OS X World

Welcome to Mac OS X 10.1! A Visual Tour with Commentary

© Mike Vannorsdel & Staff

When Mac OS X 10.1 hits your CD-ROM

Today Apple has released the first major update to Mac OS X. And here at AppleLust, you'll get a primer on what's new, installation, and gotchas. Let's get started.

Before you install

When you finally get your Mac OS X 10.1 Update CD, there are some preparations that should be done before installing the update. First is to update your machine's firmware. Without doing this, the installer is likely to crash and your updated system likely to have problems. You can find the latest firmware updates at Apple's Knowledge Base. Next, make sure to update your Mac OS 9 systems to Mac OS 9.2.1 and apply all other system updates by running Software Update. And finally, backup important files. You never know what will happen when applying such an update.

Running the installer

Mac OS X 10.1 is a goliath of an update. A whopping 620MB worth of tweaks, fixes, and goodies. The first step is to pop in the CD. Depending on which system you're in, Mac OS 9 or OS X, there will be an Install Mac OS X icon. Double click it and you're on your way. After the system reboots, you'll be greeted by the familiar installer as you've seen with Mac OS X 10.0. Go through the license agreements and choose the disk that has the Mac OS X system you want to update. I suggest choosing a custom install and unselecting localizations you do not need. The next step is to install. This will take a while and you will notice something that was missing in the Mac OS X 10.0 installer, Optimizing System Performance is now properly performed.

Welcome to Puma

As you boot into your freshly updated Mac OS X 10.1, you'll notice a larger boot panel with a much more Aqua-ish Apple logo. This is one of the many appearance changes found in this update. You'll also notice a new login screen where you can have it configured to present a list of users, similar to multiple users in Mac OS 9, or the original name and password fields. As your desktop comes up, you many have some broken links in your Dock and your background image might be gone. These are simple to fix and restore. But let's see what's new.

New Applications

Mac OS X 10.1 comes with new versions of most of the original applications. Most contain minor tweaks and fixes. But some are totally new! Most notably right off the bat is DVD Player. Yep, DVD playback is now possible in Mac OS X. More on this later. Also included in this update is iMovie2, Airport Admin Utility, Airport Setup Assistant, and Java Web Start. Each self explanatory.

DVD playback!

Here's one of the most sought after features missing from Mac OS X 10.0: native DVD playback. DVD Player is very similar to Apple DVD Player in Mac OS 9, with a nice newly redesigned controller. DVD playback works very well and I had no quirks or problems with it. The best part is having a DVD movie playing in the background while working, all without missing a beat. Granted this is on an dual 800MHz G4. The DVD appeared to use 33-50% of processor 2 while processor 1 did everything else. I'm not sure how well this will work on lower end machines. Also of note, the keyboard eject button now works properly, opening and closing the tray. Very nice for QuickSilvers.

The New System Preferences

System Preferences also got an overhaul. The obvious part of it is the new organization scheme, putting each panel into one of four groups (Personal, Hardware... click on thumb for larger view). You also have the choice to put arrows in Windows, both at one end or one at each end. (See below.) There are some differences in some of the panels (see below too).

Oh, and while we're at it, the Meni blinking has been sped up — instaed of three slower blinks you get two faster ones. There is no way to set this as in OS 9's "general" CP.

Dock's New Tricks

The Dock has added a couple new tricks to its forte. For one, I can now be pinned to either side of the screen aswell as the bottom. And my favorite which is sure to get your attention:

It appears Internet Explorer can't wait to tell me something. This happens when an application needs your attention; it jumps up and down excitedly in the dock. It took me a while to get used to it, especially when my first taste of this new feature was when 3 applications needed my attention all at once. There was a whole party happening in my dock! (See below for more images of Dock.)

Better application binding

A much needed repair was a more reliable method of changing the default application of file types. This now finally works as it should, and it even creates a default list of all the applications that can handle that file type. Basically Mac OS X will ignore the creator code, but leave it intact so Mac OS 9 will correctly handle it. For instance you create a .jpg in Photoshop. The file's creator code is Photoshop, but if your default jpg app in Mac OS X is Preview, then the saved file will have a Preview icon and open in Preview when double clicked. But from Mac OS 9, the file will have a Photoshop icon and open in Photoshop. You can also still change the file's default app on a per file basis, ie: change the application for one jpg but not for all. Make sense? It works very nice I think. But I'm sure others will complain anyways.

The Get Info and Type/Creator changes.

Menubar controls

Also noteworthy are the new controls available in the menubar. There is one for sound where you can adjust the sound volume. There is another for displays where you can change resolutions and colors depths. And there is one for the clock which you can view it as an icon (as above) or as text. All very handy and the icons look very nice.

Burning from the Finder

Mac OS X 10.1 now supports burning CDs right from the Finder. Simply insert your CD, initialize, drag files onto it, and hit burn. It works just as it did in System 9 — a piece of cake! You can also burn disk images from Disk Copy and erase CDRWs with the Disk Utility.

Performance

Steve Jobs has stated that the main goal of Puma was to boost performance. I can say that Apple has succeeded as Puma is indeed fast. It seems every aspect of Mac OS X has been accelerated. From low level disk I/O to UI responsiveness. Every application and function should now be faster in Mac OS X. Most notable for me was much smoother OpenGL performance in games such as American McGee's Alice and excellent Quicktime movie performance. I was able to play several movie trailers at once and drag each around the screen with out a single skip. Every UI action is also fast, from menus to window resizing.

We'll have more reports soon on speed.

Address Book and Mail.app

And now the gotchas

Like all software, Puma is not perfect. I immediately found some bugs and problems. Some Carbon applications and a couple Cocoa applications will need to be updated for Mac OS X 10.1. Fetch and Aliens vs. Predator demo would not run at all while OmniWeb frequently crashed. I'm sure this morning we'll see many updates as developers update their software. Some bugs I found were with DHCP and some system preferences shortcuts. DHCP didn't seem to work when Mac OS X 10.1 was installed on a slave drive. And system preference shortcuts found in the menus, ie: Apple Menu->Locations->Network Preferences, don't work on Mac OS X 10.0.4 systems that are pre-installed on newer G4's (build 4S10). These are not show stoppers and probably won't affect many people. You many also find yourself resetting preferences for the Finder and system as some of the settings from 10.0.x don't directly translate over.

Final Words

some other enhancements include LaserWriter 8 defintions (we will see if our LaserWriter works on it - so is LocalTalk back?).

Mac OS X 10.1 is finally ready for primetime. Now all we need are those essential applications to gain Mac OS X nativity. Puma is fast and full of new features; much more than I can cover here. I leave the rest for you to explore. But we will have plenty of coverage for you in the coming weeks...

Mike Vannorsdel

What do you think? Talk about in our Forums... We have a new 10.1 Forum with a new thread to help you out.

A Visual Tour of 10.1 We have assembled various screen shots of OS X 10.1. Just click on the images to see larger ones. And...enjoy!!

AirPort

The Dock

Dock Preferences

The Dock Itself

Desktop Looks and behaves more like Os 9's.

General Preferences

Keyboard Prefs

Log In

Sound Prefs

Universal Access

Users Prefs

We a;ready have several copies at the site. As we work with it we'll you know. If you have questions, go to our forums...

What do you think? Talk about in our Forums...

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