Osx Tips and Advices, what need to be known? Options

[xfiles]

Hi there

I'm considering to switch to OSX soon and i'm wondering what are the differences with OS9, what need to be known and what performances to expect with a 733MhZ G4?

Any advices would be greatly appreciated.

best regards,

phil

[Francois Déchery]

Now that OSX start to become usable for musicians, its time to clarify basics things about OSX and to balance some too much optimist points of view (mainly from unexperienced or amateur mac users, or people who doesnt know what making music on a mac really is).

(Please forgive my english writing: this post is very long, and english is NOT my native language...)

Here is my experience:

About half and a year ago, when Apple relesed 10.1, i've installed it on a 'test' machine to start to be used with that brand new OS.
My test machine was an (officially) unsupported one (7500+G3 card) but it was possible to install OSX using some good freeware like 'Unsupported UtilityX'...
SInce 1 year i bought a 733 Quicksilver mac (like you phil) to swithch to OSX for common tasks (office aps, internet, development, etc...) and to test musical applications.

Neverless, my production machine is still a 9600 (G3 accelerated) with a big TDM protools under OS9, and i wont change it for a long time, i guess at least one year more (you will see why).

Installing OSX
Installing OSX is, as before, really easy. Put the CD in, restart pressing the 'C' key, and follow the installer instructions.
The only thing which changed is the time for the 2 CDs to install...

OSX is really big and need AT LEAST 1,5G to be installed, but you should plan at least 4 or 5 G to have room to install OSX applications which tends to be really bigger (compared to OS9 ones)

If you want to be able to quickly go back to your "old" well-working OS9, i strongly suggest you to install it on another partition, and let your OS9 on the other partition.

To keep this OS9 safe, i also advice you NOT to use it in classic mode: Classic mode is the emulation mode in MacOSX which uses a special OS9 (some extentions are changed to work in classic mode) to launch OS9 apps (forget audio aps in this mode). This OS9 is installed by the OSX installer and can stay on the OSX partitions without trouble.

In another thread, i've explained how to enhance your installation using more partitions (ie: one for swap, one for OSX 1, one for OSX 2 to repair, one for OS9, and one for documents), but's its not that important now.


first hands on OSX
The Aqua interface is not the same as OS9 but after a few hour you should be used to it. Despite a LOT OF egonomic changes in the human interface, which are not that good (reed the EXCELLENT articles at http://www.arstechnica.com ), you should feel confortable with the OSX interface, at start.

but....


Bad News, OSX is an UNIX
You were used with MacOS, its extentions, preferences, control panels, systems files, you was organizing your disk as you like, you was able to understand what goes wrong when you had a problem.... Forget it! Now you're in a brand new world!

The disk is now organized like in any UNIX OS, where the systems is spread into THOUSANDS of files, sorted in defined places on the disk, and you should not change this organization whithout risking to crash your system (whithout being able to repair it, except if you're an unix expert, well trained with the apple unix system)

Apple did things really well (i'm impressed by their great work) and a normal human user will see only things that he cares about from the finder. There are an Application and Documents folder which can be organized as we want (except some applications which ABSOLUTELY need to be in the root of the applications folder, mainly Apple apps)

Here is how the disk is organized if you look at it from the finder:

- /Applications/ : as you guessed, its the folder where the applications reside, but you may install applications elesewhere (except some Apple applications, which woulnd't be updatable if installed elsewhere...)

- /library/ : here are the various library, and some preferences used by the system (Audio, Desktop Pictures, Scripts, Screen Savers, Receipts, Internet Plug-Ins, Image Capture, Extensions, iTunes, Internet Search Sites, WebServer, Documentation, ColorSync, QuickTime, Printers, Preferences, User Pictures, StartupItems, Services, Fonts, Filesystems, Perl, Modem Scripts, Logs, Java, Application Support, Caches)

- /System/ : This is the main System folder. Inside there is only one foder, called 'Library', where you will find OS9 well known folders (Services, Perl, Printers, Classic, UserTemplate, TextEncodings, LoginPlugins, Screen Savers, QuickTime, Filesystems, PHP, Image Capture, PrivateFrameworks, Caches, OpenSSL, QuickTimeJava, ColorPickers, Sounds, Extensions, Authenticators, Frameworks, Extensions.mkext, Keyboards, CFMSupport, SystemConfiguration, StartupItems, ColorSync, Components, Tcl, Displays, MonitorPanels, ScriptingAdditions, SystemResources, PreferencePanes, CoreServices, Colors, Rulebooks, Fonts, DTDs, Java, Speech, Find )

- /Users/ which contents a folder per user (only one, if you create only one user), where the user will save its documents, and whatever he want. Example: for me, /Users/Soif/ contents my documents, my mp3s, my dowloads, my destop folder, some of my apps, and ANOTHER 'Library' folder (Fonts, ColorSync, ColorPickers, Application Support, Recent Servers, SoftwareLicenses, Keyboards, Printers, Screen Savers, Sounds, Colors, Documentation, Internet Search Sites, Keychains, Mail, Internet Plug-Ins, Addresses , Voices, Caches, FontCollections, Preferences, Assistants, iTunes, Audio, Favorites, Logs)


As you read, the system is now spread in 3 different locations on the disk:
/Library/
/System/Library
/Users/Soif/Library/

Its really different from OS9...

Now if you look at the disk organization from the terminal App (or any utility which show you all the files), you will see:

drwxrwxr-x  10 root  admin        296 Nov  4 20:23 Applications
drwxrwxr-x  30 root  admin        976 Nov  3 13:04 Library
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel         58 Oct 23 03:50 System
drwxr-xr-x   4 root  wheel         92 Nov  2 04:50 Users


But also:

-rwxr-xr-x   1 soif  unknown    98304 Nov  4 20:27 Desktop DB
-rwxr-xr-x   1 soif  unknown   111554 Nov  5 11:30 Desktop DF
drwxrwxrwx   2 root  staff        264 Nov  2 03:56 Desktop Folder
-rwxr-xr-x   1 soif  unknown        0 Nov  2 03:56 Icon?
drwxr-xr-x   6 root  wheel        264 Nov  2 07:14 Network
drwxr-xr-x   2 soif  unknown      264 Nov  5 03:05 TheFindByContentFolder
drwxr-xr-x   4 soif  unknown      264 Nov  2 04:00 TheVolumeSettingsFolder
drwxr-xr-x   2 soif  unknown      264 Nov  2 03:56 Trash
drwxrwxrwt   6 root  wheel        160 Nov  5 12:30 Volumes
dr-xr-xr-x   1 root  wheel        512 Nov  5 15:05 automount
drwxr-xr-x  33 root  wheel       1078 Nov  2 06:35 bin
lrwxrwxr-t   1 root  admin         13 Nov  5 12:31 cores -> private/cores
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel        512 Nov  5 11:27 dev
lrwxrwxr-t   1 root  admin         11 Nov  5 12:31 etc -> private/etc
lrwxrwxr-t   1 root  admin          9 Nov  5 12:31 mach -> /mach.sym
-r--r--r--   1 root  admin     563432 Nov  5 11:27 mach.sym
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel    3148008 Sep 10 00:40 mach_kernel
drwxr-xr-x   7 root  wheel        194 Nov  5 11:28 private
drwxr-xr-x  59 root  wheel       1962 Nov  2 06:34 sbin
lrwxrwxr-t   1 root  admin         11 Nov  5 12:31 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x  10 root  wheel        296 Sep  2 22:55 usr
lrwxrwxr-t   1 root  admin         11 Nov  5 12:31 var -> private/var

!!!!!!

The first column shows files privileges, the next two show the file's owner and group, then is the size, the date and then the file name.

As you see its really more difficult to understand the file structure... And in case you had a problem, things will become harder to repair than when you restart your OS9 after removing a new extention....


Good News, OSX is an UNIX ;-)
Pros of Unix are its stability, its power, its TRUE mutitask ability, and its protected memory.

Forget the word 'crash', I never crashed OSX: you may crash an App, but you just have to force-quit and re-launch it and that's all: It not like in MacOS9, where you knew that after force-quitting, you better had too restart than relauching your faulty apps (or another one) because the system was let in an unstable state.

Forget what the word "Reboot" mean ;-) : Most Apps installations doesnt need you to restart the computer (expect hardware driver). FYI, I write this post on my G4 with OSX which has not been shutdown or restart since 6 month now (except to install MacOS updates)

The apple genius was to implement all technical aspects of UNIX, in a esay to use interface (as long as you dont need to changes things in the sytem)


Multi User OS
One great advantage of Unix (so also OSX) is that the sytem is multi-user and even for a single user, its really usefull:

A typical use of multi-users is to setup a user account for you, one for your wife and one for your kid for example.
If you're the only human using this mac, you can also use the muti-users features to setup different systems, depending on your applications: one safe for the music, and one for the rest. You may also create a user account to make tests that wont affect others accounts.

Each user owns its "home" foder, which contains its documents, personnal applications (normal applications are shared between users but each user can also have its own applications) and a /library/ (system) folder.

This is where its become interesting: each user has its preferences, extensions, extra control pannels, fonts and all additionnal systems files stored in HIS personnal system folder So your kid can play with anything in his account, but he wont be able to change anything in your account: this is really more convenient than having multiple partitions, with duplicated systems, protecting yours with a driver passord or hidding it from you kid.

Not to say that switching from one account to another takes seconds, not minutes (as when you reboot under OS9)

This is also convenient to install a suspect app in a test account, that wont affect your main account system folder or to create a new fresh account, when your main account become corrupted: Creating a user account takes seconds, and you get a clean system.

But to use this features, you have to understand a bit, how system files are splited in OSX:
As we saw before, there are 3 places were the system live:

/System/Library/
/Library/
/Users/Soif/Library/

The first folder content all files that are GLOBAL for the system and VITAL for its use: All the (kernel) extensions, main software like Finder and all server applications (sharing, mail, dns, network daemons, etc...)

The second Folder is almost identical to the third folder and contents all the user's settings and specific files (preferences, startup items , plug-ins, screen savers, scripts, destop pictures, system sound, fonts etc...)
The only differnce between theses two folder is that the second folder is GLOBAL for all users, but the third folder only affect the current user (soif, in my examle)

And this is REALLY convenient! Here is an example:
There are two user on the machine: 'Soif' and 'honey'.
- If i put a ScreenSaver (or VST plugin, or whatever...) in /Users/soif/Library/Screen Savers/ , only I (soif) will be able to choose it from my SystemPreferences (the new name for the control panels equivalents), Honey wont see anything.
- But if I put it in /Library/Screen Savers/ , I AND Honey will be able to access it.


If i'm the only human using this mac, i can easely setup two accounts: 'soif-work' and 'soif-fun': When logged as 'soif-fun', i may install thousand of shi.. apps without compromising my soif-work account stability.
If i get a crashed account at some time, i just have to create a new account and to move all my docs and apps inside this new account....

Levels:
- For each normal user, you can setup restriction (no CDRom, no internet, no Apps, etc..) like you could in OS9, with the Multi-Users CP.
Each user cant see what are in the Home folders of other users, but can use shared Applications and can exchange file using a special 'Shared' folder which each user can access. Obviously, normal user cant change anything in the Top level Library folder (only the super user can)

There is also another user, called 'root': It is a super user who can do anything everywhere on the disk. But to avoid you to make mistakes and crash your system, Apple disactivated it by default (You can enable him using NetInfo manager). Instead, you can (and by default its enabled) allow any user account to be an 'Admin' account. The admin user can do things that need root's privileges (like modifying main systems file), but he will always be asked to enter its admin password before deing allowed to do that (in fact it does a 'sudo' command): This is why each installer which need to install things in the main system folder, will ask your admin password to be able to execute it (So you know that the installer will put things in the main system... despite you dont know what..)

I wont explain here why its a bad idea to activate and always use the root account, but beleive me DONT DO THAT, or you will have soon to re-install your system


What about Musical applications
At last, Apple integrated Midi and Audio support in the OS :
CoreAudio is the equivalent of our good old SoundManager and it natively supports multichannel audio (mono, to 'n' tracks), a lot of of sampling frequency/resolution (ie 24/96) and calculate it in 32 bit floating, which should enhance sound quality in complex audio processing.
CoreAudio support multiple Audio-interface (plug and play of course), inter applications audio routing, and an ultra low latency.
CoreAudio also introduced a new native PlugIn format , AudioUnits, which should replace the too many current plug-in standarts on OS9.
Also MIDI support was not forgotten, and its now well integrated in the system. Doug Wyatt (OMS main devopper) is currently working at Apple on COreMidi, and this make me think that midi implementation in OSX is considered seriously at Apple (Intelligent Midi interface plug&play, 1ms latency, inter application communications, centralization of MIDI objects in one app, SMPTE sync... all we need)

Now most big musical applications are finnally available under OSX, as well as most interface drivers.
SO making music (seriously) with OSX is becoming a possibility, day after day, and whaterver we feel, we won't soon have the choice, beacause Apple chosed that new hardware ONLY boot with OSX.


My Opinion

First let me introduce myself a bit: I use mac since the MacII, have installed over 500 professional music configurations for clients, used Macs for music production as a programmer since 10 year and i'm considered as an expert of music on the mac.
I'm also a computer geek, and i'm not afraid with technology changes or complicated things (i learnt unix, php, html and a lot of 'funny' things to run this website)

I love a lot of things in OSX, mainly all the unix heritage (because i DO know unix a bit) and some macOS great improvements.
I'm also convinced that this OS WILL BE (not actually) a killer OS to make music beacause of its power, stability, and design.

BUT as a very experienced mac user, and after over half and a year using it, i'm really disappointed by Apple changes in the User Interface (what makes me loves MacOS vs any other OS in the world).

User Interface breeding that took over 10 years, system's upgrades after system's upgrades, have just been trashed during the OSX move, and are STILL NOT BACK, and all last MacOSX updates doesnt seems to go in this way (Apple prefer to sell music in iPod, make iApps etc.. but doesnt care that much about the UI as they did before)

I totaly agree with John Siracusa from ArsTechica, and i invite you to read its in-deth articles from this one:
http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/02q3/ma...osx-10.2-2.html

He explains better than me and in a perfect english, what changed, what is best and what is worst.

Things that were easy and fast, become complicated and long.
Things that were designed to answer at the same time for beginner as well as for power user, are now only beginners oriented. (Apple changed its professionnal target to a more larger target, but forgot its long-time fans during the move)
Things that made me "laugh" when i used Window sytems, are know also available on the mac!

Some examples that get me crazy:

* Copying your OS on another disk/partition to get another startup disk for different use, or to have a safe backup to use when things goes wrong:
-OS9: drag and drop your system folder from one disk to another. If the copied system doesnt show the normal system folder icon, double click the system one time: DONE: you have an exact copy of your system, working perfectly.
-OSX: Run your MacOS CD install, install on the second disk. After 40 min (!!!) restart, and spend a week to compare what extra system file were installed on your first system. Other solution, find an (unoficially supported by apple) application, that can do ghost copies of your system.... it sounds exactly like windows!

* Open a 'Test' file from any App in the latest used directory, FASTLY:
-OS9: apple-O ,then 'T' key (assuming Test is the first file beginning with 'T'),then Return key!
-OSX: apple-O, Tab key (by default the focus is in the path field, not the file-three window), typing T doesnt move to the file BUT to the upper directory (aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggg), so you have to clic with the mouse.
OK that's not the end of the world, but why such a stupid interface behaviour ala windows?

* switching from one app (with opened windows) to another ie: switch to the finder
-OS9 : click on the destop: all finder windows are at front.
-OS10: click on the destop: nothing happen (if you click on a finder window, only this window comes to front, others stay hidden), so go in the finder menu and selct 'Show all': there's even NO keyboard shortcut.
I like the feature to have a windows-independant-from-application-selected OS, but Apple PLEASE GUIVE ME THE CHOICE to see all my windows, fastly, as i did for years.

* Optimizing the system to remove unused extentions that slow down the system or conflict with music sensitive ones
- OS9: use the extention manager (you even have a short description per extention)
- OSX: simply forget it and pray that you wont never have a problem. The main advantage of a unix systems is its stability whatever mistakes you made in the sytem: If you (or a software installer) done something wrong, the system will still work, and you wont be informed that there is a problem, but obviously, performances would certainly decrease a lot, whithout you knowing why: the only way to know if all works as it should is to look in the (unix) system log files (with some special freewares or with the terminal as root) and when you will have read theses files, you will prefer to learn chinese than to try to understand what it means.

* Uninstall an application
- OS9: when a bit experienced, trash the app, and check in extentions, if some belong to the apps (really easy if you used label to color all original system file)
- OSX: Either you have the Uninstaller (not always provided) either its the same as in OS9 except that: Label doesnt exists, so you cant color your original files. There are hundred more files in the system... The system is split in 3 locations, with duplicate locations for usual folders (preferences, applications support, audio, etc...). Files that are not in ~/Library (/Users/soif/Library) CANT be removed if you are not (and you are usually not) root.

* Privileges problem:
-OS9 : no problem
-OSX : when some files privileges arent well setup or get corrupted, you cant manage you files normally (launch an app, read a document, copy it, or delete it) and worse, file privileges cant be accessed from the finder (thoses showed in apple-I doesnt match the true file privileges only showed in the terminal)

* Copying a 2G folder (with thousand of files) to a disk where there is 1,2G free:
-OS9: drag and drop, finder calulate size and says 'Not enough room to copy this file... i need 800M more
-OSX: drag and drop, finder do the copy, then when it copied 1,2G, (after a long time) it says 'not enough space to copy all the files': fuck you, just try to guess wich files were copied or not, and start again: exactly like WIndows again!

* And millions of others UI things that simply disapeared.
- AppleMenu (byeBye), ApplicationMenu (byeBye) Controm strip (some now in the menu bar), normal system font (now giant), Drop windows (no more), labels (no more), multiple apple-I (select one file, then apple-I, and repeat to the last files), Double clicking the window title to only show the title (now it goes in the doc... imagine when you do that on 10 window, and then you get 10 mini window in the dock that can only be differentiate if you move your mouse over each one)


But i kept the better for the end: THE SPEED!

Yes MacOSX graphic interface is really beautyfull with thoses drop-shadows, transparency, postscript display and dock animations, but it seems that Apple implement a graphic technology that even the today most powerfull Mac can't support smoothly.

Whatever your mac is (i've tested from my 7500-G3 to a latest bi-1,42G mac) you feel worst than if you had a SE30: each window takes TIME to open, each menu takes time to open, its really a pity to use!

I totally agree with Apple to implement top-edge graphic technology, that our current macs dont support smothly (beginners wont complain about that, they're are not as fast themself to move the mouse), but while waiting mac hardwares that can really support it (soon i hoppe) why not let us the choice to bypass all those wonderfull graphics from a control panel, to switch to a graphic layer as fast as in OS9.




Conclusion

I would now advice any beginner or hobbyist to switch to OSX and enjoy the stability, power and simplicity of OSX for most common applications. Internet for example, is really better with OSX, and most applications now exist in OSX versions.
You will also enjoy plug&play with camera, camcorder, printers, PDAs, and start to like all the amazing Apple iApps (iphoto itunes, imovie, idvd, adressbook, ical, ichat, mail...) that simplify a lot of things.

In the Music field, most big application are here, work pretty well, and it's easyer to quicly get a robust system working, with a lot of new (OSX only) amazing music apps.

For the professionnals, who are hesitating to switch to OSX: switch your office/internet machine, you will quickly like the experience, and whatever, you need to be prepared to make your music system switch, but for your production machine, just DONT update at this time: Depending of your fastness with oS9, you will certainly be really slower with OSX and decrease your productivity.
Also most plug-ins and all those essential good-old-tools you use and like arent still available on OSX.
Not to speak about the cost to update all your apps....

If you have the money, buy an OSX music system, but please keep your OS9 installation until you really feel as confortable on OSX.

OSX is amazing, but to really enjoy its power we at least need really faster machines (maybe next month) and a finished user interface (May be Panther , next month will also enhance this).

I count days until the WWDC next month, when all should happen (new macs and 10.3): Hey Apple, I want an OSX for music, please motivate me!



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If you have technical questions and or opinions, please dont hesitate to post it here: i will do my best to answer when i can.


my 2cts