I’ve installed Mac OS X (10.1) on my iBook. Wow.
Apple has come through as promised. The speed improvements are nothing short of stunning, which they needed to be given the glacial performance that Apple had delivered with version 10.0, a product that was blatantly beta, not ready for real people.
With version 10.1, windows open quickly. Applications start up reasonably quickly as well. Scrolling through long lists of files is no longer water torture.
There are a few user-interface changes, too, including some tweaking of the application dock. I still don’t like the dock as well as the task bar and tray in Windows 2000, but you can now move it to either side of the screen.
Unicode seems well-supported. With just a few clicks I was able to get menus in some applications to show up in other languages. The localization potential for this product is just enormous.
I haven’t done much exploring of the BSD Unix under the hood, but it’s cool to know I can get to it easily. Apple has also put a lot of effort into scripting in this version.
The major drawback remains native applications, or their absence. I’m planning to use the machine for music, among other things, and none of the major music-software companies have launched OS X versions, as far as I know. And while I can use a word processor in Classic mode, I still say this OS won’t be done until Cubase and Nisus Writer run natively.
Still, this is a major breakthrough. OS X is truly ready for prime time.