X response
This post is in response to a post on SVN regarding MacOS X:
Sick of the OS X hype…
Yes, I am inviting a flaming deluge of comments here, but at least hear me out before you start writing back in ALL CAPS.
There are two things about the swarm of commentary on OS X among the Mac faithful that have me scratching my head.
The first:
Mac OS X is the future!
It might be the future for MacOS users, but to the rest of the computing world it’s old news. Ah yes, an OS that doesn’t crash once a day — let us all exult at the revolution! An OS that has support for more than one processor — by Zeus, my world has changed. An OS based on the tried and true UNIX (which is itself 20 years old), if that’s not a revolution, I don’t know what is! Now that brings me to my second point of confusion. I’ve read some form of the following in many a message board:
Unix is inside Mac OS X. It’s here to stay. That is a GOOD thing.
Why? Since when did UNIX become the only possible option in OS foundations? Yes, it certainly is stable and well understood, but what’s with this blind devotion to this very old technology. I’m disappointed that in the seventeen years since the release of the first version of what is now the MacOS Apple hasn’t come up with something better, particalarly considering the fact that Apple controls the entire widget (software and hardware). Jobs says that he wants OS X to be the foundation for the MacOS for the next fifteen years. If that’s the case I’ll be very bummed out because that would mean that very little of substance will have changed in the world of computing.
Here’s my point (which I’ve been slow in getting to), the current computing paradigm sucks. OS UIs are lame and OS X doesn’t do much to change that (prettier control widgets don’t cut it in my book). If that’s the best that they could muster then why not just develop skins for Windows 2000 or Linux?
Millions and millions of people have changed their behaviour and learned to cope with stupidly designed interfaces that force us to jump through the same hoops again and again and again and again. That needs to change if the real potential of the human/computer interface is to be realized, yet all anyone seems to be paying attention to is re-skinning existing interfaces and increasing MHz.
Why am I criticizing Apple? It may be unfair since Microsoft certainly does not seem to be doing anything better with Windows XP, but what do you expect from MS? What we’ve all come to expect from Apple is real change and OS X has been billed as a “revolutionary” product. Instead what Apple has delivered is an incrementally evolutionary product that has arrived about seven years later than it should have. Hey, no doubt that it’ll eventually be a boon to Mac users who won’t have to force reboot their computers several times a week, but it does nothing to solve the fundamental problems with current operating systems and that’s sad.
Ahem. Can I point out one small flaw in just what just about everyone is saying? I know at least one of the Signals crew disagrees with this analogy, but here goes: EK, you said yourself that UNIX is 15 years old, and that X has been in development in one form or another for 10 years. To us (computer users), that seems like a long time. But in reality, I think that expecting to see or being disappointed by not seeing ‘the future’ of the computer UI just 15 short years after its inception is wildly ridiculous. Here’s the analogy: cars. The design of the car did not significantly change 15 years after it was first designed, and in fact still hasn’t fundamentally changed, almost 100 years after its birth. What has changed? Comfort, style, & performance. Now, OSX might not have improved in comfort much yet, but in style and performance, compard to OS9, it’s off the charts. When I use classic now, I feel like I might as well be using System 6 or something… All this talk of Apple dismissing usability for creativity is, I feel, in error. Aqua is just an evolution of platinum. Were you this pissed when 7.6 or 8 came out (I can’t remember which had it) with the Aaron extension (renamed to appearance/platinum) that added nice 1px shadows and depth to windows and widgets? I doubt it, but with Aqua, everyone is up in arms that Apple is ignoring their own ideas, when that really isn’t true. I think, at least.
And one more thing: the act of getting upset with a company for distributing hype along with a new product is retarded. Sure, X isn’t the future: not yet. Apple is a company that needs to sell products in order to survive. Marketing furtheres that goal. Honestly, at this point, a true major evolution in the way humans interact with computers would not sell well, or even be regarded as such.
Reader interactions
14 Replies to “X response”
Comments are closed.
I hate to admit this, but I had to switch back over 9.1 for most of my daily tasks.. photoshop 6 was just too flaky in classic.. contextual menus didn’t work, and I even lost the menubar at one point… Moving layers around were jerky, too. Bummer for me. I still will develop in it, but for now, it’s just too buggy when I have to actually get work done.
I won’t be using OSuX until all the apps I need are native, even then I doubt it. My Mac days may be over.
Wait a minute… maybe I’m the only one who thinks that Apple ISN’T putting a lot of hype on OSX.
Yeah, Steve continues to reiterate on the fact that it’s unix-based, that it’s the future of the Macintosh…
Well, what do you expect him to say?
It seemed to me that last saturday came… and went. Most of the non-Mac users I work with, online and otherwise, had no idea that OSX was released that day.
Hardly ‘hype’. On the other hand, everyone was painfully aware of the day that the Playstation 2 and Windows ME were released. THOSE were hyped.
I agree, although I’m a little sketptical about why they’re not hyping it: it simply isn’t ready, at least in a consumer sense to BE hyped. When it truly reaches the stage that it deserves to be in, you’ll see iMac-like (in scope) marketing.
And anon: Can you at least elaborate on why your mac days ‘may be over?’
To elaborate:
The OS is becoming pretty irrelevant these days for me. And I can do my work on any OS so long as it has TCP/IP, runs Netscape 6.0 and has some sort of crude pixel editor, although I would perfer Photoshop..or Deluxe Paint IIe ;).
So I am going to choose an OS which has a UI I enjoy and feel most comfortable with.
OS X does not have a UI I enjoy at all. OS 9.0 has a UI which I swear boosts my serotonin levels just in using. And Win2K with IE is a pleasure to surf with. Linux still needs a good UI, and the stuff Eazel is doing eludes me.
So I don’t know what I am going to do when it comes time to upgrade. But as OS X is at this momement, I would not run it or invest in a machine which bases its future on it.
Well, I for one have been using OS X since (well before) day one. I have had no problems dealing with classics “shortcomings” … infact even with its shortcomings is easier to use than linux or windows and I have had no problems staying inside X permanently. I am a Linux/Mac freak though… so to me it is Nirvana. I couldn’t care less about visual artifacts in classic and what not… just switfch apps for a second and then go back to the classic app… all you artifacts or missing menu bars will be fixed.
EVEN the slower redraws dont bug me… I mean WTF, wait a 1/2 second longer. In fact, I *REALLY* like the way OS X has slowed me down just a little bit… it makes me think more about how I use my computer instead of just molesting it like its 9.
wow. How things have changed. Developers are embracing it, the windows world is deluged with virii. Apple did see the future, and delivered it.
I hate to admit this, but I had to switch back over 9.1 for most of my daily tasks.. photoshop 6 was just too flaky in classic.. contextual menus didn’t work, and I even lost the menubar at one point… Moving layers around were jerky, too. Bummer for me. I still will develop in it, but for now, it’s just too buggy when I have to actually get work done.
I won’t be using OSuX until all the apps I need are native, even then I doubt it. My Mac days may be over.
Wait a minute… maybe I’m the only one who thinks that Apple ISN’T putting a lot of hype on OSX.
Yeah, Steve continues to reiterate on the fact that it’s unix-based, that it’s the future of the Macintosh…
Well, what do you expect him to say?
It seemed to me that last saturday came… and went. Most of the non-Mac users I work with, online and otherwise, had no idea that OSX was released that day.
Hardly ‘hype’. On the other hand, everyone was painfully aware of the day that the Playstation 2 and Windows ME were released. THOSE were hyped.
I agree, although I’m a little sketptical about why they’re not hyping it: it simply isn’t ready, at least in a consumer sense to BE hyped. When it truly reaches the stage that it deserves to be in, you’ll see iMac-like (in scope) marketing.
And anon: Can you at least elaborate on why your mac days ‘may be over?’
To elaborate:
The OS is becoming pretty irrelevant these days for me. And I can do my work on any OS so long as it has TCP/IP, runs Netscape 6.0 and has some sort of crude pixel editor, although I would perfer Photoshop..or Deluxe Paint IIe ;).
So I am going to choose an OS which has a UI I enjoy and feel most comfortable with.
OS X does not have a UI I enjoy at all. OS 9.0 has a UI which I swear boosts my serotonin levels just in using. And Win2K with IE is a pleasure to surf with. Linux still needs a good UI, and the stuff Eazel is doing eludes me.
So I don’t know what I am going to do when it comes time to upgrade. But as OS X is at this momement, I would not run it or invest in a machine which bases its future on it.
Well, I for one have been using OS X since (well before) day one. I have had no problems dealing with classics “shortcomings” … infact even with its shortcomings is easier to use than linux or windows and I have had no problems staying inside X permanently. I am a Linux/Mac freak though… so to me it is Nirvana. I couldn’t care less about visual artifacts in classic and what not… just switfch apps for a second and then go back to the classic app… all you artifacts or missing menu bars will be fixed.EVEN the slower redraws dont bug me… I mean WTF, wait a 1/2 second longer. In fact, I *REALLY* like the way OS X has slowed me down just a little bit… it makes me think more about how I use my computer instead of just molesting it like its 9.
wow. How things have changed. Developers are embracing it, the windows world is deluged with virii. Apple did see the future, and delivered it.