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Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar

Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar

List Price: $129.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Client OS I've Used
Review: Pros:
- Improved performance (nearly matches the lightweight Mac OS Classic)
- Feature-laden Finder
- Rock-solid UNIX stability
- Stunning Aqua UI, easy to use
- Great network support (especially in regards to Windows)
- Improved font rendering engine (not as fuzzy looking as before)
- Great assortment of free iApps (iChat, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes -- soon iCal and iSync)
- Virtually every applets have undergone upgrades (e.g., Address Book, Calculator, Mail, Sherlock, Terminal)
- Rapidly increasing number of native OS X applications
- Super easy upgrade from OS X 10.1 (but I recommend clean install for "freshness")

Cons:
- Internet Explorer is embarrassingly buggy and limited (upcoming Internet Explorer 6.0 should remedy most of its shortcomings)
- Limited customization (e.g., mouse pointer, color, limited number of "themes")
- Still buggy (I found several iChat, Finder, and Mail bugs after weeks of use; soon-to-be-released 10.2.1 free patch should fix most of these)
- Incompatibility with some 10.1 applications
- Skimpy manual
- Slow help engine
- Some free iApps or applets need more features (i.e., you cannot edit photos with iPhotos)

I've switched to Mac platform nearly a year ago, courtesy of Apple PowerBook G4 667 MHz (Gigabit) and Mac OS X 10.1. I've been computing under Microsoft platform for over 17 years, starting with PC-DOS 3.1 in 1995, Windows 2.0 in 1987, and continuing with most iteration of Windows ever since. I've also used various flavors of UNIX (Solaris, AIX, Linux), but mostly for academic and professional reasons.

For an OS only 3 years of age, the Mac OS X is surprisingly mature and complete. For most number of users (including Windows "switchers"), Mac OS X is highly capable. Just throw in few productivity applications (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office v.X, Quicken) and download some freeware (e.g., Mozilla), you have nearly full-featured system.

Dare I say it? The Mac OS X is the best client operating system there is. Yes, it is not YET as polished and matured as older systems such Windows XP and Mac OS Classic, but on the plus side, it has little or none of the "old operating system" baggage. Mac OS Classic compatibility box is kept separate (so much that it no longer comes bundled with OS X), with modern Cocoa and traditional Carbon APIs to attract large number of developers (there are now more developers writing Mac software than ever before).

Although OS X takes a lot longer to boot than Windows XP, its rock solid foundation makes it a moot advantage. I've experienced some crashes under 10.1, but none with 10.2. My PowerBook frequently felt sluggish under 10.1, but with 10.2, it is quite speedy (still not as fast as my IBM ThinkPad with 1.6 GHz Pentium 4-m processor, however).

I highly recommend OS X to power users willing to explore new OS, students (particularly graphics and engineering students), or basic users looking for stable and easy to use platform.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Substantial improvement
Review: The best Mac OS yet. I'm amazed each day at the capabilities of this operating system. I haven't had to restart in nearly 5 months! This IS the smoothest, best looking, best running operating system I have EVER used!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Substantial improvement
Review: This is a very stable, incredibly smooth OS. It launches at lightning speed, is very intuitive and the learning curve is very short. If there is a downside, compatible professional graphic software is in short supply. It is a huge improvement over Windows and previous Mac OS.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Significant Disappointment
Review: Though I experianced serious problems during the install that forced me to reinstall twice I believe this was because my current version of 10.1.5 was in bad shape. However, since the install I have experianced few problems, though it took me several days to download all the software updates. Virtually all problems I experianced in 10.1.5 have vanished, my isub no longer causes a kernal panic, and Internet Explorer no longer crashes after being launched. I have also found the Safari, Apple's new internet brower is far more stable and faster than Internet Explorer ever was. One of the main reasons I upgraded however was because so many programs required a minimal of 10.2, since then a wealth of new programs have been made availible to me. Jaguar was definitly worth the upgrade, anybody running an older version of Mac OS X should upgrade.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: MIDI users BEWARE!!!
Review: Thought Jaguar is a great update from 10.1, it would be a much better move to wait for Panther which I'm told will be released on October 24. I will include all updated included in 10.2, but you get faster previewing, user switching, and espose. You can see all the updates at apple.com. I have a developers gold copy, and it is really sweet.


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