“Year after year, Apple proves that it knows exactly what’s needed in an operating system upgrade. Just like the last few upgrades of Apple’s desktop-and-laptop operating system, OS X Mavericks (free) smoothly slots in a few hundred new features, but doesn’t force you to forget what you already knew about OS X or send you on wild-goose chases for features that you used to rely on,” Edward Mendelson writes for PC Magazine.
“At first glance, OS X 10.9 Mavericks looks like OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, with the addition of a Maps app and an iBooks app that iPhone and iPad users have had for years,” Mendelson writes. “But as you start using it, you discover features that suddenly became much easier to use—for example, when a new-message notification slides into the upper right of the screen, you can click on a Reply button and answer directly from the notification, without switching back to the Messages app.”
Mendelson writes, “Once again, Mavericks shows that Apple got it right when it chose to create separate operating systems for computers on one hand and for phones and tablets on the other. OS X is the smoothest, most reliable, most convenient, and most manageable consumer-level operating system on the planet, and you’ll need a very good reason to choose anything else.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The use of “consumer-level” is a blatant and quite pitiful defense mechanism.
It’s doesn’t get any more professional than UNIX, Windows necromancers.
You can bet that PC Magazine is hating their publication’s naming choice today.
Related articles:
Been awful knowin’ ya, Microsoft: Revolutionary Apple ends the era of paid operating systems, office suites – October 23, 2013
Apple makes the world’s most advanced operating system freeware – October 23, 2013
Apple’s new free OS X for Mac hurts Microsoft and the Windows PC industry in myriad ways – October 22, 2013
Apple exploits Microsoft’s confused hesitation on Office for iPad – October 22, 2013
Apple’s OS X Mavericks available today free from the Mac App Store – October 22, 2013
Apple releases next-gen 64-bit iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS; free with new Macs and iOS devices – October 22, 2013
“OS X is the smoothest, most reliable, most convenient, and most manageable consumer-level operating system on the planet…”
It’s pretty good for professionals, too. 😉
Remember the days when PC Mag barely covered the Mac. When it did, it was very dreadful at it. Now look at it today. 🙂
You can’t ignore the tsunami coming your direction for long.
What do you mean? MS has largely ignored the Mac for a decade, with no ill effects to its Windows and Office sales whatsoever. The sad fact is that Windows 8 — as horrid as it is — has outsold all versions of OS X put together. We can only hope Mavericks and the price drop for the MacBook Air will mark a turning point. It’s hard to see how the promise of forever-free Mac OS updates will convince significantly more people to pay more up front for Mac hardware.
The tsunami that _did_ hit MS already crested. It was the advent of quality sub-$700 portables. Apple offers handsome, well-designed, high quality personal gadgets at all price points and MS did not … until now. The Nokia partnership/acquisition dramatically improved MS hardware in all aspects. How anyone can stand the ugly OS is beyond me, but MS did well to grab what is arguably the second best mobile hardware maker after Apple. Of course, the best hardware in the world won’t save MS — it has inadequate market share to lure 3rd party developers to its app store. Yes, market share matters. Apple is in a dogfight for market share with Android, and it is using free software to lever more users. It is simply employing the same strategy on the Mac in an attempt to boost market share, instead of eroding its hardware profit margins. It remains to be seen if the strategy will work.
“The sad fact is that Windows 8 — as horrid as it is — has outsold all versions of OS X put together.”
I think MS is doing the XP-sales-count-as-Vista-sales stint again. Because in my workplace, there have been many orders for new PCs which have Win7 in them. I asked the guy who placed the orders for these PCs about why Win7 is installed instead of 8, because as I understand it, MS is no longer selling Win7. The reply was that the license is for Win8, but the PCs were specially “downgraded” to Win7 because Win8 hasn’t proven itself yet.
PC Magazine changed their tune quite awhile ago. Now the real piece of crap was always PC World Magazine, sister publication of MacWorld Mag. But now MacWord is trying to cover all the bases under “tech” and have been adulterated. They suck big time.
PC Magazine is trying to get more or should I say “Better” customers talking more about apple products but they still idiots. OS X is not “consumer-level” it is INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH UNIX 03 certification like Sun, IBM and HP.
“Windows necromancers” – that’s hilarious!
Funny take on PC Magazine. Reminds me of a Graphics company who called them selves Quadra Graphics. Snappy when the Macintosh Quadra was new, aged badly. Went under a few years later.
When Emerson encouraged “hitch your wagon to a star,” he hadn’t envisioned an imploded black hole.
Oh my the Apple Haters and TROLLS were just called upon for emergency bombardment of Apple misinformation and FUD online. Just about all the major pubs comments are flooded with hundreds and hundreds of them….wow!!!
It is weird. I wonder if there is some sort of negative aura some perceive that surrounds Apple during their latest round of product announcements (although one finds it difficult to understand what goes on inside the heads of some of these irrational Apple haters). Or perhaps someone paying them to do it. No proof or evidence thus far. But I’ve never seem this much whacky anti Apple stuff before.
The more one fears the more one fights irrationally to avoid having to accept the patently obvious. People hate change and even the change to something better is difficult for them to countenance especially having to face up to years of abusive, derogatory and derisive language against the very thing they would now have to embrace. Very humiliating for them but I guess amusing to us after all the years of suffering their bigoted attitudes.
Maybe they should add another ‘P’ to the name – PPC – Post PC Magazine.
I know what you mean, but what everyone says and what they really mean are two different things.
Macs _are_ personal computers. Both Jobs and Cook have referred to them as such. These “trucks” are not going away. We can only hope that FINALLY, after a RIDICULOUSLY LONG WAIT, the new iWork apps will start to spur Mac market share. Yes, MARKET SHARE. The Mac desperately needs more if it wants to host the best and latest 3rd party software.
Attempting to say “PC” and mean “Windows computer” is a classic case of lazy dichotomy. The “stone age” and the “iron age” ended too, but we use both minerals more extensively than ever today.
Microsoft now stands alone in charging for OS upgrades. The new term for Windows machines should be Fee-Cs.
MS also stands alone in requiring its users to constantly run resource-hogging antivirus software too. But that hasn’t hurt sales, has it? The reason is simple: most people — even otherwise intelligent people — prioritize a low initial purchase price over the lifetime value and service that the more expensive quality item will offer. That’s why Wal-mart has destroyed small businesses across the USA, and that’s why Macs represent a small fraction of personal computers. The world is full of short-term thinking people.
Really you just need Microsoft Essentials (free) for Windows anti-virus, etc. Works beautifully. Had Mac OS been the dominant enterprise (et al) OS over the last 20 years it would’ve been the focus of hacking attacks and virus development. Windows gets hit because hackers look to break in and not necessarily for the sport of it.
But now since Apple has become such a big slice of cheese it’s likely they are also a much more tempting target. Don’t think OSX and iOS are completely immune to viral attacks, or that smug confidence in a 15 year old myth will keep you safe.
Apple’s operating systems have not been hit because it still is
not as widespread and deeply integrated in enterprise as Windows continues to be; and hackers really don’t care what secrets the graphic arts departments are hoarding.
In lieu of continuing support for Win XP, Microsoft may elect
to give free copies of Win7 to the companies/agencies that have developed long term reliance on XP. There are lots and lots of them around the world, and the vast bulk of them do not have the resources or means to switch to Apple. It would be like asking every taxi company to pay the list price for
new Mercedes Benz cars instead of fleet prices for Nissans
and Fords.
Yet again some moron repeats the “security thought obscurity” myth. Korgri is clearly and demonstrably a stupid troll and is probably someone whose job relies on servicing Windoze and is terrified that he’ll lose his job when his bosses discover the cost savings and productivity gains the Mac engenders, not to mention the reduced support costs.
=:~)
My job is producing graphic stuff at home. I took
the IT job as a favor to a friend. The only Windows
installation I service is the one I use at home, next
to the mac. What productivity gains are in evidence
when users have to go through a new productivity
sapping cost-piling learning curve for each
‘improvement’?
So every one of your suppositions are a reflection of
a level of shrewdness comparable to the canny business
acumen displayed by the redoubtable Steve Ballmer.
Likely I have to point out my use of irony in that
last statement, you may respond with name-calling.
I had difficulty parsing your last comment. Then I realised that you hadn’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about. I’ve been personally responsible for switching over 300 people to Macs over the last 10 years and not one has taken me more than half a day to bring up to speed and NOT ONE has ever switched back.
Behold the revolution!
=:~)
But it took you ten years….at 300 hundred people that’s five people every two months. In that same two months Boeing can build three 747s. Probably your poor clients couldn’t parse the propensity towards al the pernicious proselytizing. On top of that, Steve, you still guessed completely wrong re what I do or my situation, and there it is in print!
Behold the revulsion!
Could you please make your point without the personal attacks? There is never a call for such juvenile behavior, and it undermines your credibility.
I call it like I see it. You don’t like it?…you know where the exit is!
=:~)
You “call it like you see it” ???
“moron”
“demonstrably a stupid troll”
“probably someone whose job relies on servicing Windoze”
“you hadn’t the faintest idea”
These are not the comments of an insightful person, but those of a spiteful misanthrope. Get a life, grow up, and come back when you have something to add to the conversation.
“and you’ll need a very good reason to choose anything else..”
The only reason I could think of to choose anything else is if someone had a gun to my balls.
Well thank you for your wonderful contribution to the conversation. You have confirmed what little imagination you have.
As far as I’m concerned, making Mavericks free was a clear ploy to attempt Snow Leopard users to let go of the most stable, streamlined, clutter-free OS that Apple has ever made. The statistics show that all the annoying crap dumped into Lion & Mtn Lion did not spur the adoption of the latest OS as high as Apple wanted. Apple is using “free” to kill Rosetta and the well-loved XP of the Mac world once and for all. And it will probably work.
Next up: will Apple offer OS 11 as a mandatory iCloud registration release reminiscent of Big Brother? Apple, just like Google and MS, are showing their every step takes them closer to THEIR holy grail of subscription-based computing. I want none of that. I’d suffer going back to OSX 10.4 before being chained to a horrid cloud.
What are the numbers??
If you are a subscriber, NetMarketShare offers comprehensive up-to-the-day statistics.
Earlier this year, ZDnet reported that only 38.3% of Mac users were using the latest OS X (10.8).
26.2% were running Lion (10.7, released in 2011)
35.5% were running Snow Leopard (10.6, released in 2009).
There really is a significant number of Mac users who are not on board with the bloat added to OS X in the Lions, who have a lot of legacy peripherals and software that work great using Snow Leopard, and who aren’t going to replace their trusty old user-upgradeable Macs just because Apple delivers a thinner non-upgradeable machine.
http://www.zdnet.com/latest-os-share-data-shows-windows-still-dominating-in-pcs-7000013351/
Read also:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/12mm/lion-backlash.html
I keep a Snow Leopard installation on a 4,1 Mac Pro. But I gotta run Mt. Lion on a mini for IBooks Author. A big shocker: iMovie HD (another gotta-have) runs better on Mt. Lion than on Snow Leopard! My jaw dropped in disbelief at that one. But I gotta use Appleworks, so I keep Snow Leopard alive. Alas, iMovie HD dies with Mavericks, so I ain’t gonna use Mavericks. And I don’t need iCloud when Microsoft’s excellent Skydrive lets you put any type of file anywhere you want it and retrieve it in kind. I agree, fuck iCloud. I also resent that with each new version of iPhoto you can’t have backward compatibility with older versions, there’s no need for that.
Snow Leopard stay alive as long as I can find old Mac Pros
to run it.
Right on, Mike! I could not agree with you more. As for me, they will have to pry Snow Leopard from my COLD, DEAD, HANDS!
“OS X is the smoothest, most reliable, most convenient, and most manageable consumer-level operating system on the planet, and you’ll need a very good reason to choose anything else.”
That big boom you heard was the PC Forum blowing up.
smoothest … sure
most reliable … undoubtedly
most convenient … without question
most manageable … absolutely not. but that’s not a bad thing for most users.
I dunno re the reliability thing… I had some issues with
Mt. Lion and an external FW800 drive, it got to the point
where it needed restarting everyday till I zotzed the
external drive’s setup software in favor of the OS config. Meanwhile, Win7 running on a mac mini (sans Boot Camp)
has yet to crash after two years and runs 24/7. It’s a rock.
““Once again, Mavericks shows that Apple got it right when it chose to create separate operating systems for computers on one hand and for phones and tablets on the other.”
Well DUH!!!!
“I like our strategy, I like it alot!”
What didn’t get commented on is significant.
Windows is now just another App on the Mac OSX system when used with Parallels emulation.
When Windows native, it runs so well, there is no reason to have a 2nd computer just to run Windows.
After installing Macericks, somehow I had more gigabytes of free space. I was afraid there would be less, considering adding iBooks, etc.
iBook is small and completely crap. Where are my book files? Why can’t I command I a book and fix and change info like I could in iTunes… Damn Apple. Hype and underproduce. Then let the fan boys pee all over themselves. It should be free it’s not that big a deal. You get what you pay for, I’d wish I didn’t upgrade.
iMovie HD no longer functions in Mavericks. Appleworks stopped functioning in Lion. I very much like those bits of software, and I really resent Apple positing themselves as being so concerned about their user base yet not taking what are likely relatively simple steps to keep these elegant pieces of very useful software alive as they update their OS software. I have tried Pages, and it stinks in comparison to what Appleworks does for me. I think they had a potential Office beater in Appleworks, likely it was some crazy whim of Jobs’ that killed it. Later iterations of iMovie are a travesty, (including the newest one) compared to iMovie HD. Everyone knows the huge stink over the bizarre alterations to Final Cut Pro not long ago. The questions is, why does Apple do such things? Why completely ruin a beautiful
thing, just to say “here’s our new thing”? Too often Apple comes across as the kind of company that builds the perfect screwdriver, the best one you’ve ever used. Then they come to your work site with their new screwdriver and want you to use it, they let you try it out, and ask to see your old screwdriver while you try out the new one. You try it, but still prefer the old screwdriver. When you go to ask for your old screwdriver back you find that Apple has dropped it down a bottomless pit while you were trying the new one and now stand there wanting $129 for your only option, the new screwdriver that you don’t like. After a while you learn not to want to trust the next Apple guy who comes to your site.
New software is usually written to take advantage of the latest operating system and that often means it will not run on older systems. Its just too costly to rework old products, built with old development tools for an earlier environment, especially if the user base is small. How many people prefer Appleworks to iWork? How many people even know what Appleworks is?
You are grumbling because it doesn’t suit you, as if Apple have a special responsibility to meet the personal wishes of every single one of its users. Commonsense dictates that this is simply impossible.
It’s not impossible, anything is possible with software;
everyone knows this. It’s a case of software design team ego.
I grumble because they could keep all their legacy software
alive with very little effort, and what reason to change a
very good interface for an absurdly lousy one?
iMovie ’08 and later, for example, it’s hard to believe it’s an Apple product compared to the iMovie HD interface.
The furor over Final Cut Pro and Apple’s eventual compromise to appease that user community proves my point. Why on earth would they take away useful functionality and infect users with a productivity sapping learning curve? It’s absurd. They should improve products, not take away what people are comfortable using and then tell them “it’s an improvement” when it is mostly a new – again, and needless productivity wasting – learning curve.
I’m also steamed about their poo-pooing the option to burn
to plastic. A burned DVD in a safe or bank vault is more secure than any cloud service.
NO. Apple did not ‘get Mavericks right’.
As I said a couple weeks back: There WILL be a 10.9.1 update ASAP. There were bugs in the first GM. Then Apple dumped a TRAINLOAD of bugs into GM 2, gawd knows why. It’s like the elves in the toyshop forgot to add the wheels, but the wheels they tossed on at the last moment were square. Horrifying.
I personally am regretting moving to Mavericks so soon. I want my 10.8.5 back until this MESS Apple let loose via GM 2 last-minute-added-crap is sorted out and repaired.
BAD SHOW APPLE! Very bad show.
I have to point out that I put a lot of time into beta testing Mavericks and sending off bug reports to Apple. (This was via the AppleSeed program). Then this mess, that I NEVER tested, shows up on release day. WTF? Why bother helping Apple if they sabotage themselves?!
At this very moment I am fighting the FSCKed up spell correction bug mess that was NOT in GM 1. Again: Horrifying. I really HATE you today Apple! Do you hate yourself? That’s how you’re acting!!!