Using Jaguar

So, a little over a week ago I purchased the new Mac OS X v10.2, which is known as Jaguar. I first installed it on my iMac, which already had OS X on it, so there wasn’t much difference in operation there. This weekend I installed Jaguar on my laptop, on which I knew I needed to be able to continue to also run OS 9 natively. For a week leading up to this, I pondered how I would set it up as a dual-boot system and what difficulaties I might have doing so, and so on and so on, since I come from a heavy PC background, where setting up a multi-boot system is a pain in the neck and sometimes requires reconfiguring hardware.

So, I don’t know if you’ve ever installed an OS on any computer before, but on Mac it goes like this: Insert OS CD, double-click on the ‘Install’ icon, Agree to the license, select a HD to install on, and hit ‘Continue’. It didn’t ask me to type in any 54 character alpha-numeric keycode, and it didn’t ask me whether I needed to be able to boot OS 9. It automatically set the system up as dual-boot. I can go into the system preferences and with two clicks set the computer to boot OS9 (or OSX) and reboot into my preferred OS. during any bootup I can hold down the Option key on my keyboard and before it boots it will ask me what OS to boot. OS X can access everything for both OS’s, and OS9 can see almost everything. It’s pretty convenient.

I brought my laptop with me to work today (hoping to get some work done on a project for my 2D Design class before class tonight) and plugged it into the network here. With Jaguar, it automatically started talking to the network, got itself an IP from the DHCP Server, and once I entered the proxy server’s address into System Preferences, my browsers automatically work with no additional configuration. A couple more clicks and it’s easy to switch between this setup and the one for home. If they let me plug in at school, I’ll set up a third profile there just as easily. For reference, in OS 9 special software was required (not cheaply) either on the server or on each mac that needed to be able to access a Windows network. Oh, and for Proxy, I needed to run a re-configured proxy software on my PC workstation because of the way they configure the main proxy server here; that is, my Mac talked to my workstation talked to the proxy server talked to the internet. I blame PC software makers, of course. Only thinking of themselves.

Oh, and iChat is cool, even if I don’t have anyone to chat with. I did get connected to my little brother, but no one else yet. I like how the windows look. I like how easy it is to use and configure. Not particularly happy that it only works with AIM. (I already got everyone I know to use MSNIM, so that would be more convenient for me, or some combo AIM/MSNIM client, but with the ease-of-use and gloss of iChat.)

There was something else… I don’t recall what it was…