Classic versus Mac OS X
It's common for me to see feedback from readers -- posted to the MacCentral forums, sometimes even e-mailed to me directly -- lauding the old "Classic" Mac OS. They still use it, they say, and they see no reason to switch. They have a wide range of political, economic, or personal justifications for not using Mac OS X.
I do not identify with these folks in any way, shape or form. I cannot understand why anyone would not make a concerted effort to get Jaguar installed on their Mac; and if they're using a Mac that doesn't work with OS X, I cannot understand any reason why they would not buy a new machine at this point, unless the economics made it truly impossible.
Having been a Mac user off and on (but mostly on) for more than half my life, I have seen the Macintosh operating system evolve from its humble beginnings as a simple, black and white graphical user interface capable of basic tasks that was still way more sophisticated and powerful than anything available for other personal computers; to a slightly more sophisticated (if cumbersome) system capable of running multiple applications at once. Eventually it evolved into something more useful still, with built-in color support, better memory and task management and so on, into the system that ultimately became Mac OS 9.
In many ways, that last iteration of "Classic" reminds me of my car -- it's the sort of thing that's been patched and wired together so many times, you're amazed that it works, and a little fearful of it too.
Not so with Mac OS X.
I'll admit that when I first started using Mac OS X -- as a public beta -- I WAS terrified of it. A Unix-based operating system -- something that can operate equally well as a script or interpreted language-driven command line operating system or as a GUI -- was a terrifying prospect to behold. I knew enough Unix to know that I could easily blow something up and never get it to work again without reformatting and reinstalling the operating system.
Having spent all this time with Mac OS X, however, I have to say that I truly love it. Corey Tamas has asked me to quantify my adoration for Mac OS X in slightly less esoteric ways than I have in the past, and I'm not sure that I can -- it's the mixture of under-the-hood power combined with an elegant user interface. Extending the old computers-as-cars metaphor, I guess I feel with Mac OS X like it's Bentley owners do -- a beautiful, well-crafted engineering marvel truly made for driving.
Microsoft has come a long, long way from Windows 3.1 to XP, there's no question. But I still find it an exceedingly cumbersome and awkward environment -- things like operating system commands and directory listings are hidden from me that shouldn't be hidden from me, while I'm exposed to problems that I shouldn't have to deal with, like device driver issues and constant, constant updates to security and reliability.
The Mac isn't perfect. Operating system drivers still need some refinement and tweaking, and Apple's dependance on OpenGL -- and the ARB's slow pace of ratification -- has put the Mac behind Windows in terms of 3D driver development, to be sure. Apple sure as hell has to do something about the glacial pace of PowerPC processor clock speed increases. That's the bane of Mac gamers, along with the long time for games to port and the slow pace at which A-list titles come to the platform. But it doesn't stop my day to day Mac experience from being supremely good -- and as I've said again and again, I'm a Mac user first and a gamer second.
I'm sure that Windows will evolve further down the road too. But Apple is innovating at an even better pace, so to that end I'm hoping that we'll continue to see the Mac evolve in ways we haven't imagined yet.
Comments
OSX is the best Mac OS since the first one. Stable, reliable, easy to use and easy to teach.
Posted by: Andrew | March 19, 2003 06:23 PM