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Mac OS 10.2 'Jaguar' is the latest and greatest version
of OS X and
comes on two CD-ROMs. It is important to note that
the disks can be
used to install a fresh set of OS X system files and
applications as
well as for updating earlier OS X installations. As
such, Mac OS 10.2
is best considered a new operating system release,
rather than merely
an incremental upgrade as was the case with Mac OS
10.1.
Unsurprisingly, this new version of OS X retains
the same stiff
hardware demands as previous versions of OS X, requiring
a stock G3
or G4 computer and plenty of RAM and disk space. Certain
third-party
SCSI and video cards are incompatible with the OS
X installer and
need to be removed for the installation. Although
OS X will work on a
machine with 128 MB of RAM, with OS X the more RAM
the better, and
256 MB seems to be the minimum for comfortable performance.
Disk
space requirements are just as steep, 2.5 GB for the
standard
install, a few hundred megabytes more if you install
some of the
developer tools as well. On top of this you'll need
space for your
System 9.2 system folder, your applications and all
your documents.
Obviously a big hard disk is essential, but strangely
there is a
limit to the disk size compatible with the beige G3s,
G3 iMacs, and
G3 PowerBooks as far as Mac OS 10.2 is concerned. For
these machines,
10.2 can only be installed onto a disk (or partition)
8 GB or
smaller. Is it worth partitioning a drive for any
other reasons? Some
users advocate placing System 9 and their documents
on one partition,
and OS X on another. This was popular with early adopters
who used
the OS X public beta and the early (pre 10.1) releases
of the
operating system. Supposedly, this speeded up OS X
and reduced the
chance of any crashes or bugs in the new operating
system messing up
data and documents on the other partition. But now
that OS X has
proved itself to be speedy and stable, these concerns
aren't really
relevant. The only really useful advantage that partitioning
the
drive allows is the one-key booting trick. If your
Mac has more than
one disk or partition, holding down the Option key
brings up a screen
that allows you to choose which drive or partition
to boot from.
Running the Installer
The OS X 10.2 Installer differs slightly from previous
versions. For
one thing the installation comes on two CD-ROMs. (How
long will it be
before the system software comes on a DVD, I wonder?)
The main system
software installer is on the first disk, while the
various accessory
applications like iTunes come on the second disk.
Clicking the
installer application icon on the first disk causes
the computer to
restart, booting from the CD instead of the hard drive.
This gives
the user a first look at the new start-up screen,
a rather plain
affair ornamented only with a silhouette Apple logo
and a new symbol
to show time passing, something that looks a bit like
a child's
drawing of the sun.
Once up and running, the usual information screens
pop up, and then
the all-important installation preferences panel.
There are two
subsets of settings, 'Options' and 'Customise'. The
former splits
three ways: upgrade an existing OS X installation,
install a clean
system but archive the old system safely away, and
erase the disk or
partition completely and install OS X afterwards.
Upgrading is the
most convenient if you already have OS X installed,
but it does seem
to be slow. When I tried this, it took well over an
hour to complete
the installation. Archiving your existing OS X installation
is much
faster, but you do need enough disk space for the
new 10.2
installation as well as the safely tucked away old
system folder. The
idea is that once the installer has finished, you
can go through your
archived system folder moving any third-party modifications
such as
fonts and control panels. Quickest of all is erasing
the disk or
partition and installing from scratch. Obviously you
will need to
back up any documents and re-install applications
from their original
disks, but this installation mode only takes about
thirty minutes.
The 'Customise' panel allows you to choose what you
want installed in
addition to the system software, for example the BSD
Subsystem,
iTunes, localisation files, and Asian fonts. Judicious
use of this
panel can save you a great deal of disk space. With
all your settings
made, let the installer do its work while you go off
and have some
tea, read a book or whatever. There isn't anything
to do while all
this is going on, and whatever route you take it's
going to take some
time. If it helps, think about the frustration of
installing System
7.5 from floppy disk; for those that don't know, there
were about
twenty of them and you had to sit there feeding them
into the
computer every couple of minutes.
Welcome to OS X 10.2!
Assuming you have done a clean install, the next
stage is the set-up assistant that lets you enter
the your log in name and password, the name of the
computer, Internet settings, and so on. This is similar
to previous versions of the assistant, going back
to System 8. One slightly irritating thing about the
assistant is that you can't skip it anymore as you
could with pre-OS X versions. If you don't have an
Internet connection and won't (or can't) fax Apple
you personal registration details, having to give
your computer this information is a waste of time.
Otherwise the assistant is useful and simple to use.
Now is the time to re-install your OS X applications,
retrieve documents from your back-up disks, tweak
your system preferences, etc. Although OS X is less
configurable than previous versions of the Mac operating
system, there is still plenty to do. So to continue
AppleLust's look at moving to OS X, let's take a long
hard look at Jaguar's system
preference options.
Stuffit
7 (10-18-02) Dr. Neale Monks. What purpose does file compression have
in this day of 100 GB hard drives? Is version 7 worthy of the upgrade fees?
Fireworks
MX (10-8-02) Dean Browell. Fireworks is more than just a pretty face;
The last app I needed to convert entirely to OS X delivers in upgrades and
features as well...
Dreamweaver
MX (10-8-02) Joel Davies. Not being satisfied with just carbonizing it's
product, Macromedia made sure that Dreamweaver MX was the killer app for web
design.
SliMP3
(9-6-02) Pat St-Arnaud. The SliMP3 is a small, simple and elegant network
devices that connects to any audio component with RCA inputs and lets you
browse, search and play music directly from your computer's MP3 collection.
Voyager
III v.3 (8-16-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Carina's Voyager is the grandfather
of Mac planetarium programs, but does it still have what it takes to keep
up the current generation?
CodeWarrior
8 (8-16-02) Douglas A. Welton. Doug dives into the latest version of this
robust multi-platform programming tool.
STM
Sports Backpack (8-9-02) Pierre Igot. How will this backpack designed
for the "global digerati" stack up when Pierre puts it to the test
with his mobile digital lifestyle?
Scope
Driver (8-2-02) Dr. Neale Monks. An alternative to the 'point and click'
telescope control paradigm: a powerful list-based utility for Autostar and
LX200 telescopes.
Apple
Final Cut Pro 3.0 (7-19-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate reviews the video-editing
powerhouse Final Cut Pro 3 and sizes up its competition. Does Final Cut Pro
3 hold its ground?
Strata
DVpro RME (7-16-02) Matt Frederick. Matt Frederick. Matt takes a comprehensive
look at Strata DVpro, Strata's pro-level non-linear editor for digital video.
Stargazer's
Delight (6-28-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Looking for a viable shareware alternative
to the big commercial astronomy software packages? Neale may have found one.
TheSky
(6-21-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Neale takes a look at the easiest to use planetarium
program for the Mac.
NI
FM7 (6-21-02) Matt Frederick. Matt takes this software replica of Yamaha's
DX7 synthesizer for a test drive.
The
Digital Universe (6-14-02) Neale Monks. Planetarium program, astronomy
encyclopaedia and space flight simulator all rolled into one - could The Digital
Universe be the ClarisWorks of astronomy software? Neale Monks takes a look.
After
Effects 5.5 (5-31-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate reviews the OS X native
version of After Effects and likes what he sees.
InDesign
2.0 for Non-Professional Designers (5-24-02) Pierre Igot. In the second
part of our review of Adobe InDesign 2.0 for Mac OS X, Pierre Igot looks at
InDesign from the point-of-view of the non-professional designer - and finds
plenty to like.
Corel
Graphics Suite, Part 2 (5-24-02) Dean Browell. CorelDraw returns in full
force and Corel R.A.V.E makes its debut.
Corel
Graphics Suite, Part 1 (5-17-02) Dean Browell. CorelDraw is back, and
it's brought some powerful friends that makes this Suite worth the look...
OmniGraffle
2.0 (5-10-02) András Puiz. Analog napkins are so 20th century --
this gem from OmniGroup knows (almost) all about diagramming. András
Puiz wishes all Mac developers developed a similar understanding of Aqua,
and of Mac OS X in general.
Watson
(5-03-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate discovers a 'Swiss Army Knife' for OS X...
it's called Watson.
