By CHRIS LYKINS

Internet Beat

This year both Microsoft and Apple launched new versions of their operating

systems. Apple dubbed their new next-generation OS Mac OS X (10) while

Microsoft finally abandoned its long-running tradition of slapping a year on the

end of Windows and unveiled Windows XP.

Both systems promise new bells and whistles for an increasingly

Internet-driven world and look to cater to the growing number of digital music

and photography buffs.

Both also sport an entirely new look.

Apple¹s new OS abandons what was termed the Platinum interface for a new

GUI called Aqua. Filled with colorful, translucent, throbbing buttons, it

provides the user with a sense of depth lacking before. With the advent of

what Apple calls the ³Dock² users can easily access applications and get

information about their system as well as add additional bells and whistles in

the form of docklings.

One popular item out now for the dock is a glowing Jack-o-lantern. It doesn¹t

do anything except sit there and glow but its the type of memory-wasting toy

Linux and Unix X-windows users have become accustomed to.

Microsoft¹s new OS also leaves behind its look and goes with a colorful

updated blue start bar with a big green button. Some will like the new colors,

while others will consider them a bit garish. Other options are available with

the use of themes. An attempt to get additional themes landed me square on

the Microsoft Website for Microsoft Plus! ‹ an additional software package

available for purchase.

That¹s one of the more disturbing aspects of XP. Everytime you turn around

you are being poked and prodded by Microsoft to go here, and visit this.

From product activation (a required service Microsoft has developed to help

foil privacy) to asking you to register for this or that to get instant messaging or

e-mail. Users can eventually turn most of these nags off, but for the novice

user it can quickly become a befuddling mass of directives.

It makes me want to tell Microsoft to just back off and let me use my

computer to do what I want. I would have sent them an e-mail to that effect

had XP not devastated my e-mail account deleting all my deleted messages,

sent messsages and my inbox. The account was still active and it checked mail

immediately. My first piece of mail in the now pristine inbox was mail from

Microsoft. Surprise.

XP also decided that it didn¹t like my 802.11 wireless network that I use at

my house to connect my PC, Apple Powerbook and my wife¹s iBook. So

now I have a 25 foot phone cord running across my office in order to get

online. A quick check with the hardware vendor for the network interface

finds that it doesn¹t yet support XP. Get used to hearing that if you are an

early adopter.

Apple¹s OS X wasn¹t without its problems when first released either as it

shipped without key components like CD-burning, DVD playback and the

ability to connect to Appleshare file servers. Early adopters, notorious gluttons

for punishment, were left to wait on updates and periodic boots into the

previous operating system OS 9 in order to get a great deal of work done.

OS X 10.1 fixed a lot of those problems but users are still waiting on

applications that are native to the new OS before it can really be used as a

workhorse. OS X can boot the previous operating system and run

applications from it but it is still usually a slower and more crash prone

process than just running in OS 9 straight.

>From a software compatibility side, most of the software that runs in

Windows will run in XP without a hitch and the installation program does a

fine job of pointing out programs that may have a problem with the new

system.

Both systems also offer protected memory ‹ a feature that means if an

application crashes it won¹t bring the entire system to its knees ‹ something

both the old Mac OS and the 9X versions of Windows did with frightening

regularity. So far both systems seem to hum along with a stability unheard of in

previous incarnations.

As with all software, remember that minimum requirements mean just that.

With memory prices the way they are now it may be the best time to load up

on RAM before plunging into either OS. It will make a big difference in your

computing experience.

Chris Lykins is the managing editor and systems manager for the

Gazette-Enterprise newspaper.