Re: [Leica] Slightly OT: Nikon LS4000 and Mac OS X 10.1 ?

[Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com>]

on 12/27/01 1:20 AM, Pascal at cyberdog@attglobal.net thoughtfully wrote:

> Even with 10.1.2 (latest) things are actually slower than on the MacOS 9
> classic. A seasoned Mac user has to re-learn everything from scratch as
> everything behaves differently and things have been moved around completely.
> Some of the most annoying "features" I found are:
> - the loss of the classic Apple menu where you could store any items under.
> The dock under X is, to be frank, inept and annoying in substituting the
> Apple menu.

There are any number of better alternatives than the Apple menu now
available for OS X. Without a doubt the most useful utility is DragThing a
dock-like program which works under both Mac OS and OS X. You might look
into it should you use OS X for any length of time.

> - the ludicrous coloring of the interface compared to the stylish platinum
> MacOS 9 classic look. True, also the Luna interface of Windows XP is
> childish and hard on the eyes, but at least M$ had the decency to offer the
> user the option to revert to the classic Windows 2000 interface, while
> retaining all the other advantages of XP. To bad this is not possible under
> MacOS X.

I assume you know that you can change the interface to Graphite using the
General control panel. This does a fine job of getting rid of the bright
Aqua-blue color and makes the display completely neutral.

> -the lettertype in menus is way too big. Also, the characters everywhere are
> not as sharp as under Windows XP or even the classic MacOS. And the icons
> are too big in general.

Well the sharpness might be an issue with anti-aliasing which you can turn
off for smaller character sizes. That one is also in the General control
panel.

> - to cut a long story short: I felt I could "tweak" the classic MacOS to my
> personal likening. This is no longer possible under MacOS X. I must confess
> I feel as if the machine is playing with me, instead of the other way round
> under the classic MacOS.

Without a doubt there is a period of adjustment when moving from MacOS to OS
X. Few current programs have been written to fully take advantage of OS X
and so they feel somewhat slower. On a multi-processor machine, however, OS
X puts MacOS in the dust. For those who make a living with Photoshop future
G5 2 and 4 processor models (rumored) will be incredibly speedy.

> - most worrying, Apple is alienating longstanding Mac users with this
> radical change. This is a highly risky strategy. As a seasoned Mac user
> since the very beginning, this is the first time when I seriously begin to
> look at alternatives (like Windows XP which is, admittedly, not bad at
> all...).

I'd like to correct one thing Pascal has said because I think it misleads:
you never have to see the UNIX that underlies OS X. Never have to open a
terminal window, never have to mung around in the bowels of the system. It
just works, and works fine.

Now if ANY computer were as simple to use as my M6 I'd be a happy man.
(There, see, it WAS peripherally on-topic.)

Adam Bridge

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