OS X Tiger on my Notebook
Posted: 11 Sep 2005, 02:37
I don't know how many of you have been keeping up with the latest in Apple's developments but it seems as though Redmond aka. Microsoft has an unexpected fight on their hands and may even lose the battle on x86 home ground!! Some time ago, Apple announced mactel computers are around the corner. Meaning that we will soon be seeing Apple computers using Intel processors. Also, Apple had been working on an os for it for 5 years already. Not long after this announcement, something wonderful leaked. It was a disk image of Mac OS X 10.4 for Intel machines. Somebody decided to try extracting the contents of the drive image to a hard disk to see if it would work natively. Amazingly, it did. Not only that, it was fast too! Time went on and another vesion leaked. This time, a developer install DVD. A collective effort began between some hackers and soon, the cd was patched to be a little more generic. Reason for this is that the developer dvd needed a few kexts (Kernel extensions or driver 'hooks') to be more compatible with other computer configurations. With some limited success, the DVD was patched and ready to strike fear in Microsoft. I got my hands on the DVD and installed it on my Acer 4101WLMi notebook. It boots from start to finish in 20 seconds. No drivers were needed as those that are available install with the os. Any devices not detected just won't work so don't even try to get them going. The only things not working for me yet is 3D accelleration, w/lan and my modem. None of which I expect to use on the notebook since w/lan.... I have it never used it, even with Windows. I don't have an isp account that will allow me to use 56k dialup on my ISDN account so the modem is sorta useless to me even in XP. 3D is also a novelty at this time since there isn't relly a lot of games that have fat binaries (both intel and ppc executables in one file.) Most of the apps I've downloaded to test the system work perfectly, despite the fact that most of them are written for PPC based macs. Overall, I was very surprised at the speed and stability of the OS. Not a single system crash in a week of hard usage.
My view is this: If it's already running on many different configurations, including AMD machines,) it won't take long for the final version to be cracked and spread too. I have been a hardcore Windows user ever since Windows 3.1. To be honest, if I boot back into Windows, it all seems rather bland. OS X is VERY well designed with some serious power under the hood. The key difference is that the user interface of OS X is far more streamlined than Windows. Windows u worry about drives folders and files.... lots of files. In OS X, there is Finder. Finder gives you immediate access to all your drives, networks, personal folders and all your programs. Programs are also comprised of far fewer files than under Windows. When a file is downloaded, it is automatically opened and you can in many cases, test the file without even "installing" it. If you like the program, drag it's icon to your app folder and voiala!
In the end, I have one thing to say. The Microsoft bully from the 80's is back and this time, has a trump up their sleeve. Microsoft, be weary! MARK MY WORDS! now where did that beer go
My view is this: If it's already running on many different configurations, including AMD machines,) it won't take long for the final version to be cracked and spread too. I have been a hardcore Windows user ever since Windows 3.1. To be honest, if I boot back into Windows, it all seems rather bland. OS X is VERY well designed with some serious power under the hood. The key difference is that the user interface of OS X is far more streamlined than Windows. Windows u worry about drives folders and files.... lots of files. In OS X, there is Finder. Finder gives you immediate access to all your drives, networks, personal folders and all your programs. Programs are also comprised of far fewer files than under Windows. When a file is downloaded, it is automatically opened and you can in many cases, test the file without even "installing" it. If you like the program, drag it's icon to your app folder and voiala!
In the end, I have one thing to say. The Microsoft bully from the 80's is back and this time, has a trump up their sleeve. Microsoft, be weary! MARK MY WORDS! now where did that beer go