Applelust.com: skewed Mac - Dual-ing Prcocessors

Shewed Mac

Dual-ing Processors

Picture it, Southwest Virginia, 2001... An employee of an institution of higher learning bravely sets a disc into the tray of his Dual Processor 450 G4 and gently asks it to retract with a nudge. In moments a process begins that he has been anxious to undertake: Installing OS X on the critical main work computer.

All kinds of questions went through my head:

Should I just wait for Office X?

Will I be able to perform all of my normal functions without a clip in speed?

Is the world going to explode?

If the world explodes, how far will my comic book collection be flung from the Earth?

These were just some of the questions that bothered me in the process. And luckily they were all moot once I got 10.1 up and humming.

One transition I knew I'd have to make (having used 10.1 on my iBook and iMac at home) is just the general clean-up and re-organization of folders and material on the hard drive. Making the switch sort-of lends itself to peering in and noticing how disorganized you are, at least when you take the time to back things up before you install. Plus, with the fundamental rule-changes made in the way you approach data (column view, no "Apple Menu") it's best if you take the time to get settled in.

I fooled with some of this in OS 9 before I made the switch, and once 10.1 was installed I took to carving out my new home with folders in the dock. I wound up with a 5 folder system in the Dock (far more than I use in the wee iMac and iBook) for the college web site, Applications, Classic Applications, Documents and my generic "Found" folder (my dirty desk drawer of random items). Hopefully before too long the "Classic Applications" folder will just be tossed into the "Applications" folder. And as I get more savvy I can probably let "Found" just rest inside Documents, clearing up even more room. I've found I'm more of a Dock user than I ever thought I would be, so organizing with the Dock as my interface has been a helpful way to have production level parity with my operation in OS 9.

Also of interest was the ability to get to the important Classic apps and taking a long net look at what apps I could upgrade immediately to OS X counterparts.

Office X (which I refuse to call by its Number of the Beast: Office for Mac Os X v.10) wasn't out yet, and to be honest I just didn't trust the Word beta. I'd been using it on the iBook and wee iMac successfully for awhile but I'd noticed there were several points when it would quit out while I was trying to do a simple task. I just couldn't be bothered with the Word Beta's quirkiness at work, and once I played with how Office 2001 ran in Classic, I was pleased enough (my old Word seems less needy of memory under Classic, maybe because it gave up some of its pacifier-like obsession with "Connecting To Your Printer"). I'll be getting Office X soon enough, and my documents were safe running in Classic.

I knew Fireworks and Dreamweaver worked fine in Classic on the home wee iMac, but on the DP G4 they were just as speedy as their OS 9 counterparts. They certainly seemed to drag less with multiple applications open like OS 9 would sometimes be apt to do.

NOTE TO MACROMEDIA: GET THESE APPS TO OS X!!!

There weren't many other apps that were killer ones (I use Photoshop & Pagemaker sparingly) which I had to worry about. But I did feel the need to go update shopping on VersionTracker and grab some updates.

I've been wanting a good reason to try out the Connectix VirtualPC OS X Test Drive since MWNY, and I am happy to report it didn't disappoint. Once installed it worked like a charm, finding and offering up the HD images I'd been working on in OS 9 and translating their saved states immediately. I've yet to lose any productivity working in the Windows 2000 counterpart I keep on the Mac, and it looks as slick as it should under Aqua. Bravo, Connectix on this one.

The only app I didn't upgrade but could have was Eudora. I had a pretty late beta already, just not the newest one for OS X. It worked fine in Classic, and to be honest I just wasn't sure if I'd be switching to Apple's "Mail" program or not. The other caveat was the fact that Eudora had this OS X version of Eudora 5.1 in Beta forever and they have to release the final eventually (don't they?), so I'll wait for that. Plus, I wasn't sold on Mail yet (I am currently testing it for my own needs on the iBook so I'll know soon).

I decided to try out a new FTP program... And after skimming and sailing around the web I came upon a truly great app: RBrowser. This full-featured OS X FTP program had all I needed and more. The friendly interface was a welcome change from the ugly basic ones we (and most Windows users) are used to. It held my initial FTP tests without the need of making special shortcuts. The VersionTracker reviews say it all (and better than I could since I use it as a basic FTP vehicle). "Best of all: (drum roll please) it's FREE." That's right, freeware, and it's better than the ones I've paid money for. Three cheers for the RBrowser team on this one! That's my freeware plug for the day, grab it and run...

For the record, iTunes 2 rocks! The 22 presets in the equalizer are perfect for the average Joe like me, who has audio that falls cleanly into the categories they've prepared. And guess what? It really does burn twice as fast. That puts it nearly on par with a Toast. Considering that iTunes is free, combines a player-program, and interfaces with MP3 players, it surpasses Toast as a functional burner program for the common user (which is what matters, right?). It was neat to dig into the help files and learn about the iPod, which I'll carefully shelve as "luxury item I would love to have if someone will buy it for me". Updating to that was a welcome and easy task, considering it didn't erase half my stuff (ouch — early adopters that got burned, I feel for you) and it found all my MP3s without me having to reorganize them.

My hardware survived for the most part. My monitor worked of course (now aren't you glad you don't have to worry about things like THAT as Windows users do?). My Zip 250 worked without touching it or downloading any new drivers. My scanner works in Classic, which is good enough.

In fact, I was truly surprised with the over all speed of the Classic system on my work machine. It did have a chunk of RAM in it (768MB) but I believe the real accomplice to all this newfound zippiness was the "Dual" in the Dual Processor. In fact, I pulled up CPU Monitor and smiled at the double blue bars I had to work with. I was seeing the pivotal reason why switching to 10.1 should have happened even earlier than it did: I was actually faster here than in 9. A statement I'm not sure if I can make with my home machines.

So, the operation was a success. And the patient came through faster than he entered the operating room! All nervousness has been cast away and I can now say that I am a 100% OS X (some Classic crutches aside). I can also finally endorse it for anyone hesitant and worried that you'll lose any production quality or time. In fact, if you haven't made the switch and you're sitting on a Dual Processor machine, "Are you mad?!??" Get thee to OS 10.1! Get dualing!

The upgraded G4 in question:

G4 DP 450, 768 MB RAM
Apple CRT Studio Display
UMAX Astra 2100U Scanner
ZIP 250

Deano's other mentioned hardware:

iBook S.E. 366mhz/320MB RAM Running 10.1
iMac 400mhz/640MB RAM Running 10.1
Que! Firewire 4x/4x/24x CD Burner

Test Music:

Tweaker, "The Attraction To All Things Uncertain"
Oysterhead, "The Grand Pecking Order"
Everything, "People Are Moving"

Dean Browell

See also... Dual-ing Bandwidth - Software Base Stations in OS X (11-9-01) Dean Browell. iBook, Wee iMac, 2 Airport Cards, Mac OS X 10.1... All set for using a Software Base Station, right? Wrong. But how can we get one going without shelling out $300 for the hardware version?

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