MacOS X -- A Brief Reaction...

Well, my copy of the MacOS X Public Beta was waiting for me
when I got home from work, and I wasted no time
installing it. I must say, the install process went as
smooth as glass, and the OS itself has indeed evolved
since DP4, released earlier this summer. It's
faster
, Aqua is more refined, the bundled
tools & utils are more solid, and it just definitely
feels like an OS you'd be pleased to deal with on
a day-to-day. There were no major (or unexpected,
anyway) issues to the install on my dual-headed blue&
white G3 400 -- but let me list a few things that would
be of note to someone with a config like mine...

  • My blue&white G3 400 has two monitors: an Apple
    Studio Display 17" tied to the OEM Rage 128 (rev. A)
    sitting in my PCI-66 slot, and a Nokia 447Xi 17"
    hanging off a 4MB ATI Rage Pro board. Thought I've
    heard talk on the usenet of people needing to
    disconnect one monitor or the other during install to get
    both monitors working, I did not find this to be the
    case
    . I just started the install with both screens
    connected and powered on, and MacOS X remembered
    their orientation as set in OS 9, and they both are fully
    recognized by the system. (Though, strangely, both
    were set to 1600x1200 @ 60Hz by the system during
    the install...an oddly high-res mode for an install, but
    hey...easy enough to throw back down to 1152x870
    when I got up and running.)

  • My Initio Miles UltraWide SCSI
    controller (PCI-33) is not recognized by MacOS X, which
    is unfortunate as I've got about 16GB hanging off that
    crazy-fast interface card (10GB of which is a 10,000
    RPM Cheetah). But, without drivers, this was not a
    surprise. However Initio tells me that within the
    next 2 weeks there should be MacOS X PB drivers for
    the board placed on their site for user download. It's worth
    pointing out that when drivers do become
    available, the performance of the UltraWide SCSI
    system should really shine as the overall
    demands that a Unix-based, pre-emptive multitasking
    system with robust VM places on a drive system are
    much greater than that which a much more simplistic
    OS, such as MacOS 9, requires. The bus-mastering,
    nill-CPU-intervention access characteristics of a nice
    SCSI system will definitely make that OS feel like
    lightning. (I first witnessed this on the 486 66 system I
    purchased to run NeXTSTEP for Intel (v3.2) where my
    ISA-based SCSI II board (from DPT) let me run rings
    around a friend's machine which had a VLB (several
    times the bandwidth of ISA architecture) EIDE
    controller.)

  • Related to the above item, as a result of my inability
    to get at my other drives, I am unable to test the OS 9
    "Classic" environment, and will likely wait for those
    SCSI drivers from Initio before futzing around with this
    or that to set up a new OS 9 install on my UltraATA/33
    drive just for testing purposes. A functioning "Classic"
    environment, able to run as-yet unCarbonized apps,
    etc. is a prerequisite to my switching over to MacOS X
    PB fulltime (which is what I'm hoping to be able to do). I
    do hear good things about Classic though, so I'm fairly
    confident.

  • Particularly satisfying was clicking a few checkboxes and then going to another machine on my LAN and hitting my MacOS X box via telnet, FTP, and the web. That's right -- Apache all the way! Anyway -- you gotta love this...


    [solinari:~] blake% telnet 192.168.1.100
    Trying 192.168.1.100...
    Connected to 192.168.1.100.
    Escape character is '^]'.
    Darwin/BSD (solinari) (ttyp2)
    login: blake
    Password:
    Welcome to Darwin!
    [solinari:~] blake%

  • Oh -- and though I've not had it for 24 hours...it's not
    crashed on me yet! Seriously though--it, and DP4
    before it, feel very stable. This, of course, is no
    surprise, looking at the underlying foundation. Mach/
    BSD -- it's definitely a good place to be.

At any rate, I am ecstatic to have finally install this
incredible OS and it's clear that this really is a new
beginning
for Apple. Power and elegance -- equal
servings that come together to make this the most
exciting thing I've seen out of Apple since...well...1984.

Popular Stories

reset password request iphone

Warning: Apple Users Targeted in Phishing Attack Involving Rapid Password Reset Requests

Tuesday March 26, 2024 4:34 pm PDT by
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Purple

iOS 18: What to Expect From 'Biggest' Update in iPhone's History

Wednesday March 27, 2024 11:10 am PDT by
At least some Apple software engineers continue to believe that iOS 18 will be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. "The iOS 18 update is expected to be the most ambitious overhaul of the iPhone's software in its history, according to people working on the upgrade," wrote Gurman, in a r...
maxresdefault

Apple to Launch New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models in May

Thursday March 28, 2024 11:07 am PDT by
Apple will introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously suggested the new iPads would come out in March, and then April, but the timeline has been pushed back once again. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is working on updates to both the iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The iPad Pro models will...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event for June 10 to 14

Tuesday March 26, 2024 10:02 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
apple maps 3d feature

Apple Maps May Gain Custom Routes With iOS 18

Tuesday March 26, 2024 3:10 pm PDT by
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

Apple Releases Revised Versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 With Updated Build Number

Wednesday March 27, 2024 5:59 am PDT by
Apple on late Tuesday released revised versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 with an updated build number of 21E237, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The updates previously had a build number of 21E236. The revised updates are available for all iPhone and iPad models that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, but they can only be installed via the Finder app on macOS...
applephilschiller

Apple's Phil Schiller Works 80 Hours a Week Overseeing App Store

Wednesday March 27, 2024 2:03 pm PDT by
With the App Store and app ecosystem undergoing major changes in the European Union, The Wall Street Journal today shared a profile on App Store chief Phil Schiller, who is responsible for the App Store. Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to "Apple Fellow" in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working...