David MacNeil, editor-in-chief of Digital Camera Magazine recently tested the public beta of Mac OS X, which is due March 24. And he feels that the next generation operating system “revitalizes the moribund state of PC operating systems, from how they are designed and maintained to how they look and feel.”
“Most importantly, X dramatically improves the quality of the time we spend with our computers, a factor that seems to have been overlooked by every computer company except Apple,” MacNeil said.
What’s more, the editor-in-chief wrote that Macs are “the machines on which the future of computing is designed, tested, and launched into public consciousness.” And OS X is just the latest example of this grand tradition, he adds.
“Microsoft Windows always has — and I’m sure always will — look gaudy, busy, and overstated, like a cigarette billboard, a Mexican restaurant, or a 30-second political commercial,” MacNeil said. “Bill Gates has made a staggering fortune by not underestimating the public’s willingness to accept whatever products are thrown at them, as long as they are cheap and keep coming fast and furious. Nothing I’ve seen in the way of Microsoft’s future visions for Windows leads me to believe anything will change in this regard.”
Then there is Macintosh, he said. “It has always looked elegant; to some, even austere. There is a calmness, a stillness you feel when you walk into an office full of Macs,” MacNeil opined. “The displays themselves seem more like fully-detailed solid objects, waiting for a touch to spring into service. Macs never demand, they invite.”
Check out the “Digital Camera” story/review for details on the editor-in-chief’s reaction to specific OS X features.
Meanwhile, Macworld’s Brett Larson is keeping an OS X diary. The latest entry said that the “new habits” required of the operating system come easily, especially if you “use it for a few minutes without criticism, and then make up your mind.”
“All in all, given a few days at the controls of your very own computer, you will wonder how you ever lived without OS X,” writes Larson.