MacOS 10.1
By Mike Vande Ven Jr.
http://homepage.mac.com/giantmike/
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Apple Computer
Price: Free update from retail stores.
$20 Upgrade from Up-to-date
$130 full retail package
System Requiremnets:
Full Package
4G3 or G4 (including iBooks, iMacs, and PowerBooks)
128 MB of RAM
1.5 GB Hard drive space
Upgrade
MacOS X Installed
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MacOS X 10.1 is what the original MacOS X should have been. Speedy, full featured, more customization, and more make this the update you need to have.
Installation:
First, pop in the CD, and start up from it. Then, just run through the installer (where you can also check the disk integrity, and use Disk Setup if you like). No matter if you get the upgrade or the full package, the installation is about the same. Just make sure you customize it to take out any languages you don't want, to save space and speed up the installation. The upgrade took about 45 minutes on my iBook.
Usage:
The main improvement Apple touts with MacOS X 10.1 over 10.0.4 is speed. And they aren't lying. For instance, Internet Explorer used to take 15 seconds to launch, now it takes about 3. This is the same with every program you use. Plus, moving and resizing windows, using menus, and even copying files are all much faster. It's not quite as fast as OS 9.x, but it's close.
Another big feature implementation is the ability to burn CDs, and watch and burn DVDs. CD/DVD burning ala Disc Burner is very easy. Plus, you can now use Disk Copy to create cloned images of disks, which means exact copies and bootable disks, something you can't do in 9.x without third party software. And DVDs play much more smoothly than they did in MacOS 9, with audio sync problems all but eliminated.
Then there is the networking aspect. Not only can you connect to Mac file servers over TCP, but now you can also connect to AppleTalk Servers, WebDav servers, and even Windows file servers. While it's kind of complicated to connect to Windows servers, I have gotten it to work. I just wish Apple could build something like the network browser, that would find local Windows machines on its own.
Yet another brand new thing to MacOS X is menu widgets. Now, instead of the docklings using up space in your dock, menu widgets for monitor settings, battery life, sound level, airport strength, and more are available. You can even change the clock to an icon (rather than digital) if you want. These things are great, as they free up Dock space, and are always available.
Now, we get to the improvements and enhancements. First, the System Preferences have a major overhaul. Now, there are categories, so finding what you need is easier, the space allotted to the favorite control panels is larger, the extra space is open to third party developers, there are some new control panels, and also some new options in the old ones. This means customization is much higher in X, curbing one of the anti-X arguments.
The Dock has also been improved. Now, the Dock doesn't have to sit on the bottom, it can be pinned to either the left or ride side as well. Also, the genie effect is complemented with a new scale effect that is faster, but not nearly as cool. One more thing, applications that need your attention will now bounce their icons in the Dock until you look at them. Sometimes annoying, but helpful when finding which application emitted the error sound.
Also, the sound and brightness keys actually work like they are supposed to. Press one of those keys, and a display pops up, showing you the current level, and moving a progress bar, then fades away. So no more guessing where your sound level is, and no more loading the displays control panel to get the brightness keys to work. Added Bonus: The volume keys work like they are supposed to with iTunes open.
Next, we get to how the sleep feature has improved. On laptops, the display will dim after the set amount of time, then shut off after another block of that time (e.g. if set to 5 minutes for display sleep, 5 minutes of inactivity will dim it, and 10 minutes will turn it off). But the major improvement is the speed increase before waking up. My iBook wakes up so fast now, the screen is ready before I can get it fully opened.
Something that has been looked over by many is screen captures. In MacOS X 10.0.x, you needed to use the "Grab" utility to take screen shots. It was hard to use, and cumbersome. But now, you can use the command-shift-3 and command-shift-4 keys, just like in MacOS 7.x-9.x. The first one will take a shot of the entire screen, while the second one will take a shot of a selection.
Finally, we get to the Internet related items. iDisk and IE have both been updated. IE is more stable and faster (in both web page loading and application loading). And the iDisk now uses the WebDav standard, so it loads MUCH faster, and can be loaded from any WebDav enabled software. So now you can use your fast iDisk on Windows and Unix machines.
Also, one of the big promises of OS X is finally here, JAVA 2. Browsers can use JAVA, as well as an improved Java Applet Runner. While it's still kinda buggy running in browsers, and doesn't always seem to work correctly, at least it's here.
Problems:
For me, problems with OS X 10.1 were minimal. The first one being that some icons, such as IE, turned into question marks in the Dock. The quick fix is to drag the icon out of the dock, relocate that item, and drag it back into the dock. No more problems with that.
But something that did give me a little more problem was using dial-up. Just as in 10.0.x, the internal modem doesn't make any sounds, and problems continue while getting connected to the web. With 75% of the world still using dial-up for their net access, Apple really needs to fix this one.
Conclusion:
Apple is making huge strides with this update. Finally, the speed is nearly up to that of OS 9, compatibility with third party devices is improved, users can more easily customize their systems, and it's much more like MacOS 9 (feature wise). As soon as more major applications are written for MacOS X, this update will convert many more Windows and Mac users than the first release.
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Pros: | Cons: |
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Huge speed improvement over OS X 10.0.x
CD/DVD burning, including bootable and cloned discs
Very good DVD playing capabilities
Ability to connect to Windows file servers
Cool new menu widgets
VMany customization enhancements
Improved sleep feature
Easy screen capture abilities
Faster, better iDisk
JAVA 2 now implemented
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A few minor errors with the update
Leftover dial-up problems
Hard to get update package
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Rating: 9 out of ten Mac Faces.
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