Jim Heid's column in the LA Times says that OS X is full of promise and pitfalls: "Even though Mac OS X ships in March, it won't be factory-installed on new Macs until July. Why the delay? Because initially, there won't be much software for Mac OS X."
Comments
As of March (fully-compliant OSX apps, not classic):
E-mail
Web browsing
FTP
Quake3?
Others...? What more do people want?!
Would you like Photoshop, Illustrator, XPress, FlightCheck, or Acrobat? Some people make their livings off of these things, not just play games.
Photoshop and Quark will be carbonized for the release.
Why is there all this bitching and whining about OS X apps? Jobs gave everyone info on when to expect them...the bell curve effect, remember? So why don't people wait until the apps. don't come as expected and THEN b**** about them? I think Apple is doing a great job on OS X and the entire transition. Of course we can point to mistakes and flaws in their strategy, but considering the immense size and complexity of the task of migrating from Classic OS to OS X, it would be surprising if everything went smoothly. I think there are few problems than if another company were to try this, Microsoft
What does this idiot expect..... it's a brand new operating system. Of course there aren't going to be hundreds of native applications available at launch time.
Heid needs to get a life. I suppose this panty waste made that comment because he's comparing it to the thousands of applications that were available for Version 1 of Windows when it was launched. What a pinhead.
I believe even Whistler has a compatibility mode for programs that need to think they're running on Windows 95 or 98. This is *similar* to Classic, but not quite as extensive.
ditto, man, what a pinhead!
Everything will run in Classic! Everything already does, actually, except for printing and programs that use TCP/IP. but this is fixed now...
Come on guys, he's just writing for his audience. He writes for the LA Times. His audience is the consumer and when OS X rolls out in March, there will not be that many consumer Apps for OS X.
I really doubt that my Palm connection kit will have the drivers ready on March 24th. I'd love that it would, but I don't expect it. Also, my gamepad probably won't have any drivers, since all it has now is an input sprocket. And on top of that I won't be able to use my firewire drive since my card is not supported yet. So I don't think everything will run in Classic as you say it would.
Also, running a clean system in Classic is a compromise that I'm not willing to take. I don't have the drive space for it, and there are too many things that I need to work that simply don't while running a clean system.
I gotta agree with him. OS X in March really will be for early adopters, Developers, IT, and the Press.
He could say that there aren't many apps for *any* version of the Mac OS, compared to Windows. Irrelevant that most would never want to use them, but they exist.
Actually, the article was just fine and completely rational. That was a balanced view that shows that Mac OS X is going in the right direction, but that it won't be there on day 1. There will be very few MAJOR Mac OS X applications available at the end of March.
No matter what Steve has tried to sell people that Carbonizing is easy, it is a pain and doesn't always work as it should. However, it is still easier than rewriting a major application in Cocoa, because we can at least reuse good chunks of our Mac code.
The problem with the Mac community today is that it can't take any criticism at all. In fact, it can't take rational journalism like this Jim Heid article that is absolutely dead on.
The time to go to X if you actually need to get work done will be at the end of the summer when applications are available and the 1.1 release is done. If you have a machine to play with and don't have any mission critical work needing to be done, go to X in March.
OR
Network Headlines
Most Popular
MacNN Sponsor
Recent Reviews
iHome iW2 AirPlay speaker
iHome generally isn't known as a luxury brand when it comes to audio, but it is prolific -- the company's docks and speakers are every ...
Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover
One of the iPad's main weaknesses has always been productivity. It's not a question of apps; while it has taken a little time for a na ...
Logitech UE Air Speaker
If maybe a little more slowly than Apple would like, AirPlay is becoming a staple of the wireless speaker market for iOS devices. The ...
Most Commented
Popular News
Joined:
OS X Programs...
There may not be many native (cocoa/carbon) apps ready by March 24 but there is one HUGE benefit that even Classic apps gain w/OS X: If a Classic program bombs, it won't take down the Mac itself. You won't have to restart the computer-just the Classic environment. While many would argue that it still takes a while for Classic to restart, it still avoids the wear and tear on the hardware, especially when Mac OS 9 forces a hardware reset or even worse, a power cycle on the Mac. This is a good enough reason for me to go to OS X as soon as possible.