The wait is over: After seven long years, Apple hits the mark with OS X.
Mac users, you're not going to like this.
Not at first, anyway, and maybe not even for a day or two. An operating system upgrade is supposed to make your life easier, not force you to spend hours figuring out how to perform everyday tasks. But then again, Mac OS X isn't just any upgrade.
Instead of a smattering of incremental improvements, OS X is a great leap forward. Since its humble beginning in 1994 under the name Copland, OS X has endured a variety of dead-ends and name changes before finally making it to the market. The result, however, is a UNIX-based OS that, in time, should bring Mac users tremendous gains in stability and performance.
That said, OS X does have its drawbacks: printer support is largely absent, and using your old applications can be a chore. But the positives outweigh the negatives. OS X delivers the goods Mac users have long desired: a reliable, high-performance system that excels in graphics capabilities and looks good, to boot.
A new way of doing things
Installing OS X actually begins with the installation of OS 9.1, unless, of course, you have it already. OS X is so different from its predecessors that it can only run old software in Classic mode, which relies on version 9.1. Once OS X is installed, your first reaction will likely be awe: Colours are vivid and sharp and the 128 by 128 pixel icons are detailed.
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System Preferences have taken the place of Control Panels.
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Save dialogue boxes are now called Sheets. They travel with the object being saved.
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Your iDisk account (a part of Apple iTools) can now be easily mounted on the desktop, without having to visit Apple.com. Just select Go/iDisk from the Finder pulldown menu.
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A new version of QuickTime, version 4.6, ships with OS X.
Your second reaction, however, may be annoyance: Things have changed a great deal in this version of the OS. Gone are the launcher, control strip and much of the Apple menu. Instead, these mainstays have been rolled into the Dock, a toolbar fixed at the bottom of the desktop that provides access to common applications and utilities. The size of the Dock can be altered and even hidden when not in use, but it can't be moved. Window Shade is also history. Open and Close buttons on Finder windows are now grouped in the upper left corner and look like a sideways traffic light. Control Panels are now called System Preferences. The Sheets feature now saves your pictures and documents, replacing pop-up dialogue boxes. Sheets travel with the window they modify without preventing users from accessing other windows.
Also, Apple's suite of free online tools, iTools, has been skillfully integrated into the OS.
Keeping up appearances
Quartz, OS X's new 2D graphics system gives it an ultra-crisp appearance. Based on Adobe PDF technology, Quartz makes features like icon drop shadows and translucent menus possible. The pulsating blue user interface is called Aqua, which is full of redesigned buttons and menus. OS X's graphics system includes built-in OpenGL and QuickTime 4.6, making new levels of display possible. Users can now play a QuickTime movie within the Finder window without having to open a separate application. And since the graphics system uses PDF technology, OS X's graphics applications will be able to save files in this format.
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