Article:		Jaguar: Time to Stop Pussyfooting Around
Subject:		Missing the point? I don't think so.
Date:		2002-08-02 18:06:17
From:		geertdeg
Response to: Missing the point? I don't think so.
I think that I mentioned that I already work with OSX to do PRODUCTION work. At home I work with OSX since Public Beta on a G3 B&W, at work with a G4-800 Mhz. And yes, for apps like Internet Explorer, iApps and Office, OSX maybe not so slow. But have you ever worked with Quark XPress (Classic modus and terrible screen redraws), InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or Acrobat? Do you think that "scrolling" in an Acrobat-document is faster with OSX than with OS9? I don't think so. If you compare the performance of those apps with their OS9-versions, they are MUCH SLOWER. And that's my point: OSX IS NOT READY for production purposes. If you have those apps on your computer, do the test for yourself and you will have to admit that it runs all much slower. The Finder in OSX is also slow compared to the OS9 Finder. If you speak to many OSX-users, their most hated cursor of all times is the OSX "rainbow"-cursor. This speaks for itself. For the PowerPC-processors: it seems that Motorola isn't interested anymore in the PowerPC-alliance. Their focus is on embedded processors. Our fastest machines are at 1GHz now, Intel or AMD at 2GHz+. I know that MHz doesn't always matter, but if you keep believing that our Macs are faster than the 2GHz-processors from AMD or Intel, you are simply dreaming. Intel or AMD is just an example, maybe they can choose for another one, but the GHz(!)-gap is becoming a great problem for Apple with their PowerPC-alliance. Apple is a HARDWARE company and despite all marketing from Apple: MHz sells! Mr. Jobs knows this very well: if Motorola keeps too much GHz behind the Intel or AMD cpu's, Apple will be forced to choose for another CPU. And then we're starting all over again with application updates for the new CPU etc... The problems for Apple in the near future are larger than you might think. A couple of months ago, we went to a "Publishing Seminar" from Apple and Adobe. If the people from Apple and Adobe asked the public if they had already "switched" to OS X, I was the only one who could hold my hand up. You said: "...it increases my productivity probably tenfold because I don't have to restart so much (rarely at all)." Waw! How good! And what if your applications crash (don't tell me that this never happens to you)? Oh how great, you don't have to restart your computer, but you do have to restart your application if you want to finish your work or if you have a deadline. I feel (and I am surely not the only one) that OSX runs pretty fine on recent machines from 2002. Working with OSX on earlier models is pretty unpredictable. I really hope that Jaguar will be much faster, otherwise the publishing world just can't make the switch (again), because that would be a financial disaster (time = money). PS: I'm not "obsessed" with OS 9. I know that OSX is a technically better OS, but speed really matters.

Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

• Missing the point? I don't think so.
  2002-08-26 18:37:09  adamrice [View]
  
  
  Don't be disingenuous. Relaunching an application is much faster than rebooting a computer. If you're suffering chronic crashing, this adds up pretty quickly.
  
  I've had very few application crashes. The only times I've been forced to reboot is after major software installs. I've had to do a few logout/login cycles (still much faster than rebooting). This amounts to time saved and less hair pulled.
  
  I'm running a 400 MHz G4 that I bought in Nov 2000 (I think). I've been running X since 10.1.4 was available--a few months now. Some tasks on this system are faster than under 9, some are slower. Some system behaviors are annoying (file renames in the finder, open/save dialog navigation), some are a little weird at first but not necessarily bad (the dock). I've modified the system with a few tweaks from Unsanity to make it more comfortable.
  
  Some of the software updated for X is not really an upgrade, and some is actually a downgrade (Quickeys). There are a few tasks that have become more annoying due to the lack of independent software on par with the OS 9 equivalent, but on balance, I think my productivity is at least as good as before. Some programs are flat-out better: Chimera is a much better web browser than anything available for 9, and it's only at version 0.4, fer crissakes. Office X (I can't believe I am praising it for this) has yet to corrupt any of my files, which was a major time-waster before.

• Missing the point? I don't think so.
  2002-08-09 23:39:41  dlattari [View]
  
  
  I too, am a graphic prepress professional. I chose to partition my drive and experiment with 10.1>10.1.5.
  Within an hour of my first taste of it I was planning my full switch (which will become complete when Quark finally shows some loyalty to its traditional user base and release an OSX version).
  To summarize my experience:
  1. No crashes now for over 6 months - ALWAYS ON. This is worth the price of admission right there!
  2. Quark runs in classic mode only marginally slower than in OS9 and freezes less.
  3. Suitcase is more than adequate for font management.
  4. Illustrator is a dog, but has ALWAYS been a dog!
  5. PS performance is comparable and mostly better in OSX.
  6. FTP, web design, mail and surfing is smooth as on OSX.
  7. PDF creation using Distiller is speedy and reliable on my rig.
  8. Not one kernel panick ever... don't even know what it looks like (I presume it's a sys wide freeze?)
  9. My Epson worked like I never switched OS.
  10. My AGFA scanner worked like I never switched OS
  11. All still and video cameras plugged and played with an ease that was almost disconcerting - and jawdropping for the PC nuts looking at my box secretly wishing it would fail (gotta be the most satisfying demo one can do to a Mac-hating PCnut. You'd have to shoot me to go back to OS9... and I loved OS9. Sure you've got to 'think' about how to transition smoothly.... but sticking one's head in the sand is only going to give one a much steeper learning curve later... and there WILL be a later.
  
  In case you're wondering I have a G3 B&W 450MHz with a bog standard Rage 128 video card.
  My 2 cents on what will improve performance of OSX?
  RAM, RAM and more RAM. I have 1Gb on board and my rig rocks with this SPECTACULAR OS!
  For productivity losses you perceive would result - here's my take on that. Nothing will increase productivity more when working in Quark and most other prepress production software like more RAM to keep more apps open and ready for action, and twin 21" monitor setups.
  Enjoy now... or later (but you vill enjoy ;-)
  Good luck
  

• Missing the point? I don't think so.
  2002-08-02 21:39:58  elastic [View]
  
  
  I do production, and I manage the IT of a multi-platform marketing communications company, so I feel I need to add my experience to this.
  
  No, we don't us X in the graphics/production area yet, but we've been running OS X server since it was still based on the NeXT GUI. It hasn't crashed for three years running.
  
  Under 9 Quark runs OK, but with certain situations is highly unstable and sadly even undependable. Frankly I've been unimpressed with Quark overall because it costs a great deal and only with version five did Quark actually start using the Mac OS window defs that were introduced in OS 8!
  
  Quark is almost a metaphor for what OS 9 is going to suffer from if Apple keeps patching it: unscalable code as the world moves to 64-bit processing and multi-processor computing.
  
  OS X suffers from having little documentation or track record, but developers have been keen and quick to learn that porting clean code to X isn't so bad.
  
  As to crashing, rebooting 9 is a cumbersome process. I run X %90 of the time at home where I do graphic design and web development and I hammer my G4 500 MP and it's never crashed. Apps will crash, but rerunning them is better than restarting when you have several processes running at once. I can copy, burn, rip files and still type without a hiccup. Doing batch jobs in 9 ties up my machine even if all I want to do is check a web page or write an email. Basically it makes one computer more useful. You should save often, regardless of OS or platform, the work you lose from apps crashing is always a risk no matter what. So why not save the hassle of rebooting and getting back to where you left off? Rebooting inhibits creative flow more than anything else I can think of.
  
  No, I don't think OS X is a prime time OS right now, but it will be. I've run it since beta and watched the development skyrocket. I can already do things OS 9 never did so really we're looking at a whole new land of developer opportunities.
  
  OS development is a huge amount of work, especially at stages of transition like the one Apple is doing now. Still I'm very appreciative of the speed of improvement 10 has gone through.
  
  When I upgraded to a Radeon video card 10 got better, then ATI started doing monthly driver updates and most of those up the 2D a bit. There are tricks to speed X up too, but the GUI creates a *perceptual* speed issue. Disk access, file copies and other I/O operations are at least 1/3rd faster on the same hardware from what I've seen — they just seem slow. The foundation is there, The GUI is catching up. So I think that old hat *NIX folks and techies are fine with 10 but Apple can only move forward or they won't be able to sustain themselves. Basically after adjusting to all of the changes I've been able to work better and look forward to 10.2 (which *is* impressive when you see a beta in action).
  
  Looking at Google, most of the Windows users are still using Windows 98! Windows 2000 is substantially improved from 98, yet a huge slice of the pie is still using older versions and now MS is pushing XP as hard or harder than Apple pushes OS X (you must buy a recent computer to run it, etc.). It's not that different, just a larger slice of the pie.
  
  Just had to say all that. Really I feel that every point is valid here, it's about what you do and what works for you, and as such obsolescence is not something that should get in the way of what you do. OS X will get there. It has more options and expansion in it's source code than OS 9, but the painful transition must happen.