Do I Really Need Tiger??

[mkrishnan]

ok... well now I got all the fan boy opinions howabout some others? I mean come on. You're too lazy to use the net for a dictionary? Its more stuff on your computer that you'll never use in a million years. Great. More search capabilities. Like I use the search capability so much now... Widget? um... so whats wrong with the gui? My point is there is nothing that really jumps out as a necessity.

Well, the difference between a metadata search and the search you have now is that the former will actually find things. Remember web searching before Google...way back, when the only search engines were ones like Webcrawler, that failed miserably to find things you were looking for? Of course people used search a lot less back then...because it wasn't effective. I personally am really excited about Spotlight. And it sounds like Mail and some of the other apps are quite a bit improved. To me, there aren't many other Tiger features I lust after, although it sounds like there are some that will be fun to use. Same deal with iLife...I use iPhoto and iTunes, and that's it. I haven't upgraded it ever, although I might get iLife 05 in the near future, since my heavy use of iPhoto has only been recent, and it got a lot of good upgrades.

But I'm not sure what you want to hear? That you're right, that you're brilliant for identifying this damning flaw in Apple's thinking, and that you and not Steve Jobs should be in charge of the future of MacOS? I mean, you're certainly entitled to *not* upgrade, if you want. And of course you can go run Damn Small Linux or something along those lines if MacOS doesn't do it for you.

 

[kylos]

Hell I'd like a Thesaurus widget too.

Apple's got you covered! The dictionary widget includes a thesaurus as well.

 

[Demon Hunter]

Maybe it's just me, but upgrading just seems so... well, obvious. If you computer supports it.

Why wouldn't you upgrade? I can't think of many things that give you so much bang for your buck. Of course, I'm only paying $69, so...

 

[rendezvouscp]

ok... well now I got all the fan boy opinions howabout some others? I mean come on. You're too lazy to use the net for a dictionary? Its more stuff on your computer that you'll never use in a million years. Great. More search capabilities. Like I use the search capability so much now... Widget? um... so whats wrong with the gui? My point is there is nothing that really jumps out as a necessity.

Ok, then don't upgrade. Simple as that.

Some people want to take advantage of Apple's latest and greatest. Some people, like yourself, don't see a need for Tiger. Fine, do whatever floats your boat.

I'm really sorry to be harsh, but I'm starting to get sick of these "is Tiger right for me?" threads (and please don't tell me not to read them, sometimes people actually do need help in these threads). If the features are worth the money, then pre-order yourself a copy and you'll enjoy Tiger for the next few years. It's as simple as that.
-Chase

 

[Soulstorm]

So whats the big deal? I cant search for stuff the old way? What do I need Tiger For?

I don't see any reason why NOT to upgrade. Actually, you fell in the trap... I fell too during the upgrade from Jaguar to Panther. Here is the reasons why I will upgrade.

--CoreImage, CoreVideo, and CoreAudio. I will use the first 2. I play games in my mac (among doing other things) and then my father who is a musician, will definitely find CoreAudio handy.
--OpenGL optimizations. I will need them for games.
--Spotlight. Sounds good to me. I will use it.
--Faster OS performance. Come on, who doesn't like his system to perform better?

In addition, i must say that when panther first came out, I wasn't impressed.. until I bought it. Expose didn't make any impression to me, but now, I always have my hand into button 4 of my mouse (i have set this button to use expose). And many other functions... which I can't remember now. Seeing how much faster Panther was when compared with Jaguar I just can't see why I didn't upgrade at the moment Panther was released.

Also, do not forget that OS X is not windows. I have seen many people using still windows ME or even windows 98.

But in the Mac world, you will always need to have the latest software installed on your machine, because apple is making critical updates in each system version. Developers involved with mac will try to take advantage of all aspects of the OS, and OS X 10.4 will give them that opportunity. When that happens, will you still use Panther?

So the point is that I believe you WILL upgrade some time. You are just asking yourself why you need this now and not just wait. So, wait and see what happens.

 

[Xeem]

Seriously, I've been thinking the same thing. Yes, the new features in Tiger are undeniably a significant improvement over past versions of OS X. However, I have this possibly unfounded fear that on my current system, Tiger's gonna crawl. Plus, since my teeny-weeny G4 update won't handle any of the 64-bit anything that's been added to the OS, I'm debating just leaving things at 10.3.9 (when it's released).

I'm also worried about performance on my old Powerbook (see sig). Some people here have been claiming OS performance will improve, but I saw definite slowdowns when my parents' (admittedly dying) Cube and my Powerbook upgraded from Jaguar to Panther. I've heard that Tiger is more reliant on video cards than Panther was; if this is the case, I just don't believe my 8 MB ATI Rage M3 can handle it....

 

[Superdrive]

You think $69 is easy? For some reason $212 after tax is easy for me! Even though I qualify for education discount, I am putting Tiger on all my qualifying macs. It is going to be a beautiful thing, that Dashboard, Mail, and iChat.

-TJ

 

[Mord]

number 1 reason: speed, tiger will feel faster on pretty much any mac (given it has enough ram) the core OS is far more optimised, also safari is a fair bit faster and now twice as fast as firefox in java if we are to believe apple's numbers.

 

[Southbridge]

Um yeah... everyone's like 'well... if you dont like it then dont get it'. The problem with that is that as time passes less and less stuff becomes supported on Panther, and then you HAVE to get tiger. Then if your computer happens to be an older model, then you have to get a new computer. I have a PC at home thats running Win98. It's been running it for 5 years now with no problem. How long before my relatively new Mac becomes obsolete under the force of Apple's bottom line?

 

[Catfish_Man]

Um yeah... everyone's like 'well... if you dont like it then dont get it'. The problem with that is that as time passes less and less stuff becomes supported on Panther, and then you HAVE to get tiger.

Have you thought about WHY this is? It's because it fixes bugs and adds features (in other words, user visible features aren't all the features it adds). I work on Adium, and I can tell you that supporting 10.2 is like having teeth pulled. I tried to write a message view search feature recently...
Time taken:
Panther support: 2 days
Jaguar support: gave up after about a week and a half

Why? Because a) webkit works much better on 10.3, and b) there's a standard search window API on 10.3. Tiger will be the same way; lots of new stuff and lots of fixed bugs (Core Data, metadata APIs, Core Image/Video, Sync Services, working async io, improved Cocoa bindings, etc...).

Speed is improved as well, although your mileage may vary (for example, about 90% of people said they got a speed improvement from 10.3, a few didn't. This tends to lead to the few thinking the rest are lying fanboys).

 

[Jon'sLightBulbs]

Fanboys indeed.

*Quote, more or less* "Alright fanboys, I don't need a dictionary, widgets, weather info, dashboard... the GUI's good enough"

One could take that contention pretty far. But where does it end? When MS Windows first came out, the command line purists were loathe to embrace the GUI. Everyone using DOS complained about unnecessary software bloat, about higher system requirements.

Today, a GUI is considered a necessity for most everyday tasks. Try browsing the web or editing graphics using a command line interface. It's not just inconvenient; it's unfeasible.

Things that you don't see yourself using at the moment, you may end up using daily.

In the end, these upgrades cost no more than they did the last time. Increased computing performance does not cost increasingly more; the hardware upgrades remain approximately the cost of last time. Since your computer will not last forever in its hardware form anyway, why not embrace increased hardware capacity that can use these new features?

Or does everyone believe that their hard drives, cpu fans, and graphics card fans will last forever?

 

[BornAgainMac]

It's less than a dollar per feature so you get a lot. It is like get a new Mac for $129.

 

[Logik]

Um yeah... everyone's like 'well... if you dont like it then dont get it'. The problem with that is that as time passes less and less stuff becomes supported on Panther, and then you HAVE to get tiger. Then if your computer happens to be an older model, then you have to get a new computer. I have a PC at home thats running Win98. It's been running it for 5 years now with no problem. How long before my relatively new Mac becomes obsolete under the force of Apple's bottom line?

and the same is true of Windows. So why even start this crap man. Things start to change.. it's evolution of software. Give it up, you expect your teenie weenie mac to allow you to run things 3 to 4 years into the future? That's a joke man, my 3 year old Windows machine can run the stuff but it doesn't run it very well, mostly games.

Besides, those new features like CoreImage, CoreVideo and CoreData will allow developers to push the threashhold of cool **** in their applications. It's a win win situation. If you don't want it don't buy it, same way Windows 98 is dead and gone for most applications. And don't tell me Windows98 can still be used today, it's garbage and you know it. Everyone worth their salt is running 2000, or XP.

 

[Eevee]

It's less than a dollar per feature so you get a lot. It is like get a new Mac for $129.

Or for us education people, a new Mac for $69

 

[mkrishnan]

It's less than a dollar per feature so you get a lot. It is like get a new Mac for $129.

Ya gotta admit, B.A.M., this does verge on fanboyishness. I like it!

 

[tech4all]

It is like get a new Mac for $129.

hehe, Phil Schiller said that in the Panther video (well he said, "It's like getting a whole new Mac for $129.")

 

[dotdotdot]

OK - don't need tiger? then don't be so damn annoying about it! sheesh!

Besides, whoever has OSX 10.3 or 10.2 pretty much knows that Tiger will be on their systems within a year... so why complain about it?

Don't see a need for a dictionary? Wow, MacRumors.com has themselves their own Albert Einstein! You memorized it all, right? And a thesaurus?? You memorized that as well?? AND you memorized every language (language converter) and every phone number (yellow pages) and every math problem (calculator) ever?? I'm pretty impressed... Don't whine about something that will help you rather than hurt you...

And spotlight is a great feature - I use like Google Deskbar daily on my PC... but thats not built into the OS, so it constantly "indexes" and takes up resources... Spotlight will help you!

And automator... if they had that for Windows i'd download it in a second...

Plus Safari RSS and Quicktime 7 (H.264) - I'm jealous - you have this opportunity, and I along with other windows users, don't... don't want it? FINE! But don't whine about it!

...well thats five minutes of my life I'll never get back...

 

[MarkCollette]

Have you thought about WHY this is? It's because it fixes bugs and adds features (in other words, user visible features aren't all the features it adds). I work on Adium, and I can tell you that supporting 10.2 is like having teeth pulled. I tried to write a message view search feature recently...
Time taken:
Panther support: 2 days
Jaguar support: gave up after about a week and a half

Why? Because a) webkit works much better on 10.3, and b) there's a standard search window API on 10.3. Tiger will be the same way; lots of new stuff and lots of fixed bugs (Core Data, metadata APIs, Core Image/Video, Sync Services, working async io, improved Cocoa bindings, etc...).

Speed is improved as well, although your mileage may vary (for example, about 90% of people said they got a speed improvement from 10.3, a few didn't. This tends to lead to the few thinking the rest are lying fanboys).

Definitely agree. For me, Panther added maybe two new features that I use every day: Expose and the Finder having the Movies, Music, etc. things on the left. Would I pay $129 for that? Hell no! But, all the new APIs, which allow third party developers to make cool programs, which of course require Panther? Hell ya that's worth $129!

And from the details of Tiger, it'll be even more of that kind of thing with CoreImage, etc...

Of course, I'd still like to see some benchmarks, to show how fast all the existing stuff I do, will be in Tiger.

 

[Maedus]

ok... well now I got all the fan boy opinions howabout some others? I mean come on. You're too lazy to use the net for a dictionary? Its more stuff on your computer that you'll never use in a million years. Great. More search capabilities. Like I use the search capability so much now... Widget? um... so whats wrong with the gui? My point is there is nothing that really jumps out as a necessity.

Pff, I'm so great I don't even need an OS or a computer for that matter. I have a light bulb and a morse code switch that I use to read and write binary from the internet and I have a hard drive that I write on with a magnetized needle and when I feel like watching a DVD, I pull out a laser and a magnifying glass and read it directly off the disc. This way there is no software or even hardware between me and the computing experience. And the only time my computer crashes is when I fall out of my chair!

 

[mkrishnan]

Pff, I'm so great I don't even need an OS or a computer for that matter. I have a light bulb and a morse code switch that I use to read and write binary from the internet and I have a hard drive that I write on with a magnetized needle and when I feel like watching a DVD, I pull out a laser and a magnifying glass and read it directly off the disc. This way there is no software or even hardware between me and the computing experience. And the only time my computer crashes is when I fall out of my chair!

Yeah, but I hear they're going to xenon bulbs for that, so all your kit's going to be obsolete in a year.

Mffft...for the next ten years, at least, maybe longer, some level of obsolescence is going to be a fact of life in computers, simply by virtue of their growth and maturation. It's true that not every computer Apple has made since the mouse was invented, or maybe even since OS X came out (not sure about that) is compatible with Tiger. But the next Apple OS's runs faster on most machines than the previous one. How many other OS's show this effect?

As long as this is true, then apparently however much bloat OS X has, that bloat is extremely well managed.

I don't know of any instance in which a computer ran faster after upgrading to the next iteration off MS's OS's. Windows has stabilized a lot over time, but I know that when XP came out in 2001, a lot of computers bought in late 1999 were on the "not recommended for upgrade" list. They might work in XP. I'm not sure. But in our case, Compaq told us not to try. In comparison, Apple's backwards support seems to go pretty far....

 

[TigerPRO]

Or for us education people, a new Mac for $69

You guys crack me up.

You all should start your own thread to gloat with one another.

 

[TigerPRO]

Definitely agree. For me, Panther added maybe two new features that I use every day: Expose and the Finder having the Movies, Music, etc. things on the left. Would I pay $129 for that? Heck no! But, all the new APIs, which allow third party developers to make cool programs, which of course require Panther? Heck ya that's worth $129!

"Like two"? That's a little ridiculous sir. You don't use any of these: Mail, iCal, Address Book, Safari, TextEdit, Preview, Calculator, iChat, DVD Player, Image Capture, Printing, Faxing, iSync, FileVault, User Switching, Labels, Networking, Trash bin, Terminal, Energy Saver? There are up too dozens of tweaks, enhancements, and additions in each of those individule areas. I don't think you realize how different it was. If you moved back to Jaguar, you start to appreciate Panther really fast I think.

 

[hanumang]

I suppose it goes without saying, but the 'need' to upgrade Mac OS depends on what you do with your Mac. I'm a professional video/film editor.

I upgraded to Panther because I grew tired of Jaguar's instablity -- the month before Panther released my PowerMac (MDD 1.4 Dual running 10.2.8) crashed virtually every third day. Too weird for words.

So, reluctantly, I upgraded to Panther. Then, just 6 months later, Apple released Final Cut Pro HD. Which, if you had Panther and Final Cut 4, was a FREE upgrade. Gotta love that.

Now, I'm pretty sure Final Cut Pro 5 WON'T be free, but I do know that it'll require Tiger (because - if you believe the rumor mill - FCP 5 is based off Tiger's CoreVideo).

I'll get Tiger, when I get FCP 5.

 

[7on]

um.... is it me or is this OS looking more and more like bloaty windows? Honestly it looks like a lot of fluff to me, and no real substance... (who cares about a calculator? dictionary?) Theres no one thing (looking over the new features) that I cant live without...

I like that part...
Adding!!! Reading!!! who the hell does those

I'm getting Tiger for the searching (class notes that I type out will be easy to find) and upgraded OpenGl (improved 3D never hurt). Dashboard will rule. Been missing konfab since it raped my PB.

 

[840quadra]

Um yeah... everyone's like 'well... if you dont like it then dont get it'. The problem with that is that as time passes less and less stuff becomes supported on Panther, and then you HAVE to get tiger. Then if your computer happens to be an older model, then you have to get a new computer. I have a PC at home thats running Win98. It's been running it for 5 years now with no problem. How long before my relatively new Mac becomes obsolete under the force of Apple's bottom line?

You can sell your Powerbook to me, buy a Dell, and run Windows 98.

Problem solved..

I run OS9 on my Digital Audio DUal 533, just fine. I can also boot into Jaguar if I want to. Lots of programs are still available and are updated for the OS9 system.

Computers and software both get updated, if apple chooses to not be compatible with my Quadra 840av that is fine by me, that means that they are bringing the bar higher, and pushing technology further while still keeping it simple..

840