Mac OS X Tiger

Greetings All,

thought I'd post my initial impressions of the latest OS.

I received it on the day of release (29th April) here in Australia at around 10am. I was home from work sick, so I didn't make it to the door for the delivery guy, but being the conscientious retard that he was, he left it on my doorstep so anyone could grab a copy.

So I open it up and there's lots of paper (DUH) a single DVD, and a simple "installation" guide and a "getting started" booklet.

Quick scanning everything, there was nothing overly important in the collection.

So I decided to do an upgrade. Mind you I was moving from 10.2 to 10.4 so it was a huge leap for me comparitively. It went smoothly in about 30 minutes, and then the problems started. I couldn't CTRL-CLICK anything (it would restart Finder), I couldn't use the left most column of my desktop (wouldn't let any icons reside there), and copying/burning files was causing me a headache.

I endured for 1 day (Saturday) then bit the bullet, backed everything up via the airport network to my Wife's machine and then installed from scratch. VOILA!

All my problems disappeared. It would seem that my old preferences, etc, messed with the OS to a degree that it caused me problems. The mouse issue I'm guessing was connected to Logitech's control centre for my mouse, so I will have to wait for a new version to be able to use the full capabilities.

So onto the exploration.

I do not like the new interface paradigm. Perhaps I need to get used to it, however I really don't like the feel of it. Something about it reminds me too much of Microsoft Office for Windows when they tried to add the favourites bar to the left of their products so you could "run your computer" via the Startup bar. I'll of course have to live with it, or discover I can switch it off (like the old windows 2000 UI in XP), or I embrace it and remove my own "favourites" link folder from my dock and use the finder's version.

The secret to the new UI are the short cut keys. With these at your fingertips you will be able to perform things quickly.

There is a new option that allows you to specific an application as Open at Login. This I love. I normally start Mail and BBEdit quite regularly so having them automatically open is great.

Spotlight rocks. I was sceptical about it at first. Imagine a search facility that indexed everything - pretty silly I thought. It is great. It even grabs mail that mentions the specified search string. It is sweet. I've used it a few times, and now I don't think I can ignore it.

Dashboard - its cute. That pretty much sums it up. There is a way to get the widgets onto your desktop, however they disappear when you restart Dashboard again to make a change. Its a little cumbersome, but I'm sure when I am used to the hot keys that it will be great. I do like the weather widget, and the Dictionary widget.

Mail is much improved. I always liked its Junk filtering/bounce to sender facilities, however in 10.2 it could support my way of emailing (mulitple accounts etc etc). Now it does. And it does so nicely. Still concerned about some hanging but that was during the "evil day of upgrade" so it might not be there anymore.

As an aside I upgraded to BBEdit 8.2 Wow. They've improved the UI to simplify certain tasks, so I'm happy.

Safari RSS - too slow to render even the most basic sites. I have a site I'm developing with Mambo CS and Firefox/IE load it up quick smart, while Safari takes its sweet time. Not sure what is causing this, more investigation will be required.

Automator ... workflows ... cool. It looks a little daunting at first, but it can prompt users for input during a workflow execution and allows you to cater for a range of actions. I'm going to give a go at writing a "remove .DStore files" workflow and see if it is easy.

Fontbook. I've been wanting a good font organiser for the Mac for a while, and at least they've added one. Its not the biggest and best but it does its job without a complaint. That's good enough for me. You can't avoid certain Asian fonts being installed by applications so disabling them is a great feature.

I've been slowly divesting myself of the old software haunting my machine (non-Mac products) and either going Mac or open source. Firefox is still my favourite browser, while Mail has now won over Thunderbird simple because of its integration with Address book and iCal.

The Installation also came with a demo of Pages, the new Word Processor. It looks cool, and I tested out a resume template, seems pretty straight forward. However I think it has a way to go before it can kill Word. And I still prefer Office to Open Office, but that's my preference.

The System Preferences have seen some changes in the way they do things. Some are good, some are "dont' care" and others are "big deal <sarcasm>".

I've not tested the new Development environment as of yet. Not even installed it.

There is more, so much more, but for now those are the things I use regularly enough.

D

Friday evening I went to my local Apple store for a Family Pack of Tiger, and ran into a former neighbor, also a Mac-addict, whom I had not seen in years. That made the trip alone worth the effort.

That night, I installed Tiger on 3 Macs without a hitch. My 6-year old daughter’s Mac, a “desk lamp” iMac, would not accept the upgrade and I didn’t install it on my G4, as I was (legally) d’loading Bryce 5.5 at the time (very slow server on their end...took 6+ hours).

The next morning, I caught my Mac having breakfast, as it installed language packs. “Installing Danish” indeed.

While Tiger seemed to install normally on my G4, I ended up watching a blue screen for over 3 hours, after installing Bryce. After some research, I purchased and used DiskWarrior on my G4 and my daughter’s iMac. Both took Tiger with no complaints, after that.

Granted, when I went in for DiskWarrior, I succumbed to a moment of weakness. I took one for the team, as it were, by purchasing a new 2.7 GHz PowerMac. I figured if I did not buy it now, the dual-core models would never come out in June.

So, how long until we see Dashboard widgets for dice-rolling and character generation?

My machine is 6 yrs old (PowerMac G4/400) so I'm waiting for it to be pre-installed before I take a look. How does it work with programs which weren't built for 10.4?

I have no software "built for 10.4"

In fact I doubt that it exists.

Things I've noticed thus far that have been great: I don't go and install everything I used when I reinstall an OS, just as I need it.

GIMP Print drivers are included in the installation. I am using an old HP Laserjet 4L printer for my bulk printing (old paralell interface) via a Belkin Paralell -> USB cable. Under 10.2 I had to load up Ghost Script/Print to print to this set up. Tonight I printed out something and voila, plugged in the USB cable and it recognised the laserjet with the Gimp Drivers, and the output was better than the 10.2 output. Sweet.

10.4 automatically comes with a ZIP tool. It is inbuilt into the OS so you can open/create ZIP files with ease. Makes it easier to share files across OSes. Although I used Stuffit regularly (I have a full version), it doesn't work with 10.4 so well, and to be honest the company that makes StuffIt is a bit dodgy IMO. So I got the freebie StuffIt expander (using the Apple link, not the Stuffit website) for those SIT and HQX files I come across but I'm sticking to ZIP.

My old software seems to be working ok. I use Word/Excel v.X (no Entourage now that Mail has picked up some slack). I still play Warcraft III, and Dreamweaver MX and Photoshop 7 seem to be AOK.

I think it is more of a core upgrade, speed improvements, usability improvements etc, over a change of everything.

D

Cool. Thanks.

Steve Jung said:

Cool. Thanks.

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Old Bungie fan I see from your avatar. I still miss them since they fell into darkness and evil, in Redmond, where the shadows lie.

So far Im loving spotlight. THe konfabulator ripoff (dashboard) is meh to me, as Konfab has more widgets that I use and is prettier, IMO. Havent tried the automated robot yet, but has promise. Working at an edu rocks for the discount on Tiger (70.00!).

Yes for educational prices, I get them too.

Apple has one of the best educational support schemes that I know of in the PC market (PC as in personal computer).

I'm quite enjoying the new OS, however I'm still iffy about the interface. That side bar is getting to me, and hiding it doesn't make the UI look great. Bring on the skins!!!

D

Rackhir said:

Old Bungie fan I see from your avatar. I still miss them since they fell into darkness and evil, in Redmond, where the shadows lie.

Click to expand...

Ah. Pathways and the Marathons. Those were the days.

dvvega said:

That side bar is getting to me, and hiding it doesn't make the UI look great.

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The side panels were also in Panther, if they are what I think you're talking about.

As mentioned I jumped from 10.2 to 10.4

Even at educational prices I find it hard to spend $100+ Australian on an OS when the older OS was doing just fine. The main reason I upgraded was because I had to reprogram the airport I bought to make the wife happy (she didn't like the cables running around the place)

Of course I could have gotten a netgear ADSL modem + wireless router + firewall much cheaper, but I'm a Mac addict

D