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Moore’s MailBag - Wednesday, June 16, 2004
•MooresMailBag •Comments •Tell-a-Friend
Tempting deal on 15" PBook - I couldn't resist
Club of Nines vs X-ers
Zapf Dingbats
New Ted Landau book
Monolingual, OpenOSX WinTel
Ragtime
Man Happier About Switch to Mac than Conversion to Christianity [/url]
Tempting deal on 15" PBook - I couldn't resist
From Anonymous
Hi Charles,
I thought I'd follow up once more on that tempting deal I saw for a 1.25GHz 15" PowerBook. After seeing it in person, I couldn't resist. What a spectacular machine! It's been fun getting acquainted. Just a few months ago it was going for $2599. They're now going for $2299, but I only paid $1799! I feel incredibly lucky. 
The mystery of the discount came down to two reasons: one I mentioned before is it was returned by the initial buyer complaining of one dead pixel, so it couldn't be sold as new, but I've since learned that the price was further dropped due to the updated PowerBooks that debuted in April. As the Apple Store staff put it, they were "refreshed," with the CPU getting a speed bump to 1.5GHz, the SuperDrive went from 2x to 4x DVD-R, and the ATi 9600 is now a 9700 (both 64MB). At $2499, the 1.5GHz model retails for $100 less than mine did when it was new, but I couldn't see the point of ponying up another $700 for the latest thing. If I were seriously looking at either of them retail, I'd probably opt for the newer machine... the performance/feature disparity might be worth the $200 difference. Then again, I'm not so sure I'd have made the purchase if I hadn't stumbled onto this deal in the first place. A case of being in the right place at the right time.
This is also my first significant time with OS X, and I am delighted with it as much as I am my new hardware. I need to get my scanner and digital camera set up, but that shouldn't be a problem. I still haven't played around with Exposé yet either. Perhaps the biggest hurdle right now is exporting my address book (and to a lesser extent, e-mail) from Outlook on my Pismo. Seems like it shouldn't be too hard... just copy the necessary files to Classic, then import via Address Book and Mail -- right?
I'll be buying Keynote before too long. For web surfing, I've been using Safari and iCab (one of my first downloads); I aim to try out some of the other browsers you've reviewed. After many years of use in OS 8 & 9, I'll finally be leaving Outlook behind, and look forward to finding a new e-mail app. I also figure I'll try out different word processors and such, and at some point I'll need to add some utilities too. If you have the time, I'd be interested to hear what utilities you think are essential to have in OS X (Cocktail?).
Thanks,
Anonymous
Hi A;
Congratulations! I think you made an excellent buy, and am envious. Welcome also to the wonderful world of OSX.
I have no experience exporting address books from Outlook.One way would be to export everything to Eudora, then either just continue using Eudora if you like it or use it as an intermediary, since most email programs can import Eudora files. You may find that you like OS X Mail, and another good free one is Mozilla Thunderbird.
My fave general system utility is OnyX, which is happily freeware, and does everything I need it to do. For heavier duty maintenance chores, AlSoft Disk Warrior is the class of the field for directory replacement, and I am also quite partial to SubRosaSoft's Disk Guardian.
Software-wise, OS X is a garden of delights for the most part, although I'm still looking for a image editing app. that matches Color It! 4 for speed and features.
Charles
Club of Nines vs X-ers
From Ken Hagler
I read this reply to my post with some interest. I thought I should clear up a misunderstanding: I actually don't have an opinion one way or the other on whether a high-end Windows laptop would be more failure prone. I just don't expect to be able to find a replacement Mac laptop by the time both my TiBook and my Pismo finally give up the ghost. I should have years of use (and costly repairs) before it finally becomes impossible to get replacement motherboards.
I use an OS X desktop system side by side with my laptop (and also an XP desktop) at work, so I'm constantly reminded of how slow and unreliable OS X is compared to Mac OS, and of how very different the two are.
I think your example of browser software is very good, although perhaps not in the way you intended it. I use Firefox 0.9 on XP, Mozilla 1.2 on Mac, and Safari 1.2 on OS X. The Mac browser is "out of date," and the XP browser was released today. The only significant difference between them is speed: Safari and Mozilla are about equally fast, and Firefox is depressingly faster than either (given the same connection speed, of course). Otherwise they're basically indistinguishable--the rare web pages I come across that won't work on one don't work on any of them, requiring me to launch IE.
I use my computers as tools to get something done. I don't care about one OS being "now," I only care if it's the best tool for the job.
Hi Ken;
Thanks for your comment. I also use OS 9 and OS X daily side-by-side, and I agree with you somewhat about speed. Even on a 233 MHz G3 PowerBook, OS 9.2.2 is as fast, and in some contexts faster, than OS X 10.3 running on my 550 MHz G4 Pismo and 700 MHz G3 iBook. I'm wondering what version of X you're using and on what type of system. I found that Panther is roughly 20% faster on older, slow Macs like mine than Jaguar was.
However, I have to disagree about reliability, while I have no real reliability complaints about OS 9 for teh sort of stuff I do with it, OS X is rock solid as well, and pre-emptive multitasking really gets addictive. Ditto for Expose in Panther.
Browsers? I use Shiira (very fast Japanese Safari clone), Firefox (0.9 released yesterday), and Opera on OS X, and iCab on both X and 9.
I agree in principle with your concluding observation, but for me, OS X is now the best tool for production work.
I was certainly no early adopter. I started experimenting with OS X in November, 2001, and didn't finally switch to it as my production OS until March, 2003. In my estimation, it drew even with OS 9 with the middle releases of Jaguar efficiency-wise, and pulled ahead with the Panther release.
Charles
From BearyandBow
I noticed a big difference between OS X and OS 8/9 in terms of daily use. Finder doesn't crash if one of the applications crashes and it is much easier to handle windows now that there is a dock. OS 8/9 always depressed me too with its grey look.
From Thomas Lomonte
I loved OS 8/9 as much as the next person, but that was then and OS X is now.
The reliability and performance of OS X should be enough to make the switch from 8/9. Lack of software availability for OS X should no longer be a stumbling block to converting over.
Why would anyone switch from OS 8/9 to Windows?
I suppose there must be hard "noggins" out there!
Zapf Dingbats
From Jim H
Regarding Zapf Dingbats. A fellow Mac user pointed out the same thing to me. I played around with it until it struck me that it was behaving as if Zapf Dingbats wasn't installed. I did a search, found Zapf D and selected it. The install button lit up and I installed. Then Keyboard Viewer worked. When I tried it a few days later Zapf Dingbats once again refused to display. INABIAF.
New Ted Landau book
From Eric Matthieu
Charles,
After reading your reviews of "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual" and "Mac OS X Conversion KIt" I thought they'd be the ticket to smooth my transition to OS X. But now there's a new entry: "Ted Landau's Mac OS X Help Line." I understand it came out earlier this month. Will you be reviewing it?
Eric
p.s. For an overview, visit
http://www.tedlandau.com/books/helpline/helpline.shtml
Hi Eric;
I'd be delighted to review Ted's new book if his publisher sends me a copy.
However, based on the Website description and his previous "Sad Macs. Bombs, and Other Disasters" which I do have, I would say that "Help Line" would really be more of a compliment to than a replacement for OS X:TMM.
I've reviewed alot of OS X books over the past three years, and while most are well worth having in one's library, OS X: TMM stands out as the one to have if you're only having one.
Charles
Monolingual, OpenOSX WinTel
From Andrew Main
Charles,
Re your review of Monolingual
http://www.applelinks.com/pm/more.php?id=1543_0_1_0_M , which is linked on Low End Mac (where I usually see your stuff): You might want to look at the user reviews on MacUpdate <http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/7758> (click the "Read 61 Reviews" link) and Version Tracker <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13031> (Click "View all (93)). It seems to work well for knowledgeable users, but apparently has caused major headaches for a significant number. I don't think I've used it myself (being a language hobbyist, I like having all that stuff), but for client setups I include Delocalizer, which apparently may not remove quite so many items, but seems to be foolproof, and still works fine in 10.3 although it hasn't been updated in a while (and apparently won't be -- be nice to see some other developer take it on).
I also came across your note about OpenOSX WinTel http://www.applelinks.com/pm/more.php?id=1237_0_1_0 , which I had considered as a possible alternative to Virtual PC, until I did a little research. For a good summary of what I found, go to MacInTouch's search page <http://search.macintouch.com/> and search for OpenOSX WinTel in the News Archive (on the left). And again, the reviews at MacUpdate <http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/14531> and Version Tracker <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18545>, as well as a page at XLR8YourMac <http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/openosx_x86_emulator.html#reports>, are informative. I'm not going to bother, and certainly would not recommend this product to anyone.
Andrew
Hi Andrew;
Thanks for the tip about Delocalizer. So far, I've noticed no ill effects from using Monolingual on my iBook, but I agree that one should be cautious about using any software that modifies system resources.
I also agree about OpenOSX WinTel after reading some reviews. At best it appears that it is very slow, although one hopes that it will improve with further development.
Charles
Ragtime
From John M. Dennis
I was reading through a discussion on word processing programs for the mac that are not Word and this was given. I do not know if you have tried this before or not but it looks like they have a version for every OS from Windows to the Mac. It is also free for personal use.
http://www.ragtime-online.com/
Hi John;
I've had good reports about Ragtime. I've never gotten around to downloading it, as it's pretty big and with my dial-up connection it's like filling a bathtub through a straw.
Charles
Man Happier About Switch to Mac than Conversion to Christianity
From Marvin Price
You probably saw this...
http://www.holyobserver.com/detail.php?isu=v01i04&art=mac
From John M. Dennis
You might enjoy this article.
http://www.holyobserver.com/detail.php?isu=v01i04&art=mac
Thank You,
John M. Dennis
Hi Marvin and John;
Yes, it's pretty droll satire by a bunch of Christians.
Charles
***
Charles W. Moore
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