This article was originally published on Mac Addict, a
site which no longer exists. It is thus reprinted here without
permission (which we would gladly obtain if possible.) Links have been
retained when possible, but many go to the Internet Wayback Machine.
Lacking a systematic framework for understanding the clash of forces
in today's world, we are like a ship's crew, trapped in a storm and
trying to navigate between dangerous reefs without compass or
chart.
A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men
everywhere are trying to suppress it.
- Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave
Remember when you were a child?
Remember those times when you knocked a tooth loose? Ready to fall
out any second, it often seemed to dangle by a tender piece of gum
tissue. Sometimes, your tongue accidentally touched that tooth, causing
a slight stab of pain. After a while, you intentionally jabbed at the
tooth with your tongue, no matter how painful. A latent S&M impulse
we all possess? I don't know.
Mac OS X is my loose tooth, of late.
I don't know what it is, but something about OS X pains me. I try to
get it out of my mind, but I am drawn back to it again and again. Yet,
I could never figure out what it is that bothers me about Apple's next
generation of its venerable Mac Operating System.
And then it struck me: the OS's intuitiveness may be sacrificed for
next-generation features. For reason, many believe that OS X will be a
flop. A BIG flop.
I overheard a conversation last Sunday that echoed these fears:
"People are gonna hate OS X!" the lady said, her voice rising above
the volume necessary to carry on her conversation with the man in the
store's Apple section.
I was making a rare appearance at the local CompUSA's Mac section,
where I work every blue moon -- until the next Minnesota winter forces
me indoors, once again making CompUSA my weekend cure for cabin
fever.
But, I digress.
That day, I ran into the customer who'd made the previous comment to
one of our regular Mac shoppers.
"What don't you think people will like about OS X?" I interjected
into the conversation.
"The fact that it isn't OS 9," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"It isn't OS 9."
She argued that, according to Apple's web site and press releases,
it seems that OS X won't have the niceties that grace the current Mac
OS. That will elicit a hue and cry from some Mac users.
"So? People have always hued and cried over changes," I asked.
"'So?' So, it won't have the features that have spoiled Mac users
into expecting ease of use out of Apple products: the pop-up folders,
the control strip, the Apple Menu. Mac users aren't PC users, you know:
we don't put up with just any slop thrown into the code and called an
OS."
"But you haven't given OS X a chance," the other customer said.
"After all, it's only a developer-release stage, which is only an
'alpha' release; hell, the beta hasn't even been released yet. Besides,
you would appreciate the features of OS X if you had to deal with the
things I have had to suffer with OS 9. Like the time my Extensions
Manager kept crashing. I deleted preferences, rebuilt the desktop file,
everything. Then, I realized, 'hey, it's not a control panel; it's an
application.' So, I gave it more memory, and problem solved! That kind
of thing will never happen in OS X, where memory is allocated
dynamically. And imagine never having to reboot your computer for
anything except to install software?"
"Okay, I guess you have a point," we conceded. "We get it."
How about you? Do you "get" what OS X is all about? Do you get the
true significance of this paradigm-shifting upgrade to the venerable
Mac OS?
Sand fighting against the waves
Social critic Alvin Toffler, in his book The Third Wave,
describes the march of civilization's progress by using the metaphor of
three "waves" of change. Each wave represents the three major
evolutions of mankind's relationship to technology and the society that
it creates:
First Wave -- Highest technological advancement is the agrarian
society; family structure represented by the extended family.
Second Wave -- Industrial society, represented by the nuclear
family
He spends most of the book discussing and theorizing about the Third
Wave, yet he doesn't spell out a clear definition, like he does with
the previous two. But this much is known: in a Third Wave society, the
family is represented by the individual. We are, or will be, more
individualistic than ever before. Family ties will be tenuous due to
our having moved greater distances. Working longer hours and spending
more time in front of our computers will help create a society that is
more impersonal than ever before. Technology will change at a dizzying
pace, and likewise will be its growing influence on our lives.
Toffler argues that many of society's problems are due to our
collectively spending the last 50 years shifting from a Second-Wave
society to a Third-Wave society. This results in resistance to the
change, a change that is occurring whether we like it or not.
Sounds familiar?
Well, it should, since that is the type of "paradigm stress" and
"paradigm paralysis" that the advent of OS X is creating within the Mac
community. It's the proverbial change that is inevitableÖ
The Third Wave of Macintosh-dom?
Change has been needed in the Mac world for quite some time now, you
must admit. Sure, the Mac still leads in ease of use, and no other
computer racks up style points the way Apple's Macintosh does. But
there is something more troubling beneath all of the glitz surrounding
Apple's resurgence of the last two years.
Dare I say it? Yes, I dare: The Mac OS is old. It is antiquated. It
is behind the times.
Apple knows this. Those geekier than thou (and I) know this. Hey,
Windows actually has a leg up on us, if we're willing to stop looking
in the Mac mirror for one moment!
Excuse meÖ <washing my mouth out with soap>. There. Sorry
about that. I know I spoke truth, but I can't help but feeling
dirtyÖ
Now where was I? Oh, yes.
Apple knows that things have to be, uh, Done Different. This is
where OS X's radical changes come from. Apple is willing to do
something that Microsoft was not make a clean break with the past.
Windows was Borg'd onto DOS. With NT, Microsoft had a chance to make a
clean break, but they merely sewed the Windows GUI onto that New
Technology underneath. OS X is the equivalent of NT, except Apple is
rewriting the surface elements and the beneath-the-surface
elements.
Sure, like you, I often wonder if OS X is Steve Jobs' chance to
foist NeXT upon us. Sure, I wonder if the cart (form) is being placed
in front of the horse (substance). Sure, I wonder if Apple knows what
they are doing.
Well, recent history shows that they know much more than in times
past. Can you say Copland?
Earlier this week, I attended a technology expo called "Strictly
Business," at which Apple made a prominent appearance. I sat in on a
presentation that covered OS X. The presenter, an Apple employee, said
that OS 9 represents the furthest extent to which Apple can take the
current Mac OS with its present code base.
But sacrifices needed to be made in order to bring the Mac OS
up-to-date features like true memory protection and preemptive
multitasking.
I understand the need for these things, and so do you. But many of
us are wondering if Apple is changing many things for the sake of
change. The Dock looks good, but we will all miss the easy access and
functionality of the Apple Menu and the Control Strip. Also, echoing
the comments made in MWJ's June 3
issue, Apple may be making the OS X too much like Windows (MWJ is
referring to the fact that DP4's file-pathing scheme and folders are
now linked in the same fashion that makes Windows file management the
horror that it is).
It's understandable that such a ploy will attract the PC users and
those who are fed up with Microsoft, but will this
lowest-common-denominator scares many of us.
Again, we hope that Apple is living up to its claim that customers
are being listened to throughout this OS X effort.
Crossing our fingers
Apple has its work cut out, to be sure. As I've said at the outset,
the Mac OS is antiquated in many ways. So something must be done. But,
also, there are many things about Mac OS 9 that remain light years
ahead of Windows, many of which are ostensibly being tossed aside in
favor of the OS X (what many are asking for, I think, is for Apple to,
at the very least, provide OS X equivalents to some of the
set-it-above-the-rest features that are currently part and parcel of
the Mac OS.
Apple says it's listening to the customers and is modifying its
products accordingly. Yet I understand that every customer contention
cannot be taken into consideration. At some point hard decisions must
be made. I just ask that we be considered. I don't kid myself into
thinking I am on par with Apple software engineers, but I'd like to
think that Apple is aiming every consumer product to the average
user.
I feel pretty average, so that makes me an expert in terms of
pointing out good and bad things about OS X. I don't know much about OS
X, so notice I am not critiquing DP4 until it ships as a true beta
product.
Many of us feel that Apple should build OS X upon the strengths of
OS 9; we want an OS evolution, not a revolution. I, for one, will miss
OS 9, but I look forward to my copy of OS X Beta. The finished product,
however, is what we all are interested in. Will Apple really listen to
the customers and bring back some of the things that made the Mac,
well, a Mac?
Mac OS 9 had many things that have been "fixed" in OS X. But were
they really "broken"?
This summer will prove interesting. As a Mac user, I can't wait.
Nevertheless, OS 9, we will miss you. We only knew you for a short
while, but you will be missed terribly.
Rest in peace.
Rodney O. Lain writes the "iBrotha" on-line column for Mac Addict,
appearing the first and third Friday each month. Rodney hails from St.
Paul, Minnesota, where he divides his time between a freelance-writing
career and his "day job" as a supervisor at a major, international,
internet-related company. In addition to writing for Mac Addict, he
also writes for Low End
Mac, Applelinks
and The iMac, where he serves as Associate Editor. Rodney is
also a technology columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, a daily,
metropolitan newspaper that is part of the Knight-Ridder newspaper
chain. You can write to him at ibrotha@macaddict.com
