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Groveling: Jaguar Is Not Fat, Slow, and Deeply Flawed

Dirk Pilat - 2002.09.25

Hi everyone!

A wonderful day from "the adventure capital of earth," as Queenstown in New Zealand is called for some weird and wonderful reason that never fails to puzzle me. I am sure that if one would seek true adventure, one would venture into Baghdad wearing a T-shirt with a portrait of George W. (preferably with a Stetson) on one's chest - or a visit to Zimbabwe's capital Harare with a BBC badge. But I digress, as usual.

Anyway, I am sitting here on the veranda of the St. Moritz in the above mentioned Queenstown, enjoying the spring sun, a local beer (the excellent "Brewski" from Wanaka Beerworks), typing happily away on my iBook using Jaguar.

Whoa, I can hear you shout, didn't I just a couple of weeks ago call 10.2 "fat, slow and lazy"?

Well, it's time to grovel a bit: Turns out that due to a problem with the underlying 10.1.5 install I updated Jaguar on, the performance and function of my iBook was severely compromised - with Kernel Panics galore and a rather sluggish speed.

Well, a quick wipe of my hard drive and a complete new install of Jaguar sorted that: It's now starting up breezily, the applications seem to be about 20% faster, and the GUI certainly made a significant step forwards. Thanks to the author of the modified ADSL drivers for my Alcatel broadband modem, Jean Pierre de Soza, everything is now working nicely, and I am again a happy Mac user.

Some of you guys asked me whether I work for Microsoft and why I use a Mac at all if I hate it so much, but I can reassure you that

I love my Macs (I own 4).
No, I don't work for Microsoft.
Yes, I am fat, slow, and deeply flawed (at least according to my friends).

Even though we all enjoy our Macs and enjoy Apple's ingenuity, we should not become mindless, driveling worshippers of a "Cult of Steve." We should give Apple credit when the guys deserve it, but we should also be able to make our voices heard and criticize unfortunate marketing decisions, expensive updates, and prematurely released software - otherwise we'll end up just being treated like a Microsoft customer, and that's the last thing we want, ay?

Recent Down But Not Out Columns

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Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac mini Core Solo, Feb. 2006 - The only Mac to use a Core Solo CPU, this model ran at 1.5 GHz, has integrated graphics, and includes a Combo drive
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Recent Deals

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Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.24. Used from $899; refurb from $1,099; new 1.6 GHz/120 HD, $1,150 after rebate; 1.8/64 SSD, $1,150 a/r; 1.86/128 SSD, $1,350 a/r; 2.13/128 SSD, $1,694 a/r.
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Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, 11.23. Used 802.11g AirPort Extreme, $49; 500 GB Time Capsule, $150; new, $190; 1 TB dual-band, $280; 2 TB, $469; 802.11n AirPort Extreme, $170.
Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
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