ZDNet has posted an article on Mac OS 9.1 that says the new version lost many features in its year-long development. "Despite the long incubation period, however, some planned features have been either deferred to later revisions or have been reserved as unique features for Mac OS X ..."
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hey! but the wake up time from sleep on my FW powerbook under OS 9.1 is almost sa good as in OSX!!! i think that's pretty cool:-)
The big thing I wish Apple would put into the system is long filename support in the Finder (the system software itself already supports them, but the Finder and NavServices haven't thus far). Without these, the transition between Classic and native OSX is likely to be extremely jarring for most users, since some files will have slightly different names in the two environments.
Maybe there'll be a 9.2 just before the final release? Or perhaps a Classic-only fix (that wouldn't be active if booted normally, though I have no idea why Apple would want to do that)?
Originally I believe 9.1 was supposed to be 9.5. Why did Apple lower the version number? Perhaps to give themselves some breathing room should the need arise?
No, it was never referred to as 9.5 during the development phase. There simply wasn't that much to change. A few control panels, a Window menu, and a couple of other enhancements, but no real milestone changes. It's basically just a service update to 9.0.4, providing better compatibility with OS X.
And if you'll remember, Apple has always followed this kind of numbering scheme: 7.0-7.1, 7.5-7.6, 8.0-8.1, 8.5-8.6, 9.0-9.1.
I seem to recall that there was talk of 9.5 at one point when it looked like there was going to be more time between the release of 9.1 and Mac OS X.
Nope. Never was. There was some speculation, but nothing doing.
Personally, I'd like for Apple to release OT 3.0, as it addresses real needs. There will be many people sticking with the Classic OS for at least 2001 -- some by choice (there's no software for OS X, and the interface sux), some by necessity (OS X won't run on older hardware). Image Capture is nice, but there isn't a burning need for it. Consolidated networking control panels and multilink multihoming are real needs for sysadmins.
I'm very happy with 9.1...its faster and more stable on my G4. I think part of the reason Apple didn't add to many new features is that they want 9.1 to be very stable. New features would inevitably introduce new bugs, and this would necessitate further development time that could be better spent on OS X.
Also, most of the changes to 9.1 are not readily visible, but add to speed and stability. It has a new nanokernal, not a trivial update by any means. This is the best Mac classic OS version I've ever used, and I wouldn't mind at all if I were stuck with it for a couple years before upgrading to OS X.
...we would have been charged $50 for the upgrade. :)
Same thing that happened with OS 8.1 and Windows 98. Both added some major stuff to the OS (HFS+ and FAT32) but they charged again for Windows 98, and 98SE, and ME, and... well, you get the idea. ;)
LafinJack
Stated earlier: "It's basically just a service update to 9.0.4, providing better compatibility with OS X."
According to Apple, OS 9.1 is Not compatible with OS X. That fact does not concern me because I have no intention to moving to OS X.
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OS X needs to better
Image Capture (a built-in feature to get digital cameras to be recognized by the Mac OS and allow images to be downloaded from the camera to a disk) is nice, but most cameras already have software to do this so its no big whoop. This was taken out late in OS 9.1's life.
The CD-R/W features came in from nowhere really and that is really neat and its in there, but its very well integrated.
A lot of the changes are 'under the hood' and are targeted at people who make software which in turn benefits the user. Apple added G4-optimized signal processing and heavy-duty math function APIs allowing programmers to get instant AltiVec support in a high-level API.
The new software such as iTunes and iDVD are really kool and are not tied to the Mac OS so they can straddle Classic and OS X eventually. These are especially kool when the CD-RW and combo DVD-R is available lower in the product mix or as a separate external drive.
Everything need not be in the OS itself a la Microsoft and Internet Explorer and whatever else they pile on. Sometimes applications can be the reason to upgrade/switch.
Mac OS X does include a lot of "new" stuff on its own like WebDAV right in the Finder and the Image Capture feature. I am sure there will be MUCH more added into OS X when its released on March 24 than we are aware of right now.
HINT: All Apple software will be/already is Carbonized thus it will run on OS X (and run a lot better w/true multitasking and the awesome raw speed of that new OS).