Even though most reviewers think that Mac users should wait a bit before upgrading, positive notices for Mac OS X continue to appear in the writings of technology columnists.
“There’s real excitement about Mac OS X, and every software and hardware manufacturer of any note has pledged its support,” writes Andy Ihnatko (well known to Mac users) in the Chicago Sun-Times . He praises the system’s UNIX underpinnings, but adds, “For all of X’s open-source heritage, though, most users will see its Unix underpinnings only when they notice that their Mac is now nearly crash-proof, and is much more efficient and agile in allocating memory and processor time to its apps.”
Ihnatko also praises the look and feel of Mac OS X. It has “hands-down, the most sophisticated and elegant user-interface I’ve seen in an OS,” he writes.
Mac OS X is clearly a Version 1.0. It could still stand a lot of tweaking, and many new bugs are being discovered. Still, where the public beta (released last year) raised as much doubt as excitement, users are almost universally reacting to 1.0 as something we can all use and support, hoping for nothing more than a little fine-tuning.
Paul Vaughn of the San Antonio Express-News agrees.
“One thing any user notices immediately: OS X is beautiful,” he said. “The interface, called Aqua, is well designed and sports larger icons and windows have elegant drop shadows and jewel-like buttons that light up when you mouse over them.”
He also likes the Dock. Vaughn finds it useful, though admitting that it’s very different than the Mac OS with which we’ve become familiar.
“Ironically, it may be new Mac users who will get the most out of this OS the quickest,” Vaughn said. “Hardcore Mac users have a lot to unlearn. Interface elements that I have known since the 1980s have changed. How do I select a printer? How do I connect to another Mac? It definitely feels like a plunge off the deep end.”
The writer said that Mac OS 9.1 would be supported through at least 2003 (a timetable that I hadn’t heard before). But Vaugh said that now is the time to install and learn OS X, because it’s “definitely the future of Macintosh computing — a future most Mac users will welcome.”
Mac OS X was worth the wait, opines Mike Langberg in the Stamford Advocate . Though it “still has a few missing pieces and therefore isn’t ready for the average home user,” it should be soon, he said.
“I’m betting OS X will be safe for mainstream customers in four to six months,” Langberg writes. “OS X … offers a stunning new user interface, bringing the screen to life with colorful and sharply rendered icons and windows. The interface also makes it easier and more fun to launch applications, manage files and perform other routine chores. But the most important changes are under the hood, where Apple has revamped the internal plumbing in ways that make computers running the OS X software far more reliable and efficient.”