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10.2: Do I need it?

B

blackpeter

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2001
922
5
Just thinking about making a 10.2 purchase, but I was scared off by cNet. Here's what they say:

Jaguar, Apple's new version of Mac OS X, packs a much bigger upgrade wallop than its 10.2 version number suggests. Part of the punch is the price: Jaguar costs $129 (no upgrade discount if you bought before July 17) for one user or $199 for a five-user license. But its slightly improved interface, powerful new networking tools, three new applications, and better performance and stability finally bring to fruition Mac OS X's potential. If you bought OS X 10.1 recently and aren't looking for networking support, $129 is too much to pay. But if you're a business user or have a cross-platform home network, take a serious look at Jaguar.

Do you guys agree with this review? Is it necessary that I upgrade if I'm just a home user?
 
are you a student or a teacher?

then its only $69.00

I like 10.2 and I have seen some big improvements on my system. $129 is a lot of cash if you just spent money on 10.1.. its a matter of how Much of a MacHead you are... NEED is relitive...

-evildead
 
Nope, I lost my student status a few years ago, but I've got a friend still in school. How did you guys get your student versions? On campus?
 
If you've already switched to X than YES, it's mandatory.

If you're still using 9 and you can stand it, wait and buy a machine with Jag installed or get together some folks who'd be into splitting a 5 pack...;)
 
Manditory? Why? What am I getting (remember, as a home user) that's worth $130?

PS: Can anyone tell me where to get Jag at student prices?
 
Apple.coms store for education. I got my jag that way, they didnt even make me give them proof I was a student. I thought that was cool.

Anyway, in a nutshell, heres what you get. You get rendevous, updated mail, finder improvements, incredible speed enhancements, better stabability, ichat, ical, and the piece of mind that you are using the best operating system ever created.

Its not worth 130, CNET is right, but IMO it was worth (barly) 70.
 
Originally posted by tfaz1
Manditory? Why? What am I getting (remember, as a home user) that's worth $130?

PS: Can anyone tell me where to get Jag at student prices?
Click to expand...

tfaz, here's whats up. It's $129. For that you get a HUGE increase in performance.

Whether you have a QE enable machine (16mb or more AGP graphics) or an ibook with 8mb of video, like my buddy doug, the speed increase is worth $129 alone. On my ANCIENT dual 450, OS X.2 is a HUGE jump in performance, making it almost as quick as OS 9 and SURELY quicker in apps like PS that take advantage of DP.

It's just as stable, the combination of iCal, Mail and Address book can get you MS free (but thinkfree office or appleworks for those pesky word docs) the speed increase is dramatic and yea, networking is awesome. Especially if you wanna do USB printer sharing. My dad's HP (we share an office) showed up on my network. I can print to his machine or my epson. Pretty fantastic if you have more than one mac.

If you have a plam, you'll need X.2 to run iSync and rid yourself of the shabby palm desktop. And of course, iChat is pretty darn cool itself.

As you can plainly see, $129 is not too much of an investment in that much of a performance increas. I have it on a tibook 667, a CRT iMac 600, a dual 450, and a dual gig. Awesome all around. Buy it. Don't be cheap. You and your make will love it.
 
Echoing a previous post, Jaguar is almost a must if you are using OS X already, whether you are a business user or not. The issue with the Jaguar update is not so much the additional features as much as sheer performance. It will speed up and improve your Mac's performance.

I read the same review you quoted. Journalists often try to appear balanced and neutral in their reviews, and often qualify their recommendations. Unfortunately in this case, the balance the journalist was trying to achieve was a bit forced: there is simply no reason not to upgrade to Jaguar if you already run OS X.
 
Originally posted by tfaz1
Nope, I lost my student status a few years ago, but I've got a friend still in school. How did you guys get your student versions? On campus?
Click to expand...


Then have her buy it for you... just go to apple.com and go the the EDU section

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

All the prices are ajusted for students. You have to enter your schools name to prove your a student. Apple does Audit EDU discounts and I have hear of some people that have gotten busted. Have your girlfriend get it...

Im still a student... so I got mine that way... Pre-order

-evildead
 
Originally posted by evildead



Then have her buy it for you... just go to apple.com and go the the EDU section

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

All the prices are ajusted for students. You have to enter your schools name to prove your a student. Apple does Audit EDU discounts and I have hear of some people that have gotten busted. Have your girlfriend get it...
Click to expand...

Interesting, Evil. I never specified that this friend of mine was a guy or a girl, but now they're my girlfriend also? ;)
 
well, it hasn't given me any real speed improvements which is what i was hoping for. however, there are certain features of .mac that i believe require 10.2 and as more apps are developed more and more may require 10.2 as a minimum. Rendesvous is cool but if you can afford to wait until January maybe we will see 10.3 which i'm guessing will also cost $129. i'd wait.
 
while you dont need it per se, it is great. ichat is so much better than the mac version of AIM and if you have a graphics chip that can take advantage of Quartz Extreme then i highly recommend you upgrade. Also, sherlock has now become a great standalone app, providing a variety of services
 
Originally posted by tfaz1
Just placed the order! How long does ground shipping typically take?
Click to expand...

It'll be coming from Sac. Give it 3-5 working days. You can track it from the confirmation e-mail data once it ships.;)

I'd say 3 days or less considering it's about 45 minutes' drive to Elk Grove from Oakland.:D
 
There's been a lot of talk of QE compatibility with a 16Mb graphics card - I've got a Cube 450Mhz w/768Mb Ram and an ATI Rage 128. Do I have to upgrade the card to a GeForce 2 or 3, or will I notice a speed increase in OSX.2 as it stands now?
 
Originally posted by kiwi_the_iwik
There's been a lot of talk of QE compatibility with a 16Mb graphics card - I've got a Cube 450Mhz w/768Mb Ram and an ATI Rage 128. Do I have to upgrade the card to a GeForce 2 or 3, or will I notice a speed increase in OSX.2 as it stands now?
Click to expand...

from what i've heard from many people who have non QE capable computers, or know people with them.... they all say they still see a noticeable speed difference

ask someone like backtothemac... he had an ibook that wouldn't support it i believe... and i'm pretty sure mc68k doesn't have a supported graphics card....
 
Cube, ATI Rage & QE

While many things have been sped up under 10.2, the biggest performance enhancement comes from the addition of Quartz Extreme.

QE will not work with a Rage 128. You need a Radeon or GeForce 2+ to run it with 32MB recommended.

I run on an iBook 500Mhz (no QE enhancement). The OS X experience is generally better with 10.2, but it's not significantly faster than 10.1.5. I suspect that YMMV (your mileage may vary) depending upon the type of machine you run it on.
 
I would definitely recommend upgrading to 10.2, mainly because you will have to have it to upgrade any of your iApps. Plus QE rocks, and iChat is pretty cool as well. All in all, it was definitely worth the $69 I payed. (I'm a college student.)
 
Any 16MB of VRAM machine with AGP supports Quartz Extreme. It says so on Apple's website. If you are using PCI you are almost out of luck, though if you search http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ you'll find a few hacks to bring Quartz Extreme to PCI graphics cards with 16MB of VRAM.
 
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