Keeping Tiger in its cage


Deciding on whether to install Tiger OS X 10.4 this Friday is a balancing act between a stable system that works now and promises of better to come.

It's coming up to crunch time.

Tiger's release this week means millions of us will have to decide if we will abandon our carefully crufted desktops, along with their hand-picked pre-10.4 applications and plug-ins, for the unproven hope of something better.

Upgrading an OS requires a careful, studied decision, because it affects everything on your network. Even with the easiest crossovers there are always unintended negative consequences -- favourite apps fail, data corrupts, processes change, productivity falters.

There have been some upgrades over the years that were instantly worthwhile because, even with their dramas, they brought greater stability or revolutionary new features. Such tectonic shifts occurred in the switch from AmigaOS 1.3 to 2.0, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 to Windows 95 and, of course, System 9 to OS X.

But I have also experienced some disasters despite grandiose promises -- System 7.5.x (multiple confusing updates), MS-DOS 4.0 (no support), Windows 98 (broke many of my apps and hardware drivers while introducing instability), and, of course, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (introduced profound instability and incompatibility while degrading security).

Although I don't expect unmitigated disasters such as those above, I am not convinced that Tiger -- despite its touted 200 fresh applications -- has enough benefits to make it worth switching from 10.3 Panther.

Is Spotlight really "all that" when the current desktop search, although not pretty, does pretty much the same thing most of the time?

And why would I bother with Dashboard's lonely 14 widgets when Konfabulator has hundreds and a dedicated developer community?

There are few tasks I do often, so Applescript-on-steroids Automator is of little use.

RSS in Safari? I have had that function and then some in Firefox for more than a year.

I have no kids -- at least none to which I will admit, and DNA tests are inconclusive -- so OS X for the family is just bloat to me.

And I just discovered Xounds which gives me back the soundscapes I loved so much, so no word on whether that will remain compatible.

What I want is better Windows connectivity, but no word on that in the press materials. I would have thought this would be a priority for Apple with so many PC switxers buying Mac Minis. But it seems the hardware marketing guys aren't talking to the OS development guys.

The only advantage I can see in Tiger for me is Quicktime 7, and I imagine that will be released for 10.3.9 at some stage.

That leaves just one reason to upgrade -- the boast factor.

But I would prefer to stay a little behind the curve, let others make the mistakes, and capitalise on their frustration when Tiger's cub, 10.4.1, is released shortly after Tiger's debut.

Posted: Sun - April 24, 2005 at 11:01 AM          

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