I spent this past weekend, like so many other Macintosh geeks, installing the latest operating system from Apple, Mac OS X 10.4, also known as "Tiger." I'm going to update this post with notes:
- Installation. I decided to perform an "Erase and Install", as opposed to any of the upgrade methods. I'd been having some Palm USB synching problems, and hoped a fresh install would fix things (it did). Also, it was a good chance to rid myself of the crud I'd building up over the years from my impulsive installation of applications and utilities.
- Mail. I've been a little disappointed in Mail. Nothing specific, just seems slow. Also, whatever you do, don't install PGP 8.1 with Tiger Mail. They don't get along. And if you install the beta of PGP 9, take care if you, like me, run your own local IMAP server that polls various POP accounts. PGP "Messaging" will go nuts trying to figure out what you're doing. (I disabled PGP Messaging altogether.)
- Spotlight. Eh. I guess for people that have never used Quicksilver, Spotlight will come across as the bee's knees. I'm just not happy with its interface. The results jump all over the place. However, I'm discovering that there's a lot beneath the Spotlight surface, and am getting the feeling it'll become a key part of my workflow.
- Automator. This is going to be the Killer App of Tiger, for sure. The ability to so easily setup workflow scripts is great. I can't wait to see more example. That said, it seems a little rough around the edges right now. For example, I couldn't build a script to connect to my AppleShare server. The script ran fine within Automator, but when saved as a Workflow, it would fail to make a connection. Oh well, waiting for 10.4.1...
- 2005-05-03 Update
- iChat. Please somebody tell me there's a way to get rid of the friggin' *bubbles*! I want my text-only back!
- Smart Folders. Wow, this is great!