At Seybold Expo Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that MacOSX 10.1 would be available on September 29th. Retail price is $129, having an upgrade CD shipped to you from Apple is $19.99, and it will be available in all Apple Retail stores (and official resellers’ stores) for free. Update: Saturday. A visit to our local neighborhood Apple Store (Tyson’s Corner, VA) yielded no free CD. Apparently over 1000 people lined up at 6 am this morning to get theirs.
Went into a CompUSA store (East Hanover, NJ) and was told that they have the 10.1 retail box, but no upgrades — free or $19.95. Asked if I could buy a retail version a day early and they said that Apple would fine them $1,000,000! That’s very hard to believe, don’t you think?
I have come to the conclusion that OS X is the only logical resting place for the BeOS refugee looking to restore a good computing experience to his life. After Be went down, I retired my BeOS machines and went back to Windows for a few weeks. I found a lot of software and a pretty solid OS in Win2K, but I couldn’t help but feel slutty using Windows. It was just too gross. Then I took the plunge and set up Mandrake 8, hoping to make it my main desktop and server OS. It’s now become a great server in my house and for my sites, and I appreciate a lot about it, but headaches? Don’t get me started. Even the most “user friendly” of the distributions has been hassle after another. I could write pages about why Linux is years away from being able to provide a halfway decent desktop experience. Everything I did in Windows and Linux left me frustrating and missing BeOS even more.
I finally decided it was time to get into OS X in earnest, and got a good deal on a G4 in an ebay auction. Then went to Seybold last week and picked up the X.1 upgrade. My Mac will arrive in a few days and I am champing at the bit to return to the “Power of Unix, Grace of the Mac” experience. Only in OS X can you now find good, consistent design, good performance and speed (as of 10.1, the speed complaints about OS X vanish), and a Unix command line / innards to build everything on.
Microsoft bothers me too much politically to ever be comfortable in that environment. I value my time too much to be bothered with the eternal fiddling that Linux requires (though I do have a great deal of respect for OSS development projects). OS X is the only remaining hope. I throw all my support behind Apple, and will hold their feet to the fire to fill in the missing gaps where BeOS still exceeds OS X. OS X is what BeOS woulda coulda shoulda been, but with the added advantage of industry momentum, including lots of professional, mature applications. Is the hardware too expensive? It’s more expensive, yes, but you get a hell of a lot of speed and great system design for your money. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s worth it.
All power and godspeed to Apple for bringing a great OS to the world.
Well, on Saturday morning I visited 2 Apple stores in Melbourne and neither had X.1, and had no idea when they’d get them. Bizarre. When asked about next week, they had a blank look on their faces. Bizarre. For all those uncertain about MacOSX future view the keynote QuickTime straming video (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/seybold_01/), it lasts for 90 minutes. iDVD and AppleScripts look impressive. I agree with Scot about Windows still being hot-headed – ever try renaming or moving a file while its in use, or the fact that you cannot listen to a MP3 being downloaded until the download completes – I miss BeOS 🙁 No, I’m not turning into a Mac zealot but you have to admit that Apple has style and their user experience is second to none. But I have news, my friends, I’m turning into a DE zealot 😉
Pardon my ignorance, but what’s DE? Amiga DE?
I agree with Scot about Windows still being hot-headed – ever try renaming or moving a file while its in use, or the fact that you cannot listen to a MP3 being downloaded until the download completes –
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I know for sure that you can listen to an mp3 in windows before the download completes. That sounds more like the application you were using didn’t let you.
I miss BeOS 🙁 No, I’m not turning into a Mac zealot but you have to admit that Apple has style and their user experience is second to none.
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I don’t care much for their “style” (I don’t find Apple’s products stylish at all, in fact), but then again, I haven’t tried OSX 10.1 yet. BeOS’ “user experience” is second to none in my books.
Yes, AmigaDE. It takes a while to finally figure out what the whole “shebang” is (this link is very informative: http://www.amiga.com/corporate/041201-techupdate-A.shtml). Think Java bytecodes, but you can program in C/C++ and optimised for multimedia. Write once, compile once, and run at 100% speed on any platform (if AmigaInc can pull it off). By any platform they mean Windows, Linux, MacOSX, and in the future every handheld, cell phone, CableTV box etc. You still need a underlying OS though (so dont confuse the upcoming AmigaOS4/5 with AmigaDE – two seperate products, one crap and one promising).
I miss BeOS 🙁
And to answer OpinionBoy, IE5. There is no MP3 file to play since its not on disk yet. Check the Seybold video people, its very informative (dont even try if you’re on dialup).
I have sitting in front of me, freebsd, win98,osx. I really miss beos. I have tried not to think about it too much. There is no replacement. I don’t think that 10.1 will improve the situation much. Time will tell.
bah, computers…
dan
Yup, me too. I’m sitting in front of a new Sun Blade 100 w/ Solaris 8. Sure it’s stable…
But, there is another possibility forming: What about the OpenBeOS project?
I too am a BeOS refugee and have tried Win2K, Mandrake 8.0, AtheOS and QNX RTP 6.1. Not one of these makes me feel as good about computing as the BeOS did. Mandrake was much better than when I lasted used Linux 2 or so years ago, both in functionality and in ease of install. But I found it a burden getting everything running how I wanted and the lack of real useful applications. AtheOS has a good start but is just too young of an OS, maybe in a couple years. QNX had a nice clean interface but it was not all that usable I found Mandrake more appealing. Lastly I have win2k which has been my main OS for 5 months or so now. It is nice being able to use everything under the sun but it still feels like a Microsoft OS (read clunky). With Microsoft’s upcoming licensing methods I really want to jump ship. The only real alternative I can see is the MacOS X. I have been doing some research and it is one bad ass OS. As a developer the dev environment sounds very appealing and inviting. I have recently used MacOS X.04 and it was very nice and the best part was the built in command line interface. I am now saving my money so I can buy a Mac laptop and install OS X.1. I really thing OS X is what I always wanted the BeOS to be.
Sean Long
Hailstone Software
Don’t make me think about BeOS. When 4.5 became available, they sent a free upgrade to all registered users, no questions asked.
“with 10.1 the speed complaints about OS X vanish”
I definitely wouldn’t go that far, but they are certainly diminished by a large margin. Even 10.1 won’t run as fast (for most purposes) as Windows 2k/XP will. A lot of that is due to binding issues and whatnot, and at some point you have to pay a price for double buffering and everything else the interface does (which I love). So I wouldn’t say 10.1 is an end to the speed problems, but it certainly is an end to “I can’t use OS X because of the speed” complaints.
“And to answer OpinionBoy, IE5. There is no MP3 file to play since its not on disk yet”
Sure it is. IE just downloads to a temporary file location first, and then moves it over when the download completes.
What’s ironic is that Windows handles the download-while-playing scenario much better than the BeOS ever did. In the BeOS, if you were downloading from, say, Napster, and dragged the file into SoundPlay, it would play only up through the portion you had downloaded by that point. With Windows, while downloading from Napster (hypothetically
, not only can you play the file in Winamp, but it will keep re-reading the file, so as long as the download finishes before the song does, you won’t even have to stop playing it and start again, unlike with the BeOS.
(not that I don’t miss the BeOS, too, but I want to be sure that people know the facts)
“I really thing OS X is what I always wanted the BeOS to be.”
I really agree with this statement. It doesn’t do everything the BeOS did, to be sure, but it also does a lot of things that the BeOS never would have done. Unless you like open source software for philosophical reasons, I think any alternative OS fan should be rooting for OS X.
I just realized maybe my Napster scenario wasn’t entirely clear. So here’s a clarification:
* In the BeOS, if you were 50% done downloading a song when you dragged it into Soundplay, it would only play up through that 50%, even if the song had completed downloading by the time the data would be required. Not that intelligent.
* In Windows, if you start playing the song when it’s 50% downloaded, it doesn’t matter. It’ll keep re-reading the file and playing until it physically can’t (i.e. you’re at the 80%-through-the-song point and it’s only 80% downloaded).
The way Windows works in this regard is much more intelligent than the BeOS way. Zenja, you’re confusing the way NetPositive downloads vs. the way IE downloads, which is irrelevant to the abilities of the OS itself.
You just have to look around . . the local philadelphia compusa’s had none . . but local apple resellers did . . and they had plenty of copies to go around. I’m writing this happily on my iBook (2001) . . it’s super fast . . still waiting for the developers tools to be posted on apple’s ftp site . . but all in all – I’m very impressed. Also it didn’t break my xwindows installation so I can still run various linux x apps . . tho I don’t run a lot. In fact as more and more companies bring their apps to OS X . . I’ll probably delete my xserver . . sill it is nice to have around to run things like the Bluefish . . or whatever.
“with 10.1 the speed complaints about OS X vanish”
I definitely wouldn’t go that far, but they are certainly diminished by a large margin
I agree with this. MacOSX will never be as fast as BeOS, but it can still be fast and still be better and better with time, as everything other software that matures over time.
And I also see MacOSX the only OS that could. No Linux for the desktop. I don’t want it.
You have to agree though that XP is _extremely good_ much better than anything, ever, for a desktop OS. But if you do not like Microsoft, then yes, MacOSX is all what is left for something decent.
> (so dont confuse the upcoming AmigaOS4/5 with AmigaDE – two seperate products, one crap and one promising).
AmigaOS was far ahead for its time when it was introduced in 1985 with the introduction of the http://home5.inet.tele.dk/lmanage/Amiga1000Commercial.mpg“>Amig… . It was the first OS/machine able to display a photo realistic picture in over 4000 different colors simultaniously (the OS also supported stereo sound since its introduction)! It was true 32-bit pre-emptive http://www.amiga-planet.de/CommodoreBillboard/AmigaAdCelebLong.mov… since day one. It came with a fully integrated command line interface with handy wildcards, long file names support, shared libraries and draggable screens with different resolutions and color depths being displayed simultaniously. (So when you open a low resolution picture on a high resolution desktop these pictures don`t turn out to become tumbnails pictures instead.
It is true that there hasn`t been much development for this great OS for almost a decade. But I would love to see a modern day equivalent to the old AmigaOS!!
1995 M$: “Windows now supports plug&play!” 1985 Amiga: “LOL, it took you a decade?”
You should have seen the faces of the people who I demonstrated how I mixed computer animated graphics with movie sequences on my Amiga 2000 with just one megabyte of chip memory (video+ordinary RAM) and a “kickass” 7,14 mhz processor.
Some just bought a 4000 dollar PC which could only beep and display text! Many felt screwed and in the beginning many people converted and if it weren`t for commodore`s stupid management staff it would have taken over the world for sure. (And liberated us from M$ crap) Atari shouldn`t have been such jerks and should have given the Amiga team the money they deserved. Maybe then the Amiga would had been given the chance it deserved. (As Atari wasn`t blinded on easy money within the PC clone market, unlike commodore.)
“You have to agree though that XP is _extremely good_”
I will not argue this, and for a general-purpose OS, I find XP to be the best product on the market. I do find it a bit slower in some respects than Windows 2k, but overall I’m extremely pleased with its performance and feature set. Also, I really like some of the new interface additions and I’ve grown to like the blue interface (although the new Start button just had to go).
Overall, I’d say XP is the most complete operating system out there right now. But Mac OS X is definitely on the right track, and now that they can (hopefully) focus on features rather than spend so much time on the core, it should advance pretty quickly.
The best part is that we’re no longer in the “decent vs. crap” stage of competition; both main OSes are stable, feature-rich, and tecnologically savvy, so you really can’t lose with either one.
If it’s possible to make something like OS X from Unix then why have Linux comapnies like Mandrake produced such half-baked products?
>* In the BeOS, if you were 50% done downloading a song when you dragged it >into Soundplay, it would only play up through that 50%, even if the song had >completed downloading by the time the data would be required. Not that >intelligent.
This is because SoundPlay loads the entire song into RAM upon opening a file (which is one reason why it can do so many cool things with mp3’s). It has nothing to do with BeOS itself.
I was very pleased with OS X for the most part. Am I correct, that OS X was planning to be ported to the PC? Or is that all nonsense? I don’t see apple doing that ever. Even though that would give some extra money. I would definatly try it out.
let me know. thanks.
“This is because SoundPlay loads the entire song into RAM upon opening a file (which is one reason why it can do so many cool things with mp3’s). It has nothing to do with BeOS itself.”
My bad. Regardless, Zenja’s insult to Windows was negated and the most popular BeOS audio player didn’t do what he claimed. Thanks for the info.
“Am I correct, that OS X was planning to be ported to the PC?”
Nope. The Mac OS is used mainly as a reason for customers to buy Apple hardware, which is much more profitable than an operating system. Unless the crap really hits the fan at Apple, so to speak, don’t expect to ever see OS X for the PC.
ok…
in short i will not use microCrap… i will not use mac because of thier retrictions on thier hardware and thier software… But i will use Linux… as it has the software you need and the devolopers behind it…
i have found that linux is hard to learn and to start hard to use But it worth it after you learn the os as it will never crash and never grow old… what i mean by this is that after you have it set up to do what you want (for me ftp and http) i am done with it no my setups and crashes…
but if a Java based os were to come out i would love to work and program in that…
“and never grow old”
Sure it does. Many parts of the system are very old right now. How is filetyping handled? Does it have newer features like ClearType and 3D surround sound? What about incorporating new interface ideas? Linux is fantastic in many ways, but it is also extremely outdated in many others.
“So my setups and crashes…”
Sure, no more setups until you try and add hardware to your computer…
“I have come to the conclusion that OS X is the only logical resting place for the BeOS refugee looking to restore a good computing experience to his life. ”
Hi Scot. Well, I kinda of agree but OS X doesn’t run on PCs and I don’t have the money to spend on a Mac anyways… but i’m going to be using BeOS untill it doesn’t run anymore (for the most part). Sure, it probley is dead, but even if it is there is still a little life left in it. I just don’t know if I would be happy using the Mac OS anywyas. If the speed issues really are fixed then mabye…
I wish that some one could make a good OS for the PC and that it woulden’t become extremely bloated or die. Mabye AtheOS will be that OS, but i don’t know… for now i’m going to continue mainly using BeOS and using Windows just every now and then for things I can’t do in BeOS.
Okay, I guees this post doesn’t really have much of a point…
I’m a fan of QNX but the company that develops them doesn’t want it to be a desktop OS there is no point in converting to QNX…
The OpenBeOS project doesn’t have much of a chance, the only real hope seems to be getting the source code from Palm, even that doesn’t seem very likely.
Long live BeOS!
Kevin wrote:
>The OpenBeOS project doesn’t have much of a chance, [snip]
Sounds like kind of a broad statement to make w/out backing it up in any way.
OS X looks like an interesting BeOS alternative to me, esp in terms of audio timing. But I miss many of the BFS’ features and the RAM usage of OS X is definately /not/ BeOS style.
freebeos has a chance…
Just give it the 5 years that it takes to make it…
I have noticed that I rarely use Linux anymore since OSX10.1 was released. As more XWindow apps are ported, I see less need for Linux. I am waiting for BlueFish to be ported. AbiWord and GIMP work fine in OSX.
BTW, there is a serious glitch with IE that came with 10.1 It will unstuff and execute hqx files automatically. The trash basket is to the right of the dock.
At the least choose another default browser.
http://gnu-darwin.sourceforge.net/download.html
I dunno. It would take a hell of a lot of goodwill and a really great OS from Apple to ever convince me of the benefits of switching to a hardware monopolist, and all the lows associated with that.