Why Intel 580

I wonder if you'd say that about the OS 9 GUI if you had to go back to using it now, or if that's just a reaction you had to OS X when you switched to it initially and weren't used to it, that's stuck around because you haven't had much occasion to revaluate it.

I've got a fairly long list of ways the OS 9 GUI falls short by OS X standards.

1) I couldn't see at a glance what apps were running. 2) Switching apps took longer, because it required going to a menu and hitting a narrow vertical target, instead of hitting an always-visible backstopped icon as in OS X. 3) There were lots more control panels and it wasn't always clear where a given setting should be. 4) The Apple menu couldn't be directly manipulated the way the Dock can (that is, changing its contents required going to a non-obvious place, and reordering it required very awkward measures). 5) Windows proliferated everywhere, particularly in the Finder. 6) Drives and the Trash could only be accessed on the desktop, which was often deeply buried (see previous point). 7) There was no really convenient location for frequently used items, analogous to the Finder sidebar in OS X. 8) The menu structure was less logical. For instance, 'Quit' was in the File menu, despite not having much to do with files. The location of things like the 'Preferences' command was less standardized. The 'Special' menu was always a fairly random grab-bag of items. 9) It was less obvious what would happen when a volume was dragged to the trash.

I could go on about intrusive window borders, how the system showed default buttons in dialogs, the lack of column view in the OS 9 Finder, the less meaningful icons, the unintuitive way the desktop behaved with multiple volumes, etc. but I'll stop here.

I think developers will understand that most users won't be willing to do that; that if their compebreastors have real OS X software and they don't, Mac users are going to use that.

The only place where we really might see a lot of that kind of thing is with games. I think Mac users will be willing to accept running games under Windows, because it doesn't really make any difference in the user experience. Of course, the fact that it doesn't make any difference in the user experience also means we're not really losing anything if this happens. (And we're gaining the ability to run all those games that never would have made it to the Mac at all otherwise.)

I don't think the problems are as widespread as one might be led to believe, and, well, you have to expect a few glitches with a switch like this. I'm also in fairly good shape and can hold of buying for a while... though if the second generation MacBook Pros shape up like I expect they will, I might not be able to resist.

-- "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law." -- George W. Bush in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 28, 2005