Mac OS X Panther plus 64-bit Power Mac G5 equals 'combination even PC zealots can't help but admire' 




"If there's one strand of DNA connecting today's Mac to its progenitor—and to even earlier models in the Apple family tree—it's Jobs' unshakeable commitment to vertical integration and control of system hardware and software. When he returned from exile, the prodigal Apple exec's first move was to quash the nascent initiative to license the Mac OS to other manufacturers (an effort that was already a day late and a dollar short in the face of the Windows juggernaut)," Matthew Rothenberg writes for PC Magazine.

"Always the minimalist, Jobs also pruned Apple back to its roots, eliminating the Newton PDA operation and chopping away the tangle of Mac models that had threatened to choke the life out of sales and marketing—not to mention QA. Under his guidance, the Mac got back to where it once belonged, with four distinct lines for professional and consumer desktops and laptops. (The company has since added a Mac server line, the rack-mounted Xserve.) Every step of the way, Jobs and his team reiterated the traditional Mac commitment to a proprietary, tightly integrated vision of personal computing that seems downright anachronistic. After all, the Windows hegemony is built on its ability to span myriad hardware systems—from thousands of PCs to PDAs to watches to automobile dashboards. By contrast, Mac users' choice of a dozen-odd boxes seems almost Amish in its simplicity," Rothenberg writes.

"For all its technological limitations, the original Mac 128k combined both to deliver the first viable GUI system for end users; now, the combination of Mac OS X "Panther" and the new 64-bit Power Mac G5 delivers performance that even PC zealots can't help but admire," Rothenberg writes. "Between its performance gains, its return to some traditional Mac interface values and its expanded support for heterogeneous environments, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther has won over many of those hard-bitten Mac users loath to forsake Mac OS 9— and gotten plaudits from our own testers here at Ziff Davis. 'In Mac OS X Version 10.3, Apple Computer Inc. combines its latest ideas with pieces drawn from the open-source world, from Mac OS versions past and from operating system rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows,' eWEEK Labs' Jason Brooks wrote in his first look at the new cat. 'In so doing, Apple delivers what's probably the most polished desktop operating system available today.' Not too shabby—especially considering that Windows users will wait until 2006 for 'Longhorn,' Microsoft's next big OS thing."

MacDailyNews Take: "PC Zealots?" What are those. Most every PC user we meet is, at best, unmoved by the Windows XPerience or, more likely, fed up with bugs, worms and viruses and thinks all computers act like Windows. Those that know better, while forced to use Windows at work, buy Mac for home with their own hard-earned money. In fact, only Paul Thurrott, John Dvorak, and Rob Enderle could be described as "PC Zealots" depending on their mental state that day.
 

Posted: Sat - January 24, 2004 at 12:17 AM        

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