desktop. Apple likes to keep system utilities organized with other system utilities. In the Windows world, you can put shortcuts everywhere: Desktop, Quicklaunch, Menu Bar, etc. It's a style change if you are used to Windows.

    Apple's Mail application (sometimes referred to as Mail.app because of it NeXTStep heritage) has been significantly updated in Tiger, though I'm a little unexcited about yet another user interface style being introduced in OS X. . . The toolbar buttons, however, are bizarre looking and unlike the icons found in any other Mac OS X applications, another case of Apple trouncing all over its own user interface conventions. It's astonishing to me that Mac fanatics let the company get away with that.

    This is downright inflammatory. MS changes the UI in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways. XP's color scheme is vastly different from the 98/2000.

    Apple touts the ease with which you can upgrade your existing Mac OS X installation to Tiger, or perform a clean install. But if you're not really paying attention during Setup, you can quite easily do the wrong thing, especially if you want to do a clean install.

    Anytime you do an system upgrade, you have to be careful in any OS whether it's Linux, Windows, OS X. SP2 isn't even an upgrade but a service pack, and it might crash your system.

    Apple's success has hinged largely on its ability to keep its product plans secret and then use "event marketing" to pump each release as the be-all, end-all solution to whatever problems you may be having.

    Every new software markets itself as the solution to all your problems. Win 95 was supposed to the holy grail. No wait, it still uses DOS in the background. It'll be 98. Nope. 2000. Nope. ME. God no. XP. Okay we're getting there. Longhorn will have all these features. Well, maybe not this feature or that one. Overpromising isn't unique to Apple or MS. At least Apple doesn't tease with all the features it said it would build but then withdraws them later.

    But Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) was arguably a bigger advance over the initial release of XP than Tiger is over Mac OS X 10.3. My issue here is with marketing, not with reality.

    SP2 fixed a lot of the things wrong with Windows security. Upgrading the firewall, adding a spyware tool, etc. is not an OS upgrade. It's a patch. Tiger adds new features and tools. According to MS marketing, Linux is slow and isn't ready for the enterprise and no company really uses it. Especially when they don't mention Google, Amazon, etc.

    Apple also offers a 5-Mac "Family Pack" for $199 that lets you install the system on up to 5 Macintosh systems, though there is no copy protection or activation scheme in the single Mac version that would prevent you from installing a single copy on multiple machines.

    So, Apple will rely on the honor system instead of putting up obstacles and Gestapo-like enforcement tactics (i.e. Ernie Ball). It might cost them sales but it won't piss off their customers.

    My sources on the beta tell me that testers were shocked Apple decided to finalize the software when they did. Apparently a lot of problems still exist in the final code.

    This is not new. Every new software isn't 100% perfect. I'm sure all Windows versions were not 100% ready either.

    Though it is marketed by Apple as a major release, Tiger is in fact a minor upgrade with few major new features, more akin to what we'd call a service pack in the Windows world.

    Maybe the problem here is that the author is thinking in terms of Windows. MS always trumps the changes no matter how small. Apple's style is to be minimalist and doesn't mention anything that the enduser may not see.

  • New features downplayed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wootest ( 694923 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @11:24AM (#12245335)
    Tiger is a great solid update over the board, with lots of new smaller features everywhere, new technologies for developers to play with and a few, but not many, "end user" headline features.

    Longhorn is a great solid update over the board, with lots of new smaller features everywhere, new technologies for developers to play with and a few, but not many, "end user" headline features.

    Why is Tiger being reckoned a small update, a revision, when the guy spends half the site hyping how big of a release Longhorn will be? Do you have to break bonds with ten year old APIs to be a major new version?

    From the article: "Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is, in fact, a minor upgrade to an already well-designed and rock-solid operating system. It will not change the way you use your computer at all, and instead uses the exact same mouse and windows interface we've had since the first Mac debuted in 1984. That isn't a complaint about Tiger, per se: It's a high-quality release. But Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) was arguably a bigger advance over the initial release of XP than Tiger is over Mac OS X 10.3. My issue here is with marketing, not with reality."

    First, a sidebar, the "change the way we use computers" ditty has been used to contrast searching (with Spotlight) as opposed to digging through folders (with Finder) as a way to organize stuff. Thurrott seems to misattribute the quote. I can only recall two previous mentions of similar phrases by Jobs - "change the way we use computers" (again) when Exposé was introduced and "change the way we listen to music" about the Shuffle feature (which I'm the first to admit isn't unique to Apple at all), first in a magazine article and then in a keynote. These three things all do pretty much the same thing, in essence: bring order into chaos by taking away choice temporarily; rearranging your windows, files and songs for the moment, to make it easier to deal with.

    Back to the quote... How many under-the-hood changes did SP2 have? How many reworkings of the whole how-drawing-works wiring did SP2 go through? SP2 was designed to improve on a few key points, such as the wireless network support, filling of some security holes and consolidating all bug fixes and patches (the last point is common to all SP releases). This is nowhere near Tiger, even if the effect it has on daily use might be more prominent for the user going from XP/XPSP1 to SP2 than the user going from Panther to Tiger. He had better not have any issues with reality, because it seems he's having trouble grasping bits of it in the first place.

  • Thurrot is irritating but popular (Score:5, Interesting)

    by theolein ( 316044 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @12:06PM (#12245877) Journal
    Firstly, to get this out of the way, let me state that people who say Paul Thurrot's can be a fan and critical at the same time are right. That should be obvious to anyone who isn't waving their respective computer platform's flag. I would in fact argue that a review that isn't critical isn't a review, but mere company PR.

    Good, that's out of the way. Now on to this review and why it irritates me intensely. Paul Thurrot might indeed be a closet Mac fan, although, from his previous articles, one would never guess it. The fact that he has numerous Macs, including a newish 12" Powerbook, and has in fact been running OSX since the 10.0 release indicate either someone who is obsessed with something he hates, a closet admirer, or, more to the point, someone who makes his money, aka his bread and butter, his moola, his bucks etc, by pumping out glorious reviews of Microsoft's software. I seriously doubt that the powers that be in Redmond would be happy to see Winsupersite (which is about as Microsoftish a name as one can come up with, but that's something for another post) offer scathing criticisms of Longhorn and general dissings for Microsoft's piss poor security record and abuse marketplace behaviour.

    So, it might well be that he does like Macs and OSX in general, but can't afford to say so too loudly on a site that is mainly a mouthpiece for Microsoft OS betas.

    I still find the review irritating, even in that light. The features he highlighted, such as Dashboard, Spotlight, Safari and Mail, are things one sees from a cursory 5 minute glance of the OS, but generally, one would expect a review to offer more depth than that. I am surprised (although maybe I shouldn't be, given his history) that he never mentioned Automator, XCode 2 or any of the new APIs, which, given that Micosoft has always aimed its OS squarely at developers, is a bit surprising.

    You can argue till you're blue in the face about whether Dashboard is a Konfabulator ripoff or a Desk Accessory renewal, and you can argue that Windows has MSN search, Google Desktop etc, but the real new features in Tiger are under the hood and are aimed squarely at developers, just as Microsoft has always done, except that I think that Apple is doing it better (get to why in a sec)

    The APIs, such as CoreImage/Video and CoreData make multimedia a breeze in development and embedded Database development incredibly easy (and you can't tell me that these two features are not needed by an enormous number of applications from media to business). XCode 2 offers automatic diagramming of class structures, pointing to the beginnings of a free CASE tool that comes with the OS, and I have yet to see Thurrot offer the tidbit that XCode comes free with the OS (he seesm to ignore this bit every time he does a review). So when will MS offer VS.Net for free? This is Apple's big hook with developers. The IDE is free and remains free, even when you're not a student anymore.

    Add to that that Dashboard widgets are generally HTML/CSS/Javascript apps. There are literally millions of web developers who can make applications for Dashboard right off the bat, without learning a single new thing. And Automator for making a point and click batch processing app makes the OS very attracctive to those who need to automate daily tasks but can't code to save their lives.

    Finally, I do find some of Thurrot's more superficial criticisms insightful. The new Look and Feel in Mail 2 now brings the total number of concurrent L&F's to 3 (White, Brushed Metal and Plastic). I feel this is terrible for consistency in the UI. His idea that this is some kind of service pack, however, is pure FUD. he KNOWS better than this, and if his reviews of Longhorn betas were anywhere near as critical as his reviews of OSX, I would take him more seriously.

    Sadly, as is the case with Apple zealots, there are a lot of Windows zealots out there (generally the folk who feel hurt everytime an article about a new exploit for windows is published here on slashdot) who see Winsupersite and Thurrot as some kind of high priest, and they'll take him seriously.

  • Everyone says this (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Enrique1218 ( 603187 ) on Friday April 15, 2005 @12:07PM (#12245882) Journal
    Again, Tiger is a solid release. It's just not a major upgrade. And it's certainly not worth $129

    However, when you do shell the money for it and use it for bit, you can't bring yourself to used the previous version. At least that is the way I feel, I couldn't go back Jaguar after using Panther. Certainly, that would indicate that there is something there that justifies the upgrade expense.

    Moreover, compared to Windows, the upgrade costs are pretty cheap. For one, you get a Family pack deal for 199 whereas with activation you have to buy upgrade cd for each computer. After 2 computers, you already pay more than with Mac OSX. Second, the $129 single cd is a full install CD. With Windows, an upgrade is $116 [pcmall.com]* and the full CD is $200 [pcmall.com]. In my experience, full cd's are better because you don't have to install old OS then upgrade to rebuild the system. So, I don't really understand why reporters insist on lambasting Apple for a measly $13 difference.

    * The upgrade can be had for $99 at Compusa. So, its 30 but you can still make the arguement

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