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Mac OS X has come more or less into its own since the release of
OS X 10.1. Unfortunately, the main competition, Windows XP,
will also be coming into its own shortly.
It's a bittersweet triumph that OS X is fast, stable, and oh so
nice to look at. It seems that Windows XP is fast, stable, and oh
so nice to look at, too. Granted, XP appears to have "borrowed" a
few Mac elements, but that's to be expected, right? The reverse is
probably also true.
The days of Apple OS supremacy seem to be long gone. Of course,
the stable Unix underpinnings, gee whiz graphics, and trademark
Apple usability are nothing to sneer at, but at the consumer and
business level it just doesn't seem to matter any more.
To cry over spilt milk, OS X is something Apple could have used
five years ago. It would have given the company a decisive lead in
the OS market. Of course, we all know how Apple went from leader of
the pack to the neck-and-neck with an also ran.
One problem is the atrophying of innovation in the OS space.
Clicking icons and moving files about hasn't changed since Apple
introduced its first OS in 1984. Nowadays competition is pretty
much made up of one company adding a new feature that is matched by
another company in the next rev. No real action here, folks.
To reiterate: Equality in this space is not a good thing. For
consumers, the two OSes are so close in terms of functionality,
stability, and ease of use, that which company supplies it pretty
much becomes a moot point.
What Apple needs now, more than ever, is to redefine the OS
landscape. A new OS with enhanced features that, to everyone but
the enthusiasts and propeller heads, are the same as the next guy's
just won't cut it as the PC becomes more of a commodity.
When I say redefine the OS landscape, I mean that Apple has to
come up with the next generation operating system - not an
operating system you see and use today, but whatever will supersede
what we see and use today. And it's coming. Maybe not now or next
year or even within the next decade, but eventually someone
smarter, more visionary, and more innovative than you or I will
come up with the next interface between computers and humans. With
any luck, that person will be on Apple's staff.
Further Reading
David Schultz has a thoughtful read on the human/machine
interface on Applelust.
Is OS X the End of the Postmodern Mac? Part One was posted
on Dec. 11 and looks at the Mac OS as the first postmodern
operating system - and also explains what postmodern means. Based
on his analysis, we might posit Mac OS X as an attempt to
bridge the gap between modern and postmodern operating systems, or
perhaps as an attempted synthesis of the concept. dk
Stephen Van
Esch is the founder and president of
the
E-learning Foundry, an online training
resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual,
since he's also fluent in Windows and French.
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