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Picking up where we left off yesterday in this trip down memory lane, OS X Odyssey 101 - "OS X Origin Of The Species" discussed a hoax Web site by a bogus purported fundamentalist Christian organization calling itself "Objective Christian Ministries."

One of the rants on that site, supposedly by a professor of "theobiology" named Richard Paley, says Apple Computers (sic) promotes "Godless Darwinism and Communism," and claims that OS X is based on "an older, obsolete OS called 'BSD Unix.'"

I commented:

"That site is a skillful parody, and I suspect that the perpetrators are Mac users themselves, but what are the real origins of the Mac OS X species?" We checked it out.

In Odyssey 102 we checked out Desktop pictures in OS X. Odyssey 103 reviewed the latest developments in the two Cocoa Browsers -- Chimera and OmniWeb. Odyssey 104 discussed hard drive partitioning in OS X, and in Odyssey 105 we discussed disk space reclamation. I noted:

"My OS X partition is 4 gigabytes -- but the partition has nevertheless been filling up alarmingly quickly."

This has become an issue since I installed Jaguar. Four GB is not enough.

Odyssey 106 saw the first of several "guest appearances" by Tex Edit Plus developer Tom Bender who from time to time graciously shares his insights on OS X with us. In this instance Tom addressed OS X porting issues.

In Odyssey 107 I checked out the Xounds 1.2 haxie. Odyssey 108 was another Sputnix and AudioGalaxy editon. Odyssey 109 on the day after Steve Jobs pronounced OS 9 dead in his WWDC keynote, we had our first mention of Jaguar and I expressed particualr interest in the Inkwell handwriting recognition feature, which, ironically, I haven;t been aboe to coax into working now that I have Jag installed.

In Odyssey 110 I rrviewed EasyFind as a substitute for Sherlock Searches that required no indexing. In Odyssey 111, "Appreciating OS X," I noted that "If you want a reality check on what a fantastic accomplishment OS X is, try installing Linux." Odyssey 112 was on Show Info innovations. In OS X Odyssey 113, we took another look a Okito Composer, which had been upgraded to version 0.4d2, Public Release 4.

Odyssey 114 contained more musings on stability and Finder response. In Odyssey 115 we checked out Devon Servicepack 1. Odyssey 116 reviewed the RBrowserLite 3.0.6 Freeware FTP Client. Odyssey 117 reviewed the cocoAspell 1.2 spell check service supporting multiple languages.

In Odyssey 118, "Screen Captures And The Preview Utility," I noted:

"One of the areas that still needs work in OS X is screen captures. This is probably not a big deal for some users, but for tech writers like me, OS 9 still does it better, which is not any help when you need screen shots of OS X applications and processes."

Odyssey 119 was on saving files as PDF.

In Odyssey 120 I answered a reader's suggestion that I was biased against OS X.

"I replied that negative criticisms I make regarding my ongoing learning experience with OS X do not denote bias, but honest and objective assessment. Bias implies prejudice -- a predisposition to dislike something without reference to its objective merits and/or shortcomings.

"I want to like OS X, so I suppose that could be construed as positive bias, if anything, but I'm not disposed to giving it a free pass or to sweeping troublesome issues under the proverbial rug."

OS X Odyssey 121 discussed optimizing Classic Mode. In Odyssey 122, DragonDrop 0.3 brought back pop-up folders--sort of. Odyssey 123 was another browser beta bakeoff.

Odyssey, 124 was a mini-review of the Liquid Ledger personal finance management software. Odyssey 125 was a potpourri -- Classic glitches; Eudora installer bug; and a new Tex Edit Plus version upgrade. Odyssey 126 was a Captain FTP 1.3 review.

Odyssey 127 announced that Apple had released Mac OS X 10.1.5, which I suggested was probably the second-last fractional update before Jaguar. It was actually the last, and I never got around to installing it myself. Odyssey 128 noted that OS X 10.1.5 Standalone Updaters had been posted.

Odyssey 129 tried out using Trash It! 1.1 to flush stubborn trash items. In Odyssey 130 MoonDock put the Moon On my Desktop. It's still there, and I still love this little utility. In Odyssey 131 we found the hidden desktop pictures in OS X. Best desktop beach pictures ever. In Odyssey 132, I write about the Lombard 10.1.5 Rage Pro Hack and my 10.1.5 Upgrade apprehension. Odyssey 133 noted that Fruit Menu has been Updated To Version 2, and took a look at iCab's new Crystal theme.

Odyssey 134 reviewed Okito Thesaurus 0.5 for Cocoa. Odyssey 135 was the great seven OS X browsers speedstakes showdown. Netscape 7.0 was the clear winner. In Odyssey 136 we had some more fun with OS X desktop pictures. Odyssey 137 reviewed Latin Dictionary, and in Odyssey 138 we checked out the Page Sender 1.1 Print-to-Email (PDF) and print-to-fax utility.

In OS X Odyssey 139 I took another crack at doing some production work in OS X. However, I noted:

"However, I'm finding it heavy going. I would really like to switch to OS X full time. I've grown to like many of its features, and most of the third-party Mac software development innovation is now OS X focused. I quite enjoy working with OS X for certain specific work tasks, and for casual Web surfing. But I also find that I'm 20 to 30 percent slower getting things done in OS X than I am in OS 9.

"This can no longer be chalked up to unfamiliarity. I've been using OS X daily for eight months now, and I'm comfortably familiar with its workings at the interface level. WindowShade X and Fruit Menu have restored two of my favorite missing Finder features, and I've pretty much mastered the Dock. Nevertheless, trying to do my work in OS X quickly exposes a number of frustrations and annoyances."

(Which I detailed). I picked up the speed thread again in Odyssey 140.

In Odyssey 141 we looked at Namera X 1.0b4 , neé SweetMail; a new Cocoa email client. It wa sinteresting, but not ready for prime time use. Odyssey 141 reviewed the Zingg! 1.1 fast launch utility for Mac OS X. In Odyssey 143 I noted that Tex-Edit Plus X 4.3.0b2 could now read and write RTF Files. Odyssey 144 checked out the snapHappy 1.1 Photo Browser, Editor, Organize. In Odyssey 145 I tried out the Capture Me screen shot utility.

OS X Odyssey 146 asked the rhetorical question "Will Jaguar Be Worth $129?" I'm still not sure that it is, but noted that "IMHO, it's a foregone conclusion that virtually all OS X enthusiasts WILL pay the tariff for Jaguar, rather than sticking it out with version 10.1.5." Those musings brought a bunch of reader feedback published in Odyssey 147.

Odyssey 148 discussed file compression formats in OS X Odyssey 149 reviewed the EarthGlobe V0.9 Preview Gary C. Martin’s real-time, OpenGL rendered globe designed as a sister application to MoonDock.

In Odyssey 150 I addressed whether Apple should disable OS 9 support on new Macs? My short answer: No! That's still my answer. In Odyssey 151 we looked at OS X's secure multiple user accounts. Odyssey 152 announced that XPostFacto version 2.2b15 OS X Installer Utility For Unsupported Macs was available.

Odyssey 153 reviewed Lief M. Wright's E-Bible 1.0 Bible software for OS X. I noted that the "Copy Formatted" and Strong's Lexicon features put E-Bible head and shoulders above any other inexpensive searchable Bible text software that I've used. Very cool!

OS X Odyssey 154 discussed Finder preferences, Odyssey 155 reported that a new USB Overdrive Beta had been released. Odyssey 156 contained more discussion on disk partitioning. Odyssey 157 reviewed the DropJPEG 1.0.3 graphic conversion utility (which in its latest iteration supports the Jaguar PDF screenshots.)

Odyssey 158 was a letters column of readers' Jaguar experiences and observations, and Odyssey 159 contained more commentary and reader feedback on OS X 10.2.

Odyssey 160 checked out Netscape 7.0 and Mozilla 1.1; which was faster? In Odyssey 161 we checked out two free FTP clients: one new; one updated. Odyssey 162 reviewed the GyazMail 0.8.1 Cocoa email client.

Odyssey 163 was the first of several columns about "The Day The Mac OS Died," while Odyssey 164 contained more commentary and discussion about Jaguar and dual-booting, which stretched into Odyssey 165.

OS X Odyssey 166 was a reply to Gene Steinberg on why i hadn't upgraded to Jaguar (yet). I observed:

"Eventually I will have OS X 10.2, or 10.3, or 10.whatever in hand, and at that point I will post my declarative impressions of it. Until that time, unless a lot of 10.2- using commentators and friends whose evaluations I respect are suddenly and collectively blowing smoke, Jaguar offers some pleasant enhancements to what we've experienced in 10.1.x, but nothing to get up in the night and write home about, particularly if you don't have a machine that supports Quartz Extreme. I don't."

However, in Odyssey 167 the Jaguar/dual-booting comment and controversy continued. In Odyssey 168 I paused to reflect on the road traveled so far. I noted, among other things:

"It now appears, in 20/20 hindsight, that I didn't set my hardware sights high enough, but remember, when I ordered that first Pismo, the fastest TiBook available was also 500 MHz, and the top iBook was a 466 MHz G3. OS X's Altivec dependency for decent performance had not been well-publicized, least of all by Apple, who were and are still selling G3 machines as OS X - ready. And Quartz Extreme hadn't even registered on the radar screens.

"I don't hate OS X. It's a nice operating system, even in the "ancient" 10.1.4 build that I'm using right now, and I don't doubt a bit that it's even nicer in 10.2 Jaguar.

"However, ***for the hardware I have and the sort of work I do with computers,*** OS 9 is still a better OS for me, and I don't apologize for making that affirmation. The best tool for the job. This isn't a zero-sume equation. OS 9 doesn't have to be bad for OS X to be good, or vice-versa. I'm speaking from my personal experience, and not from prejudice or bias against OS X."

That incited more discussion from readers in Odyssey 169, and in Odyssey 170 - "As The X Turns," and in Odyssey 171 - "No More Nine -- More Perspectives."

Back to tech matters in Odyssey 172 in which I checked out Logitech's Cordless Elite Duo keyboard/mouse performance in OS X. In Odyssey 173 we noted that Tex Edit Plus now had a tools palette. Odyssey 174 contained more on scrolling, pointing, clicking, and dragging in OS X.

In OS X Odyssey 175 Tex Edit Plus developer Tom Bender commented on why he prefers OS X, while Odyssey 176 discussed AppleScript in Tex-Edit Plus and response to Tom Bender's OS X letter.

Odyssey 177 was on "mouse gestures," and more point, click, scroll, drag, musings. Odyssey 178 discussed the various View options in the Mac OS, I noted:

"Unfortunately, IMHO, both Button view and Pop-up Folders are gone in OS X. The Dock provides sort of a similar function, but without the spatial predictability of my homemade folder full of alias buttons. Indeed, this is a general complaint I have about the OS X Finder -- stuff doesn't stay put. I do still have a homemade Launcher folder in OS X, stored in the Dock, but you have to Optio-click to open to a list of the aliases within, and then often scroll, which is not as convenient or spatially intuitive, and certainly a lot slower, compared with my Classic OS version."

Odyssey 179 reviewed my favorite alternative to Sherlock/Find find by content indexing. Odyssey 180 checked out the Desktastic 2.0 utility that lets you write and draw on your desktop. OS X Odyssey 181 was on Force Quitting programs:

"OS X is admirably stable, but unfortunately not all programs that run in it are. For example, there is one particular utility, that I use regularly, that is recalcitrant about quitting. If it is running, which it usually is, when I select the Logout, Restart, or Shutdown commands, I get a dialog box informing me that "[Application X] has canceled the log out" or some such. Then of course, there are those instances where an application to just hangs up that refuses to respond."

OS X Odyssey 183 marked a major milestone -- I had installed Jaguar:

"So how do I like Jaguar so far? Well, it seems nice enough. I hadn't really explored it very extensively yet, and no doubt there are plenty of new things to discover, but I was surprised at how little different it seems from OS 10.1.4.

"In terms of speed, my expectations were not high based on many reports of others over the past couple months, which is good, because anyone buying Jaguar in hope of a significant speed/performance boost would be disappointed, and at this juncture, I am having difficulty seeing $129 dollars worth of improvement in this release over what I had in OS 10.1.4. Perhaps more advantages will manifest themselves as I use Jaguar more."

Odyssey 183 continued the conversation about Jaguar, and getting ViaVoice to work. Odyssey 185 attempted to answer a reader's question about mathematical word processing software. In Odyssey 186 I reviewed Rainbow Text, a fun (but amazingly powerful) colorful text editor. Odyssey 187 reviewed the handy little freeware PDF Browser Plugin.

In Odyssey 188 I checked out OmniWeb 4.1.1 and related my (still unresolved) InkWell frustrations. In Odyssey 189 I reviewed two small graphics conversion utilities. Odyssey 190 looked at the LetterWorks 1.0b3 Word Processor For Letters With Predefined Stationery.

In OS X Odyssey 191 I chronicled my 0S 10.2.1 install on the Pismo.

"I can't really say I notice any difference in performance. That's perhaps not remarkable, since the list of issues that 10.2.1 is supposed to address don't really apply to the stuff I do routinely. Happily, however, the upgrade doesn't seem to have broken anything either, or degraded performance at all."

Odyssey 192 reviewed TigerLaunch 1.0, a very cool launcher menu. This one was a keeper. Odyssey 193 checked out some recent software updates.

In Odyssey 194 I discussed Data Loss in OS X, noting:

"OS X, the operating system, has been wonderfully stable in my experience over the year that I have been using it, albeit part-time. I have had just one kernel panic, and that was while using a piece of alpha software for which kernel panics were a known issue. Generally, it has been rock solid.

"Unfortunately, I can't say the same for all OS X native software. This week, I have banned using OS X pretty much full-time for production, and an unanticipated aggravation that I've run into is that I have lost more data over the past three days, then I probably have in the past three months from occasional crashes in the Classic OS wiping unsaved data."

So here we are at OS X Odyssey 201. I'm still using OS 9 as my main production system, but last week I spent three of the five business days in OS X, and I'm looking forward to the imminent release of OS 10.2.2.

I use mostly OS X native programs, but am still dependent on Classic Mode to support Color It! 4.1, WannaBe, and my old Apple NotePad, a refugee from System 6 days! (I even keep it in the Dock)

I also want to emphatically thank all the people who have contributed to the first 200 editions of OS X Odyssey. I have learned a great deal from your emails, and I know that others have as well. It's great the way readers have stepped up to suggest solutions to problems and questions posted by myself and others. This column would not have been nearly as interesting and informative without that great reader input.

Thanks all, and I hope you will stick around for the next 100 installments. The Odyssey continues.

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

OSX on Pismos

From Duncan Dixon

Hi Charles,

I've been following your migration to OSX on your Pismo with interest as I have a similar setup. I have to agree with you about the sluggish performance of OSX when it comes to scrolling. Last week I was working on a paper where I had to use Word and Endnote (the bibliography program). Scrolling through my 15 page document and moving back and forth between Word and Endnote was painful.

I have a question that may reveal my ignorance of OSX, but I dislike intensely the fact that windows disappear from the background if I click on the desktop rather than the scroll bar by mistake. It means a trip to the Dock to find the document I was working on again. Is this a "feature" of OSX, or have I missed something?

I haven't bothered to upgrade to Jaguar because the price seems too high for any benefit I might get from using it on my older machines.

Thanks.
Duncan Dixon

Hi Duncan;

I'm revealing my ignorance here too, but I can't figure of why your windows are disappearing when you click on the Desktop. I'm sure someone will enlighten us if there is a simple explanation. This does not happen on my machine.

Thanks to WindowShade X, I have been able to happily continue my Classic OS practice of leaving sometimes a dozen or more windows open collapsed to their title bars. I hate rooting around in the Dock for minimized windows.

I'm likewise skeptical as to whether Jaguar is really worth the cost of upgrading for folks who don't have recent, faster machines, preferably with enough video RAM to exploit Quartz Extreme. I haven't noticed any significant speed increase over 10.1.4, and some things, such as start up and shutdown are actually slower.

Charles

Scrolling improvement in 10.2.2

From William H. Timberman

Charles,

I don't know whether or not your Pismo will benefit, but on my dual USB iBook, the just released 10.2.2 results in an (undocumented) major increase in scrolling speed. On my Cube it flies -- as fast or faster than OS 9

I hope the update will solve at least one of your Jaguar bugaboos, once you get around to installing it.

Bill Timberman

Hi Bill;

Thanks for the heads up. Here's hoping!

I'll get the updater down as soon as possible. I need to wait for the standalone installer to be posted. My dialup connection is not reliable enough for live updates.

Charles

Followup on Pismo Firmware question

From Richard H. Becker

Charles,

The 2.712 number is what comes up in Apple System Profiler in the Boot ROM category. Reader Jonathan Tyzack sent this screenshot of System Profiler on his Mac with Firmware Upgrade 4.1.9 installed, so I'm assuming that the 2.712 number that shows up in the same SP field on my Pismo refers to an earlier version of the firmware.

Interesting. My Boot ROM version comes up as $0003.27f2. For what it's worth, I believe there was a Firmware update earlier than 4.1.8 that I did apply to my PowerBook. Perhaps that explains why my number differs from yours. Or perhaps the relevent part is after the decimal point and they aren't so different.

Richard

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore

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