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Hold on to your mouse. Much of what you know and love about your Mac is about to change. Say good-bye to screens cluttered with multiple opened windows, bad applications crashing your computer, and desktops sprinkled with boxy little icons.
In their place is coming a single window that will change as you open new applications and documents. Icons will balloon in size and have the sharpness of photographs. Translucent panels, used to save or print documents, will slide down from window titles. Everything from folders to applications to documents will be stored as icons in a "dock" at the bottom of the screen.
These changes are all part of a new operating system that Apple plans to commercially release next January. Called OS X (as in 10), this operating system is not an upgrade. It represents entirely new software. Why change the Mac OS, which is beloved by tens of millions of users worldwide? Because, quite frankly, Apple's current system is creaking with age. For 16 years, the company has been cobbling on new features and the poor thing just can't support any more change. To incorporate important new technologies that enhance stability, Internet access, and sharper graphics, Apple had no choice but to build a new operating system from the ground up.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS.
Make no mistake. OS X is a huge gamble for Apple. The company has struggled since the mid-'90s to find a successor to its original operating system, which introduced the graphical representation of information through the desktop-and-folder motif. Of course, Microsoft adopted that interface later in Windows. Apple's first efforts to rewrite its operating system failed miserably. Now, the company finally has working software that it will ship. In fact, a public beta is expected for release to developers this summer. That alone represents a huge accomplishment.
Still, there's no guarantee OS X will work as advertised once it's widely released. No doubt there will be months of tweaking. Some developers say it takes a good two years to perfect a new OS after its initial release -- you can't underestimate the mind-numbing complexity of building a new operating system.
Nor is there any guarantee that, even if OS X works well, users will embrace it. Most may say, "Hey, what we have now works well enough. Why bother learning something completely new?"
TRANSITION TIME.
That's an understandable point of view, but a misguided one in the long run. Those who shun OS X will be missing out on something wonderful and important. In addition to its stunning new look, OS X introduces some much-needed functionality. Take something called memory protection, for example. This new technology stops a crashing application from taking down your whole computer. No longer will you have to restart your Mac every time Netscape Navigator freezes.
Apple's OS X (Courtesy Apple Computer Inc.)
No doubt, OS X will be a lot to get used to. Nor will there be many applications specifically designed to make use of its many new technologies at first. But rest assured, Apple has designed OS X to run most current applications. And the company is not planning to kill off its current system, OS 9 -- at least not right away. In January, you'll have a choice of buying a new Mac with either OS 9 or OS X, though eventually Apple will drop OS 9. Indeed, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs suggested just that when he urged developers at a big conference in California to begin to rewriting their applications for OS X now. Developers such as Microsoft have already begun the process.
Since there's a lot to digest with OS X, consider this week's column just an introduction. I'll write more about OS X in coming weeks as it begins to assume its final form. Stay posted.
Haddad, Atlanta-based correspondent for Business Week, is a long-time Apple Computer buff. Follow his column every week, only on BW Online EDITED BY BETH BELTON
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Apple's OS X (Courtesy Apple Computer Inc.)
