gopher's Profile

Not licensing the OS is not a mistake. Apple tried licensing the OS from 1994 to 1997 with dire results. They couldn't keep up on the hardware end with Power Computing, and soon both Power Computing and the other clones were overtaking Apple in processing power. And in the end, the Apple realized that licensing the OS was not right because they couldn't shift themselves to a software only vendor. Remember Apple is still the only company that makes the entire widget. Even if it does come from multiple sources, they find the best of the various hardware to work together. Yes there are occassionaly lemons, but it has been constantly rated highest on the Consumer Reports. The Newton was also a money loser for Apple since they didn't lower their cost for the Newton nor did they make it as small as the Palm to be able to get into more people's hands. In the end, Apple had to focus itself on where the money was to be gained. They turned themselves around into a profitable company by 1998 and with the exception of the fall of 2000, they have not had a money losing quarter since then. How many other .coms can say that? Apple remains a financially stable institution with money in the bank to spare. Apple picks its markets carefully.

Good news! At least for Quark users. There may be a Quark 7 much sooner than there was a Quark 6: [url=http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1759,1781262,00.asp]http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1759,1781262,00.asp[/url] So get your fingers ready, and send Quark as much feedback as is necessary to get them to make your migration to Mac OS X a lot easier. A lot complain about how Quark 4.1.1 has a hard time functioning within Classic, and that Quark 6 can't export and import Quark 4.1.1 files, so they are stuck. If you want to have a say about what your future computer will be like, tell Quark that you want better backward compatibility.

You can simplify Mac OS X's interface by sending the Dock to the right side of the screen and hiding it with command-option-D. Hiding it by menu doesn't let you keep it out of your way, but it will usually stay out of your way if you do so by keystroke and it is on that side of the screen. Clicking on the jewel in the upper right hand corner of the Finder window brings back an interface without toolbar or sidebar. If you don't want to leave that window of Mac OS X, just make sure not to open new finder windows through Finder Preferences -> General, and just don't close the Finder window. Use Exposé to get windows out of the way when you need to. For everything else you can give Apple feedback here: [url=http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/]http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/[/url] [url=http://bugreporter.apple.com/]http://bugreporter.apple.com/[/url] if you want to see improvements in the Finder's interface. Look at Macnightowl.com today. They talk about the operating system being too complicated too.

I though have found productivity a lot greater in Mac OS X. I much less often see my system giving me Type 1, 10, 11 errors, freezes and spend a lot less time troubleshooting websites which won't load properly. Mac OS X is very stable. Now Quark may make it seem not so, but that's really Quark's poor programming practices, not the fault of the operating system. There is a good FAQ on fixing font issues within X here: [url=http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?50@677.ZBa6aHwTOsz.3@.68908e3c]http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?50@677.ZBa6aHwTOsz.3@.68908e3c[/url] which I'm sure if you follow, or post a request for help from Kurt, he'll be able to help you.