macnews.net.tc
2005-06-01
Tiger: Good, bad and ugly.
So, the first month since Tiger's been released has passed. It seems that a lot of people have upgraded their systems from Panther. A new OS version always seems to itch us, doesn't it, whether we specifically need its features or not.
Tiger's main new features are under the hood. There's been a lot going on there. Spotlight's much more than just the (broken?) interface you see at the top right corner of the screen. The 64-bit additions will pave the way for developers to make more use of the G5's capabilities. And on the kernel level, Apple's been tidying up a lot of things, too.
But all of this - in light of many people's troubles with 10.4.0 and 10.4.1 - seems like Tiger's more important to Apple and third party developers than it is to end users. Sure, the verdict on Spotlight is mixed. Some people plainly love it, others hate it, and the others like it in some places but hate it in others. The verdict on Dashboard is mixed, too. Looks nice, but brought a big security issue with it. While Apple's actively solving this problem, it certainly didn't help Apple's clean slate about viruses, worms and other security issues. Also it's much more eye-candy than a real feature (let alone more than 10 new features, since Apple counts every widget it includes as a separate feature in its list of 200 new features). Let's be honest: There've been other web services like Dashboard's before, and Apple already had a clock in the menubar, and Calculator.app and Stickies.app are probably still the better solutions to their respective tasks.
So where are we now? Simply put: Tiger's not there yet. There are performance issues (1 GB RAM is enough, isn't it? It's more than recommended at least...), there are security issues, there are bugs and there are graphical glitches and UI mishaps. Basically: We're right where Panther was at 10.3 and where Cheetah was at 10.0 - the OS needs fixing. And Apple knows this, too. With 1.5 years until 10.5 arrives, I wouldn't be surprised if Tiger would reach 10.4.12 or 10.4.15. Still: Here's to the hope that the main issues people have with Tiger, currently, get solved with 10.4.2, due in the coming weeks. - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 13:10 [article link]
Tiger's main new features are under the hood. There's been a lot going on there. Spotlight's much more than just the (broken?) interface you see at the top right corner of the screen. The 64-bit additions will pave the way for developers to make more use of the G5's capabilities. And on the kernel level, Apple's been tidying up a lot of things, too.
But all of this - in light of many people's troubles with 10.4.0 and 10.4.1 - seems like Tiger's more important to Apple and third party developers than it is to end users. Sure, the verdict on Spotlight is mixed. Some people plainly love it, others hate it, and the others like it in some places but hate it in others. The verdict on Dashboard is mixed, too. Looks nice, but brought a big security issue with it. While Apple's actively solving this problem, it certainly didn't help Apple's clean slate about viruses, worms and other security issues. Also it's much more eye-candy than a real feature (let alone more than 10 new features, since Apple counts every widget it includes as a separate feature in its list of 200 new features). Let's be honest: There've been other web services like Dashboard's before, and Apple already had a clock in the menubar, and Calculator.app and Stickies.app are probably still the better solutions to their respective tasks.
So where are we now? Simply put: Tiger's not there yet. There are performance issues (1 GB RAM is enough, isn't it? It's more than recommended at least...), there are security issues, there are bugs and there are graphical glitches and UI mishaps. Basically: We're right where Panther was at 10.3 and where Cheetah was at 10.0 - the OS needs fixing. And Apple knows this, too. With 1.5 years until 10.5 arrives, I wouldn't be surprised if Tiger would reach 10.4.12 or 10.4.15. Still: Here's to the hope that the main issues people have with Tiger, currently, get solved with 10.4.2, due in the coming weeks. - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 13:10 [article link]
