Dear WAMUGgers, Thought I'll let you know of my impression of OS X 10.3.2, specially after using OS 8 and 8.1 for the past 8 years or so!
Although I have had some exposure of OS X via books and magazines and the odd use of my brother's G4, it was with a bit of apprehension that I brought the new G5- 1.8Mhz home. In fact it brought back memories when way back I progressed from my trusty Apple IIc, remember it Peter?, to a much 'faster' Macintosh Classic. Installing the OS on the G5 was a breeze and in a very short period of time the computer was ready for use. This is when I started appreciating the excellent work Apple did in providing an interface that classic OS Mac users were familiar with. Within only 30 mins or so I felt comfortable enough with the OS to install various applications - Office (Excel), FileMaker Pro 6, .Mac, and Epson's drivers and interface for their all-in-one printer/scanner CX5300. Having also bought a USB Iomega Zip drive, to read to 30 or so disks I have accumulated, I wondered whether to install its driver. However I plugged the Zip drive in the USB port, and the drive was instantly recognised by the Finder. Voilà! Easily done. The only minor problems I encountered are: * Epson¹s Smart Panel, which came with the CX5300, would crash and I was never able to launch and use it. No great loss because I am still able to use the scanner and printer without this application. * At one time the whole computer froze and no short cut combinations could get it going but a restart by pressing the start button for a few seconds. I had Virex, Safari and Mail going at the time with Safari downloading a web page and Virex downloading/updating virus definitions. I do not really know what caused the complete crash, but it has not happened since. * If a Zip disk is left in the disk drive, and the computer is shut down, the disk will not automatically eject as happen with OS 8.1. Perhaps a script could do this for me? * For some unknown reason the modem (dial-up) would drop out after random period of time. Am not sure whether the problem resides with my settings, modem or my ISP. Sometimes the modem would disconnect after about 10 minutes and at other time after 1 hour or so. This has not been resolved as yet. * Wished I had read Peter¹s comments that a .Mac account is only useful if one has a broadband connection to the net. Using dial-up, as I do here, I also find that the .Mac is of very little practical use. On the very positive side: * Excel (Office X) is running so much faster than on the old Performa 5400! specially the large spreadsheets of 600kb and above. * Safari is much faster than IE, although it does not provides different formats to save Web pages in. IE on the other hand allows the Web pages to be saved as Text, Web Archive or HTML. Due to its speed I use Safari in preference to IE. * Although I have experimented with Mail, I have to admit to just loving Entourage which is the OS X version of my old familiar Outlook Express. Data, old emails and addresses, was imported easily. * FileMaker Pro 6 is just wonderful and runs so fast that I have to make sure I¹m wearing my crash helmet :) * Using the burner is intuitive so much so that my daughter, who had never used OS X or been exposed to it, was able to start the computer and burn some archival CDs. This was done without help, but I do not know if she has produced some coasters though ..... * Been using a little utility called YASU, as recommended by a contributor to the WAMUG list (Bob H?) and with my thanks for this, to perform some house cleaning¹. This works very well although I believe that with 10.3.2 the Update Prebinding¹ is not required. I still have not updated my copy of Disk Warrior for OS X, but this will be done as soon as I can. * The Development tools (X Code) is comprehensive and is included with the OS. This is an excellent bonus. * Oh, yes! the G5 is so quiet that I only hear a gentle whizz except when the room temperature gets above 30C or so, and even then its hardly noticeable. I am grateful for the many advice I have received, specially from Onno, with regards to hardware and software matters. The WAMUG list is indeed an excellent place to learn a lot about our beloved platform. I will next be using some Command Line tricks to familiarise myself with Unix, trying Open Office, and also the included compiler for some C++ exercises. To sum up, Apple has done a magnificent job with both the OS Software and hardware. J Philippe C -- The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. Mark Twain (1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer)
