I’m going to take a one-column break from newsreader application coverage to take stock of Mac OS X.
Mac OS X 10.1, which was the first truly usable release of OS X is about 8 months old now, and the next major update, 10.2, is due this summer with a host of speed and feature improvements. I have been using it nearly 6 hours a day for the past 6 months, and while problems remain, overall the experience keeps getting better.
Most users should probably be thinking about making the switch to OS X, or at least planning ahead. While there are always exceptions, Mac OS 9 development is dead dead dead. Nearly all the Mac developers are prepping OS X versions of their applications or have already released them. Many continue to support 9, and probably will for at least another couple of years, but I read VersionTracker in its entirety every day, and frankly there has been a quick slide off a cliff of new OS 9 software in the last 3 months. There are maintenance updates, bug fixes, and the like, but if you are the type of user who is looking for new features in new and existing applications, stop looking in OS 9's toy box.
The action is in X.
I don't mean to suggest that all the OS 9 machines are suddenly obsolete -- or worse yet -- boring. They are the best personal computers ever invented, and they have many years of life left in them. But I am suggesting that eighteen to twenty-four months down the road (maybe a little less), OS 9 will be in same position 68K Macs were a couple of years after the PowerPC was released.
Eventually, Apple will drop OS 9 support in new hardware. Count on it. The day is coming, and based on Apple history it'll be sooner than some users are comfortable with. Remember the hue and cry when the floppy was dropped without warning? Or the first version of the MacOS that did not support for 68K machines? Trust me, it will happen, sooner than you think.
The bad news: the transition is not easy at first. Once you move from 9 to X, it feels like someone came in to your house last night and rearranged all the furniture. It’s as if a good roommate has moved on and now there is a stranger standing in the kitchen, munching cookies and leaving crumbs all over the floor. The good news is the initial shock wears off quickly. After a few days you stop bumping into furniture. After a couple weeks, it looks better now than where it was before. After a few months, there are no more crumbs pinching your bare feet.
OS X is not yet equal to OS 9. Some major software titles still have not been ported yet, (such as Quark Xpress and Pro Tools). Peripheral hardware support is still spotty. And while OS X is better than 9 in many ways, its still a younger brother with some growing up to do.
That said, I've used it full time for 6 months and could not be happier. I'm more productive than ever before, and far more optimistic than I was a year ago about the long-term future of Macintosh personal computing.
"Looking Down the Road Ahead a Bit"
