What I�d Like to See in Tiger: Part 1, Speed
I still remember the first time I loaded the public beta of OS X on my iMac. User account? What the *#$(*@ is that! But I was patient. Until I got to the finder. Opening windows was like surfing through molasses.
But because it was a beta I was cool with the slowness in the finder. They�ll work it out at Apple right?
Well, yes and no.
I still remember lining up for 10.1. And I�m pretty certain that most of the people lining up were there because they were excited about the improved speed of the finder. Unfortunately they, and I, would have to wait until Panther to really have a usable finder. Panther is definitely workable. But here is the rub. Go to a machine that can boot up OS 9 and open up a bunch of windows. Start scrolling down a list, copy stuff, etc. It�s faster. The finder in OS 9 is still snappier.
I realize at this point the speed in Panther is acceptable for most tasks. And I understand that the multitasking capabilities of OS X enable me to do many more things at once. But still. I want a snappy interface. More than Dashboard. More than searchlight. More than anything. Apple has historically done a good job of speeding up the finder with each major realize of OS X. I look forward to seeing the results in Tiger. Quickly.
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That’s probably the only thing I have against OSX—slow interface. Switching between two apps (using Apple+Tab) takes somewhere close to half a second, whereas on my PC box (~$1000) with WinXP it’s an instant.
I still think OSX is superior to any other desktop OS, but I’m not going to spend $2000 on a dual G5 just for the snappier interface.
By the way, have you used Quicksilver (quicksilver.blacktree.com) yet? Very cool productivity app.
Yup, I’m with you. I would be more excited (and I am!) about Tiger if it were all about speed.
I hope we get there soon now…
Tiger’s UI should be faster. I’m hearing that more of the UI elements will be accelerated using Quartz Extreme. Sure OS 9 was snappy but then again you tended to look beyond the blocky white patches that happened when the OS was under heavy load and interrupted the window server. That never happens in Aqua but it required a huge software engineering effort of which hardware is just now catching up to.
Tiger should definitely improve and the future offers resolution independence which will be a boon for these new hirez displays.
Not just faster on new macs, I want a speedy UI on my old B&W and Yikes G4. I want bragging rights. I want to impress my boss. I hate going over to one of our old PC office workstations running NT and having them outperform OSX UI hands down. How about a non-quartz GUI option?
Yeah, Panther’s something of a pig. Jaguar, with all it’s faults (bugs) at least was responsive.
Speed has never been an issue for me. OS X font management is what will determine whether or not I upgrade to Tiger in the next year. even with Suitcase XI the font menus and activation are a huge issue.
I don’t think Panther is unresponsive or slow; it’s just spazzy. It’s unpredictably fast. Jag was smooth across the board. Now I’ve used Panther for a few days, so my opinion here is subject to revision.
Actually I think part of the slow switching speed
may be intentional!
Try apple-tab switching between two apps
repeatedly.
It looks to me like the windows switch nearly
instantly, but the translucent apple-tab icons take
about 1/2 second to fade out, giving
the impression that it takes a while.
It reminds me of maybe 10 years ago when PC magazines
would compare scrolling speed in PageMaker, without
knowing or mentioning that the scrolling speed on the
classic text widget was intentionally limited, to
help people keep their context.
Still, Apple should kill this “feature” if it make
people think the machine is slow!