Rave Reviews for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger 1088
druid_getafix writes "The first mass market reviews of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger are trickling in with a big thumbs up for the release. Walt Mossberg of the WSJ says 'Tiger Leaps Out in Front' but complains about slowness of some applications - notably Mail. David Pogue of NYT says 'But with apologies to Mac-bashers everywhere, Spotlight changes everything. Tiger is the classiest version of Mac OS X ever and, by many measures, the most secure, stable and satisfying consumer operating system prowling the earth.' In related news Mossberg also covers the rising incidence of spam/virii in the Windows world and says '...consider dumping Windows altogether and switching to Apple's Macintosh...'. Previous reviews of Tiger were covered on /. earlier."
Java 5? (Score:3, Interesting)
If not when will Apple be releasing it?
How are Mac Minis with Tiger? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Test of the NYT article (Score:5, Interesting)
Pity (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Voice recognition (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How do the judge so fast?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
Excellent. (Score:2, Interesting)
As a long time Slackware and FreeBSD user, I'm just waiting for a good check to come in so I can get a Mac. My problem is that I'm afraid I'll find it so cool and so much better that I will drop my beloved OS's and lose interest.
As far as Microsoft is concerned, well, they kissed my ass years ago when I dropped out around Windows 98. If there is ever a chance for Mac's to become more affordable I do not see a future for Microsoft. They can't sue us for NOT using their shit. Heh.
No Tiger in Tiger (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds great, get it out there! (Score:4, Interesting)
If Tiger indeed blows away XP, so they should try to advertise it more, get it out to as many people as possible in order to increase their popularity and inspire more people to use and develop Apple software. If everyone had a better alternative to Windows for say just a fraction more in price, people would start buying it. The iPod has already convinced people Apple is a good brand, all they need is a price incentive to switch to Apple PCs.
Is there really a reason to switch? (Score:5, Interesting)
For reference, I don't have problems with virii, my system never crashes, and all of my main programs (mainly design programs from Adobe and Macromedia) run very nicely. So what would I gain from switching?
Slowness (Score:2, Interesting)
In all fairness, I've not used OSX before but back when the Classic and IIc reigned supreme the common complaint about the Mac was that it was too underpowered for the Operating System and the applications. Hell, my 7mhz Amiga felt zippier and responded quicker than the IIc.
Even in the Windows world, iTunes runs rather slow, has limited features (including the annoying "feature" of getting itself and my iPod completely out of sync with "consolidate" being the only, drastic, tool to resolve this) and takes up an inane amount of memory. Hardly a good impression of what to expect from Apple.
Sadly, these two things (including the fact that I'll be effectivily throwing away all the money I've currently invested in my PC) sour my desire to immediately switch to Apple.
However, when we all shift to BTX and I've got no choice but to replace every part of my computer then I have no doubt that I'll make the jump.
This won't be for a couple of years and i think there might be others who will wait until they find that the only way to move forward is replace so much of their PC that switching to Apple entirely isn't so much of a big deal.
Re:Voice recognition (Score:5, Interesting)
Furthermore, I've actually spent less money on computer hardware since I bought my Power Mac, simply because I was suddenly so happy with it, and felt no need to constantly change stuff.
I threw my last Windows/PC years ago, running Linux/OpenBSD on my servers, and OS X on laptops/workstation. I dont miss this fuzz about crappy drivers, PSUs that goes black, noice, having to install a shitload of free/shareware just to be able to do something.
Simply put, I value my time, so I save money (and adrenaline) on my Mac's. If you dont mind all the crap that goes with cheap PC hardware, Apple is simply not for you, so dont "whine" about not being able to buy a cheap Mac.
Rising incidence of parasitical software... (Score:3, Interesting)
"What percentage of Windows PCs are 0wn3d by one or other parasite?
By multiple parasites? By spammers working with crackers working
with corrupt web site designers and pornographers? Enough, I think
to ensure that within a short time - say 6 to 12 months - we will
hit infection levels of 50% and more. The vast majority of home
PCs, happily connected to the Internet, will be hit, and a large
proportion of office PCs, insufficiently secured and protected,
will also succumb."
This was written in September 2003. And it's just starting to hit the general consciousness now?
I don't understand nobody's talking about (Score:5, Interesting)
(Well that's how it seems to work at least). It looks like the equivalent of unix pipes for desktop apps.
Something i've been waiting for for years.
Looking forward to Automator, Dashboard, and iChat (Score:5, Interesting)
As with lots of scripting languages, sometimes it is just plain faster to brute force what you are doing than sit down, recall a language syntax and function set, write a script, give it a test, and then run it. What I see as cool about Automator is that it makes building a script so freaking easy and fast and since you can call scripts with scripts, you can build a nice function library of scripts to make the process even faster.
I am also digging on Dashboard. At first I didn't like the idea of a second desktop that is different than the first, and I will have to try before I agree that it makes sense to keep these on a different desktop, but I love the idea of the small applets (I used Konfabulator breifly) for small tasks like weather, itunes, stock tickers, and calculator. That they take minimal system memory means I will be more apt to keep them open and within easy reach without having to launch the applicaiton.
Lastly, I am totally excited about iChat AV supporting up to four people (including me) in a video chat. It just looks so cool to see three people sitting around the virtual room like that and this feature is making me finally break down and buy the iSight. It looks like the best autofocusing camera available for $150.
Re:Test of the NYT article (Score:3, Interesting)
It's also the birthday of former Japanese Emperor Hirohito, now known as "Midori no Hi" or "Green Day" (no relation to the band). It's an important national holiday as it kicks off "Golden Week," which consists of three other national holidays including Japan's national day and Boy's Day. So, if you were thinking of visiting an Onsen or going to Izu Peninsula this week, you should rethink your plan. Those kinds of places will be really crowded but downtown Tokyo should be nearly vacant. Except, of course, the crowd that should be gathering around the Apple Store in Ginza.
Just in case you were interested.
Re:How do the judge so fast?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember reviewing for GameSpot (back in the dot-com days), receiving a game and having 1 week to write a review. You may be thinking "One week, so what?" but you've got to paint a picture of the game accurately enough that it answers a key question for the consumer: "Should I buy this thing or not?" I remember a few times I gave low review score to certain magazines on games that should've been higher (Twisted Metal 1, why did I rate you so poorly) and gave high scores to games that didn't deserve it (look up "Crazy Ivan").
It's pretty much the same for OS software.
Re:Folders (Score:3, Interesting)
It will be a lot easier to just add the project information into the metadata than rely on a fixed directory structure. For example, if I want to view files related to projects A, B, and C then I can just search for all three. If I want them conviently grouped, I'll create a smart folder. When I don't care if they are grouped anymore, smart folder is gone.
Sure it's going to take some adjustment and I'm not going to lump everything together. Although...there's no reason why different filetypes need to be separated. Hmm, I think the degree of my file lumping will be determined by smart folder details.
If I could say, group all jpg files that have resolutions of (1024x768, 1280x1024, etc) that would be fantastic. If I can store metadata (like theme, mood, etc) in jpg files without using iPhoto (I don't like to mix my photographs with my desktop wallpaper) then it would be even better.
Re:Voice recognition (Score:2, Interesting)
You sound like one of those types of people. Apple doesn't want your money because your attitude costs them much more than your business is worth.
Re:Is there really a reason to switch? (Score:4, Interesting)
Just checked, and the same happens here at work with IE and Outlook.
Re:Voice recognition (Score:3, Interesting)
The petty annoyances (Score:5, Interesting)
Lots of windows? Taskbar has two modes, neither of whcih work very well - either fold your icons together and make it really a bother to get to, or have the taskbar go to multiple lines. Expose is just SO much better a way of dealing with finding multiple windows.
Macs don't ever hide menu items just because you've not used them for a while.
Ever had a Windows Window no respond to you because a modal dialgue has popped up somewhere and that window is now obscuring it? Well, I have and Macs do not have that problem due to a much more intelligent way of handlind modal popups (it's embedded in the window that spawned it).
Config files for every app that are really text and editible (or removable) by hand.
UNIX utilities as first-class members of the OS and not something that clings to life within the system. Yeah I'm looking at you Cygwin!
Usable simple text editing app (TextEdit). Both Wordpad and Notepad have unique issues that means you can't just automatically use one or the other (why do you think they are both still there). Heck in Tiger you can just use TextEdit for 99% of your word processing since it reads/writes Word files and supports things like tables.
Everything supports save as PDF through printing interface. No need to use Acrobat.
A home directory that reallly is in one place!!! You don't have to search the whole hard drive to REALLY back up all your app settings. They are all under ~/Library.
When people talk about being more productive on a Mac, these are the kinds of things they mean. It's all the little annoyances that are part of using Windows day to day... you don't notice them after a while but each one makes you just a tiny bit slower and interrupts your workflow. In my experience Macs have a better sustained throughput for humans. Sure if you're just sitting there typing a letter one may not be faster than the other, but it's when you have to stop typing and make transitions when your odds of being interrupted are lower on Mac.
And for less subtle reasons - Spotlight? Dashboard? Automator? These are pretty compelling reasons all on thier own, especially if you can write code at all. And if you can't then Automator should be even more compelling.
The trouble with Tiger (Score:3, Interesting)
My problem with it is that it fragments the new mac users more than 10.3 did. Here is why.
They give the developer new tools/frameworks for easier better application development. These are great. HOWEVER, if you a developer choose to use those new features your software ONLY works on 10.4 (tiger) not on 10.3. core data for example [apple.com]
. Also it looks like apple won't make java 1.5 work on older versions of the mac OS, meaning they won't work on older versions the the OS either. This further fragmenting apples small market share, adding frustration to developers and software purchasers alike. You have to code with the older frameworks or compel your users to update. This is a not required but "strongly compelled upgrade"
Hate to point out that... (Score:3, Interesting)
A Mac Mini RRPs for about AUD$799 here sans screen and with OS X bundled. I'll ring them tomorrow and find out if and how much for one without OS X. I can build a near-equivalent x86 whitebox (40GB HDD, 256MB RAM) for about AUD$450. If I could buy a naked PowerPC box of any physical size from Apple for about $550, I would be recommending them to customers like there was no tomorrow. Runs Linux but not x86 cracks, doesn't run Windows. Paradise.
Mac Viruii, spyware, etc (Score:2, Interesting)
Windows is still Industry Standard - and all you mac and linux zealots can do nothing to change it (well - not just yet anyway
At the moment, you can't go into PCworld, Game, Staples, etc and buy "Joe's Recipe Database" for *nix (linux or OSX). For the foreseeable future, the world is running Windows.
It is just one of those things. However, one day Micosoft will make a mistake, and they _will_ lose their domanace over the PC industry. I think it will happen when there is a completly new kind of hardware that is taken up.
My $0.02
TheLogster
Re:Looking forward to Automator, Dashboard, and iC (Score:3, Interesting)
On my first demo of it, I created a desktop 'droplet' icon that allows account execs at my shop to drop a job order or update document on an icon, it creates a new email, summarizes the file in the body, attaches the file, sends it to the appropriate people with the correct job number in the subject line, and files it in the sent mail archive specific to which client the job number refers to.
I did this in three minutes flat on the first day I played with it.
There's a ton of reliance still on using shell script glue if you're doing super complex stuff, but once more actions (like applescript dictionaries) are available for common apps right in the automator window, people are going to start creating some amazing stuff.
Re:spothlight...dashobard...who cares?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Obviously you're not, as you spend 100% of your time in the shell.
I'll go out on a limb and say that the other 99.9% of us use the GUI. For me, Spotlight is going to be interesting, Automator will be potentially great, gcc4.0 will be amazing and the Core data services will change my world.
And I'm not representative either. I develop games as a hobby, so gcc4.0 makes my list of new toys but would make few other people's lists I suspect.
But end users will soon feel the effect of the Core data services, in image-processing apps, in rapid development of new apps (they should spring up around all over the place) and in a consistent expectation of the interface and how it works.
I don't see Dashboard as being of great value to me. But then I don't use Expose either. But I know a lot of people who do, and they'll probably get great value out of Dashboard. It's not just weather and time, after all, but any service people want.
Calm down a bit, realise that the majority of users don't work like you do, and respect their excitement in getting new toys to play with.
Aging Panther Installs will Break Tiger Upgrades (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: XGrid (Score:3, Interesting)
Its pretty cool that Apple choose to include XGrid as part of Tiger -- software to distribute complex tasks among a number of networked machines. Before it was only XCode (now updated to v2) that did distributed compiles. But XGrid should lead to more applications designed to take advantage of networked Macs for CPU-intensive operations.
Re:Voice recognition (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, the competition is more of a threat now than any time since the early 90s, but that's a pretty new development.
Re:Voice recognition (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, speech commands work amazingly well. You can click a file in the Finder and say "Mail this to (name from your address book)," and it opens up a Mail window with that address, the file attached, ready for you to type or just click "Send."
That's cool. That's really cool. No question. But you know what really blows me away? About two weeks ago, without really thinking about it, I did it while brushing my teeth. Seriously. I was sitting at my computer at home early in the morning, still half asleep, with my toothbrush in my mouth. I mumbled "Send the latest blah-blah file to person-so-n-so," which I have set up to trigger a Spotlight search to find the most recent copy of a specific file and e-mail it to the named contact. (I have to do this often enough it was worth automating.) I said this with my toothbrush in my mouth, with a mouth full of Crest. And it understood me.
Honestly, it kinda freaked me out a little. It was a very "Open the pod bay doors, Hal" moment.
(Just for fun, I tried it again, and it didn't work. I guess I was able to mumble it just right the first time, totally by random chance. Got lucky. Still a pretty funny moment.)
Interestingly, though... (Score:3, Interesting)
-fred
Re:Spam/virii? (Score:1, Interesting)
Sure you can, if the operating system's weak-ass, easily-circumvented security allows a machine to get easily zombied and become an SMTP relay for a spammer. I don't have to look any further than my mailserver logs to see how much of a problem that is. All day long, my machine is refusing connections from machines in the DHCP pools of consumer broadband ISPs who specifically prohibit running servers.
~Philly
This is why you pirate QT (Score:1, Interesting)
QT should be free. MS doesn't charge for WMP. QT might be worth it, but you have to pay extra for MPEG2.
Ridiculous.
And they keep updating QT with no consideration for previous licenses. So Apple has essentially said "you're better off pirating".
I should not have to keep buying QT over and over. Plus, people who are nice enough to give Apple $130 for an OS update should get a QT license for free.
So Apple is saying "please don't pay, get a keygen. PLEASE!!!!"
I had a car like that (Score:2, Interesting)
It was a used postal jeep, I had rebuilt nearly every part on it. Steering wheel on the wrong side, it started with a screwdriver though (not as secure as the linux analogy you make, so I had to hide an ignition cut out switch--security through obscurity, donchano) I finally got a real job, and bought a vw tdi. Now I burn biodiesel, instead of the methanol you mention.
Re:port to x86? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple could sell OSX for x86, and benefit from the cutthroat pricing of x86 hardware, and the incredible choice of peripherals -- instead of the elitist pricing of mac hardware and the incredible lack of peripherals.
Apple is already competing with microsoft. Selling OSX for x86 would change nothing (except let OSX leverage hardware it doesnt currently have access to).