Tiger Slideshow: Pretty Mac OS X Pictures

RAMMS+EIN writes with a good followup to the recent WWDC preview of Tiger, the next version of OS X. "eWeek has a slideshow illustrating some of Tiger's new features with screenshots. For a textual description, you can visit Apple's Tiger page."

Comments

New Feature: Spotlight

[OneNonly]

I'd been thinking about this for years - having a "SQL" like file system - and now Mac are in bringing it to the masses! Well, close anyway.. Spotlight uses metadata from all the files on your system to help you easily locate (search) for what you are after, no matter what type of info it is (contact, or PDF, or text file..)

You can seem from some of the pics on the page shown just how easy it will be to use spotlight. . At the top of every finder window - type the "keywords" and you're there.. Being able to store your "searches" will make this *really* powerful..

Once Tiger comes out I'm seriously considering moving to a Mac platform.. . I never thought I'd see the day... :'(

Most important "new feature"

[radicalskeptic]

Those are all great, but to me, I want to know if Tiger has another "new feature": Does it make my computer feel faster?

Pretty much every previous release of MacOS X has brought speed improvements, and I want to know if Tiger will continue that tradition. Not all of us can afford G5s at the moment, and a speed increase would really make it shelling out another 80 bucks or so (.edu discount) worth it.

Re:I think mac users are spoiled.

[MBCook]

This is something that I've been thinking about recently. After having to rebuild my PC after a hard drive crash, I realized how little software I actually use on any regular basis. Windows and Office (which I got "free" with my computer) are the only pieces of pay software that I use on any regular basis. I use VMWare some (which I own) and I have AV software and such, but those are all utilities that I don't really USE, they are just THERE. And in many cases (like DiskKeeper) they are only there to fix inadaquices in Windows (sorry, I can't spell ;).

Other than that, I use IE, and WinZip, and Acrobat Reader, etc. Past that, I use OSS for most of my needs. This includes the Gimp, Cygwin, and such.

Other than the odd games, there is only one piece of software I remember really WANTING in the last few years. Only one that I was excited about.

OS X

In the past few years, I haven't come across any piece of software that I have wanted so much that I couldn't get free. I wanted to program? GCC was great. A good shell on Windows? I've got Cygwin. Etc, etc, etc. OS X just looked so great. Then my brother got a PowerBook, and I've gotten to use OS X once or twice. I want it even MORE now. I already resolved a year or two ago that my next computer would be a Mac so I could get OS X. There are other reasons, but they all pale in comparison to my want for OS X.

I don't mind paying for software when it's worth it. But so often, it's not worth the asking price. That's why I rent 95% of the videogames that I play. They just aren't worth the $60. Only when I KNOW that I really want the game, that it will be good, will I buy it. The titles that describes more than any other are Nintendo titles. Almost everything else I rent first (if I ever buy it at all). I don't mind paying for software at all, it's only fair that the people who make great stuff get money so they continue to do it.

The problem is that so little these days seems worth the money people want. The ones I hate the most are things like AV software. Stuff I shouldn't need, but I'm basically forced to buy.

I want OS X. It's worth it. It's head-and-shoulders above everything else out there.

I'll pay for software, but it's got to be worth it to me. OS X is so worth it, I'll switch platforms to get it. Now that's good software.

Re:I might switch to mac

[Echnin]

I was thinking the same thing last year: I hardly play games, and those Macs sure do look nice (my parents have used Macs for 17 years, all my life, with no sidesteps). So I got an iBook. Haven't looked back since.

Tiger is due out in the first half of 2005, so there's still quite a while to wait. Oh, and make sure you watch the recording of Steve Jobs' keynote if you have an hour and 40 minutes to spare. It's nice, and watching the new features being demonstrated is much better than just reading about them.

Re:I'm still hoping for a more snappy interface...

[joel8x]

Totally true - I remember getting support calls from users wanting me to "tune up" their systems and if the user was a PITA, I would just change the registry settings for menus to be as fast as possible so that when they clicked on the start menu it would immediately pop up and they would always be impressed.

The appearance of a faster interface is just that - an appearance. Thats why when you boot XP the desktop will load really fast, but the HDD keeps spinning for a good while after. Same thing with Outlook - it will load the application window way before it finishes connecting to the server(s).