The Path to OS X
Part Two: Glances...
New!The Path to OS X Finale: OS X Spreads Its Wings
(MacOS/hype)-D. Browell

Part12: This Might Hurt A Little...
Part 11: The App Game
Part 10: Novice Shoes
Part 9: It's the Hardware, Baby!
Part 8: X Equals Ten
Part 7: Good Karma
Part 6: A New Breed Of Apple
Part 5: Steve Jobs/Spurrier
Part 4: Sideshow Skirmishes
Part 3: Command Who?
Part 2: Glances...
Part 1: From the Ashes


"Wow..."

Stay around an Apple machine with OS X loaded on it in a retail store or computer lab of your choice and you're bound to hear that. A lot. In fact, more often that you're likely to expect. Maybe from the PC users that drift by (if any do). The fluid GUI (Graphic User Interface) smacks of something you'd see as the all-too-simple mock up in a spy movie. You know what I mean, those special-effect-guy generated screens on the computer some super-actor-spy is using to break into a government system, or to send an email to a lover. It always looks a little corny, a little bubble-gummy, and usually super-generic. Well, at least that used to be the case (lately Macs have been not only been the computer of choice, but even the screens they use just use the Apple OS--the really funny parts are when someone is obviously using a PC, but the camera reveals the computer screen he or she is working on is an Apple OS). Anyway, my point is, OS X looks too easy, too fluid, and almost unbelievable. Those are not negatives, but rather part of the observation one might get on their first sighting of OS X.

The slippery interface, joined with the rubbery pull and form of the windows, looks like a game I would like, but would crash my computer. No game in particular, but it looks like the computer is naturally making things appear and move like they are supposed to. As candy coated as the look is, the contortions appear real and appropriate. When I first saw it, I kept waiting for an error message. I figured the iMac running it couldn't keep it up for much longer. Sooner or later, the bold new GUI would drown any usefulness and all the gee-whiz factors would be flushed. But it didn't happen. It seemed stable. It seemed like the slice of a new OS world. It seemed like someone was showing me something I couldn't afford, understand, or run on my computer at home. The whole system, paired with the rotund iMac, sand-dollar iBook or MOMAR cube looked to be the love child of an Ikea showroom and a Swatch watch. There was a sense that every aspect was keen...but I hoped I could change their look later. The function was fine, great, whatever, but the springy-@ thing was bugging me. It looked like the innards to a jack-in-the-box. Personally I just needed a screen-wide color wash. Take a needle and inject a syringe full of black ink into the screen and watch it mix with the water under the blue buttons. As "neat" as it was, I just couldn't see Trent Reznor using it very long without at least turning down his monitor's brightness. Some of us want the whistles but no bells...need it a little dirtier. But as we are talking of an OS for a Mac community, I bet there are options, flavors, choices, considerations both built in and on the way via our truly wonderful shareware-churning community. But, I'm talking first impressions here. And there were a few more worth mentioning.

Dear God, I want to personally thank you for letting people make that Dock thingy they put in OS X. Love, Dean

Okay, now I know some people have some issues with the Dock, and obviously I do too. (Have I mentioned that "@" thing? It really bugs me.) When you really observe its functionality it doesn't take much daydreaming or testing to see what a fantastic tool it is and will be to our organizational lives. Better yet, it just looks so damn cool. Play with a Quicktime movie before you seal your opinion on the Dock. Watch it slip to and fro and still run the video in real-time. Now go back to your PC's Windows "Milleni-ho-hum" or even OS "Nein" and watch your face drop as you do your weekly hunt for bad aliases, redundant folders, and your four ways to get to one program but you still just click through folders to get to it. OS X will not solve all of our problems, but the new rules of the game should be worth the trouble to learn.

Finally, I'd like to make a plea to Microsoft. Mikey, since you recently defended that you weren't a monopoly because the Apple folks were doing well, take into consideration the following request: Please, please, please try and copy OSX and in two years come out with your own knock-off bubble-wrap version with 256 bright, shiny colors (like Billy Blue) and an interface that slickly dances and shakes. Please. Do it quickly. Show us how "innovative" you are by swiping another base idea and trumpeting it as your own. Oh please, please do. Because right now, in our computer climate we don't just have a few professionals and a growing population watching...we have everyone watching. And we're smarter. And we're more litigious. You might even create something better, who knows (yeah right...*snicker*)? The point is I'd like to take this moment to grin from ear to ear, dance down Main Street U.S.A. and hum "We Are The Champions" to the throngs. Because even if we had to crawl from the grave you helped bury us in, and even if it took watching your clone-buddies clone us (*ahem* iPaq *ahem*) it will all be worth it just to see you scramble. We beat you to the next generation. Even if we died now, as a computer community, we'd die with a smile on our faces. But croaking now, just as the beta runs its course and our hardware has begun to seep into homes and schools and *gasp!* offices again would be unlikely...especially with a family of competitors that suddenly have shelter in our house...just look under the manhole cover of OS X and you'll see the giant alligators the world calls UNIX....

Join me next time as I rip the seams of OS X...time to stop gawking and start digging...



by Dean Browell
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"The Path to OS X" is a series of articles examining the casual user's view of OS X. Take with a grain of salt and dash of incense for full effect.


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