#24435: Orac — 05/09  at  05:14 PM
The newsfeed aggregator is dangerous. It allows you to use Safari as both a news reader and a web browser. If you mix newsfeeds and websites in a folder, you can open them all at once in multiple tabs and very rapidly get your business done perusing a mixture of both blogs and websites. Even better, it remembers your settings for each newsfeed.

#24436: — 05/09  at  05:14 PM
And, what is truly groovy, by using the RSS Visualizer, you can make entries from e.g. Pharyngula into your screensaver.

#24439: Heliologue — 05/09  at  05:26 PM
The Dashboard is the cause of some consternation to security people. Apparently, it's relatively easy to install widgets just by visiting a site in Safari.

I've never been able to understand Apple and OS X: it's a closed-source variant of an open-source OS. What?

#24440: — 05/09  at  05:42 PM
I've heard that EndNote doesn't work, and Retrospect doesn't back up file metadata. Those seem like two pretty big problems.

Less importantly to me (and endnote would be a nonissue if I could convince biologists to use LaTeX), apparently photoshop and LaserGene also have problems.

#24441: profgrrrrl — 05/09  at  05:52 PM
Oooh. Will you update in a few weeks and let us know if you've found any problems?

#24442: Chris Clarke — 05/09  at  05:52 PM
I've never been able to understand Apple and OS X: it's a closed-source variant of an open-source OS. What?

OS X is the first OS I've seen that - for the entry level user - does more or less what it's supposed to most of the time without a significant amount of expertise needed in the operating system itself. I've used a number of OSen since I was first set down at at Dear Old Dad's 1401 back in 1962 or '63, and the only other operating systems I've played with that approached OS X in usability were 1) the OS in the TRS-80 Model 100 and 2) the pre-bloat Mac OS, system 6 or so.

Note: I'm not trolling for Linux flames. I don't play with Linux a whole lot, so there may be flavors of it I haven't seen that rival OS X for usability. The ones I've seen seem pretty powerful and lean in terms of processor use and such, but also seem to require at least a bit of a learning curve - sometimes a steep learning curve.

#24447: Orac — 05/09  at  07:05 PM
It's incorrect that EndNote doesn't work. I have EndNote 8 and Word 2004, and they work just fine under Tiger. I've installed Tiger on four different computers now and haven't had a problem with either of them.

The only problems I'm aware of thus far is that the Virtual Switch under Virtual PC doesn't work and there have been some networking issues, mainly with communicating with certain SMB volumes. Macfixit.com is a great source for this sort of information, as is Tidbits.com.

#24449: Wm Annis — 05/09  at  07:32 PM
Another delight: Preview remembers what page you were on the last time you visited a PDF.

#24451: — 05/09  at  07:59 PM
So Safari is boldy gone where Firefox has gone before.

Seriously, live bookmarks can be really useful.

Though it is not exactly true that Safari and Firefox put the button for every page with a feed. If the software and/or webmaster does not put the appropriate code in the web page's headers there will be no button. Most blogging software does it though.

Here is an example taken from the header of this page:


<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="RSS"
href="http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/rss_2.0/" />


Just a nit. And of course maybe this will encourage some reader to make sure their website's RSS is properly noted in the headers.

--
Anti-spam: Replace "user" with "harlequin2"

#24462: — 05/09  at  11:36 PM
Regarding EndNote, there's some information here: http://www.endnote.com/entiger.asp - which, all in all, doesn't sound too bad. The Retrospect problem is (or should be) a showstopper for anyone who relies on it for backups though.

#24471: Pete — 05/10  at  01:26 AM
Toby, I've gone over to LaTeX, I think it's pretty nice. TeXshop and Bibdesk make it relatively easy. Though it'll be extremely hard to convince other biologists to do it ..

#24476: — 05/10  at  05:51 AM
Don't forget about Spotlight. I agree with our Apple rep here. It will change the way you use your computer. I'm really digging it, it searches through all of your apps, mail, Word Docs, PDFs, jpgs, and other file types. It's very nice.

#24482: — 05/10  at  06:30 AM
I haven't really done much with spotlight/dashboard/automator etc. But there are several little features that I really like:

* Airport does a much better job of hanging on to the wireless signal. It used
to go in and out constantly, and I haven't had this problem with Tiger.
You could spend a lot of money on hardware to boost the signal as much.

* There is now a built in way to map keys, like CAPSLOCK->CTRL.
It seems ot work bettter than the usual 3rd party apps that did this before.

* The DVD player has a zoom feature that lets you scale non-anamorphic
DVDs to fill the screen.

Eventually I want to play with some of the new developer features like CoreData, too.

#24488: — 05/10  at  07:23 AM
PZ, what kind of machine are you using?

Linux, or Unix, is a perfectly fine OS, and almost certainly the right choice upon which to build OS X. I used to sit at an SG a lot, so I am familiar with the command line, but I don't use it except to execute my own programs.

#24491: PZ Myers — 05/10  at  07:32 AM
I'm using a PowerBook G4 like all the cool kids, and the Pharyngula server is a PowerMac dual processor G5.

#24499: Orac — 05/10  at  07:54 AM
One other really nice feature about the RSS feed reader in Safari. There's a little RSS button in the corner for sites that have a link to an RSS feed. That RSS button not only brings up the feed as a newsfeed, but, if you're looking at the newsfeed, hitting it again toggles back to the original webpage from which the feed originated.

Nice.

#24509: — 05/10  at  09:36 AM
<blockquote>
Note: I'm not trolling for Linux flames. I don't play with Linux a whole lot, so there may be flavors of it I haven't seen that rival OS X for usability. The ones I've seen seem pretty powerful and lean in terms of processor use and such, but also seem to require at least a bit of a learning curve - sometimes a steep learning curve.{/blockquote>
You'll get no argument from me. I use Linux, but I have at least a decade and a half experience with Unix/Linux. My friction with MacOS X comes from a different direction. Apple claims that it's fairly standard Unix underneath, but the graphical interfaces keep you from making full use of the Unixity. If you try editing a config file (like /etc/fstab) in the usual old-fashioned Unix way, the graphical netinfo or netmanager or whatever they call it will actually overwrite your efforts!

Unix/Linux experience does not get you by in the Mac universe.

#24511: — 05/10  at  10:01 AM
Netinfo is the place where you find the biggest difference between OSX and other unixes. I manage a number of OSX and Linux boxes here, and I have the biggest problem with OSX in the way it handles firewire disks so that network users can see them.

At a usability level, OS X blows linux away, sad to say. I was kind of hoping to see a day when linux would achieve some market share, but if Apple doesn't screw it up, I think they'll beat linux to the punch.

#24527: Heliologue — 05/10  at  11:44 AM

Note: I'm not trolling for Linux flames. I don't play with Linux a whole lot, so there may be flavors of it I haven't seen that rival OS X for usability. The ones I've seen seem pretty powerful and lean in terms of processor use and such, but also seem to require at least a bit of a learning curve - sometimes a steep learning curve.

You won't find me opposing the idea that OS X has perhaps the best out-of-the-box functionality. And, of course, there are inevitable positives to be seen in the closed system that is Apple. However, I think that there's a learning curve to any operating system, if we're talking about moving past OotB functionality. I'm sure OS X is extremely powerful if you know how to work it, just like, for instance, Gentoo, or a cut-up Windows installation. Most users of OS X, however, are going to have no clue what they are doing beyond a simple point and click. Linux, on the other hands, tends to draw more technically-oriented people, although the push to the desktop by Mandriva and Linsire/&c. is negating that somewhat.

All in all, I have to say that OS X is limited by the same things as Windows, save for virus and malware threats: it's a closed development, geared primarily towards nontechnical people.

#24547: — 05/10  at  01:49 PM

It's a closed development, geared primarily towards nontechnical people.

For which this only slightly technical graphic designer thanks Apple.

#24555: — 05/10  at  04:00 PM
The divide between those who view computers as appliances and those who view them as an opportunity to tinker took place some time ago. I used to be one of the latter, but now am one of the former. I have no more interest in fiddling; I just want the damn computer to work. Just like my cars. Once I liked working on them. Now I just want them to work. OS X does it for me. I wish I could say the same for my VW.

#24578: Matt McIrvin — 05/10  at  08:41 PM
I haven't gotten Tiger yet, but I did download QuickTime 7, and it's incompatible with the Ogg Vorbis plug-in. (I do wish Apple would just incorporate Ogg support already, if some licensing issue isn't keeping them from doing so.)

#24588: — 05/10  at  10:08 PM
"inux, on the other hands, tends to draw more technically-oriented people, although the push to the desktop by Mandriva and Linsire/&c. is negating that somewhat."

And technical people are moving to OS X, judging by the increasing numbers of Mac laptops in the audiences at technical conferences.

"Mac OS X users" are not the same set of people as were "Mac OS users". The operating systems are significantly different. A lot of people have figured out that, after it became a Unix platform, it became a very good techie's platform.

"ll in all, I have to say that OS X is limited by the same things as Windows, save for virus and malware threats: it's a closed development, geared primarily towards nontechnical people."

Actually, it *is* geared towards technical people. That's why Apple includes a complete set of very nice development tools, free with the operating system. I believe X Windows is also on the OS install disks.

They've struck a nice balance between technical and non-technical. There's no need to commit to one side only, to the detriment of the others.

#24746: — 05/12  at  01:26 PM
PZ, what widgets are you using on dashboard? While I like tiger generally, I haven't found so many dashboard widgets all that useful so far (though it's nice having a calculator & dictionary so handy, I admit). Maybe your usage simply differs from mine... or maybe you've found better widgets. On the off-chance it's the latter, what are they?

#24748: — 05/12  at  05:36 PM
I'm not PZ, but I like the weather and the stock quotes widgets, though I'd rather have the quotes on the regular desktop.

I did have one problem with Dashboard - at one point, my machine (dual 1.25GHz G4) slowed down, and I noticed that my Dashboard widgets were using lots of cycles (12% or so, each) even though Dashboard wasn't activated. Something was also sucking up lots of RAM, which I think was probably related.

I killed the Dashboard processes, and the problem went away, and I haven't seen it since.