I was lucky enough today to sit-in on Jason Snell’s Mac OS 10.1 demo today at the Mac Computer Expo in Santa Rosa, CA. Jason is a MacWorld magazine editor and an all around knowledgeable computer guy.
He was running Mac OS 10.1 on a 500 MHz G3 iBook. I’ve been using Mac OS X on my 400 MHz Pismo since its first release. After watching Jason’s demo today, the first thing that comes to mind is, “Wow! What a difference a ‘point one’ can make.”
Performance was smooth in all areas including DVD playback. The improved Finder showed many refinements. Networking capabilities have been enhanced to the point that Mac OS X is compatible in just about any environment.
It appears to me that Mac OS 10.1 is the release for the rest of the world. This will be especially true after Microsoft Office 10 hits the streets in early November.
Unless you make your living using an application that hasn’t been Carbonized yet such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, it’s time to start looking at Apple’s new operating system. From my perspective, this is the “real” Mac OS X.
If you’ve had a peek at Mac OS 10.1, i’d like to hear your reactions.
It Does Seem to Be
I have a lot of friends and family that have been waiting until 10.1 to take the plunge. They have been watching me work with 10.0.x and are happy with what they see, but are waiting for the kinks to work out.
I for one can't wait to get my mitts on the final build and see how well the Apple engineers have done.
It Does Seem to Be
In terms of performance, if you have a G4, I'm pretty sure you're gonna like it. Apple engineers seem to be paying particularly good attention to exploiting the power of the G4 chip.
Since it looks like 10.1 is going to be a free upgrade for Mac OS X owners, and with the recent price cuts on the G4 Ti, this seems like a very good time to make the jump.