Mac OS X 10.1 Complete package

...with your slightly less solid Mac and going over to the Dark Side is something Apple do not want you to do. We've been waiting for X (pronounced Ten!!) for months, years, almost since the last one was released.

And here it is, in a workable state. In March, I think, OS X 10.0 was released. People loved it. It worked fast, it worked well. But not fast or well enough. There were missing features, and lots of them. Such as burning CD's, ...
...up about 90% of the Mac using population, Illustrator's new version (10) is carbonised, along with InDesign 2 and Macromedia's FreeHand 10.
Making a Cocoa applications is a lot more difficult for developers and requires a huge rewrite to go in to it. OK, I say huge, but that's only for huge apps. Most developers will use Carbon for a while, as it is easier to write for, and will be supported by OS 9 users. OS 9 users can not open Cocoa applications, ... more

I had to write about it eventually. I couldn't not write about something this important. Many people are saying it's the most important thing to happen to the Macintosh platform since PPC chips were installed. I'd say that's probably true. We've all been waiting with baited breath to stop the sniggers and for Apple to create the truly great OS which will silence all the critics and Windows users. The previous incarnation has lasted, pretty much faultlessly, since 1984, so why do we need a new one? Well, sometimes a change is better than a break. And instead of breaking up with your slightly less solid Mac and going over to the Dark Side is something Apple do not want you to do. We've been waiting for X (pronounced Ten!!) for months, years, almost since the last one was released.

And here it is, in a workable state. In March, I think, OS X 10.0 was released. People loved it. It worked fast, it worked well. But not fast or well enough. There were missing features, and lots of them. Such as burning CD's, DVD playback, DVD burning. As well as this many USB and FireWire devices didn't work. But in September they released 10.1, and after buying my iBook this week, that's what I got along with 9.2. I absolutely hate booting in to 9.2 now.

-SO WHAT'S DIFFERENT?-
Where shall we start? I'd describe OS X as "It's Macintosh, mate, but not as we know it." There is so much difference between X and 9. The first is a completely new 'core'. This means that it was created using completely different building blocks. But this also means that applications that previously ran under OS 9, won't run natively under OS X. Or will they? I'll discuss software options later...
Also the user interface is completely new. Apple call this the 'Aqua' system, and it's main function is a funky blue colour throughout the system on folders, with horizontal lines across it. This is apparant in many applications, the toolbars, the Dock and loads of other stuff.

-CARBON? COCOA? CLASSIC? ALL THE 'C's YOU WANT-
On OS X, applications are split in to three different schemes. Carbon is the main scheme that most applications run under. Carbon will also work on OS 8 and 9, if you have the free CarbonLib extensions running. A good example of this is 'MacSolitare' and MSN Messanger which, before upgrading, I had as Carbon applications on OS 9. It's relatively easy for a developer to make a carbon, and is just one of those easy jobs to do. For designers out there (which make up about 90% of the Mac using population, Illustrator's new version (10) is carbonised, along with InDesign 2 and Macromedia's FreeHand 10.
Making a Cocoa applications is a lot more difficult for developers and requires a huge rewrite to go in to it. OK, I say huge, but that's only for huge apps. Most developers will use Carbon for a while, as it is easier to write for, and will be supported by OS 9 users. OS 9 users can not open Cocoa applications, and are strictly OS X only.
The final class of applications is Classic applications which can be used under OS X. They are run under a system called Classic Environment which actually boots up OS 9 within OS X, and uses OS X as a wrapper. If your only using Classic applications, such as Photoshop, Quark and Dreamweaver a lot, it might be a good idea to stick with the Classic Environment. If your in that situation my advice is "OS X... sleep with it, but don't marry it, yet.".

-DOCK-
The dock is the latest thing for OS X, and has been the most contreversial item in OS X. It's an application launcher, window manager and app switcher combined. Frequently used applications (both your choice and Apple's choice) are kept in there. My machine came with IE5, iTunes, Finder, iMovie, Sherlock, System Preferences, QuickTime and Trash in there. I have added Classic Word, my Applications (X) and Applications (9) folder, as well as my MP3's folder. when you open a window from it, it'll do a genie effect, as it pops out, then expands to size. It's great, but a waste of processing time. Fortunately, if you get annoyed with it (or it's processor-hungry render times!), you can go in to the Dock preferences and flick it off. Or change it for the much less complex Scale option, which just makes the window expand to it's size, rather than deform to it.

-NEW FEATURES OF 10.1-
The main new feature of 10.1 is a movable dock. You can now ship the dock over to the left or right of your screen, and make it disappear. I still keep it at the bottom, and when I use Photoshop 6, I make it disappear so I can utilise the whole screen for my Photoshop work.
Another big feature is Print Center. I cannot underestimate it's greatness. I take my laptop in to school everyday, and to print out work, I bring in a USB cable. On Wednesday (the first day I brought it in), I just plugged in to the printer and instantly Print Center loaded up, identified the printer and let me print out from any Carbonised or Cocoa-based applications. Unfortunately, you need to download and install the Classic drivers to get the printer working with your old Classic apps (which in my case is Word, Photoshop and tons more...). But, I only really use two different printers, so I can install my home ones, and hassle the college to give me a HP deskjet printer CD.
I was really chuffed when I plugged in my iomega CD-burner (the ZipCD 650 for those interested), and iTunes instantly recognised it and let me burnt a CD using it. Mac OS X and iTunes 2 (the new version!) burn CD's quicker than I ever see, even if it had to do it at 2x. It shaves many minutes off the burn times, god knows how, and unlike OS 9, you can do other things at the same time. I was downloading MP3's and browsing the web at the same time as copying a CD.
The other thing, this will interest movie fanatics who have just bought a DVD-compatible Mac, is the support for DVD playback. OS X has a DVD player application with it, and it really does most films justice. I watched American Pie, James Bond and Only Fools and Horses Series One (buy it!!), via OS X, and they all look fantastic. As good as any other DVD seperate (and my brother's PlayStation 2), this kicks some ass. I wouldn't reccomend watching movies on your computer, but buying a TV seperate instead, but if your a student who needs a computer for work and movies, getting a DVD-edition Mac is a great idea with the excellent playback on OS X.
The System Preferences dialog. Unlike Classic Macintosh, where you went in to your Control Panels folder (in your Apple Menu), you have to launch up a seperate program for your system preferences. if you have loads of controls and preferences to change, this is good, as you don't have loads of windows open, you just have one. The system preferences in OS 10.1 are:
Personal: Desktop (choose your background), Dock (dock options), General (appearance and scroll bars), International, Login, Screen Saver, Universal Access (like the previous Accessibility controls on 9).
Hardware: ColorSync (get colours looking nice on your mac), Displays (set display options), Energy Saver, Keyboard, Mouse, Sound.
Internet & Network: Internet, Network, QuickTime, Sharing (includes the popular Apache web server!!).
System: Classic (to control and boot up OS 9 inside OS X), Date and Time, Software Update, Speech, Startup Disk (where you go to boot in to OS 9), Users.

-MENU OPTIONS-
Now, at the top right of every Mac OS X screen, there are a number of options. They let you control the essential aspects of your computer, just like Control Strip did for OS 9, and the horrible Taskbar thingy does for Windows. Up there, on my machine there are 5 items: the time and date, the battery icon showing me how much battery I've got, and with one click how much time it's estimated to go, Sound volume, Monitors (resolution and colours), and finally the Internet conenction status. It goes greyed if I am not connected, flashes and dances while I am connecting or disconnecting and goes dark black when connected. You can also load up Internet Connect from this menu. They're handy, but as more and more innovations come along, how they're going to coexist with the menus I am not sure. But I don't have to think about that. If Apple wanted to do that, that's fine with me. They've been designing computers before I was born!!

-FINDER-
The new Finder is a bit different from the OS 9 Finder. For example, you now have a removable toolbar at the top of each finder window, where you can put commands like 'Back' (previous folder), Path, View, Eject Disk, Burn CD, Customise, New Folder, Delete, Connect, Find, 'Computer' (basically takes you to a list of all drives, network connections etc...), 'Home' (your home directory), iDisk, Favourites, Applications, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures and Public.
You can also get rid of this toolbar. The Finder navigation is a lot more Windows like, but the biggest innovation is the Columns view. You have to try it to understand it.

-FILE NAMES-
A very bizarre aspect of the OS, if I say so myself: the Mac now handles file names much more like Windows. You download a file, say a Word document. It'll keep it's .doc ending, but won't show it in the Finder. When you email the file, it'll get it's three letter extension back. You can also have a very bizarre bug in the Finder, where you can have loads of different documents all with the same name, but with different extensions. For example, take a PDF, Word Document and MP3 and call them the same thing and OS X will let them co-exist...

-NETWORK FRIENDLINESS-
Macs haven't been great at networking before. Now they're the best. AppleTalk is still supported, so you can upgrade your Mac with no fear as it will talk natively to other Macs. TCP/IP services have been upgraded in this version and you can serve files over the web using the ultra-reliable Apache (no IIS! Whopee!!), and (heres the biggie...) you can now join Windows networks using SMB!! Yeah!! Just plug in, and your Mac will operate just like a good-natured Windows machine but without the 'orrible, ugly interface and bad design! A major plus in my book.

-DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY-
For those in to digital snaps, OS X is perfect as well. It fully supports the new Picture Transfer Protocol, which creates a standard between camera and computer. Plug in most USB digicams and it'll just grab all the pictures off it, and you can even give it jobs to do like 'get ready for the web', resize etc... which it will do on the fly as it is downloading the pictures from the camera. Of course, you'll want Photoshop or the new MacGIMP to edit them on.

-PERFORMANCE-
The new version is very good. In terms of performance, it still feels like a slight step back from OS 9, but as they say "one step back, two steps forward". The old adage better be true, or else I promise I won't rest until I go and kill the person that originally invented it. Although applications are slower to load, and slower to operate (need... more... RAM...), it is relatively crash-free. No, why did I say relatively? Since Tuesday, under OS X, I haven't had a crash yet. I have had to force quit some naughty applications, but have never had to push restart.

-SOFTWARE-
I would like to dispel the myth that Macs only run Photoshop and Quark. These days most PC software gets ported to the Mac (and vice-versa). If your a gamer, buy a Playstation. But, if your interested in being innovative and creating interesting artwork, get a Mac. Currently, I've got programs like Appleworks, iMovie, iTunes, MSN Messanger, ICQ, Internet Explorer and Quicktime, all running natively. And I've got Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash and loads more running under Classic. The X-based software can only get better, as previous Mac developers carbonise and cocoa-enhance their software, and UNIX programs like OpenOffice and GIMP get ported to the Mac OS X. It'll become the best alternative OS out there.

-AGAINST THE COMPETITION-
[ Mac OS 9 ]
It shapes up nicely as the next step, and instead of cutting off all it's OS 9 bridges, it still keeps them there, reducing the amount of times you need to restart and boot in to OS 9. It also crashes a lot less (like 100% less!). I haven't had a crash since I got OS X!!

[ Windows XP ]
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. OS X design team must be very flattered, I don't think. NT core? Do I give a dogs droppings? No, Apple continue to lead the innovations and Microsoft continue to copy them and make them worse. Stop getting overhyped about things like the new Windows Media Player. The iTunes and QuickTime combination kick a lot more ass than that. And if you ever wonder where the awful Windows Movie Maker got it's interface from, think iMovie.
That Darwin and Mach core to OS X actually makes it a whole lot more stable than XP could ever be. Plus, on an image basis, do you really want to buy something that's been advertised by Madonna? No thanks. For creative, design and multimedia, Mac is the only choice. The only reason Microsoft can get away with this slanderous insult to OS X is the fact that if Apple get aggravated about it, there won't be Office for Mac anymore...

[ UNIX ]
OS X takes many parts of it's design from UNIX, Linux and most obviously, the BSD flavour of UNIX. You can boot straight in to Terminal from OS X, and that makes it in to a 'proper' OS. I managed without it for all these years, but it's nice to know that we now have it. UNIX is too complicated for the masses. But OS X has the power and stability of UNIX, and a terminal command line. Plus, it's simple and easy enough for your granny to understand. Even my nan likes the Mac!!

-SUMMING UP-
OS X is a whole lot better than anything that the Wintel world have got to offer. It's easier to use, and less complicated than Linux / BSD / UNIX etc, yet still has all the best features. Next time you buy a computer, and you want an easy to use OS, with heaps of software, get a Mac running X. As another reviwer said: "Jump in, the waters good!"

The only problem I've had so far is the fact that it is so large that you can't possible cover all the ideas in one opinion. For example, bad spellers out there on this site will love the fact that you can use TextEdit's spellchecker right in the opinion and comment boxes, and when your participating in message boards and web-based emails. That's technology for a sensible purpose, is it not?

I'll try and update this and turn it in to a big old guide to OS X and all it's little nuances. If I've got time. 

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