Anyone think Jaguar isn't worth it

[AmbitiousLemon]

btw, no more smiley mac at start up. now isnt that worth $129?

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

thought this was well said

- This worst thing Apple could possibly do
by James Greer
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The worst thing Apple could possibly do is report a loss next quarter. With Wall Street on the skids, investors living in fear and IT spending in deep freeze, the 1/2 million who plonk down their hard earned for 10.2 may well be the difference between another profit result and mac bashing headlines along the lines of - OS X in trouble, apple reports first loss in three years.

Yes, 10.2 sports the performance improvements sorely missing from 10.1. The whole package has been recompiled in gcc 3.1 which wasn't even availabe when 10.1 was released. And translating the entire gui 3D Open GL commands for Quartz Extreme helps a lot as well. It's also a monumental technological achievement, something Microsoft has been working on for a year, won't ship till 2005, and needs redesigned graphics cards to boot. None of the currently available, or soon to be availble Direct X 9 cards will cut it.

Now leaving aside the headling grabbing iChat, iSync, iCal, Inkwell etc. Here are some of the 10.2 features, together with shareware/ commercial packages necessary today fori that functionality-

PC Sharing & Browsing -DAVE $149
Windows VPN -DigiTunnel $89
Sherlock 3 -Watson $29
Smart Spam Filtering -Spam Fire $19
Integrated FTP -Interarchy $45
Font Management -Suitcase $99, Font Agent $89
Address Manager -isaBook $15
Permissions Manager X-Ray $10

Have a look at the goodies listed here -
http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/morefeatures.html

The fact remains that more features and functionality have added between 10.1 and 10.2 than ever occurred in the entire period between OS 8 and 9.1 let alone between 8.1 & 8.5, or 8.6 to 9, both of which were full price systems.

In the words of one developer, Apple is doing more things that matter in two months, than Microsoft does in two years.

 

[SilvorX]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
btw, no more smiley mac at start up. now isnt that worth $129?

dam was hoping the new smiley start up to be as the startup, cuz i'm tired of the old "classic" grey startup

 

[crassusad44]

Ambitous Lemon: You said what I was thinking most of the time while reading this thread.... wow!

Apple charging $100+ for an upgrade is not new, and the new features are impressive enough to be worth it. And for all those who complain about OS X not beeing a complete OS. 10.0 was indeed not, but 10.1 is rock solid and fast enough to be your main OS. Some things, like the print system, have been underpowered, but hey, everything can not be perfect! 10.2 is so near perfection, it gives you the shivers!
The only thing I would like to see happen with the price, would be a $99 price tag for 10.1 and 10.0 (god forbid there still are some...) owners, and $129 for OS 9 owners. But hopefully, I'll get edu price anywayz

 

[crassusad44]

Sorry for the double post, but I just found out that Jaguar has JPEG2000 support! Wheeeeeeee! (smaller files, better quality!)

 

[Sepulchre]

Is it worth it?

Well yes and no, the OS 10.2 client is more than likely worth the price, however having to 'upgrade' from an unlimited user version of OS 10.1 server to 10.2 server at full price is asking a little to much in my books. I've being trying to justify it for the past two weeks and i've concluded that 10.1 server can handle everything i'm (and my department) are throwing at it. So unless you need the newer versions of apps supplied with 10.2 server its not (in my opinion) worth the full price fee.

If, though, you (or your company) can afford it then hey, go for it and enjoy!