I have been following this thread with interest. I am approaching the swap over to X with great apprehension. Clearly a lot of people are working with it with no problems at all and others are having lots of trouble.
I work in graphics and have been using Macs since the late 80s. I work in a lot of different studios and on a lot of different machines, as well as having several of my own. What is important to me is getting the job done efficiently and part of that is if the machine dies knowing how to get it going again with a minimum of down time (which otherwise impacts on my time to earnings ratio for the job). This is why all the studios I know are reluctant to rush to X even though sooner or later it will be inevitable. With the type of deadlines we work to no one wants to be stuck with a dead machine and searching the handbook for hours. One thing I have experienced is that seemingly identical machines/set ups can have totally different patterns of behaviour/misbehaviour. I have encountered Macs that have been absolute dogs and despite clean reinstalls et al will not behave and always need constant maintenance. Others will run perfectly for months on end requiring no maintenance at all. Why this should be I don't know but before I condemn the guy who is having all the problems it is worth considering that perhaps he has got a hardware/software combination with an inherant weakness. While his various rantings might seem irrational to those who have no hassles with X, I can understand his frustration and resulting prejudice; I have, based on my experience, acquired plenty of my own. The big nightmare with any system upgrade has always been what won't work now that worked fine with the old system. OS X adds a further dimension to troubleshooting in this scenario which I find quite scary, and in my more flippant moments I have said that if I must learn a different OS then perhaps I should learn the one that 95% of the world is using. What seems to have become lost over the years is the Mac's original and unique selling points: Dead simple to set up, dead simple to use and reliable. I am reminded of this whenever I go to the 1987 Mac II I still have at home and use for my admin and figurework. Under OS 7.1.2 this machine steadfastly does all that is asked of it and I haven't experienced a random crash in years. (It CAN be made to crash but only by doing something utterly stupid.) I have never rebuilt its desktop, zapped its PRAM or any of the other tricks we all now know. In fact I had used Macs for 6 years before I even discovered these operations (When I got my first Quadra). I never looked under the bonnet/hood, I just drove. If OSX is meant to restore Mac computing to those far off halcyon days then it will be a worthwhile project but given the discussions I have witnessed on various lists I'm not sure it is there yet. In the meantime (especially given that some of my most used apps are not X compliant) I think I will stick with the devil I know and when I do change I know that there will be loads of knowledge on this and other lists to tap into. ;-) Considerably more than my twopennyworth, thank you for your indulgance. nh (G4 Quicksilver/OS 9.2) -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
