I wanted to give some time to just a few of the great features found in Apple's MacOS X (version 10.3 from 2003, 10.4 from 2005 and 10.5 from 2007) which make using MacOS X such a pleasure. I'll let these Apple links do most of the talking.
MacOS X 10.5 "Leopard" Guide Tour - This video was produced by Apple to highlight some of the most impressive visible features in 2007's MacOS X 10.5. Of course there are plenty of other enhancements under the hood but this gives a good overview for typical users. If you're not already a Mac user, this video will give you a nice idea of how MacOS X looks and operates as well as the visual interface eye candy Mac users have enjoyed for years.
Time Machine - This look at MacOS X 10.5's Time Machine by AppleInsider is of benefit to non-technical users but is especially interesting for the more technical readers who will see how Apple's Time Machine manages to make full system backups every week, day and even hour without wasting massive amounts of disk space. In theory a single 300GB or so hard drive could be used to backup a 250GB drive for several months at a time without needing to be swapped out with a new drive.
Automator - say goodbye to shell scripts, batch files and tedious repetitive work. Automator puts a wholly graphical, drag and drop interface onto virtually any series of commands you might perform on your computer. It's extensible so new capabilities can be added to interact with any MacOS X program. When Steve Jobs intro'd this at MacWorld in 2004 I nearly fell out of my chair. He used an early development version of Automator to download a group of photographs from the web and make them into a slideshow presentation ready to be burned onto a CD or DVD -- and all he did was drag a couple of tiles into the order he wanted to perform the action, checkmarked a few options and clicked "Go".
MacBreak - as a follow-up to Automator, I highly recommend that any PC user who has even a slight interest in Macintosh should check out this video podcast called MacBreak. Specifically check episode 03 from May 5, 2006 where they demonstrate the ease of use and vast power of MacOS X 10.4's Automator. The guest even accidentally displays the Expos&eacure; feature briefly so you can see it in action.
Exposé - this is the #1 feature that convinced me to buy a Macintosh computer. I've used the old ALT-Tab window switching in Windows and on OS/2 for at least 10 years. I like it. Exposé made my jaw drop. I had no idea you could do that sort of thing. With one button click, every window on the desktop shrinks down until they all fit without any overlap. Videos and animations continue to run in this shrunken mode, too, so you can always see exactly what is happening on your Mac at any time. Then just click on the window you want to switch to and all the windows scoot back to where they were before but with your new chosen window on top. There are a couple of half-baked clones available as 3rd party add-ons for Windows, but they don't have the real-time display nor the low resource use of Exposé. MacOS X was built to do stuff like this, and it shows.
Inkwell people who've used a PDA (or Palm computer) will understand the merits of this handy new tool in the just-announced MacOS X 10.4 (aka Tiger). This is a handwriting recognition type of program which can "read" mouse movements or writing you do with a graphics tablet and turn it into plain text in a word processor, email, etc. This is the first time I've ever seen such a thing for a desktop/laptop operating system.
VoiceOver - here's a feature of the upcoming MacOS X 10.4 (aka Tiger) which I am really looking forward to. As an extension to MacOS X's already great universal access/accessibility features, VoiceOver promises to make the entire MacOS X desktop interface accessible to blind and low vision users like myself. Most exisitng screen readers are 3rd party add-ons, but VoiceOver is built into the system and so has access to almost every aspect of the system from buttons to menus to the name of the program window that the mouse is being hovered over (even if it's not the foreground window, I'll bet).
10.4 also promises other great technologies such as Dashboard, Burn Folders (direct CD and DVD burning from the desktop with no 3rd party software needed) and RSS news feeds built into the Safari web browser. And naturally all the old favorites will still be there, such as the stable and reliable UNIX sub-system, the virus-free nature of MacOS X at this time and the ability to use the system as a normal user but still have full administrative access when needed without the need to log out and log back in as a new user with a completely different desktop.
Yes indeed, MacOS X 10.3 is a wonderful desktop operating system and 10.4 looks like it's going to be a significant upgrade for users of all skill levels and access-abilities.
©1996, 2008 by Don K. Eitner