Ricky Spero: What Does Mac OS X Mean To Me? It’s Time For Spring Cleaning!

March 21st, 2001 at 2:00 PM - Opinion by Ricky Spero

This is part of our series of editorials on what Mac OS X means to those of us using the new OS or just waiting for it. Todayis contribution comes from Ricky Spero, one of our newest staff members at The Mac Observer.

I love Spring Cleaning. In fact, I love it so much that I do it two or three times a year: root through all my stuff and clean house. Itis an act of reflection. Purification. Itis an opportunity to look back on what Iive been up to lately, and to clear my mind to deal with whatever challenges are approaching.

Well, imagine Spring Cleaning after more than 16 years. I bet thereid be a lot of loose change hidden under couch pillows, a lot of pictures not straight, and several hundred thousand pounds of dust bunnies. Thatis a lot of dust bunnies.

Now I urge you to consider the Mac OS, virtually unchanged since 1984. (Please—bear with me while I form this pitifully tenuous analogy.) Although Iive never studied operating systems, I know a dust bunny when I see one, and I know thereis a lot of dust bunnies hanging around in OS 9.1. Want to see a dust bunny? Go to your Apple menu. Scrapbook, Chooser, Calculator—these are ancient, sorely outdated holdovers from long ago in the Macis history.

On March 24th, my Mac and I are going to enjoy the magic of Spring Cleaning. Honestly, I cannot wait to install Mac OS X on my hard drive. In one clean sweep, 16 years of flotsam and varied rubbish will be vaporized with the innocent tap of one button: "initialize."

I cannot describe the giddiness that makes me feel.

Iill have protected memory. Iill have a system that wonit crash. (FINALLY!) Both G4 processors in my PowerMac will get used. Iill have airtight, rock-solid bragging rights over my Wintel friends. And lest I forget, Iill be able to access the very core of my OS using a command line. (Command line is like a manual transmission in a car. Even in the plushest Beamer or Benz, youire not really driving because itis an automatic. You might as well be taking a cushy bus. If you want to drive, get a manual car. But thatis another story.)

Mac OS X is so clean. So new. So full of possibilities. Weire all so excited, like little kids in a candy store. I can already feel the breeze, the fresh, pollen-laiden air floating through the window Appleis going to open this Saturday. Will my system get clogged and full of dust bunnies again? Eventually. But what really rocks is that X will take a long time to get old. Every critical industry standard is completely built in with X, and none of the junk from earlier is going to get in the way. OpenGL, PDF, Java—these will be the building blocks of computing for at least another five years, probably much longer. Thatis an eternity in computing terms. So for the next few years, we Mac users are going to have the single best operating system ever. Fast, stable, and clean. Buzzword compliant. Beautiful and easy to use. Thatis what makes the present the best time in history to be a Mac user. That rules.

And thatis what Mac OS X means to me.

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