Cool Mac Gear

Mac News

What follows are a few comments ahout some excellent points raised by Low End Mac contributor Kevin Webb in his latest column entitled "OS 9 or X: You Can't Go Home Again."

Yes, both we and Kevin are straying dangerously close to Clichéville, but his observations about how one gets used to things, in this case OS X, seem psychologically sound. Basically what Kevin says is that he was an early OS X adopter, despite the frustrations of having many of his favorite apps having to run in OS 9. By last fall he was running on X about 85 percent of the time, but after the recent pre-Macworld spate of "hell, no, we won't go" articles by disgruntled OS X newbies, he tried to use OS 9 exclusively for a whole week to see if he agreed. Guess what? He couldn't do it, and returned to OS X after only a single hour.

His wife's case is equally compelling. He set her up with an iBook running OS X under the following conditions:

"I was not allowed to adjust, upgrade, accessorize, or otherwise molest this machine. I helped her get set up from scratch and taught her how to find her way around OS X. She loves the machine and has none of the complaints about speed or processes that many older Mac owners voice."

In fact, after a short period playing in Classic, she found it ugly, unstable, and frustrating.

Comments: Your editor's own wife hasn't met OS X yet but is still homesick for Maryland after more than 2 years in beautiful New Mexico. We both went back for a visit last May: she loved it, guess who didn't. That is to say, it was very nice indeed and all our friends were there, but it was more than a little crowded and frustrating. Returning just wasn't the same. Our own domestic issues remain unresolved, but the principle is sound enough: it isn't easy to go back to something familiar after learning the ropes in a new place.

Operating systems are one's computing "home." Why should this work any differently?

Email This Article - Comment On This Article

Cool Mac Gear