(Up to OJB's Mac OS X Menu)

Mac OS X has gone through several revisions and is being continually improved. This area discusses pros and cons of various versions of Mac OS X.

Version 10.7 (Lion) Preview

Pre-release versions of Mac OS X 10.7 have been released to developers and some details are appearing on certain web sites. The major theme with Lion seems to be integrating features from the iPhone and iPad system (iOS) into Mac OS X. Since iOS is based on Mac OS X this sort of completes the cycle.

Version 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Mac OS X 10.6 was released in August 2009. The major aim was to make the system more efficient and stable rather than to introduce a lot of new features. The major improvement for some users is significantly better support for Microsoft Exchange email and calendar servers which are (unfortunately!) common in large corporations.

One way this system was made more efficient was to drop support for some older technologies! Most importantly Snow Leopard only runs on Intel-based Macs so users of older PowerPC machines cannot use it at all. By default Rosetta (the system software which allows PowerPC programs to run on Intel processor based computers) isn't installed (do you get the impression that Apple really wants people to concentrate on Intel programs). Also support for Classic programs is gone completely. And not all printer drivers are installed unless the user requests them.

The memory requirements are similar to 10.5. It's possible to run using 1GB but 2GB is a more realistic minimum and 4GB (which is the minimum installed for all new Macs during most of the time 10.6 was bundled) is a lot better.

Version 10.5 (Leopard)

Leopard was released in October 2007 and at the time I wrote this (June 2008) has already had 3 updates (the current version is 10.5.3). The initial release had a few issues but these seem to have been corrected by the updates. Its important to make sure the updates are applied to all Leopard systems. Very few programs were "broken" during the transition from Tiger to Leopard but some issues were corrected with updates which should be applied.

The Classic environment was dropped form leopard, even on PowerPC based Macs, so that option is no longer available. There are native Mac OS X alternatives for almost all programs but unfortunately these might be paid updates.

Apple recommend at least a PowerPC G4 867 MHz processor, any G5 processor, or any Intel Core or Core 2 processor to run Leopard. At least 512M of RAM is required but this is really inadequate to do anything every useful and I would suggest 2G is more realistic although 1G is adequate if not too many programs need to be used simultaneously.

Version 10.4 (Tiger)

Tiger is very stable - I don't even know what its kernel panic screen looks like! The new bundled programs are also very good, and I can't remember a single case of Safari, Mail, Preview, iPhoto crashing. Why can't Microsoft do this? Automator, Spotlight, and Dashboard all seem to be very successful, based on how many components have been written to make use of them. The only problem is that Tiger needs a bit more memory (512MB is a realistic amount) and a few programs have some compatibility issues (retrospect backup has been the main problem for me).

Version 10.4 (Tiger) Pre-Release

Tiger is looking really good. Apple have reached the point where the general look and feel of the system is finalised and they can now concentrate on new functionality. All aspects of the new system are improving: core OS (a new kernel), systems services (such as Spotlight and Automator), and bundled applications (Mail, Preview, Safari, etc) are all solid and flexible.

Version 10.3 (Panther)

It just keeps getting better! Mac OS X 10.3 has more functionality than its predecessor, but its faster and just as stable. There's new user interface tweaks, like Exposé. There's improved core functionality like better printing and the addition of built-in faxing. The bundled applications are also better: Mail, Safari, and Preview are all considerably better than earlier versions. You might have to pay for it but I think the upgrade is worth it.

There's also lots of new functions like: Filevault (encrypts all of the user's data automatically), built-in fax sending and receiving, fast user switching (multiple users' workspaces can be active simultaneously), and new font management with Font Book.

Version 10.2 (Jaguar)

The release version of 10.2 removes the final little bugs in the preview version and maintains the improved performance. Although you have to pay for it, this is a worthwhile update to Mac OS X - everything just seems to run more smoothly.

Version 10.2 (Jaguar) Developer

The developer preview of Mac OS X 10.2 shows great potential in performance and flexibility but there is still some work to do to improve reliability (as would be expected for an early release like this). The biggest speed improvement is in application launch times which are consistently about half the current release version. Other parts of the system all feel faster although not to the same extent. My machines have older video cards so I don't expect huge improvements in that area.

The system has been made more flexible everywhere, including the bundled applications. The new version of Mail looks particularly good - most of the deficiencies in the previous version are gone. More bundled applications are included, for example the new iChat which I haven't yet evaluated.

Version 10.1.4

This is an incredibly stable OS. On the rare occasions something goes wrong a force quit or the terminal can always be used to recover. Except when doing really silly things I never need to restart this system.

Performance is getting better but its a bit sluggish in places. The Finder isn't as configurable as it should be - for example, the text size can't be changed - and it also isn't as well threaded as it should be - some tasks stop others working temporarily. The Finder is missing some features it had in Mac OS 9 - for example pop-up windows, spring-loaded folders and color labels for icons.

Some of the applications are lacking features they perhaps should have - for example, Mail needs better filters and more flexible server handling.

This is still an excellent system - I would never go back to using Mac OS 9. It runs well on all G4 and G3 systems over 400 MHz. At least 128MB of RAM is needed and preferably more.

Version 10.1

The first major revision of the system improves one of the more annoying performance issues - application launch times and brings better compatibility with peripherals as well as adding some useful new features.

Version 10.0

The first release version of Mac OS X demonstrates the legendary stability and power of Unix with a wonderful Apple user interface. The performance isn't so good in many places - especially application launch times - but we expect this will be improved with time.

Preview Release 4

For a preview this is an incredibly stable OS! Unfortunately it is still a bit slow in some functions - some programs take too long to launch - and it feels a little bit incomplete in places as well (I have to keep reminding myself this is a preview).

Contact: OJB, OJB@mac.com. Features: Blog, News Feeds, Podcasts, Feedback, Log. Modified: 05 May 2011. Hits: 14,065,458.

Comment on this page: Very Useful • Quite Useful • Useless or: View Results