OSX Mavericks

                This week Apple released the newest version of its operating system Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks for free. For people like me who were still running 10.6 Snow Leopard for some reason it feels like a pretty big leap forward. For others who have kept up with new releases and upgraded from Mountain Lion it doesn’t feel like the big update it was touted as.  Apple says the OS has over 200 new features but most are small changes to interfaces or improvements behind the scenes. Users looking for a new experience like say the jump from iOS 6 to iOS 7 will likely be disappointed.
 

Change is Good… Except When it’s Not.

While I have only used it lightly, so far I have no complaints. Some of my friends who have updated have complained to me about how every new update doesn’t feel new and that the OS is stale. I for one don’t believe in change for the sake of change. While I personally liked iOS 7 and welcomed the new interface change but many users were less than thrilled that the new look changed the way some apps like calendar function. On the other side of the fence, I absolutely hate the change from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The touch centric Merto/Modern interface is far too drastic a change and although the classic desktop is still there you still have switch between these vastly different interfaces which is jarring to say the least. While Microsoft opted for a change everything at once approach, Apple has gone with the “incremental upgrades” approach for OSX. With each iteration the OS is changed a little bit at a time. I personally would rather an interface stay its boring old self than reinvent itself in a way that might be awful.
 

A Revolution in What?

With this new update, Apple announced a “revolutionary” new model of releasing the OS for free. Really their new model of free is far from revolutionary as users of Linux can tell you. It can also be argued that the price of the OS is built into the hardware. So where does the “revolution” come in? By releasing the OS for free for a wide range of computers going back to 2007 models Apple has made an effort to bring its fragmented user base into the future. Already Mavericks has seen a far faster adoption rate than Lion and Mountain Lion with an estimated 6% of users already using Mavericks by launch weekend. Many people like me just never got around to upgrading while others might not have felt the need to spend the money. By making Mavericks free Apple hopes more people will adopt it and move to newer software.  Since developers often develop for the “lowest common denominator,” or lowest subset of users that’s sizable enough to care about, giving more users Mavericks may encourage more developers to develop for Mavericks rather than an older OS.
 

Looking to The Past

It can be expected that there will still be some holdouts still using old OS’s. Snow Leopard is the last Apple OS that is able to run applications from the PowerPC processor days. When the PowerPC was eliminated in favor of Intel Processors in 2005, Apple introduced “Rosetta” to allow applications written for PowerPC to run on the new chipset. Rosetta was finally eliminated in OSX Lion. This will undoubtedly hold some users and businesses back if some mission critical application is no longer compatible with the newer Intel Macs. Apple is not one to let old technology hold back progress. In 1998 the Apple iMac became the first computer to ship without a floppy drive. Many users were outraged saying that floppies were the most convenient way to transfer files between computers. Apple soon also eliminated bus ports, Serial Ports, and Desktop Bus in favor of USB much to the dismay of owners of peripherals with those connections. In 2005 Apple eliminated dialup modems from all of its computers as well as support for OS9 application emulation. In 2008 the company eliminated FireWire from its laptops. In 2012 optical drives were removed from all of its computers. As vice president of marketing Phil Schiller put it, “These old technologies are holding us back. They are anchors on where we want to go. We find the things that have outlived their useful purpose. Our competitors are afraid to remove them. We try to find better solutions – our customers have given us a lot of trust.” In the long run it would appear Apple is right. Dead technologies won’t go away if manufacturers don’t get rid of them. So while some businesses will need to stay with an old OS, new technology can still march on. As new things can be built without worrying about the old technology will get better and soon even the old businesses will eliminate them as well.  

While Mavericks isn’t exactly going to blow anyone away with its amazing new features it’s still a positive step forward.