Mac OS X 10.1 [OLD VERSION]

by Apple

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005QVGV
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 25, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,818 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #34 in Software > Operating Systems > Macintosh > Mac OS X
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Mac OS X, Apple's next-generation operating system, debuted to great enthusiasm, but ultimately left users wanting more: more speed, more applications, more usefulness. Sure, it looked pretty, but you had to boot up into OS 9 when it came time to do some real work. That has all changed with the recent release of Mac OS X 10.1.

Improvements across the board within the operating system and support from numerous vendors have made OS X a viable upgrade. Internal improvements have brought the performance and reliability up to professional levels, while software from such vendors as Canon, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard make compatible a wide variety of printers and scanners. As soon as 10.1 was released, we upgraded our Dual G4/450 with nothing but positive results. With multiple hard drives on our system, we're able to dedicate drives for booting into either OS 9 or OS X, thus ensuring backward compatibility.

However, since upgrading over a month ago, the only times we've needed to boot into OS 9 was for using a FireWire card reader (for reading compact flash cards from a digital camera) and only because the drivers aren't yet available. But you don't need a high-speed G4 to use 10.1. It's now become the default OS on our PowerBook G3/400 (FireWire model), responding quickly and running reliably. Airport networking works flawlessly, and Internet and intranet access is rock solid.

In addition to performance improvements, Apple has added DVD-video playback. Since OS X is a true multitasking operating system, you haven't really watched a DVD until you've made it a half-size window in the background while checking e-mail, shopping at Amazon.com, and copying files at the same time--without skipping a frame. iTunes for OS X will play and encode music, as well as burn audio CDs using an internal or external CD-R/RW drive. If you need to burn data CDs, simply insert a blank disc. OS X will detect it, and ask how you'd like to format it: Mac/PC data or audio CD?

Additional improvements in AppleScripting, a customizable dock, video card and printer drivers, and networking add to the appeal. One important missing feature is the ability to print to a remote USB printer. With OS 9, Apple included the USB Printer Sharing control panel, which allowed remote Macs to print to any USB-connected printer on a local Mac. This worked flawlessly for us when printing from our PowerBook to an Epson 1280 connected to our G4. However, there seems to be no such facility for printing to remote USB printers under OS X. Aside from that, OS X 10.1 on a contemporary Mac is a solid performer and a glimpse of how things ought to work. --Mike Caputo

Amazon.com Product Description

Mac OS X combines the power of Unix with the simplicity and elegance of Macintosh. Built on the framework of the first version, 10.1 makes Mac OS X faster and more responsive. Get new features and refinements as well. In Mac OS X version 10.1, Apple delivers vastly improved performance at every level of the system. Menus are visibly faster to react, drawing quickly and smoothly. Most applications will launch two to three times faster in Mac OS X version 10.1.

Finder windows are more responsive when they are resized, regardless of whether the user is manipulating files in icon, list, or column view. To get windows out of the way in a hurry, choose a scale option instead of the genie effect. Available in dock preferences, scale cuts down the time it takes to minimize an active window to the dock. OpenGL is 20 percent faster in this release, with full native support for the NVIDIA GeForce 3 card, allowing applications to take maximum advantage of advanced 3-D applications.

In version 10.1, Apple's next-generation operating system is ready to power a digital lifestyle. Apple added CD burning to iTunes in this Mac OS X software update. With Mac OS X version 10.1 users are able to create their own data CDs using the CD-burning capabilities built right into the finder. For users who burn a lot of CDs, a burn button can be added to the finder toolbar. The new DVD player application is the best way to watch movies at 30,000 feet. Choose to watch them in a window or full screen. The sleek new controller allows easy navigation of DVDs, with controls that can be arranged vertically or horizontally. The new iDVD 2, available only for Mac OS X version 10.1, advances the tools needed to author and record personal DVD-Video discs. The enhanced MPEG encoder in iDVD 2 and the Mac OS X architecture work together to provide background encoding and to accelerate the DVD recording process.

Mac OS X version 10.1 also features enhanced AppleScript support throughout the system. Not only is the finder far more scriptable but so are many of the system components like Print Center, Internet Connect, and Terminal. AppleScript also uses the Internet-standard SOAP and XML protocols to enable communication across a network so it can send AppleScript events from one Mac OS X system to another. Add toolbar scripts to finder windows. With AppleScript Studio, create full-fledged Mac OS X applications complete with a user interface. These applications can script regular Mac applications as well as the Unix shell. Other new features include more compatible networking, better Internet browsing, more than 200 PostScript printer description files, faster file finding, and more control over system preferences.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best OS out there. Period., February 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mac OS X 10.1 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I used to hate Macs especially because of their OS. It was old, unstable and Mac users had to wait ages for updates which they had to pay to get.

Well, MacOS X, is by far the most complete and beautifully engineered OS out there (at least on a commercial basis). It is based on NeXT (using the Mach ker.nel) and BSD -- a feature which offers a lot to someone coming from a UNIX platform -- and clearly the best GUI out there.

Some may argue that it is not as polished as it could, but, hey, what is? Windows or Linux? Besides, Apple is releasing free *until now* revisions for download every couple of months and it has improved a lot since 10.0. (the current version at the time of writing is 10.1.2). Release 10.2 is rumoured to have great new features old Mac users requested as well as more language packs and a speedier Quartz. (the graphics engine)

I recommend this to anyone open-minded enough to leave windows behind him/her.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nearly there., November 23, 2001

By 

Jonathan (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mac OS X 10.1 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I suspect the only thing better than the 10.1 revision to the long, long, long awaited next generation Mac OS, is what we'll see from Apple in the next 12 months. What they've done up until now has been remarkably bold: they have gambled their installed base for the sake of their future. OK, so they had no choice. After all, slowing market share hemorrage does little to guarantee the future of the company.

But truly, the creation of this operating system is beyond gutsy. After all, this isn't a company that initially dealt well with the open source culture, with troublesome software developers, with pissed off consumers.

I'd love for Apple to be free to innovate outside of the market, to be the XEROX PARC sort of techno-wizzes who so inspired Steve in the late 1970Õs. The creation of superior products does little to guarantee a profits, market share, or even the future of a corporation. With OS X Apple has struck a good balance: They released an amazingly stable, attractive, and powerful OS; they came in basically on schedule; they are developing a unified brand built around the possibilities of the Mac as the a part of our digital lifestyles. That sounds hokey. It sounds even more hokey when Steve stands there and talks about computers serving as tools that truly improve the way we live. With OS X they have married zealous techno-wizardry with the practical concerns of a profit driven company.

This is a fine product with a fantastically positive future. It's light years ahead of OS 9 (and I do like OS 9, despite my better judgment).

Yes, there are headaches here for some users. It's not an upgrade you can make without feeling it. But if youÕre comfortable with early adoption (and who are we kidding, this is still fairly early in the cycle for such a dramatically different operating system), the benefits far outweigh the pain.

Good luck.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only if you want to fly!!!, May 10, 2002

By 

Alamin Ahmed (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mac OS X 10.1 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Two computers are side by side in my desk. XP in Desktop (1Ghz with 256MB) and OS X in PowerBook G4 (400Mhz with 256). It is shame for intel architecture and Microsoft programmers that with so fast machine from intel and so promesing OS from Microsoft can't even come close to the 400Mhz G4 CPU running OS X. The result is simple. My Desktop intel computer is on sale on eBay while I fly with OS X. Not once (3 months) I needed to restart. I almost feel as if I am running faster then my desktop machine (1Ghz). This is imagine... Software? what kind of software do you need? I have installed Photoshop 7, Office X, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, MSN Messanger... all the stuffs I used to have in XP there is same version in Mac OS X. Guys, do some change, see the outside and future, try mac... I have done it...