John Siracusa's Articles at Ars Technica

Mac OS X is five years old. John Siracusa takes a look at the road behind as he ponders the critical role the OS has played in Apple's revitalization. From closing the book on the original Mac to practically inventing a new platform overnight, OS X changed Apple and its users in ways that worthy of a birthday reflection.

The headline of Apple's press release reads, "Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006." How did it come to this? What's it all mean? Here's how I feel as a Mac enthusiast since 1984, an engineer by education, a programmer by profession, and an all-around Apple geek.

The next chapter in the Mac OS X saga has arrived. Tiger brings with it a host of new features that are sure to be crowd pleasers, but the real story is under the covers, in the core of the OS. More than any earlier release of Mac OS X, Tiger is renewed from the bottom up. It also draws a line in the sand, vowing to maintain API stability from this point on. (No snickering, please.)

It's been 18 months since the last major Mac OS X release. Does that make Tiger's $129 price go down any easier? Can Mac OS X continue to get faster on the same hardware with each new release? Does 9pt Monaco text finally look correct in the Terminal application? These questions and more are answered within.

One of the strengths of the Apple platform over the years has been its shareware and freeware software developers. New software company Delicious Monster joins the fray with its first release, Delicious Library. An odd name for a program? Perhaps. What exactly does it do? Is it just another cataloging and inventory application? That, and a lot more.

And yet, if you travel in Mac enthusiast circles on the net, you've probably already heard of Delicious Library. Even if you're not a Mac user, perhaps a Mac-using friend insisted on showing you some screenshots. Delicious Library is an application with some buzz.

Ah, yes — the proverbial "buzz." Does the buzz line up with reality with Delicious Library? Ars Technica Apple Specialist John Siracusa spent considerable time with the application, and has an extensive review full of screenshots that not only covers Delicious Library in detail, but sheds some light on what makes good Macintosh software, period. Dig in!

The public beta of OmniWeb 5 has been released! Finally, an alternative to Safari, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Camino, Opera, iCab...er, come to think of it, do we really need another web browser? What about another commercial web browser? Is The Omni Group crazy like a fox, or just plain crazy? What could possibly be worth paying $30 for?

Apple's next big-cat OS has been released. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther picks up where Jaguar left off, keeping Apple's steam train of yearly major OS revisions chugging along. But are Mac users ready to shell out another $129 this year, or is the upgrade cycle getting a bit tiresome? What can Panther do to convince the Apple faithful to happily part with their money? And will they regret it in the morning? It's time for another chapter in the ongoing saga of Ars Technica's exhaustive Mac OS X coverage.

Due to be released "any day now" for months, the successor to Apple's landmark Titanium PowerBook has finally arrived. Clad in aluminum like its smaller and larger siblings, the new 15-inch "AlBook" rounds out the PowerBook product family nicely. But there's always more to a computer than just the specs, and this is even more true for laptops. Does the new 15" PowerBook lives up to standards set by its predecessor...and if so, is that a good or bad thing?

If Mac OS X has a secret shame, it's the Finder. Once the crown jewel of the Mac operating system, the Finder is now the merely tolerated. The dissatisfaction with the Mac OS X Finder takes many forms: "The Finder needs to be multi-threaded!", "The Finder should be rewritten using Cocoa!", "Who cares about the Finder anyway? Mac OS X is all about iApps!", "Column-view is cool, at least." At best, it's damning with faint praise. Something is clearly missing from the application that used to embody everything that was good about the Macintosh user experience, but what? Is it just a case of the Finder's poor performance or a naturally diminished role in the new OS, or are there deeper problems? Mac OS X is in need of an intervention on behalf of the once-beloved Finder, and Ars is here to help...

It's that time again. Apple has released its next major version of Mac OS X, complete with wacky jungle branding and an intentionally mispronounced nickname. "Jagwire" to its friends, Mac OS X 10.2 attempts to make you forget about its weaker predecessors and give in to its ferocious, feature-packed goodness. If you've been waiting for Mac OS X to mature before upgrading (or switching), it may finally be time to step up to the plate. But has Mac OS X finally become Insanely Great?

Now that Apple's fifteen year Batan death march of next-generation operating system development has finally produced a shipping product, the upgrade cycle can begin in earnest. Mac OS X had four minor upgrades after its initial release, bringing it from 10.0 to 10.0.4, but Mac OS X 10.1, released on September 29th, is the first major revision to Apple's new OS. While 10.0 was positioned as an early adopter's release, 10.1 is "the mainstream release," according to Steve Jobs himself. But is 10.1 good enough to finally replace the venerable Mac OS 9?

For months now, Mac mailing lists and web forums have been filled with angry rants, confusion, and a general gnashing of teeth. The recent introduction of Mac OS X has awakened a sleeping giant in the Mac community, and its name is "metadata." But Mac users rant about a lot of things these days. Should you pay attention? What is metadata, why are Mac users all worked up about it, and why should you care?

After almost fifteen years of abortive efforts, and a string of defunct code-names that would make the Pentagon blush, Apple has finally released a successor to the classic Macintosh operating system that has defined the Mac user experience since 1984. Yes, that's right, I said released. You can go to your local software store and pick up a cardboard box containing an actual CD, upon which is written (presumably in fiery runes) the bits and bytes that represent the end of one of the industry's longest (and strangest) product development efforts. The wait is over...or has it just begun?

Apple wants you to forget the year 2000, not-so-affectionately known as the year of "500MHz forever." Macworld Expo San Francisco didn't arrive a moment too soon, bringing the Mac faithful faster computers, a glimpse of a new and improved Mac OS X, and the expected dog and pony show that always accompanies new product introductions. Steve Jobs held court again, and the charisma engine was in full effect. Come, relive the experience.

Picture if you will an 8-inch cube containing a whopping 1.5GB of RAM connected via a custom-designed umbilical cord to a 22-inch digital flat panel display. How much would you be willing to pay for such a system? If your price isn't pushing 5 digits, you can forget it. Fortunately, I'm here to give you the scoop on Hardware That You Can't Possibly Afford and Probably Wouldn't Want to Buy Anyway. Specifically, we've got the Power Mac G4 Cube and the 22-inch Apple Cinema Display. But this is not your typical system review. There's not a benchmark or chart to be found anywhere, and it starts with a discussion of the product's packing materials. Yes, I'm serious. Enter if you dare.

Mac OS X Public Beta has arrived, and Mac users everywhere are busy sending checks to Apple for the privilege of debugging their next generation operating system. How does Beta stack up to the previous releases? I've has the details and the dirt. But be warned, this is a long article and the author was driven to the brink of insanity writing it...by the article or the operating system itself? Judge for yourself

Last year's Macworld Expo in New York introduced us to the iBook, Apple's much talked about consumer portable. This year's Expo would have been a disappointment without something equally discussion-worthy, and Steve Jobs seems to have delivered again. In fact, fully half of Apple's product line has been updated. But is it really hip to be square? Find out...

Got questions about everyone's favorite Apple/NeXT/BSD hydra of an OS? Does it use filename extensions? Do I always have to "log in" to use it? Does it use the BSD kernel or Mach? Is it a floorwax or a dessert topping?

The next chapter in Mac OS X's seemingly interminable march towards release has arrived. DP4 is obviously not the beta version that many people expected, but, well, it's one more than DP3 now isn't it? Readers brave enough to tackle yet another substantial exploration of a few of Mac OS X's core technologies will find out what's changed since DP3, and what should still be on Apple's to-do list?

Ars is here with the straight dope on Mac OS X DP3, the first release of the forthcoming OS to feature a working version of Aqua. This controversial but undeniably next-gen user interface has been under John Siracusa's microscope for a while now, and he's here now with the good, the bad, and the jellybean-like. The article is, as usual, high in fiber and technical tasties, but low on sodium and hype. But John leaves one question unanswered: does he, indeed, want to lick it?

The Mac OS X display engine isn't just playing catch up to Windows and X. Nope, it's actually innovative and quite advanced. Doubtful? Our look at the emerging GUI in OS X is a glimpse of what we might see in Windows and other OSes in the years ahead. Here's an enigmatic taste:

Quartz has the ability to apply vector transformations in real-time to a continuously changing "bitmap," something that no other OS can do so easily.

Ooh-la-la! But this article isn't about Windows or X, it's about Apple's use of two new technologies to raise the bar on the G-side of GUI. Don't miss it—even if you hate Apple, this is some interesting stuff.

Here's an introduction to Mac OS X DP2, the current state of the forthcoming massive re-write of the MacOS that's based on NEXTSTEP and BSD. Why cover it? Simple: we know that the G4 hardware is impressive. If Apple can deliver a quality operating system that runs on their hardware, things will get really interesting, really quickly.

Mac OS X DP2 is a very interesting window into the future of Mac OS...a dark, scary future featuring file name extensions, a command line, and hierarchical menus that don't work quite right. Heh, just kidding about that last part. Maybe.

I think you'll be surprised as to what's under the hood in this new OS.

Check out this review of Michael Malone's history of Apple Computer, Infinite Loop, by our resident Forum swashbuckler "John." It looks to be a level-headed, thought-provoking look back. Dig a sample:

[The author's] description of Steve Jobs wanders from outright pillory to grudging amazement, if not admiration. This type of apparent flip-flopping appears throughout the book, but I'm willing to give Malone the benefit of the doubt and conclude that it's mostly because the people he's writing about did flip and flop from hero to horror very frequently.

I haven't read the book, but the review makes it sound like a fair piece. There's a lot of insight to be gained into the world of PCs here, if you ask me.