Reowr

So in order to offset my last post with something to prove Alternate’s not dying, I’m going to spackle you with my latest impressions of Panther.

No. I’m not a developer. Yes, it was procured with BitTorrent. Now hush.

First thing a lot of people want to know about is the Finder. I love it. The action menu mirrors the functionality of a right- or control-click, I’ve never really used it, but I could see a first-time user getting the hang of it. The customizable sidebar is a thousand times more easy to use that the regular ole Cocoa top-bar in Jaguar. In my build (7b44), you can set the folder a new Finder window will open. No more choosing between Home and Computer anymore! I have mine set to “Current Projects” which is managed by a PHP script I wrote. The new Open/Save dialog boxes go along with this, as they use a similar UI. Shortcuts on the left, browsing on the right in one of the three different metaphors. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself not using the Open dialog much anymore because…

…Exposê makes the Finder instantly and insanely accessible. I use my Desktop again! Just slide the mouse down to the bottom-right corner and I have my Desktop available, with all my other windows’ edges a wee bit visible and lower opacity clinging to the screens edges. Click the Finder icon in the dock and get a new Finder window by itself (which, again, opens up Current Projects), find the file I’m looking for, double-click it or drag it over to its respective app icon, and all my windows come sliding back, and my app is opening the file. I use the desktop show thingy much more than the much-touted all-window minimizer, which in my opinion, takes too long to find the window you’re looking for, as there’s no predictable place for your window to end up. Yes, it’ll go to the same place every time given an almost-same number of windows but when you a. have a million windows to choose from and b. use a 1600×1200 resolution, each window is barely discernable from the next and you really only know which one you’re selecting because of the mouseover that tells you the window’s name. Like I said, I don’t use it. When I use someone else’s machine with Jaguar though, I find myself intuitively mousing over the bottom right to get the desktop, and when nothing happens, I get disappointed. I think that’s a big point to make: mouse gestures were so easily implemented into my workflow that I end up really more dependent on them that I expected I ever would be.

Speed: I’m like 10 releases behind, and I see no reason to try to find the newest ones. This thing is fast. My aging 533 with 896mb of RAM was like a brand-new machine, easily equaling a 667 or 733 machine with Jaguar. I see speed increases easily in the 20-30% range, with Photoshop 7 being the most welcome. Save For Web comes up instantly, etc.

The general UI is cleaner than Jaguar and definitely feels more professional without all those stripes. The new tabs are very nice and the darker wells/fieldset-type backgrounds are very striking.

The only apps that don’t work from Jaguar are the Apple-issued ones (iTunes, iMovie, iChat, Safari) and you have to use Panther-specific versions of those. Otherwise, application support is phenomenal. There were a few UI bugs in BBEdit but they seem to have been squashed, minus the ever-annoying and really stupid one where when I command-tab from BBEdit to Safari and hit Reload, my keyboard stops working. Other than that, this OS is a dream to use and will definitely be worth whatever it costs when it comes out, which, despite what your opinion may be, I will certainly pay. I’ve paid for every major MacOS upgrade since 8.0. So nyeh.

• Category: Macintosh