Mac OS X 10.0.2--How Fast Is It?

Yesterday, Apple released the second update to Mac OS X, v10.0.2. We updated several Macs with no problems using the Software Update preference panel. The new update promises speed increases, a principle issue for most people. When Mac OS X 10.0.1 came out we checked its speed increase against Max OS X 10.0 with a number of Classic, Carbon and Cocoa applications on a 450 MHz G4 Cube. The previous results (4/17) updated with those for Mac OS X 10.0.2 are:

Average Launch Time in Full Seconds

Application	X 10.0	X 10.0.1	X 10.0.2
Netscape 4.77	7	6	4
Word 2001	5	4	2
IE 5.1	9	10	8
OmniWeb 4.0cf3	14	13	9*
Mail	4	4	4
System Preferences	3	2	2

*Not comparable, OmniWeb 4.0rc1

The launch times (average of three launches) are significantly faster for the Classic and Carbon applications in 10.0.2. OmniWeb 4.0rc1 launches significantly faster than 4.0cf3. The launch times for the two Cocoa-native applications (Mail and System Preferences), already fast, are unchanged.

We previously (4/26) timed several web browser operations on our 400 MHz PowerBook 2000 for a number of web browsers using Mac OS X 10.0.2. Here are the results for several browsers using Mac OS X 10.0.2:

Average Time in Full Seconds (Mac OS X 10.0.1/10.0.2)

Action	IE 5.0	IE 5.1	iCab 2.5	OmniWeb*
Launch/Load Macs Only!	5/4	23/11	12/9	35/8
Scroll Macs Only!	3/2	5/3	8/5	5/3
Load SiteLink.net	4/3	12/6	9/4	13/6
Back to Macs Only!	2/2	<1/<1	2/<1	<1/<1

*Not comparable, OmniWeb 4.0cf3 vs 4.0rc1

The Classic mode Internet Explorer was slightly faster with Mac OS X 10.0.2 but the two Carbonized browsers, IE 5.1 and iCab 2.5, are significantly faster. OmniWeb 4.0rc1, a Cocoa-native browser which was released today, is now as fast as any of the Carbonized web browsers.

While we didn't time it before, Adobe GoLive 4.0.1 operating in Classic mode launches and parses the Macs Only! HTML code much faster than with v10.0.1. Overall, the performance of Mac OS X on our 400 MHz PowerBook 2000, which we consider to be on the margin of acceptable performance with Mac OS X, is perceptibly improved.