On Jun 26, 2005, at 9:34 PM, Peter Schaff wrote:
Hi Matthew!
Just a few comments, FWIW.
OSX is processor hungry and RAM hungry. Our iMac (600 MHz, 768 MB
RAM) is slow. We really must replace it with another Dual PM soon.
That said, my wife LOVES what she can do with it. She runs Photoshop
and Word, putting together relatively massive picture documents,
internets, does her mail, has a large genealogy database (Reunion 8),
all without closing programs. OSX puts in RAM what you are currently
using and the dynamically allocated RAM is a godsend! It keeps track
of everything very well and lets you operate efficiently, even with
lots of programs running simultaneously. Sometimes patience is
required while it adopts to a change in your work flow.
Although my personal opinion is that OSX is far superior to OS9, I
have friends who lament the way OSX does things. If you are heavily
dependent on how OS9 operates, particularly regarding finder window
management, OSX will take some getting used to. I have little OS9
experience so I fell right into the groove (coming from Amiga). OSX
is sweet! And of course, it is the future.
Jaguar has one advantage over the later cats. It packs more icons on
a screen. If this would be important to you, consider it. I've been
reluctant to move "up" for that reason. Bruce Johnson says Tiger is
the most stable cat, and his opinion carries a lot of weight with me.
OSX loves screen real estate, and so will you if you convert. My
experience is notably better with my 19" monitor than the 17" I used
previous to that.
A friend bought a 350 MHz G3 B&W(?) and is thrilled how Jag runs on
it, especially with his recent move from 256 MB to 512 MB RAM. His
1st OSX machine is a 500 MHz iMac. He was OS9 for years.
There will be an adjustment period, but in the end it will be worth
it, IMNSHO. ;^)
I suggest you make the change sometime soon, and save your pennies for
upgrades. Personally, I feel OSX needs a DP 1 GHz or better. YMMV.
But you must let your conscience be your guide.
- Peter Schaff
I agree with everything Peter says above. Am new to OS-X myself (10.3.9
on a 2001 Digital Audio 733 with 1.5 GB of RAM and several large hard
drives connected inside and out) but I like its increased stability
over 9, and the dynamic memory allotment that allows many programs to
run efficiently all at the same time. In fact I bought the Adobe
Creative Suite that lets four large Adobe programs (Photoshop,
Illustrator, GoLive, InDesign) all work with together simultaneously
with a "bridge" connecting them. Neat! For screen real estate I have
two 21 inch monitors side by side and I use all the room they provide
and would feel cramped without it. You can really be productive with
that much working space! Am running Panther quite happily, a bit afraid
to move up to the next cat while things are working so well. This old
dual-boot machine allows dropping back into 9 easily to run old SCSI
scanners and things (just do a restart while holding down the D key,
and presto, you're back in 9. Restart again without touching the
keyboard, and you're back in 10. Simple).
However, there are a few things in OS-9 that I miss, or maybe I just
don't know how to do the same in 10. For instance, I liked the way all
the active programs would be listed on a menu in the upper right corner
of the screen in 9, and you could just pick the one you wanted to come
to the front off that menu. In 10, picking their icons off the dock
among all the other icons is a lot clumsier, and the little black
triangles that are supposed to show you which programs are active are
hard to spot. Is there a way to make active programs appear in a menu
as a list, as in OS-9?
Tom
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