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When I get something working really well, I’m always reluctant to mess with it, and OS X a10.2.6 is running like the proverbial well-oiled machine on my iBook. Which is why I will probably be giving OS 10.2.8 a complete pass, and why I’m also in no frantic rush to make the leap to Panther. OS 10.2.6 is in a groove for me right now. This week I saw something I’ve never seen before: “Untitled Document 300” in Tex Edit Plus. I once got up to UD 209 or 211 or so in OS 9, and I’ve seen 200 once or twice before with OS X, but 300 is unprecedented. It’s also a testimony to how stable Tex Edit Plus X has become. 
I use Tex Edit Plus for a wide variety of tasks from drafting and editing articles to HTML markup to cleaning text from emails and Web downloads, and much more. I last rebooted the iBook 18 days ago, and TE+ has been up and running since then. I'm actually up to Untitled Document 320 with the document created for this column. During the past 2 1/2 weeks, I’ve probably had in the neighborhood of three dozen applications open at one time or another, about half that many running constantly throughout. I’ve had to relaunch the Finder twice, restart Classic Mode and Safari once each, but in general things have stayed satisfyingly stable. There are now 21 swap files, but after the usual fall-off in performance over the first two or three days after a fresh reboot, I haven’t noticed any substantial deterioration in response. There have been 722,127 pageouts (!) since the last restart. 
It would be interesting to see how much longer I could persevere without restarting, but there is a utility I need to install the demands a logout/loggin to activate it, the Finder and Safari both really want to be quit and relaunched, and there are other hints that things are getting just a bit ragged in the memory department, so I’ll reboot over the weekend, and run the suite of system maintenance routines in OnyX or MacPilot to freshen things up. However, OS X is finally living up to its stability claims with version 10.2 0.6. Here’s hoping that that Panther can sustain and improve on the gains that have been made. Just a footnote for perspective, I haven’t rebooted my old PowerBook 1400, a which is running at OS 8.6 and gets about two-three hours of daily use, in about a month, but then with it I only keep four programs open. OS X: Too fuzzy for me From Chris Ellens I’ve been following your OSX Odyssey on Applelinks for quite some time, because I too have had reservations about giving up OS9, which I find to be a very productive environment. I bought a G4 in early 2002 but gave up on OSX pretty quickly. This fall I decided it was time to make another try, and so yesterday I purchased and installed Panther. My immediate and most serious complaint is that I find the appearance to be ugly, bloated, and .... fuzzy. I have a 21” Apple monitor set to 1600x1200 resolution. With OS9 running, my default Finder font is 9 point Geneva, and I have no trouble reading it. With OSX on the same monitor, at the same resolution, I find even the 12 point fonts irritate my eyes. I’ve tried playing with the appearance settings (e.g. switching off anti-aliasing at smaller font sizes, but that just makes the text look uglier, and not much less fuzzy. Interestingly, I set up a terminal window to use Monaco 9 without anti-aliasing, and that looked pretty good. So perhaps there’s something about the fonts used in the Finder that they require anti-aliasing and an expensive flat screen, I don’t know. I’ve poked around the web and found that there are a few people out there who agree with me (one person said that running OSX is like having vaseline smeared over your screen) but I’ve never seen any discussion of this in your OSX Odyssey. Considering how thoroughly you have tested and criticized OSX to date, I’m surprised that this hasn’t come up. I presume it hasn’t bothered you? Chris Ellens Hi Chris; I’m actually quite smitten with the appearance of the OS X Aqua Finder, although I’m not looking forward to the “brushed metal” motif of Panther, which I dislike in various Apple and third party software. As for the legibility of text on the screen, I have no complaints there.. I work on a 12.1” display iBook with 1024 x 768 resolution, and sit about three feet away from the screen at my workstation (I use an external keyboard and mice), and find the appearance of text and icons as clear as it is in OS 9. That 12’1” Apple laptop screen is a real jewel of sharpness and brightness, but it is quite small. I’m wondering if there is not an issue particular to your monitor or type of monitor. I know that the NEC 15” multiscan CRT monitor I use with my old UMAX S-900 is pretty fuzzy compared with the laptop displays, even in OS 9. 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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