Mac OS X Beta:
A REVOLUTIONARY OPERATING SYSTEM ? FIRST LOOK
September 26 Meeting
By Keith Cooper
Well, I’m sure most of us are familiar with Apple’s Mac OS X (ten) and the fact that
it will change the Macintosh forever. In short, OS X is a radically different, modern
operating system with UNIX origins and a history that dates back to Steve Jobs’ vision
for NeXT. OS X is the long-awaited embodiment of the Rhapsody project begun several
years ago at Apple. It’s features of stability and flexibility have been promised
to Mac users for years and it’s finally (well, almost ) here.
For many, the thought of using this brave new Apple product in its infancy is an
exciting and rare opportunity. In fact, it’s more like a pre-birth experience. The
real debut of the finished product won’t be released till early next year after many
of us loyal fans have had the chance to post our likes and dislikes on Apple’s forum
for beta testers. As a beta it still lacks a lot of the features we’ll see in the
shrink-wrapped version next year. But it’s great to boot up your system and see Aqua
(the Graphical User Interface of OSX) come to life.
The Public Beta release of the ‘future of the Mac’ came September 13th, shortly before
our meeting. Kathy Holton and Michael Duke scrambled to get the beta installed on
their PowerBook G3s so we could have a demo in time. This chore was taken on enthusiastically.
Michael, for one, was glad to finally have the familiar underpinnings he had enjoyed
working with in NextStep back at his fingertips.
Michael gave a great presentation, demonstrating how the new operating system varies
from the Macintosh system we’re all so used to. It’s clear there are many differences.
Michael spent a lot of time showing us the features of the dock and how it
can be customized to use as much or as little of Apple’s graphic wizardry as you
like. Another major difference is the browser-view finder, a big change for long
time users familiar with the Mac’s traditional finder application. You can toggle
between icon-, list- and column-views to display your files and folders.
Then Michael went one by one through the directories and applications to demonstrate
what comes pre-installed with the operating system. Internet Explorer is the browser
that’s pre-installed and the Mail program is a great e-mail client (Michael talked
about it’s flexibility and the hidden features the application has). We also previewed
a web browser called Omniweb that can be downloaded as freeware. Michael gave us
a brief demo of each and of a simple drawing and painting program that can give even
a novice tools to create winning presentations and graphic documents.
Then we moved on to the Classic environment. For those not familiar with this term,
this is the part of OS X that lets us use all the applications we love that haven’t
been ported to the new operating system yet. When you launch a program that requires
OS 9 the Classic emulator automatically launches and (with a little wait ? remember
it’s a beta) the program appears with all your familiar menus and buttons, just as
it would in the Mac of the past.
Michael also showed us some of the utilities many of us will become familiar with
-- and some that only few of us will. These give us the power to control the operating
system and to tailor it to our own needs. In many ways this OS will give us freedom
as users we have never had before. The beauty of this is that the novice user will
be able to use the system with little or no tweaking and be perfectly happy with
a stable, modern new operating system. On the other hand, power users will be able
to get into the nuts and bolts of the system and code their way to computer euphoria.
So whether your prefer the Graphical User Interface (GUI) or the command line
(CLI) you should find something for you in OS X.
You can find out more about OS X at http://www.apple.com/macosx/
Special thanks go to Michael Duke and Kathy Holton for their demos, to the Barfoots
and Bethany for the hospitality and to Apple for giving us a sneak preview of OS
X. See you on the 24th.
|
