h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Especially Mac OS X (10.1)

Well, of course, but why 10.1 particularly? Still on 9.1 because of work apps.

Well, of course, but why 10.1 particularly? Still on 9.1 right now.

When I first got my iBook it came with both 9.1 and OS X. To start with I used 9.1 - I couldn't see the point in an OS in which I'd have to load another OS over the top just to use old applications. But the more I looked at stuff, the more I realised that essentially OS X has done what Linux has been threatening to do for years. It takes the rock-hard, and efficient core of Unix and places a bloody atrractive UI over the top. And its advantage over Linux is that when it messes up it doesn't drop-out to a command line.

However, I'm a Mac newbie with much more experience with a PC...

I feel so behind the times. Been using a Mac for 9 years, use PCs at university as there is no choice unless you want to walk for 15 minutes to use a machine which isn't networked in the art building, where there's none of the reference material I need. Thought about taking my PowerBook, but the thought of lugging it across London on the tube is not appealing. I'm likely to drop or forget it, if I don't get it stolen!

I've only seen info about OSX in magazines some time ago and it didn't look too appealing. However, I glanced over someone's shoulder at work (where I recently returned after maternity leave) and OSX looked different from previews - apps down the right and not anywhere near as ugly as I'd thought.

We're waiting for M$ Office before upgrading at work. Is everything you need OS X native? If not, is it easy enough to drop back into 9?

Correction: apps on the left. I still can't tell my right from left, don't think I ever will be able to now...

Opening a 9.1 application forces the "Classic Environment" to load. Basically 9.1 loads over OS X.
When I say load I literally mean from the natty screen with the Computer in the middle right up to the screen where the icons start appearing along the botttom of the screen.
It's time consuming and it means that your 9.1 application will operate fairly slowly.
Having said that I was just using Word 2001 (for 9.1) through OS X and it worked like a dream.
You can always have a dual-boot system, and swap between OSs...

Microsoft Office has been (or is about to be) released in OS X Native format - i.e. rewritten from the ground up. It's apparently extremely good, although I don't use it myself.

I've been using OS X since the Public Beta came out. It's very pleasant to use, and ridiculously powerful and fast, even if the front end sometimes seems a little sluggish; under the bonnet it really flies. I've been a UNIX boy for a while as well, so now I get the best of both worlds - power where I want it, and an interface that's been very carefully thought out by proper designers.

It's hard not to sound like an advertisement!

Also, number of crashes so far: 0. Data lost: 0 bytes.

I've finallt managed to get NetBSD to dual-boot with OS X on my iBook. I was having some problems compiling the DB database libraries in OS X. So now that I can use them, I no longer have to have a PC at all