| Great post, simX!
I think that Mac OS X has rapidly become my OS of choice because of the fact that you really feel like you can do ANYTHING. Mac OS 9 always had a touch of anxiety about it, a fear of "if I force quit this app, the system will come crashing down around my head" and "wait, wait wait for it to finish starting, don't click until it's done..." or "Shhhh! Director is starting up. Don't move or it'll do something bad." (Man, I love that one)... and with OS X I feel a sense of empowerment that has been missing in every other Mac OS since 1984. The fact that you CAN emulate the OS 9 way of doing things is a testament to how brilliantly designed OS 9 was——that millions of people prefer its system functionality to that of a modern, crash-protected, stable OS based on UNIX? OS 9 was and now always will be the pinnacle of Apple's Classic OS... and it deserves respect for that. It was the ultimate evolution, the ultimate finished version of what Apple started in 1984 with one simple word: "Hello."
The Classic OS has always been very friendly; it was intuitive, it was graceful. It didn't do everything perfectly, but it was so much easier to find things and accomplish tasks than *ahem* competing systems of the time. OS 9 has had its weaknesses, but it was the best way to get anything done.
Now OS X has come, and in a year it has become a stable, usable, customizable, BEAUTIFUL operating system; one that not only CAN do everything, but it makes you WANT to do everything. I sit here in front of a screen less than an inch thick that floats in midair--- no flickering, no gargantuan tower sitting under my desk, no Blue Screen of Death, no wristwatch cursor--- and I realize that I can do anything I want to do. This is what makes OS X so powerful; it brings all of its ability together in an interface that, quite simply, makes a lot of SENSE. It takes some getting used to, but man, can it do things. And sure, I get frustrated at it sometimes (don't we all) and with its inadequacies, which at times seem much more important than its abilities, and then realize that no matter what, I'll have Classic and Mac OS 9 to fall back on. That is what is so great about Apple; they make great products, but they don't abandon the old ones. My dad's got a huge flickery CRT screen and a big tower under the desk, but hell, it runs OS X like a champ!
OS 10.2 has spring-loaded folders, so right off the bat there goes another huge complaint. (Now if only they release it soon—- but I'm confident they're simply fixing even more things) I'm sure that updates will continue to not only add in features we requested, but to also add new abilities that, quite simply, we would never imagine.
My iPod had a lot of problems. A LOT. It was obviously defective, so Apple immediately agreed to accept it for replacement. The box sent to pick up the unit was sent out a minute and a half after I put down the phone. Via Airborne Express. I got it in under 17 hours, put the iPod in, scheduled a re-pickup, sent it back, watched the tracking thing, and watched in awe as, on a Friday night, they sent it back using "Saturday Delivery"... more expensive even than using Airborne's normal Overnight system, which doesn't work on weekends... I was and always will be amazed at their commitment to actually HELPING people instead of just trying to get their money.
Those of you without an iPod won't quite understand this the same way, but when Apple went to Tokyo and released the new update, it was, to put it mildly, a stroke of genius. Not only did they add features that everyone had requested, they fixed things I had found mildly annoying once or twice (little things that I never would have bothered to mention to anyone). They improved everything about it to such a degree that I feel like a I have a new MP3 player. The iPod is no longer my favorite MP3 player, folks--- iPod with Update 1.1 is. This sort of attention to detail, the focus on what makes a product great and not what makes money in the short-term, is why Apple is and hopefully always will be the BEST company I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with.
OS 9 is still a very special part of my computer life. Even though the shockingly bland appearance (when compared to Aqua) is sometimes enough to make me say, "Oooooh, get me back to X, please," I still enjoy it for all the joy it's brought me in its daily use. OS 9 may be winding down, but a new era is starting up with OS X... and in the process I hope that I never, ever forget Classic.
Long live Apple!  |