The Jaguar is Loose
Last night was a watershed moment for Mac nerds everywhere as Apple released the enormous update to OSX known as Jaguar. Well, it's not really called Jaguar, but 10.2 - Apple adopted the feline code name (which they've done with all X releases, from Cheetah to Puma to Jaguar and a rumored Panther 10.3) and used it as a marketing gimmick - which for all intents and purposes appears to have worked.
Thousands packed Jaguar launch events last night at Apple retail stores all over the country. Here in Atlanta, one attendee reported somewhere between 700-1000 people waiting in line and hobnobbing into the wee hours of the morning.
There has always been something eerie about these "retail events," for when you boil it all down we're still talking about a product - a machine - an operating system. But when you look at the long lines, the enthusiasm, the women dressing up in leapord print skirts and shirts, it's clear that Apple - at the end of the day - is an amazingly cohesive sub-cultural community every other technology company dreams of.
You don't see people dressing up as cows and standing in line at Gateway (well, except the employees maybe). Nor did the launch of Windows XP attract all that much interest (I was accosted several times by Microsoft employees in Staples to "Upgrade Your PC!" during that time).
Apple, and this is clearly old news, has that certain something that makes people love their machines, and feel inspired just holding one. Midnight madness events like these remind me just how passionate, and borderline insane Apple people really are. I've drank my fair share of the Cupertino cider, but I have my limits - you'd never catch me standing in line on a Friday night in front of an Apple store. You'd be lucky to get me inside a mall even.
So after the balloons have been popped and Steve Jobs leaves the festivities to wring out his signature black Armani mock turtleneck from all the slobbering masses, is the upgrade worth it? Absolutely.
I have tested developer builds of 10.2 since May, which at that time was riddled with bugs and numerous incompatibilities (as you'd expect from an early build). The OS was so unstable you wouldn't dare use it as your default OS. But the final build of 10.2, in retail stores now, is easily the most mature, well-rounded Mac operating system - ever.
For those installing 10.2 today, or over the next week or two, remember this - after upgrading (which takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on your rig) don't expect an immediate cavalcade of changes from 10.1. What makes 10.2 such a well-designed, thoughtful release is that all the updates, tweaks, and add-ons are mostly under the hood; accentuating and expanding the features you already had.
Use the OS for a few hours, and you'll find the improvements - a more robust, speedier Finder, more control over font sizes and icons, spring loaded folders, search fields in every Finder window, a brilliant user preference to customize the insertion of media, better firewall and web / file / usb printer sharing, the most robust support for users with dissabilitites I've ever seen, and tons of other little options that put you - the user - in control of your experience.
Beyond the preferences and Finder there are a handful of new and completely revamped applications including Sherlock 3 (which will stun anyone who never tried Watson), the AIM instant messenger clone iChat, an overhauled Address Book and Mail application, and for those with a relatively new AGP video graphics card, the new OpenGL video compositing engine Quartz Extreme.
I have heard from others who do plenty of work moving files between Windows desktops and file servers that 10.2's Windows compatibility is seamless, and amazingly easy.
My first priority after installing 10.2 was to ditch was my previous email / calendar client - Microsoft Entourage - and move everything over to the new Address Book. Reason? Because the Address Book has been vastly improved to act as a central database for all your contact information. Once filled, any OS X application can plug-in and use the data in a variety of ways - send mail, instant message, and with the forthcoming free iCal desktop calendar, set up appointments, meetings, and other events - all synced together. Toss in the also forthcoming iSync, a free digital device synchronization utility, and you can even sync up your Palm, mobile phone, or - all with your central Address Book.
By consolidating your information in the operating system's database, instead of a proprietary application like Entourage (which, to be fair, is a great application), you then open yourself up to even more future roads of integration from third party software developers that'll create "smart" apps to use your Address Book data in a variety of ways.
When you put all the pieces together, Jaguar is exciting not only because of everything that comes in that leapord printed box, but the new avenues of integration that will undoubtedly come as a result.
And now, like all journalists are so-well trained to do, comes the potential negatives. Apple has thankfully bundled FTP support directly into the Finder, so you can copy files to your web host as easily as an external drive, but it's very buggy. In fact, it barely works. Developers I've spoken to state that Apple is well aware of the problem, and will likely release a small update in the next few weeks to fix it.
Font management, while improved, is still a hornet's nest for graphic designers. If you want to be productive, and not bog your system down with hundreds of "active" typefaces, you simply must use a font management utility like Extensis Suitcase.
The Finder, while vastly improved and faster than ever, is still not as fast as some OS 9 users would like. That said, if you get used to OS X's column view, you'll move files faster than you ever could in 9. But scrolling up and down in "list" view is still a little bumpy.
Of all the apps on my G4, the only one that crashes just about every time I use it is Internet Explorer. In Jaguar, things haven't changed one bit - which means the problem is in Microsoft's hands. In the meantime, for those who like Aqua-styled browsers but are sick of IE's erratic behavior, check out Chimera.
And then of course there is the one, last straggler to the party - QuarkXpress. Quark is a sloth in the software business, releasing new versions once every 5 years or so, with hardly any improved functionality. By the time OS X 10.1 was released, Quark came out with QuarkXPress 5.0 which finally included a platinum interface. Yes, platinum. Despite Quark's press releases and promises of an OSX version "soon," chances are QuarkXPress users will be booting up Classic for quite a while. Unless of course they do what I do - ditch Quark and use Adobe InDesign, which has worked quite well with OSX for months.
As for third party conflicts with the new operating system, there are hardly any to report. I've heard complaints about a few mouse and printer drivers, several small shareware apps, etc., but nothing major. If you do own and use a variety of applications, large and small, be sure to check the applicable developer's web sites (or VersionTracker) for new updates to coincide with 10.2. The past week has been filled with small, but important updates, as will the weeks ahead.
After personally being pretty ticked off about the upgrade price, I can easily say it's well worth the price of admission, especially with so many free returns coming soon.
Comments
Nice summary, Todd. So much for avoiding from Mac posts ... Never mind, it's out gain.
Posted by: Dan at August 24, 2002 12:44 PM
Sorry ... "our" gain.
Posted by: Dan at August 24, 2002 12:45 PM
I'm here reading (and promoting What Do I Know) at the Fashion Island Apple Store. Even after last nights launch this place is still packed with people who have never touched a Macintosh in their life.
I myself and preparing to switch, just as soon as I can get in line.
Posted by: Greg at August 24, 2002 3:37 PM
I actually went down to the Mall of America (minneapolis) Apple store last night and I'd estimate there were at LEAST 2500 people in line through the night. An Apple store guy said they'd expected about 500 and ended up getting more than the grand opening! I got there before 10:20 and didn't actually get into the store until 11:45 -- and there were still probably 7-800 people in line! Amazing. People were buying plenty of stuff, too, what with 10% discounts. I bet Apple's checkbook is bursting today.
I am SO eager to get the junk mail filters... but alas, I didn't not buy anything last night. I will be placing an order for a new machine in the next few days and I'll get X.2 with it.
Thanks for the great write-up.
And yes, InDesign totally rocks. I've left QXP far behind...
Posted by: jeremy w at August 24, 2002 5:43 PM
1-2 hours to install? i wasn't intimidated until now.
Posted by: dave at August 24, 2002 7:02 PM
I ditched Quark for InDesign when I changed jobs and thankfully had free reign on what I wanted. It works better with Photoshop and Adobe.... And works well with other programs too. I've sent more files off and rarely do I have problems. If I do, it's one of these small shops still running Quark off of a 68k machine. So I export a PDF from InDesign and we're both happy.
Posted by: m.kelley at August 25, 2002 1:41 AM
Upgrading only took about 30 minutes on my G3/450 with 512 RAM.
Posted by: Manuel at August 25, 2002 2:59 AM
I also ditched Entourage for the less feature laden, but more open Mail.app. One thing i noticed is that my mail database file in Entourage shrank from 950 MB to just over 600 in Mail.apps MBOX format. Bonus!
Installasjon (clean install with drive format) took just over 20 minutes on my humble Pismo PowerBook.
Posted by: Adrian at August 25, 2002 6:08 AM
You're right. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I typed "1-2 hours." Maybe it just felt that long. I changed it to the more realistic 30 minutes to an hour, which should cover everyone.
Posted by: Todd at August 25, 2002 9:27 AM
One thing that struck me was how inconsistent the interface for iChat and the Address Book seemed with the rest of OS X - the heavy, brushed steel look that began with Quicktime and was then adapted for iTunes and iPhoto. It's nice that all these apps share the same look, but they suddenly seem un-OS X-ish, which tends to be fairly light, white, and borderless.
Posted by: josh at August 25, 2002 3:11 PM
And hairless.
Posted by: Brandon at August 25, 2002 7:48 PM
It depends on the type of upgrade - a clean install or one that archives the old system folder takes about 30 minutes. A true upgrade can take about an hour.
Greg, according to your weblog, you recently switched FROM Mac to Windows ... In fact, in one post you slam Apple (and Steve) and pronounce that you'll *never* switch back. What's up?
Here's a link to that post:
Posted by: Dan at August 25, 2002 7:57 PM
I don't have a mac, but I've been kicking around the idea of getting one. The following quote:
Of all the apps on my G4, the only one that crashes just about every time I use it is Internet Explorer.
Is this hyperbole? That's *a lot* of crashing!
Posted by: Jay at August 26, 2002 9:09 AM
No, the "IE is the only [app] that crashes just about every time I use it" is NOT hyperbole. I can use IE for about 15 minutes - tops - before it completely freezes and I have to Force Quit the app (which, thankfully, doesn’t bring down anything else like OS 9). Trust me, if Photoshop crashed just about every time I used it, I’d be pointing a big stinky finger at Adobe. But thus far, no app has given me the types of problems IE continues to provide - and I’ve tried everything.
Posted by: Todd at August 26, 2002 1:27 PM
So is it safe to say that if I ordered a new Powerbook from Apple I'd get 10.2 preinstalled?
Posted by: Jon at August 26, 2002 2:02 PM
Jon - I'd bet you would. Especially if you order it from Apple and not from a VAR like MacWarehouse or CDW. Most VAR's stockpile about 25-50 units, and ship those first. Those might not include Jaguar.
In that case, you'd have to do what I did - buy it and then pay $20 for the update.
I'd prefer to have purchased direct from Apple, but I was looking at shipping *and* tax.
Posted by: Dan at August 26, 2002 3:00 PM
Yes, it took about two hours to upgrade from an earlier built of 10.2. And I am also moving to mail, as it is such an elegant little piece of software. Oh, and did you see all the different characters in the Character palette? Take a look at the Tibetan Character set quite a source of inspiration onto itself. : )
Posted by: Witold at August 26, 2002 7:10 PM
