On the down side of things, a lot of code is now suddenly broken, even if it was not C++. Mac OS X now utilizes some of the FreeBSD 4.4 code, includes a Bash shell, while GCC 3.1, which generates better and faster code, is shipped with the developer tools. The BSD layer and developer tools of OSX have also been updated. Same for the drop-down boxes (combo boxes for you GTK+ heads). They now look much better and more “clean”. UI-wise, I noticed that the buttons are not exactly the same as before. Yet another nice addition is now the ability to run a software-based Airport station. However, developers would have to specifically support this in order new applications to be able to connect via Rendezvous to another Mac. Another kinda neat idea is Rendezvous which allows you to automatically connect and exchange information with other Macs that happen to be on the same network. The Mail program now comes with an advanced spam-killer feature, Quartz Extreme allows you to have “real” transparency. Especially because Apple now sells only SMP PowerMacs, multithreading was a must in order to scale well on these machines.Īmong the new features you will find on Jaguar are a newly redesigned Sherlock 3 (which now openly resembles more of what Watson does these days), there is a great network integration with Windows machines, easier file sharing, redesigned Address Book and a new AIM application, iChat (which I found it to get on my way when trying to chat, looks good but…). Finder is snappier, the menu bar does not stall as much when loading a big web page etc. This is really strange behavior, which suggests possibly either bad algorithms or overall bad design.Ī lot of multithreading code was added to this version of OSX, and it really shows. On other applications, the opposite would occur (Opera – Carbon). In fact, I noticed that in some applications you will find that scrolling with the mouse wheel is very smooth, while trying to scroll the same document with the scroll bar is jerky (Chimera – Cocoa/Carbon mix). I even use OSX at 16-bit color, because 32-bit is even slower…ĭon’t get me wrong, I do believe that OSX is fast doing a lot of things, but when it comes to resizing, scrolling and launch it just doesn’t feel right. Indeed, QE makes the UI more bearable, but still it is just not as responsive as Windows XP on the similarly powerfull machine. An anonymous donor sent me free of charge a GeForce2MX, a special model made for the G4 Cubes (thanks!), so since a week ago I am now able to utilize Quartz Extreme. Scrolling and resizing is twice faster than it used to be. I found that OSX 10.2 is definitely faster than its predecessor, at least it does feel faster. ![]() The new version of OSX kept all preferences and settings as they were before and did not overwrite any modified by me behaviors of the OS, which is a good thing.įirst thing I tried was to check out its UI responsiveness. The installation took about 40 minutes (a 20 GB IDE drive used). You put the CD in, you boot with it, you choose the partition you want, and that’s pretty much all there is into it. The installation of 10.2 went very smooth, it was truly a no brainer installation. I used Mac OS X on and off for the last few months, but version 10.1.x was really not something that could captivate my interest and make me use it more frequently, mostly because of its low UI speed, and secondly because of the way some of its UI elements work. ![]() I have had Mac OS X 10.1.5 installed on this G4 Cube 450 MHz (which is still modern Apple hardware) with 448 MB of SDRAM since last May. Update: Slashdot seems to agree with our review, at least on the backwards compatibility issue. ![]() Is Jaguar worth the full $129 USD? Dive in for more. Almost a year after our much discussed Mac OS X 10.1 review, it is time to write down our impressions from the new version of OSX, Jaguar 10.2.
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