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Update: Mac OS X 10.6

Mac OS X 10.6 is primarily designed to provide improved compatibility and performance so new features are minimal. Support for Exchange servers is much better so this system fits better into corporate environments where Exchange is common. This system only runs on Intel hardware so it isn't an option for users of older PowerPC Macs.

Update: Mac OS X 10.5

Mac OS X 10.5 includes several useful additions which are often under-utilised by new users. Maybe the most useful feature is "Quick Look" which allows viewing many different types of files directly form the Finder without having to open the program which created them. For example, most graphics formats, text, RTF, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote files can all be opened in a second by just choosing the Quick Look command (or by simply pressing the space bar) after selecting the file. After viewing one file using the navigation commands (arrows, tab, etc) will Quick Look further files. Its a great way to scan through photos. Check if a word processing file is the one you want before opening it, etc.

The Finder has been completely rewritten using a more modern programming environment and it is much more responsive and handles multi-tasking much better than the previous version. But the suer interface works almost the same as older versions so there's not too much new to learn. There are many small changes which power users will appreciate. For example, the warning when changing file name suffixes can be turned off. And when a file is renamed only the name is highlighted and the suffix stays the same. These are subtle but useful enhancements.

There are many smaller revisions which are just as useful. Full functionality is finally restored to file sharing now and its possible to share any folder with any user or group without any additional programs. The sharing and network configurations have been revised and are both easier to use and more flexible.

Mac OS X 10.5 does not support Classic programs, even on PowerPC computers. All major programs have been updated so alternatives are easily available in most cases. There are some notable exceptions to this though, for example Word Perfect and HyperCard, which are both discontinued products.

Update: Mac OS X 10.4

The release version of Mac OS X 10.4 has been here for a while now and has already been updated to 10.4.1 - and we expect 10.4.2 soon. It seems to be a useful improvement and runs well even on older machines. The memory requirement is sneaking up though, and 512M is the recommended starting memory size now. There are few compatibility issues with Tiger, so overall its another successful very upgrade to the Mac OS X operating system.

Update: Mac OS X 10.4 Pre-Release

Mac OS X 10.4 has many useful improvements. The most obvious are Spotlight, a system-wide search system; Automator, a workflow automation tool; and Dashboard, a widget system which gives you instant access to a range of useful mini-programs. All of the bundled applications are updated as well, and the core system continues to improve. Even with all of these extra functions, the speed of the system is better than previous releases, a fact which shows how extensible and flexible Mac OS X really is.

Update: Mac OS X 10.3

As well as improving the user interface and application programs bundled with Mac OS X, Apple continues to improve the core services behind the scenes. Java has received several revisions and the results in improved compatibility are obvious. OpenGL is being tweaked to give better 3D graphics performance. Samba (Windows file sharing) has been improved for better compatibility with newer versions of Windows. Many other services are being upgraded as a result of the improvements in the Unix core of Mac OS X, newer open source Darwin components, and new Mac OS X specific code by Apple.

Mac OS X Core System

Mac OS X is based on BSD Unix. This provides an extremely reliable and standard system to base Apple's own enhancements (especially in the area of user interface design) on. Unix is widely used in large installations and on high performance computers. It is a very widely used and well tested system which has evolved over many years through the input of many talented and dedicated organisations and individuals. Amongst computing professionals it enjoys almost total admiration and support. Compare all of the above with a Microsoft OS - totally the opposite!

Unix provides protected memory so that if a program crashes (no matter how good the system is this will always happen) the rest of the system, including all other programs, keep running.

Unix provides a high performance, transparent virtual memory scheme. Are you sick of allocating memory to programs and having to keep changing this amount to make programs (like PowerPoint) work? Do you want to dispense with constantly starting and stopping programs and maybe even restarting to free memory and prevent fragmentation? Do you want a virtual memory system that doesn't become slow unless its set to the minimum amount? If you use Mac OS 9 or before you might have answered "yes" to these questions. With X forget it! Memory just happens. Just run up any programs you like and forget about allocation, fragmentation, etc. It just works - and its fast!

Unix provides incredibly efficient multi-tasking and multi-threading. Your system can be running dozens of tasks and you won't even notice! Open some big files, launch a few programs, run the SETI client and do some word processing - all at the same time. Depending on your system you may notice a slow down, but no pauses or waiting. Everything just keeps going smoothly!

Got a computer with multi-processor support? Do you know how many processors in your dual processor machine Mac OS 9 uses? One! Isn't that useful? Use X and both processors get used. The current implementation only supports two but we expect more in future.

Unix provides a true multi-user environment. Users log in to their own custom environment. They can set privileges to allow access to other users on the local disk. Each user can have their own programs, preferences and documents.

Mac OS X supports both Mac HFS Extended and Unix UFS file systems so you can use your existing disks without having to re-format them for Mac OS X.

Types of Programs

Mac OS X supports 5 main types of programs...

Cocoa applications written specifically for Mac OS X use all of the systems advanced features and are the best programs to use if you can. They are written using Apple's advanced object environment which makes writing and maintaining programs easier. The problem is that programs written using Cocoa only run on Mac OS X and they have to be written completely from the beginning - its difficult to "recycle" code from existing programs written for earlier systems. Examples of Cocoa applications are Mail, OmniWeb and TextEdit.

Java applications run in Mac OS X's Java environment. These are cross-platform programs written using the Java language. They have access to some Mac OS X features. Java programs on Mac OS X run very reliably and quickly - they are not like the Java programs you may have experienced in earlier systems. An example is Limewire.

Carbon applications are modified conventional Mac programs that run directly in Mac OS X but miss out on some of the features available to Cocoa. Apple created the Carbon environment because Carbon programs run on both Mac OS 9 and X - this provides developers a bigger audience until Mac OS X gains a greater number of users. Also Carbon programs can quite easily be created by modifying existing Mac OS 9 programs. Initially most new programs for X will be Carbon. Examples are FileMaker Pro, BBEdit, iCab and Fetch (all converted older Mac programs).

Unix programs run like they do on any other Unix system. They are generally launched from the command line or automatically at startup. Many have graphical interfaces through Cocoa programs so that the fact they are Unix programs is disguised. Examples are Apache, cron, ftpd.

Classic applications are unmodified Mac programs that run in the Classic environment. The Classic environment is essentially a complete Mac OS 9 machine running as a Mac OS X process. Classic programs run just like they do in the conventional Mac OS. Unfortunately this means they miss out on most of the cool stuff Mac OS X has. While the Classic environment as a whole enjoys the benefits I listed in section 1 above, the individual programs still suffer from the interactions, memory allocation problems, etc that we already have with Mac OS 9 and before. Examples are Microsoft Office. Note that many developers (including Microsoft) have promised Cocoa or Carbon versions of their programs "soon". Running Classic applications is seen as an unfortunate temporary necessity until more programs are converted.

Update: Classic programs will not run on Intel Macs (introduced at the beginning of 2006). All major software has been updated to run directly in Mac OS X, including Microsoft Office (since the beginning of 2008 it has been updated to use the Intel processor).

Common languages for program development are Objective C (Apple's object oriented programming system specifically for X), RealBASIC (an easy to use BASIC language which is being used to create many cool shareware programs such as Whistle Blower) and Java (the industry standard, cross-platform environment). A development CD comes with the Mac OS X installation pack. It contains compilers and many other tools so you can get started writing programs immediately!

System Functions and Services

Cocoa applications have access to a "Services" menu. This allows programs to directly and transparently interact. For example if you have typed some text in TextEdit you can send it to someone by choosing Mail Text from the Services menu. While these sorts of services are already available in other systems, they are far more transparent, consistent and problem-free in Mac OS X. To install a service just drag a program to the Applications folder and log out and in again (the logout shouldn't be necessary in future systems).

Many system-wide functions are available to Cocoa applications, for example a spell checker, a color picking panel and a font picking panel. Add a spelling word in any program and every other program also knows about it because they all use the same checker! Unfortunately this currently doesn't apply to Carbon programs.

A screen showing a simple program (TextEdit) with access to system-supplied services such as a spell-checker, a color picker and advanced typography.

The preference model is very flexible and simple. All preferences are stored the same way - as industry-standard XML files. If a preference gets damaged (they don't but I suppose it could happen) just open the pref file in TextEdit and fix it - you don't have to throw it out and start again. Preferences are stored in three different places. System preferences belong to the system and shouldn't be touched (privilege protection usually prevents this). Application preferences that are global are stored in the application preference folder and most preferences which are set by the user are stored in the users own preference folder (each user has one).

A very nice, full-featured, expandable screen-saver is built-in so the proliferation of buggy, memory hogging screen savers we got with older systems is gone!

Contact: OJB, OJB@mac.com. Features: Blog, News Feeds, Podcasts, Feedback, Log. Modified: 05 May 2011. Hits: 14,064,281.

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