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It occurred to me the other day that I haven't done any production work in OS 9 for nearly two months now. In fact, I don't even have OS 9 set up for production on my iBook. I guess I'm switched for sure. Of course, I do still spend a couple of hours most days in OS 8.6 on my PowerBook 1400, but that's just for basic drafting and editing. I had pretty much converted to OS X full time after making the watershed transition to Jaguar as my main system on my Pismo PowerBook several months ago, but I would still end up spending a day or two in OS 9 from time to time on that machine. Since I shifted to the iBook for production a month ago, I think I've only booted into OS 9 once, and that was just for a few minutes to flush a recalcitrant file that refused dismissal to the Trash in OS X. On the Pismo, several times a day the thought would cross my mind: "boy, this would be a lot faster in OS 9." That doesn't happen with the iBook, and the big difference, I guess, is Quartz Extreme support. It would be hard to account for the dramatic difference based on 200 MHz more processor clock speed alone. OS 9 is still faster, but the response lags and general sluggishness that frustrate me in OS X on the Pismo are far less in evidence on the iBook. Scrolling through documents is reasonably lively, and menus pop down smartly. Not that there isn't room for improvement, but OS X performance on the iBook has crossed the threshold of what I consider acceptable. On the Pismo it's marginal, and leaning toward unacceptable or at least frustrating and annoying. I had allegedly planned to just check out the iBook as a day-in-day-out production platform for a couple of weeks and then go back to the trusty Pismo, which is still my favorite computer I've ever owned for a variety of reasons. However, the thing about using a faster computer for a while is that you get used to it, and it's very hard to go back to something slower. Consequently, I'm still on the iBook a month into my "experiment. " However, I saw a report last week by a 400 MHz Pismo user who is running the OS X 10.3 "Panther" preview, noting that Finder performance is substantially enhanced on that machine with the new OS. (Also see Matthew House's letter below.) I will be very interested to see how Panther performs on my 500 MHz Pismo, and whether the improvement will be enough to entice me back from the speedy little iBook. iBook battery life Panther MaxiMice and uControl From Jonathan Boyd "Yes, I'm well aware of the caveat to installing OS 10.2.4 on iBooks, although it was a good sustem on my Pismo PowerBook. I'm currently running 10.2.3 on the iBook. Have you had good experiences with 10.2.5 or 10.2.6, or are you like me still running an early version of Jaguar?" I've used every version of Jaguar to date and there don't seem to be any serious problems with 10.2.5 or 10.2.6. Though I'm not sure I'd notice since my battery now qualifies as old and endured some time under 10.2.4 so it probably can't get much worse now. If I wasn't a student, I might get a new battery and do some investigating, but sadly I'm not really in a position to do that financially. One useful tip I found on Mac OS X Hints (essential weekly reading if you're running X) was to create a short shell script in the Terminal which checks the status of your battery to show you the absolute charge remaining, rather than just a percentage. Check out here for the details. One of the few things I miss about 9 is the ability to run an iBook for a bit over 8 hours on a single battery. Spin down the hard drive, dim the screen and just have a text editor or PDF viewer open and you're set. Never had to print out work sheets for tutorials in uni; just brought the computer along instead.
Jonathan Boyd
Thanks Jonathan;
Well, maybe I'll get around to installing 10.2.6 on the iBook.
Charles From William H.Timberman Charles, I have one of the first white iBooks, a 12-inch 500 MHz model, with an AirPort card and 640 Mb of RAM, purchased in May, 2001. It's been asleep since 6:00 p.m. Thursday. When I opened it at 5:00 a.m. today, Saturday, it showed an 83% charge. Talk about different strokes! I'm running 10.2.6, which I suppose might make a difference, but like you, I almost never use it on battery alone. I do run it all the way down every month or so, though, as I read somewhere that Lithium batteries last longer if you do. I wonder if resetting your PMU would help -- I looked back through the Applelinks thread, but didn't see any reference to your trying that option. Bill
Hi Bill;
That's more the performance I would have expected. As you speculate, upgrading to OS 10.2.6 might make a difference.
However, the 500 MHz machines and the models with RADEON video cards and 16 MB+ VRAM have different power management circuitry than the earlier dual-USB machines, and indeed have a different PMU reset procedure. Several other users are reporting similar experience with rapid battery drain while these machines are asleep, so it may be a problem specific to these models.
Charles From Matthew House Hey Charles, Knowing your love/hate relationship with OS X, I thought I'd let you know that 10.3 is a mighty improvement. My main beef with 10.X thus far has been the general sluggishness of the Finder. All of that is gone. Panther really moves. Window openings, closing, app launches, safari performance. Everything is faster, cleaner, and better. If you get a chance to fool with the developer's release, I think you'll be pleased.
Take Care,
Hi Matthew;
It's become more of a love relationship since I started doing production on the iBook (see above). If Panther can improve on the performance I'm getting now with the Finder, I will be more than willing to forgive the "brushed metal" unsightliiness. ;-)
Charles From Eugene Rooke Charles, Try uControl instead of MaxiMice. It doesn't work with AppleWorks, but it works with many more programs than MaxiMice. I exchanged emails with Catchy Software, and they said that uControl works (when MaxiMice doesn't) because uControl doesn't require a program to recognize input managers. And uControl is free. You can find it at versiontracker.
Regards,
Thanks muchly for the tip, Eugene.
I'll definitely check it out.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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