OS X "Pipe and Slippers" Edition, anyone?

[fryke]

On the original subject - and in direct answer to your last post, fjdouse: Pipe and slippers edition would be to get Panther 10.3.9 now. And when Leopard ships, people can decide to update to Tiger 10.4.11 (or whatever the last update to Tiger will be...). So: If you truly only want the most finished work Apple releases, you should only get the very last version of each system. That, of course, doesn't work if you buy a new Mac. It'll come with the newest version of the operating system, and trying to install an older version often fails or is not as stable as on an officially supported machine. But for 'older' Macs, "Piper and slippers edition" might simply mean just that: The _last_ version.

[Tommo]

[QUOTE=fryke] That, of course, doesn't work if you buy a new Mac. It'll come with the newest version of the operating system,QUOTE]

And there is the biggest gripe of all!!! As a home user I keep up with all new releases of OS on both PC and Mac and if software doesn't work I roll it back to the old version of the OS or dual boot it for a while if I really need it.

As someone who provides IT support in a business environment being forced to update to the latest version just because I have had to buy a new Mac is ridiculous. Especially with Apples record on backward compatability. I have Macs now which cannot run a recently purchased and very expensive piece of software or access the site remotely as the VPN client doesn't work under Tiger.

I'm all for a pipe and slippers version that will work on new Macs especially even if that is 10.3.9.

[symphonix]

Dodginess, I understand exactly what you mean about the ever-onwards-ever-upwards upgrade cycle - but I think you have to realise it is really just a commercial reality. Companies that make their profit from making TVs need to keep improving on their designs to stay competitive, and software is the same.

You have around about the same amount of "rollback" ability on a new Mac as you would on a PC. If you want 10.2 or 10.3 instead of 10.4, you can go back to these. Yes, current Macs can't boot into OS9, but since its been over 4 years since OS9 was declared dead, and about 6 years since OSX was released, then running OS9 on a new Mac is akin to running Windows 95 on a new PC.

"...Conveniently reset the password for any user directly from the login window if you have set a master password for the system."

Great, so what happens what you forget the master password then?

You can reset the master password by booting from the MacOSX install DVD. There is an option in the menu there "Reset master password". The new "Forgot password" feature is to make it easier for the admin of a machine or network to reset a user's password right then and there at their machine, without needing to go back to the main server, reboot, call help-desk or do any of that nonsense.

I still think it's a bit of a cheek for Apple to keep charging for OS updates - after all, apart from something leftfield like BEOS, what else can you run on a Mac?

Ever heard of Linux? In fact, you have almost the same options for OS's on the Mac as you do on PC ... Debian, BSD, Slackware, Fedora. The only ones you miss out on that a PC can run are Windows and Sun Solaris.

... but rather that the upgrade cycle is killing off creativity to some extent.

While there may be some truth to this, you've obviously never been to, for instance, a Macworld expo, where several thousand creative people get to show off their best work in software and hardware. If we ignored this type of creativity, or discounted it as "not the same thing" as say painting or music, we'd still be writing on papyrus.

Apple is an innovative company. That means that they have to regularly reinvent their products. If they didn't innovate, would you really want to buy their gear?

And frankly, I think Apple's upgrade pattern is the best in the industry in terms of bang-for-buck. Case in point: Garageband. Released as version 1.0, then updated a year later to version 2.0 with some very obvious new features such as multi-track recording, music notation (meaning you can work with the actual notes like sheet music), etc.

Compare them to their competitors. Microsoft takes up to 5 years between major OS revisions. Adobe, as you used as an example before, releases lots of updates that don't actually offer much new functionality to their end users. Don't get me started on Lotus, who seem to go backwards with every new version of Notes or Domino.

Apple set prices that they believe people would be willing to pay. And people do pay, because the added value is there in the products.

There is a drastic difference between the Apple-user culture and the Windows-user culture. When Apple decided to get rid of the ADB connections and make all their mice and keyboards USB, the users applauded. And yet PCs still use PS2 connections, and any attempt to get rid of them in favour of USB results in scathing complaints from the PC crowd. Apple users love innovation and are willing to toss the old aside to move on, while Windows users kick up a fuss to Microsoft whenever a new OS fails to correctly support a barcode reader that hasn't been made since 1985.

Well, I could go on, but I think I might just tell you to unplug your Internet, stop reading the Mac magazines, and just go back to being "creative" in your own way. We promise we won't tell you about Leopard. Or any other innovations Apple might have in the pipeline. We certainly wouldn't say anything about Intel, that would just upset you. ;-)

[dmetzcher]

Originally Posted by fryke

I've found that users like you - I know many who are weary of the update-frenzy, too - should simply go the 1-up-1-down route. Get Panther, forget about Tiger, get Leopard. 10.3.9 is a really good operating system, and if you can do without Dashboard and Spotlight (the latter will only be really useful once it comes of age, anyway...), Panther will do just fine until a) Apple releases Leopard or b) you buy a new Mac that comes with Tiger, anyway. Same for Adobe. CS1 works well, don't have to get CS2, why not take CS3, which will quite probably have more going for it for CS1 owners than CS2.

I just wanted to say that I think this is excellent advice for many users out there.