Alan Zisman is a Vancouver
(BC, Canada) computer-using elementary school teacher and technology
journalist. This article was first published in Alan Zisman's "High
Tech Office" column in Business in
Vancouver. These and his other writing are available on his
website, www.zisman.ca.
Most of the attention at last month's Macworld Expo focused on
Apple's redesigned iMac computer. A one-line remark of Apple CEO Steve
Jobs was, perhaps, more significant to the company and its users'
future.
Jobs mentioned that effective immediately, all Macs would be
shipping with the company's next-generation operating system,
OS X, as the default.
Turn on a new Mac, and you'll be greeting with OS X's throbbing,
glowing interface. While Macs have been shipping with both OS X
and the older OS 9 installed, they have been booting up to the old
look and feel. It was up to users to choose to turn on OS X. Now
users will have to consciously opt for the old way of working.
Apple was proclaiming that OS X, officially released last March, is
finally ready for people to use on a daily basis.
Initially this wasn't the case. The first official release sported
Apple's new futuristic Aqua user interface, and the power and stability
of OS X's Unix core.
But too often it was painfully slow, especially when starting up
programs. And given Apple's ambition for its computers to be a "digital
hub" connecting cameras, music players, CD burners, and more, I was
surprised that there wasn't much support for these or other hardware
devices. Moreover, when the operating system was new, hardly any
software was designed to make full use of its power. Most older Mac
programs would run in OS X's Classic Mode, but why would users
bother?
OS X looked great, and it was clearly Apple's vision of the future.
But when it first came out, there really wasn't much point in actually
using it.
A lot has changed since last spring. Much of the improvement is due
to the September release of the free OS X 10.1 update.
Programs start up much faster. When you start a program in
OS X, its icon bounces expectantly in the Dock along the bottom of
the screen. In the original version, Internet Explorer took a painful
13 bounces to start up on my aging iMac. With the new version it opens
in 5 bounces. The Sherlock search tool used to take five bounces, now
it's up in a speedy one bounce.
The update added much-needed support for hardware. Many CD-burners,
digital cameras, and printers now work as soon as they're plugged in.
It's still not perfect; there's not enough support for scanners or many
older devices, for example.
And there's starting to be OS X-native software. Apple claims more
than 2,500 applications. Many of these are things that most users have
never heard of and will never use, but the major players are starting
to release OS X versions of their products, often with new
features. Corel, for example, has been bringing out OS X versions
of much of its graphics product line, getting a jump on competitor
Adobe. Microsoft's newly released Office v. X brings a perky
version of that industry standard to Apple's platform (see last week's
column). And OS X's Unix core makes it easier to make
industrial-strength Unix and Linux applications run on Macs.
Not all the key pieces of software are available for OS X yet.
Adobe demonstrated a new version of Photoshop at last month's Macworld
Expo but stayed mum about the release date, although the company has
released several other products for OS X. Without Photoshop and
Quark XPress, many Mac graphics users aren't going to move over to the
new environment.
Apple's been working to replace the traditional Mac operating system
for the better part of a decade. Now, in deciding that all new Macs
will boot up to OS X, Apple decided that its technology (and
users) are finally ready to make the change.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
