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Upgrading to Mac OS X: A Guide For the Mac Faithful
Why Should I Switch?
When I launch into a fervent speech about the wonders of Mac OS X,
the eyes of Mac OS 9 users tend to glaze over. I'll admit it. I'm a computer
geek, so for me switching was a no-brainer.
The Geek's Reasons:
- It's Unix. It's basically FreeBSD with a pretty face. Could you ask for more?
You get a shell and Microsoft Office.
- Antialiasing, drop-shadows, clever visual trickery everywhere. Yum.
- This is a multi-tasking, protected-memory operating system. Finally. Double yum.
If your eyes just glazed over and you still want to know why:
- It never crashes. Never. I reboot my PowerMac only when I install an upgrade or the
rare program that requires a reboot.
- Sleep is instant, both to go to sleep and to wake. Instant. Like sub-one second.
And there is no other operating system ever in the history of mankind that is as stable
when you sleep it (try putting Windows on standby...).
- It absolutely couldn't be easier to set up network and internet connections.
You can even connect to Windows file servers at the office without getting
I.T. to set it up!
- There is a "Classic" environment which basically runs OS 9 in a
sandbox mechanism, so that you can run your old programs. They run well, almost
as fast as in OS 9. The good news is -- if OS 9 or one of its programs crashes, you
can restart just the OS 9 Classic sandbox, and not your whole computer.
- I cannot stress this enough: it does not crash.
- Everything on screen is rendered as a PDF. This means it looks in most
cases exactly the same on screen and in print (obviously some older applications
do not support this). Almost every program supports the ability to
create
a pdf out of any document or webpage via some trickery provided through the
operating system.
- It's the future. You'll be cooler than your nay-saying friends.
- If one program barfs, you can quickly and easily "kill"
it and either restart the program or give up on it. No other programs or features
are affected by any other program's stupidity. It's literally impossible. You will never
see this message again: "Internet Explorer unexpectedly quit. You should close all
other applications and restart your computer." Your other programs
are just fine.
- Hardware either works or it doesn't. This is great. No plug-and-pray,
no jenky extensions throwing your machine for a loop. Most stuff works
when you plug it in, immediately.
- The "Digital Hub" applications are great. My personal favorite is
iTunes, but my brother with
the new baby loves iPhoto together
with his old favorite Photoshop.
- Did I mention that it does not crash? Ever?
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