A Week With Mac OS X 10.0

A little more than a week has passed since we installed the final version of Mac OS X on our first four Macs: a G4 Cube, an iMac 350 SL, an iBook 466 and a Power Mac G4 533 DP. We installed it on two more Macs, a PowerBook 2000 and an iMac DV SE, and used it as the primary OS all week on all six of the Macs. We also posted "Tips" during last week as we encountered them. We repeated some tests and conducted others with the PowerBook and iMac which were added to our Hands-On Report along with our tips. We also revised our conclusions based on the week's experience so our Hands-On Report has been substantially revised.

After a week, what do we think? Well, we like Mac OS X even better now than we did when we started using Mac OS X. Its Classic Mode works very well, with one exception for us, on all six Macs we've tried. Familiarity is really helping but the resolution of two major issues, i.e. connecting to Windows NT4 servers and PCs and speeding up the Finder, helped immensely. The only real problem that we are having using Mac OS X is with Adobe GoLive 4.01, a mission-critical application, in Classic Mode which occasionally and spontaneously begins to type or delete after switching windows. It's probably not a Mac OS X problem per se but it has never happened under Mac OS 9.1 or lower.

We will continue to use Mac OS X as our primary OS on all six Macs. We look forward to Apple adding the many little things OS X lacks and to the software and hardware companies carbonizing their applications and releasing OS X drivers. Please send us your views.