Totally uninspired by Tiger

I think I am slightly uninspired by Tiger...

And the reason...
I think I'm still in love with Panther!
My entry into the mac world was 8.6.
(Everyone told me how much better it was than OS 7...)
But then I had a hard time under OS 9.
For some it worked out - for me it was a struggle.
Jaguar? Don't make me laugh...
(slow, full of bugs, and endless revolving beachballs!)

Panther, on the other hand - ROCKED MY WORLD!
On my G4 it was almost twice as fast as Jaguar.
And since I've had it - it's been bliss.
This is the best OS platform I've ever had.
Sure, initially I hated the way OS X looked.
I thought Macs were starting to look too much like Windows.
But then productivity increased and I started to appreciate the intuitive layout.
Things just worked...

So, now comes along Tiger.
And there is nothing much there to bait me with.
So - what's the point...
I guess in some ways I'm right!!!
Panther was (is) fantastic - and apart from a few little new niffty programs - there isn't a lot of difference in Tiger.

So I say, lets stick with the black cat (for now).
At least it's lucky...
 
As I understand it Tiger introduces a free Screen Reader, "voice over".

If this does everything a screen reader like JAWS can, then I think that alone is enough to make Tiger a milestone release. Stand-alone screen-readers cost $1000+ on their own, and being Apple you just know it will blow the rest out of the water. Plus, I don't think there are any screen readers for OS X at the moment, so there are millions of people being excluded at the moment.

However, looking at their site (http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/) it doesn't mention anything about Web browsing capabilities. So perhaps it's juts a screen reader for the OS itself and not a full-functional screen reader. If that is so, then it's nothing very special at all. Can anyone tell me for sure if you can browse the Net with VoiceOver?
 
It works fine in Safari. Have to activate "read under mouse" or something. And then have to move to each _line_ it seems. Had to turn it off immediately though. Can't have my Mac talk all the time.
 
but does it have the same level of functionality as JAWS etc? 'read under mouse' sounds like it just reads whatever you point it at...pretty useless if you can't see the cursor to begin with. I mean, do you think you could (reletively) easily turn on a mac and surf the web if you were completely blind using VoiceOver?
 
I did seriously consider upgrading, but now have decided against it. I'll wait and see how things stand in 6 months or so. I must admit I'm not sure the new features will make a major difference to me, the perennial desire to upgrade every time something, anything new comes out is so silly, I've said before, this is something the Mac community has picked up in recent years. When I used Macs in the past (years ago) there wasn't this overwhelming desire to keep getting the latest hardware and software. I have no need for widgets and spotlight, maybe one day but on consideration, not yet. I wouldn't go as far as saying Tiger is uninspiring but it doesn't have enough in it to make me want to shell out cash for it yet. Panther works well for me. As someone who has just recently bought a Mac mini, I think Apple should have offered a concession in the price on Tiger, also as a former hardcore Linux user, the idea of paying for an OS is still new.
 
I'm considering Tiger not as the amazing feature-packed OS Apple sees it as, but rather as Panther 10.3.10 (with everything how it should have been to begin with):

Where iTunes had always impressed with its search-as-you-type, now the whole OS (and any Spotlight-tuned applications) do that (Panther had both the Cmd+F Find File box and the Finder find box, neither of which I use).

Tiger adds to Exposé with Dashboard (I regard Dashboard as like a crap-draw, where you store all your stuff, if you have the Desktop metaphor everywhere else).

It makes the Address Book sensible, syncing birthdays to iCal and introducing smart groups.

It increases performance, and adds features to Safari, iChat and QuickTime (to mention but a few).

So yeah, it's a worthwhile upgrade, but I don't know if I'll rush to get it.


As a matter of interest, I shouldn't expect to get iLife '05 as part of Tiger, should I?
 
the search field in the finder toolbar is already quite good in my opinion. on a folder with ~70 folders (in various levels of nesting) and ~1000 files, it is quite fast to find the file i want (obviously only works on file-names, dates, not meta data..)
 
habilis said:
Apple is really reaching this time with "Tiger". Stock quotes and weather are so 1998. C'mon guys, "Handy Widgets???" - yeah we've had these barely-useful "Widgets" on my toothbrush for the last 5 years. Everything else is just a cluster of uninspiring updates and bug fixes.

One has to have a brain to feel inspired :D
 
Sheesh! I just wish I could get Tiger.

I pre-ordered and the confirmation guaranteed I would have it by 6 p.m. today, but no such luck. As of 7:30 this morning the FedEx tracking still showed a delivery time this afternoon. Well I was able to get home early so that I could be here to accept delivery. No sign of the driver.

I checked the tracking again and it had been pushed back to May 6. Then it was changed to May 4. I lodged a comlaint with Apple and asked them to find out exactly where my order was. Haven't gotten a response.

What really has started to bother me is that of the last six orders from the Apple store, four have gotten screwed up, usually because of delivery problems. FedEx service in this area has gotten to be horrible. Well of course I requested a different shipping method. So that's two errors this time; wrong carrier and couldn't make the promised receiving date.

So I missed time from work to be here, and had cleared some time for the installation. All for nothing apparently.
Well the last time I called and ranted, I got the shipping charges refunded. So I'l guess I'll do that again. Frankly, I am getting tired of this. I really am growing increasingly disapointed with Apple's customer service.
Now I know what some of you are thinking, this thing isn't that important, this guy needs to get a life. Well I have survived cancer, so I think I know what is or isn't really important. What upsets me is that this appears to be part of a pattern of poor service from a company I used to respect.

Well maybe I am just becoming an old crank. So be it.
 
I agree with a few others above... Tiger isn't all that great. Panther was perfect. It did everything so well, and now here comes Tiger with basically (on the outside) a few new programs to use...

I upgraded just because I have to have the newest and the greatest (and because I'm a developer), but if I hadn't, I would have been perfectly satisfied using Panther.
 
Well I just installed tiger and think its a good update,(not sure though if it was worth the 129 euros..) But besides spotlight, automator and dashboard, theres really lot of other things going on underthehood and makes tiger the most stable and best mac os yet. and unlike windows updates, mac os updates always have made the computers run quicker, something that never happens in the world of windows...
For nice review of tiger: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/1
 
Back
Top