04/05/2001

By Doug Bedell / The Dallas Morning News

For Apple fans, the release of Mac OS X is a double-edge sword.

The good news: This oft-delayed operating system – the first since 1984 – sets a new standard for computer desktops with gorgeous, easy-to-use graphics and navigation.

The bad: It's not ready for daily use.

Even the company seems to admit the shortfalls. Apple hasn't given OS X (the "X" stands for 10) the same public relations push as for its iMac line or even the Cube. The first edition ships with a copy of OS 9.1 because the new Unix-based Darwin code hasn't been engineered to run with many common configurations of hardware and software.

In fact, Apple says it will be at least this summer before patches can be developed to allow OS X to power optical drives such as CD-RW, DVD and DVD-R. OS X currently requires users to shut down the computer, then reboot into 9.1 to access those devices.

Word of the limitations has spread among the Mac faithful. On release day, March 24, no crowds formed around spiffy new OS X displays inside local electronics stores. At the Fry's on Interstate 20 in Arlington, in fact, workers reported selling a handful of the $129 boxed sets.

Only the most ardent Mac fanatics have been attracted.

"I'm just buying now because I'm Mac-crazy, not because I'll use it every day," said Janice O'Reilly, a 22-year-old Web designer in Hurst. "I'm trying not to delude myself. I know it's not finished, but, you know, I've got to have it now."

Many say they'll sit out the initial release.

"I'm interested, but it's just not ready for me, and I'm a little puzzled," said Mike Foley of Dallas, a Mac freak since 1984. "If they were going to release it incomplete, why did they wait so long?"

The same question was repeatedly asked of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs at a March pre-release news conference.

Putting an operating system together takes time, Mr. Jobs replied. A company can wait until everything is perfect, he said, or it can take the Microsoft approach: Ship unfinished versions and let early adopters help produce the patches and updates with their feedback.

"With an OS, only the latter is viable," Mr. Jobs said.

Vibrant look

When a company takes seven years to develop an operating system, it had better at least look good. OS X doesn't disappoint.

Design-conscious Apple has produced a wonderfully malleable interface called Aqua. It's built around an animated tool bar that stretches across the bottom of the monitor. Special effects can be turned on or off to the user's taste.

In its most active settings, icons lodged in the tool bar, called the Dock, become magnified as the cursor passes over. The action is smooth, producing a rolling arch of options that is pure eye candy. Settings give users complete control over the size of Dock icons and how much they can be enlarged. As applications are launched, their icons appear in the Dock, bouncing up and down as the program loads.

Click on a Dock item, and pop-up menus will show program and folder options. Drag an icon out of the Dock, and it vanishes with a poof of animated smoke. Minimize a video to the Dock, and it keeps playing in miniature. Static photos stored in the Dock are magically shrunk to thumbnails.

Default Dock applications are displayed on the left in a vague mimic of the old Control Strip module. They include the Finder, e-mail reader, display control, Sherlock search tool, Internet Explorer: mac 5.1 and the QuickTime 5.0 video player, which makes its debut in OS X. On the right, next to the Trash Can icon and a spring-loaded Web site launcher, documents and folders can be added by the user for one-click access.

Unlike previous Apple systems, icons for optical and other drives appear on the Aqua desktop by default.

Loving care is evident in even the most basic display of menus and Finder windows. When displayed against the desktop background, three-dimensional soft shadows surround each box. Backgrounds on all open windows are semi-opaque, allowing users to see objects underneath.

"The look and feel of this OS is absolutely entrancing," said Ms. O'Reilly, who played with the public test version released by Apple in September. "I'm a sucker for style, and this thing is loaded with it."

As the OS X look begins to appear on office computers, co-workers without it will be envious.

"People say they don't care how an operating system looks, but they lie," said Mr. Foley. "If people didn't really care how things look, why would they buy leather interiors for cars? They'd buy Hummers and just forget about all that."

Another nice touch is the addition of column views to Apple's more traditional icon view of folder contents. This feature, which bears some resemblance to one found in newer Windows releases, makes photos, Apple QuickTime movies and MPEG video show up in a preview panel.

Across the top of the screen, menus appear for the active application alongside an Apple menu similar to that of older Mac OS versions. From there, users can quickly get to features such as Settings, Sleep, Start and recently used applications or documents.

Folder windows are controlled by pressing pulsating, jewel-like droplets of red, yellow and green in the upper left. Pressing the yellow button produces more entertaining animation: Folders furl into rolling sheets as they minimize to take their place in the Dock. Click on those minimized Dock icons, and the same items unfurl to resume their spot on the desktop. It's like watching a genie escape from a bottle.

But does it work?

All that window-dressing is fine. But daily users such as Bart Weiss, president of the Video Association of Dallas, want more.

"A Dock? So what?" said Mr. Weiss.

Mr. Weiss and many others believe that the hassle of upgrading can only be offset by better performance. They may find OS X clumsy and frustrating in its current state.

For starters, OS X requires upgrading to OS 9.1 on a machine with a minimum of 128 megabytes of RAM. The large amount of memory is necessary chiefly because older, non-OS X applications must run in Classic Mode, meaning they force OS X to start up 9.1 and surrender control. As more applications are written for OS X, this necessary evil will gradually disappear. But right now, launching something like Microsoft Word inside OS X is slowed because the older operating system must start up first.

Mr. Weiss, who teaches and produces video and film, can't run his Final Cut Pro video editing software inside OS X, even in Classic Mode. Getting that application to work requires rebooting into OS 9.1, leaving OS X behind.

On a G3 computer with its 233 MHz processor and 128MB of RAM, there is noticeable hesitation as some applications launch. Performance will be slicker on faster G4 and iMac machines.

Getting a new start with the Darwin code is a must for Apple. The old code had become encumbered by years of adding features to an operating system not made for modern hardware. With OS X, it is easier to run multiple programs simultaneously. The system should crash less, and memory use should be dramatically improved. Advanced power management allows machines to wake from the Sleep mode instantly.

Apple continues to come up short in the digital music revolution, though. The company was slow to provide support for the MP3-Napster rage that has been a boom to CD-R and CD-RW sales. Those optical drives, as well as any DVD drives, cannot function in OS X without a reboot into OS 9.1. The gymnastics are also required for using everyday equipment such as Palm personal digital assistants and MP3 players.

Late last month, Apple posted OS X versions of the iTunes jukebox, iMovie 2 and a preview version of AppleWorks 6.1. Those programs perform superbly in their new native environment.

Mr. Jobs promises this trickle will turn into a flood by summer, when Apple begins shipping machines with OS X inside. More than 10,000 developer organizations are working on 20,000 Mac OS X applications, Apple says.

Anticipating heavy use of upgrades and patches, Apple has smartly placed its iTools Web folder on the Aqua desktop.

The OS X Web features include a free, cache-laced e-mail account in the form of Username@mac.com. And users' hard drives can be immediately turned into Web servers with included software from Apache, an open-source Internet standard. With the Unix-based OS X code, Apple is hoping to lure free help from developers already familiar with GNU/Linux and the open-source environment.

Whether OS X is the answer to Apple's financial woes remains to be seen. However, many analysts are predicting that the flexibility, stability and elegance of OS X will spawn renewed interest from Windows users looking for alternatives.

But for now, those who opt to make the OS X plunge would be well-advised to view this early version as the first step in a long, slow evolution.

Says Mr. Jobs: "We want something that lasts 15 years."