Mac OS X Jaguar 10.2 Installation

Review of Mac OS X Jaguar 10.2 Installation

by Jack Carter jpcarte@paradise.net.nz

Upgrading to the new Mac OSX Version 10.2 can be wonderful and satisfying experience, as it was for me. On the other hand it could possibly be a somewhat less satisfying one for computer owners whose computers have less than optimum specification.

A computer that has border line specification may be able to upgrade to a limited higher level if the intended usage is small and, or, the scope of the upgrade can be limited by deletion or de-selection to an acceptable level that suits the user.

As it happened my original G4 computer that I bought in November 2000 had a 400 MH speed and 194 MB of RAM and a 20 GB hard drive. The hard drive was divided into 4 partitions 3 of them for OS 9, and the smallest one set aside for OS X later on.

Some 20 months later two of the system 9 partitions had used up about 40 % of their space, and in the OS X partition, some 85 % of its space had been used leaving less than 500 MB for expansion. On these grounds alone I got my equipment supplier to upgrade the computer as follows.

The RAM was increased by 1 GB. A 60 GB hard drive was added and divided in to 4 partitions corresponding to the original usage, but this time the OSX partition was made the largest.

Some six weeks ago the old drive data was also transfered to the corresponding partitions on the new drive except that the presence of a an OS 9 system in the OSX partition for Classic operation was discontinued at this stage. Some 4 weeks or so later after the system had been operating without problems the old hard drive partitions had their contents deleted and left HFS+ format in the meantime.

The intention at the moment is that 2 of these will be used for OS X applications and back up, and the other for Linux in possibly UFS format.

The result of all this was that my new computer was in a relatively healthy state a week later when I carried out a complete and easy install of the OS X 10.2 upgrade.

It would appear that Apple have taken the bold move to build their system to cope with many languages in essentially one grand installation, rather than have a multitude of separate and more complicated versions arrangements for individual requirements. This means that the individual who has a limited system and limited needs must selectively delete or opt out of much of the facilities that he does not need.

I consider that the new OS X Mac systems could be a wonderful buy and they are outstanding value for large organisations; in that they will produce world wide output in 14 languages besides English. In the near future they could be an essential item to all modern countries that aspire to effectively trade on an international basis.

The only problem with this is that most of the Mac G4 computers sold to the public during this Mac OS X development period have not had big enough hard drives or enough RAM to cope with their potential output. capacity. In effect hard drives of 40 to 120 GB and RAM's of 1 GB or more are needed to fully use the potential of these new machines on certain types of work.

As far as the Jaguar 10.2 installation went I had plenty of space and the simple easy installation of everything posed no problems for me. The total time taken was only 65 minutes and abut 40 % of the original estimate, possibly because of the 1.2 GB of Ram. On the other hand several finishing off sections with "less than a minute" estimates took up to 10 minutes. Some 960 MB was installed on the system from Disk 1.

Installation Disk 2 mainly installed some 100 MB of 5 computer printer companies printer driver upgrades. I happen to have only Epson printers at the moment but I installed everything. It took about 20 minutes. It is important to add in the new printer driver as the new default printer in the Utilities Print Center before you try some of the new features out, as some will not work without this step being done.

The last CD ROM installation disk can be used to upgrade your existing Apple Developer Connection if you have this already installed. It cost me a fee of 4 $ US and some form filling to join. It is intended for real developers and those that associate with them. I find that only about 20 % of the material is worth reading and it comes every week. in great quantity and is well organised. If this is for you it takes about 30 minutes to install and adds about 400 MB of Apple developer tools and information..

I am particularly pleased with the results of this upgrade. OS X Profiler really works now in OS X whereas it did not before. I can now print out 41 pages of the complete profiler information without hesitation. But again you must do a complete upgrade and add the new software printer driver as the new default printer to get this result.

Since then I found I had to actively use the Apple System Preference / Menu / View window, to see the 27 or so setup panes to find out where such things as Rendezvous fits in the overall picture. Otherwise a beginner like me can spend a lot of time searching for information that is not readily accessible in the places you would expect to find it.