[X4U] why Tiger?

[Mark Gibson]

At 6:47 PM -0400 25/5/05, Wayne Clodfelter wrote:
>I am curious as to why there seem to be many X users that, excuse 
>the expression, blindly leap into the next incarnation of OS X even 
>if it does not appear to be a step forward? Such as Tiger. What 
>exactly is it that Tiger is supposed to accomplish as far as moving 
>forward with a fast, sleek, secure operating system? I have reviewed 
>the "features" offered by Tiger, and I fail to see any significant 
>improvement in performance. In fact, all I see is some "gussy-ing 
>up" with knick-knacks that seem to only serve to bog down the OS and 
>the user experience. What am I missing?
>My concern is that if we Mac users blindly jump on sub-par updates, 
>that is all we will get. I think the Mac world would be better 
>served, and that Apple's future would be better secured if we are a 
>little more particular about what we accept as upgrades to our Mac 
>operating systems.
>I liked Jaguar, and I like Panther better than Jaguar. Does any 
>Tiger user like it better than they liked Panther? Why?
>
>This is not intended as a rant, rather, it is put forward as 
>concerned discussion. Please address it as such. Thanks.
>
>Regards,
>
>Wayne Clodfelter
>wayne at troutnc.com

Wayne,

Well personally the three things on the client side that sold me were:

1. iChat's expanded feature set. I have several clients who are 
already saving money with the 4 way video conferencing option.

2. Spotlight. Allows clients to search drives quickly for data that 
might not be otherwise easily found.

3. Automator (AppleScript on steriods). Which lets some of my clients 
easily automate workflows without getting bogged down with 
AppleScript coding.

On the Server side:

1. ACL's which let you fine tune who gets access to what.

2. Software Update server. Which saves bandwidth because you only 
download the update once rather than once per machine.

3. iChat server.

I think those updates outweigh the work involved in the transition 
from Panther to Tiger (I prefer the erase and install route - which 
requires backup but is a lot smoother in the long run) and having to 
wait for some products to release "Tiger ready" versions.
-- 

Regards,

Mark (}-:
+61 (0)4 1927 7198
Skype / AIM / iChat: gibsonm1

Customer:  "I'm running Windows '98"     
Tech: "Yes."     
Customer:  "My computer isn't working now."    
Tech: "Yes, you said that."