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SimpleX - Beta Means 'Not Ready For Prime Time'
By Derek Currie
Question: Should those who like their Macs to be simple buy Mac OS X Beta 1? Answer:
No. Why? It requests that you have 128 MB of RAM. If that does not phase you, its
got lots of bugs, and some of the bugs are dangerous. Its not complete, and the user
interface is still too user-hostile to be truly considered "Mac." It costs
$30, and you are likely to still have to pay full price for the final version. But
reader feedback tells me taht many of you already have MOSXb1 in hand. Therefore,
in future articles I will intermix information about the guts of MOSX with information
about working with beta 1.
Yells
So you got your copy of MOSXb1 in the mail, hopefully, without too many delays.
Just when you thought you were going to enjoy a good look at Mac OS X you find yourself
in the middle of a shouting match. Its a flame game called 'What Sucks Most About
Mac OS X.' Its going on at most Mac websites and newsgroups that invite reader feedback
about Mac OS X. Believe me, this is a good thing.
To illustrate, let's pretend Mac OS X is a boxing match:
'In this corner is NeXT. They weigh in at 200,000 users at last count. In the
other corner is Macintosh. They weigh in at 26,000,000 users at last count. The bell
was struck 9/13/00 and the fight is on. Who will control the Mac OS X user interface!
NeXT comes out in fine fighting form and strikes first with its famous heirarchical
file view. Mac is stunned but smiling. Mac strikes back with its famous screen top
menu bar. NeXT takes the hit well but returns with a 1-2 combination that knocks
out two of Mac's teeth: The Apple Menu and the Programs Menu! OW! This looks serious.
While Mac is spinning in disbelief Next lands a Dock right on Mac's desktop. Blood
from Mac's missing teeth lands on the site of impact. Then NeXT has the audicity
to grab Macs Trash can, yank it off and nail it right on the Dock. At last the referee
is taking charge and holding NeXT accountable by sticking a useless Apple logo on
the desktop menu bar. No wait, the ref has slapped a penalty on both contenders by
adding an Application menu, making both NeXT and Mac gape in awe. NeXT comes back
swinging and knocks all of Mac's volume icons right off the desktop. Folks this look
dire. Now the ref, trying to cool down this raucous fight has poured water over the
heads of both contenders! The ring is soaking wet. And the bell has sounded. Let's
take a break to our sponsors while we wait to see what happens in round 2.'
Some people find the integration of the NeXT interface into the Mac OS a pleasant
change if not outright brilliant. But let me toss in my own yell here and point out
that Apple are taking an unnecessary risk forcing NeXTisms down Mac user's throats.
Here is my personal rule for upgrading old technology: Give the users what they already
have that works, and more. In other words, don't ever let your users feel like they
lose anything when they upgrade. Only let them feel they have gained. Pretty simple,
eh? Then why doesn't Apple get it? There is no reason why all the pounding Mac OS
is receiving in my boxing scenario above has to happen. All the NeXTisms can be optional.
[That word again is 'optional']. Apple would achieve a win-win situation for one
and all. Nothing would be shoved down anyone's throat.
So, I welcome all the yelling going on. Apple needs to hear it. Beta software
is not supposed to be right the first time. Its actually supposed to be wrong. Beta
testers are supposed to help make it right. Let's hope that happens.
Let's Do The Beta
So MOSXb1 is controversial. Now what? Let's go over some critical issues to consider
when beta testing:
Rule 1: Before you install, MAKE A BACKUP of your system. This is the first rule
of computing. Doubt my wisdom at your peril! If you can't backup your critical data
you should not be computing. I am that serious about this rule! Horror stories abound
from computer users who lost data forever because they didn't backup. When playing
with beta software the issue becomes even more critical. Therefore, before you install
Mac OS X Beta 1, backup your computer.
Rule 2: Expect problems with your beta software. This means you never do anything
critical with it like write your great novel on it, not unless you save and backup
your novel on another storage drive at regular intervals.
Rule 3: You are expected to report problems with your beta software. Yes, I know
how odd if not downright stupid it is to PAY for beta software. (I personally don't
understand the concept. It wreaks of 'marketing moron' syndrome to me. Beta testing
is already an act of altruism. People in software companies get PAID to do this work,
but you have to pay...). Nevertheless! All beta testers are expected to fill in reports
to the company providing the software so that it can be improved in its next iteration.
Do your part! Apple needs you! Show them you care, and what you care about. If that
Apple logo in the menu bar bugs you, report it as a bug! Ask Apple to move it over
to an Apple Menu where it belongs! Etc. If you want the Control Strip back, then
say so.
Rule 4: Let software developers who write applications for your beta OS know that
you are taking your testing duties seriously and want the full functionality of native
versions of their software. For example, join the crowds already yelling at printer
manufacturers "We want drivers! We want drivers!" Let every software developer
know that having their program run in Classic mode is not enough. "We want Carbon!
We want Carbon!"
Rule 5: Learn how to recover from the inevitable crash of beta software. This
isn't your regular old Mac OS here. This is UNIX. This means there are new ways to
recover from crashes, and they are not pretty. They require conjouring tricks. UNIX
crashes can be MUCH more severe than Mac OS users are used to. Take crashes of Mac
OS X very seriously.
Rule 6: Know how to get back and forth, to and from regular old Mac OS 9 when
you need to. Read the notes about how to use the System Disk preference window in
Mac OS X and the System Disk utility on Mac OS 9. Apple put literally years into
getting it to work. Put it to good use.
Rule 7: Get the latest beta version updates as soon as they are released. Rumor
has it that Apple will provide beta updates at MacWorld San Francisco in January
2001.Start back at Rule 1 again with every new beta version. Do your duty! Continue
the march of beta testing progress! The bug you neglect to report may be the bug
you regret in the final version.
Rule 8: Be sure to tell Apple how diligent you are in your beta testing, and how
much you deserve a nice break on the price of the final version.
Next time we will dig into some tricks using Aqua. I would also enjoy hearing
what beta testers are finding most difficult about Mac OS X so we can focus on maximizing
our learning curve here at SimpleX. I am willing to bet its the file system. Prove
me wrong.
DupleX
As ever, Duplex is where I stop lecturing and instead respond to reader feedback.
I got some GREAT feedback concerning last week's article about PDF in Mac OS X, and
I'm glad I have DupleX around to straighten out errors made by my resources as well
as comment on one critical syntax error I made. (Leonard Rosenthal provided some
thorough and thoughtful feedback).
First let's get my blunder out of the way, possibly leaving you more confused
than you are already. Apple officially say that PDF is their default "IMAGE"
format. Yes, PDF is a document format. But Apple are using it as an image format.
Get it? I don't blame you. Apple are basically extracting PART of the PDF published
format and ignoring the rest, for now anyway. The goal they had in mind when making
this decision was to find a way to rid themselves of Adobe's expensive Display PostScript.
The imaging system built into the PDF standard partially solved it. Add in some updated
QuickDraw code and the result is Quartz, the Mac OS X imaging system. Sadly this
means that not all of the PDF standard is built into Mac OS X and unlikely to be
in the final Mac OS X 1.0 release. Be sure to let Apple know you want ALL of PDF
in future versions of Mac OS X please! Nothing is stopping them from adding it but
the effort. Its a free standard. Obviously PDF is powerful, and its here to stay.
So what is the default MOSX document format? It is RTF (Rich Text Format) available
inside the TextEdit application that replaces SimpleText. Obviously PDF is far more
powerful, another incentive to encourage Apple....
For my next corrections let me simply say that there is some controversy regarding
exactly what PDF can and cannot do. I quoted reliable resources in my article, but
apparently they weren't so reliable! This is nothing new, just human communication
errors. Therefore, I suggest taking my PDF capabilities list as idealistic. In subsequent
articles I will get into details regarding exactly what we can do with PDF inside
Mac OS X.
Suggested Reading:
1) Andrew Welch, the programming guru at Ambrosia Software (and local hero where
I live: Rochester, NY, USA) wrote a very poignant article entitled "President's
Letter : OS X beta"
2) Leonard Rosenthal's MacHack
overview of the PDF format:
Suggested MOSX Shareware:
1) OmniWeb and OmniPDF: Both are currently
in beta for MOSXb1, but are well worth a download.
2) ClassicMenu: The Apple Menu is back,
whether the NeXT folks like it or not.
Thank you Sig Software!
3) SoundJam Preview Release of MOSX
4) PTHVolume and PTHClock: An icon
in the menu bar to change sound volume, and the return of the beloved menu bar clock.
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