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One of my primary objectives in purchasing a new computer system this year was to begin the transition process to OS X. I'm not in a big rush. OS 9.x is still doing a superb job for me as my workhorse system. However, I accept the inevitability of making the switch if I want to remain relevant as a Mac-oriented writer and commentator, and I'm of course hopeful that OS X will eventually provide a better computing experience then the classic Mac OS has for these past 17 years. I had OS X 10.0.3 installed on my G4 Cube last summer, but for reasons I have elucidated elsewhere, I didn't use the Cube a whole lot, so my X impressions were cursory. However, I now have OS X 10.1 loaded up on my new-to-me Pismo PowerBook, and the odyssey begins in earnest. I'm going to take it fairly slowly and incrementally, and I've switched back to my faithful WallStreet PowerBook as my production machine for now, while I devote the Pismo to the OS X learning process. OS X 10.1 installed smoothly and uneventfully on the Pismo.. My son, who has been using OS X as his default system since the beta days of early 2000, says X performance is excellent on the Pismo compared with his 333 MHz Lombard PowerBook. However, my initial impression is that OS X is sluggish in Finder response compared to OS 9.x, even on the old 233 MHz WallStreet. Getting down to business, for a Mac OS veteran, trying to actively work with OS X, as opposed to just playing around with it, can be compared to coming home and finding that someone has visited while you were away and completely are rearranged your furniture and tools, even putting some of your stuff in different rooms. It is an educational exercise in how people new to computers must feel. I am fortunate to have a couple of very good OS X books on hand -- Gene Steinberg's OS X Little Black Book, and Mark R. Bell's Mac OS X Book, and frankly, I would be floundering without them. I'm floundering enough with them. The first order of business has been to download and install OS X versions of the software I use for production. So far, I have iCab, Netscape 6.2, NotePad Deluxe, and Eudora 5.1 set up. I have been especially happy to note that Eudora and NPD data files swap transparently between the OS X and OS 9 versions of these programs. X is going to take a LOT of getting used to. Perhaps I will warm to the Dock over time, but it's not happening yet, and I sorely miss the Application Switcher and pop-up folders. I want to give the Dock a fair trial, but I'm inclined to think that I will be soon adding third-party utilities that will restore the functionality of both of these Classic Mac OS features. I also miss terribly the Desktop that behaves like a desktop. My modus operandi is to use the Desktop as a default dumping ground and workspace for all current operations, and while I understand that OS X can be configured to do this, sort of, it certainly isn't as convenient and intuitive as it is with the Classic Mac OS. The way OS X handles Windows is frankly, annoying and frustrating, and I very much miss the traditional Mac OS ability to hide everything else, leaving just the Desktop visible, so I can find all the junk I have dumped there. Clicking on a folder to bring all of an application's windows to the foreground is also missed. That's about it so far. I will be bringing you frequent updates of my OS X adventures as they unfold.
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