RoverPundit

iMac - First thoughts

I'm a PC/Unix guy: I've got Intel inside, Sparcs coming out the ears and Microsoft tells me Where I Want To Go Today. I've got six computers in my office, 16 more in the closet (I'll get to 'em one day, honey, honest!), a 30 drive SparcArray in the garage, but nary an Apple among them. Hell, I hadn't touched an Apple since I got certified on them, 8 years ago.

One of the reasons I've never purchased an Apple is thier exorbitant price. My current gaming rig, the Gateway, only set me back $1400, and I'm only expecting to pay ~$2000 for the water-cooled superbeast I'm going to build this winter. The $2000 base price tag for a new Mac is too rich for my blood.

I was mourning my lack of Mac when to my rescue came Sir Zomby of Boy with an iMac DV (It's Graphite!) running OS 9.1. Money changed hands, the iMac was installed in the RoverDataCenter, and I was reminded of all the reasons that I hate the Mac OS. Hangs. Crashes. Random bizarre shit. Happy Mac! Sad Mac. Might play a DVD. Might not. Might just spit the fucking thing out. Who knows? It's like dealing with a mentally-deficient toddler, except you can power off the Mac when it pisses you off. People get all strange when you try to power off toddlers.

The iMac sat on my desk, forlorn and unloved, for several weeks while I attempted to procure a copy of an OS that had not been written using the Million Monkeys+Million Keyboards=Shakespeare programming method. Sir Matt of Hair mentioned that he had a copy of 10.2 and lent it to me, but it wouldn't install. Undaunted, he searched his apartment for an alternative, and came back with a copy of 10.1 that did install. Happy days.

Now that I've used Mac OS X for two whole nights, I feel like putting some of my initial impressions down.

Visually: OS X is pretty. Very, very pretty. Everything is crisp and clear, though I'd love to run at a resolution higher than 1024x768. Hardware limitations suck.

Speed: Not bad, considering the iMac is equipped with a G3 400 and 256mb RAM. Apps take about 5-10 seconds to start, but response time within the apps is reasonable. Switching between apps is very slow, though, often longer than it took to launch the original app.

Interface: I'm slowly progressing past the "Where the fuck is everything?" stage and starting to grasp the design. Being the PC Luser that I am, I like menus. In fact, I like them a lot. So the lack of menus is making progress slow. I also like fast mouse movement, but I guess that's just an Apple thing. The dock is nifty.

BSD subsystem: Now, this I'm comfortable with. Haven't done a lot aside from opening the term, reading a few config files, and looking at the directory structure, but what I have done is nice and familiar. One gripe I have is all the system/application folders that are inhabiting root, but that's just a preference. I dislike it when root is cluttered.

Oh, and I really like iTunes. Started it up, found a European progressive trance station and rocked those itty-bitty speakers. Damn easy to use. I think I'm going to have to plug the externals and sub into it to really enjoy the sound, but the internal speakers were acceptable.

The adventure begins. I'm going to continue to play with the thing and post whatever I find relevant/irritating/confusing in hopes that some Mac guru will come along and save me from my stupidity. If anyone reading this knows of any nifty things I should play with, please drop a comment.

Finally, I have no idea what's up with the medieval names in paragraphs three and four. Seemed like a funny idea at the time.

Posted by Dork at July 9, 2003 03:10 PM | TrackBack