How far has Mac OS X really come?!...

[Bengt77]

I'd really like to see a discussion about the way Mac OS X has evolved over the years. How far has it come in the 4,5+ years it's been out? I stumbled upon this article at Ars Technica tonight and asked myself that very question.

So, people, how far do you all think Mac OS X has come? I don't want to hear about it's future, just the progress that's been made since 10.0. How many of the issues John Siracusa points out, have been addressed in all the versions up to 10.4.3? And, maybe even more importantly, how far is 10.4.3 beyond anything people were expecting of Mac OS X since seeing the Developer Previews, the Public Beta and 10.0?

Let's see just how far Mac OS X has really come in it's 4 years, 8 months and (nearly) 2 days of existence...

 

[iHateWindows]

I was deciding between #1 and 2, but went with #1.

 

[chaos86]

we need a "a little behind where it should be"

 

[pknz]

Yeah, I can't really pick one of those. I don't miss OS 9 but I also think OS X is still not there. This is because I am having problems with it at the moment.
But since OS X 10.1 it has come quite some distance, infact from California it has made it to NZ😉

 

[mkrishnan]

Progressing nicely, but many, many obvious opportunities to do things better, as well. 🙂

 

[bousozoku]

I feel that it's quite good right now. 10.4 is what 10.1 should have been, though. There has been innovation, but closing holes has been quite often the biggest change to Mac OS X.

It seemed as if they ripped apart functionality and put it back together on a regular basis rather than designing something that works and enhancing it. Considering that Avie Tevanian made such a remark about the kernel development at NeXT and CMU in the early days of Mac OS X, it's a good thing he's away from the code editor.

With 10.4.3, I feel extremely comfortable and everything seems to be working quite well--as well as Mac OS 9.x at its best and then some.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

"About where it should be; it's progressing quite nicely."

Some features are awesome and mind boggling, but on the whole I would say it's about as expected, it's Mac OS X, after all... 😉

 

[risc]

It's the best desktop UNIX like OS out there at the moment, so where ever that fits in the poll.

 

[.:*Robot Boy*:.]

"About where it should be; it's progressing quite nicely."

Tiger performs the way an operating system should perform - it's intuitive and stable - but, in my opinion, it's not a 'futuristic' operating system.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Where it should be, progressing quite nicely.

I was on Jaguar on my iMac 333MHz running really slow and was a bad OS X personal experience - then, I got my iBook and OS X 10.4 Tiger was OMG awesome, Apple rocks!


Sorry but I just have to say this...

I FRICKEN' LOVE APPLE <3 <3 <3 <3 😀

 

[iMeowbot]

There were too many quality slips in the Tiger release for comfort, with not all even solved yet. Hopefully a little more attention is being paid to this for the next release, and that may well be the case given how careful Apple have been not to hype 10.5 features early on.

 

[Dr. Dastardly]

I think its progressing nicely and 10.4 has been rock solid for me. But 10.4 still almost seems like just a small transition of what is to be the big upgrade that is 10.5. I don't know why I think that way, just do.

Also were they going to show us a sneak peak of 10.5 in MWSF? I thought I heard that but it might have even been WWDC.

 

[prostuff1]

"About where it should be; it's progressing quite nicely."

I love OS X and really did not start using it until 10.2. I thought is was great then and it just keeps getting better. When i started messing with my G3 AIO i used XPostFacto and put panther on it. Panther made it faster and it worked great. I would say that Tiger was released a little to early and it should not have come out until about 10.4.2. 10.4.3 has been really good and has been pretty good so far.

Hope to see this kind of stuff going in 10.5.

And M$ Windows can not hold a stick to mac OS X, and i have a feeling that 10.5 wil be ahead of Vista ( <-- crappy name by the way) when it finally does come out in 2010 😉

 

[katie ta achoo]

I picked #2.. it feels LIGHT-YEARS ahead of anything else I've ever used.

Granted, one of the computers in the house still runs '95, but still!

XP just feels so clunky and horrible compared to it.

Yeah, I'm a semi-recent switcher (Sept 3, 2004) but I still feel the pain every day.. fixing XP machines, using them in state-mandated Computer class...

Mmmm, OS X, you're too good to me.

 

[kwajo.com]

i miss OS 9 , except I can no longer operate a computer without Expose 😎

 

[godbout]

I think that 10.4 is where it should be and progressing quite nicely... It is the nicest OS IMO (that is why I use a mac) and the only thing that even is in the same ballpark is Ubuntu/Kubuntu (also installed on my PB)... I wont even compare it to that other OS that some people use... I think it is called Windows 😉 Tried it... hated it...

 

[2nyRiggz]

i'm spoilt by mac OSX....i think its the best one yet.


Bless

 

[eXan]

Its alright, but it could be alittle ahead of where it is now...

 

[chaos86]

there are a few holes that need to be filled,

like maybe adding the ability to watch tv in a media center would be nice.