The Great Tiger Giveaway

by Hadley Stern Apr 24, 2005

Apple Matters is proud to present our great Tiger giveaway! Apple is releasing Tiger this Friday, April 29th. In the spirit of Apple Matters the way to win your free copy of Tiger is to answer the following question below:

What was/is the most significant Apple operating system and why?

Our editors and writers will award the prize to the most interesting, and well-written post. Note, registration is required to leave comments.

The best written post gets a free copy of Tiger. Write away!

Contest Rules
- No purchase necessary to enter.
- The Tiger giveaway will begin with this posting:
- Deadline for entry is: April 28, 2005 at 11:59pm EST
- One entry per person.
- This giveaway is open to U.S. and international residents.
- Must be 18 years or older to enter.
- Void where prohibited.
- Apple Matters is not responsible for computer malfunctions, bugs or viruses, and causes beyond our control.
- Apple Matters has the right to terminate this giveaway at any given time without notice.
- Private information submitted by individuals becomes the property of AppleMatters. Apple Matters will not release any personally identifiable information to any third party other than necessary to deliver the prize to winners, and the name of the winners will be used to identify the winners on the web site.
- The prize consists of 1 copy of Apple’s newest operating system, Tiger, valued at $129.00 USD. Odds of winning any of these prizes depends upon the number of valid entries received.
- Winners will be chosen by the editors of Apple Matters
- Winners will be notified by email and announced at applematters.com.
- Associates, employees, principles, or relatives thereof of Apple Matters are not eligible.
- All taxes are the responsibility of the winners.
- The prize selected does not imply or express any endorsement from the manufacturer or any other relationship with Apple Matters.
- Apple Matters reserves the right to modify these terms to comply with the laws of the State of Massachusetts, to correct errors and omissions, or to ensure fairness as determined by Apple Matters. Such modifications, if any, will be posted at Apple Matters.
- Any attempt to manipulate, interfere with, or otherwise alter any entries, other systems or services of Apple Matters will disqualify all those implicated and subject them to prosecution in the State of Massachusetts, United States and/or other jurisdictions.
- Your entry implies and expresses your agreement to these terms and your waiver of any other rights, related to such giveaways, you may have in any jurisdiction.

Good luck!!

Comments

  • The most significant Apple Operating System, to me, is Mac OS X. This OS bridges the gap between desktop & portable computer OS and the enterprise-grade server OS with its battle-tested Unix core.

    Mac OS X gave Apple the most number of switchers from the science and engineering fields. Traditional geeks have found nirvana—a combination of a beautifully designed graphical user interface with the power of command-line interface of Unix, which is what Linux is trying to achieve, Windows is dreaming to achieve and the old Mac OS failed to achieve.

    prof had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 1
  • The most significant Apple Operating System was included with Lisa because it was the first step where Apple showed that they were not going to follow the path of least resistance, but would build a better system even if it meant taking chances on something new and different and unproven. This set them on the path that eventually has led to OS X.

    dleek, 25 Apr 05

    dleek had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 1
  • For me the most significant Apple Operating System is the Tiger version of Mac OS X.

    For example;

    The real cool cat, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, purrs along with at least 200 mew features in spite of Paul Thurrott’s “Tiger math”. These cover Mail.app updates to the Address Book and a page full of other enhancements, AppleScripting, with apparently the lion’s share happening in the Aqua-ized widget area with Dashboard, a few Audio and BlueToothing updates, some Developer Tool updates, improvements to the DVD player, Faxing, Finder Font Book, Graphics (Core technologies), iCal and iChat AV, Wireless Image capturing, expanded language and scripting support, mobile improvements to power management, a few network improvements, updates to Preview and Printing, QuickTime 7 added, Safari RSS added, Security, System and System Preferences updated, Universal Access includes a Voiceover function (yes!), UNIX and Windows support has been also improved.

    I eagerly anticipate Tiger’s release into the wild, because it is one mean cat that should purr contentedly on my iMac G5. It will maul MS Longhorn! It is the one that will easily sway fence-sitting UNIX and Linux as well as WinTel “Lusers” over to the Mac.

    Yep, Mac OS X has moved from Cringer to Battle Cat without being too catty about it. See the feature comparison between it and Panther and Jaguar at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/compare.html

    Tiger really is the Apple Operating System Cat’s meow.

    Get that Tiger! http://www.rienzihills.com/SING/T/tigerrag.htm

    Robert Pritchett had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 25
  • To me every Mac OS I have used was significant so choosing one is very difficult.
    System 6 is what introduced me to a computing world where you manipulated the machine in a way that “just made sense” using the “WIMP” (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) paradigm so that makes it particluarly significant to me.
    System 7 was the OS that had to cope with the changeover from 68K to PowerPC which was incredibly important for Apple to get right and is significant for just how well it managed it (so well that you hardly noticed it had happened).
    OS X is probably the *most* significant because it was the “big change” to a next generation OS that Apple really needed to make in order to have any chance of moving forward into the 21st century with a viable computing platform. Without X the Mac (no matter how loved) would have been trapped in a downward spiral of increasing irrelevance. X brought us, Unix developers and Open Source, forged links with Linux and made the Mac a viable platform for heavyweight maths and science tools.
    For me OS X 10.2 was the most significant version of X to date because that was when X matured into a “proper OS” that professional users like me could shift to without any real problems. In my mind that probably makes it the most significant Mac OS ever.
    OS X 10.2 was the OS that brought us all the benefits of Unix with enough of the comforts of our previous “Classic” existence to encourage people like me, who needed to be able to switch over and be up and running productively in a commercial environment within hours, that it could (and should) be done.
    To me that is when the world changed. I always loved my Mac, 10.2 just showed us all a whole new way to love our Macs and I believe started the Mac on its path back to mainstream success. In many ways I believe that 10.2 is the OS that saved the Mac and so I think that makes it the most significant OS release ever.

    Serenak had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 26
  • The most significant Apple OS was the original Mac OS.  This is the one that changed the world.  If the original Mac ran a character based OS, no one would have given it much attention.

    As a 20 year old with a keen interest in computers, the original Mac OS impacted me so much, that for 19 years I longed for a Mac (until circumstances finally allowed). I longed for that OS that could make my computer my companion.

    When I watched that recently revealed video of Steve Jobs launching that first Mac with its Mac OS, I got goosebumps watching what it could do. I am still impressed.  Because I was around in 1984, and I knew what computers were doing.  I knew what I wished computers could do. And that first Mac OS, excited me because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I could see that someone else that could make a difference, shared my same hope for computer OSes.

    That’s how it affected me, and history shows, that’s how it affected the world, as it turned the computer industry on its head, with IBM, HP and Microsoft among others coming out with (poor) imitations.

    Mac OS wasn’t the first GUI OS, but it was the one that changed the world.

    Chris Howard had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 1209
  • “What was/is the most significant Apple operating system…”

    Always the next one.

    “.....and why?”

    ‘Cos Steve says so. grin

    vortigern had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 25
  • I remember walking through a computer store when I was a kid.  The most exposure I had to computers was the TRS-80 (you kids probably don’t remember that one).  And then I saw something that changed everything, that I knew even then was the future of computers.  It was a fish swimming across the tiny screen of the first Mac OS.  This was the introduction of the GUI and it was nothing short of mesmerizing.  Also on display was the mouse, which I took to like a duck to that virtual water. 

    How many times to remember such a specific incarnation of an operating system from twenty years ago?  I couldn’t tell you anything about what version of DOS or the TRS-80 or Commodore 64 I was playing around with.  But I remember clear as day that first Mac OS.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 2220
  • While in recent years, I would have to say that OSX was the biggest leap and most influential Apple OS, probably very soon to be outdone by themselves again.

    However, as a budding musician and computer geek in 1978 (if memory serves), whatever version of OS that was on the Apple II+ had the most impact for me personally, for it was the only “desktop” consumer computer that could play music at the time.  Mind you, this music was pretty crude, but it worked!

    From that point on, I knew Apple and I would have a bright future together.  Of course, my first “paid” gig for sound design was on a Mac Plus (or was it a 128k) at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz - This was really getting exciting!!!

    My childhood plans for a “solid-state” system that could actually digitize someone’s entire music collection and let a handful of albums be downloaded into a portable “walkman” memory device looked like they were just on the horizon.  Oh, how I wish I had patented THAT idea!!! smile

    Mark Lindsey had this to say on Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 20
  • Apple’s newest operating system is nothing less than poetry in motion.  So to express the worth and value of Tiger nothing less than poetry will do.  So here is my simple Haiku giving homage to what I believe is the most significant operating system in the history of Apple.

    Tiger on the prowl
    Longhorn caught in the “spotlight”
    Redmond wets their pants

    mudrummer had this to say on Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 1
  • “You are holding the future of the Macintosh in your hands.” The year 2000 marked Mac OS X’s first, public appearance in the form of a Public Beta. For $29.95, you get an unfinished, buggy version of Apple’s next generation operating system, in a folder (not a box), with the above greeting in its inside flap.

    Fast forward to 2005, and we have since enriched our vocabulary with “ordinary” words as Graphite, Aqua, Quartz, Dock, Exposé, Rendezvous (which is now all Frenchy Bonjour), Dashboard, Spotlight, etc. Even Unix terms such as Kernel and Terminal have found their way into the average Mac user’s command line-phobic vocabulary.

    Most significantly, Mac OS X’s Unix heritage have proven that Unix can be all of stable, secure, user-friendly and beautiful. A concept hardly in the minds of most Unix users in the past. The most significant Unix interface innovation that I can recall is virtual desktops. Showing off Exposé or Dashboard to a Unix user a decade ago and telling him it runs on Unix would probably blow his mind.

    2005 heralded the Chinese Year of the Rooster. But as far as Mac users go, it’s the Year of the Tiger. We’ve gone through Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar (Jagwire), and Panther, and along the way, Mac OS X has given us iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iChat, iCal, iDVD, and all the other iApps as part of iLife or the recent iWork apps. We’ve never had this much fun in OS 9, but of course the times were different, and Mac OS X has kept us up with the times.

    Mac OS X, encompassing all its feline lineage: past, Friday the 29th, and future, clearly is Apple’s most significant OS, and whets our appetite for more Apple innovations to come.

    donvy had this to say on Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 1
  • The most significant Operating System Apple ever created was OS 6.  This was the operating system that came with my state-of-the-art SE30.  At a time in my career when I needed all the support I could get, OS 6 NEVER CRASHED, not once.  I did not even know that a computer could crash! Apple has covered all my bases ever since.  Quality counts.

    dm87 had this to say on Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 1
  • In my opinion Apple released their most important OS to date back in August of 2002.  It was at this time that Apple released what was their first true fully-functional version of OS X.  That release was version 10.2, or the Jaguar version, as it was more commonly known.

    There are many reasons why I’ve chosen OS X, and that specific version in particular, to be the most important Macintosh operating system to date, but to sum them all up in a very overused former Apple marketing slogan—and a mantra recently assimilated into the Microsoft corporate culture—“It just works”.  Now, I know that other renditions of Macintosh’s venerable operating system probably had more influence—after all, without the early Macintosh computer, Windows could still be command line driven today—however, one could also argue that these OS’s were ahead of the game, merely ushering in the inevitable computing future.  But, ohhhh, OS X in all your beautiful glory and Unix underpinings, how great you are for both neophytes and hackers alike, not to mention all those business profressionals, scientists, engineers, ...

    The real reason I name OS X the most important system that Apple has ever released is because they nailed everything for every user.  For business users (arguably the majority of computer users) you had all the office applications you needed, from MS Office to QuickBooks.  Not to mention it was finally easier to put a Mac up on a Windows-based network than it was to put a Windows machine on it.  For hackers and computer scientists, OS X had all the power of Unix as well as its Open Source compadres.  For scientists and academics OS X combined both of the aforementioned qualities to form a computer on which a researcher could do their research and actually write up the results on one PC.  For families you could now keep all your home movies, pictures, journals, everything in one place and it made it fun to do so.  The real power in OS X was that no longer would anyone need multiple computer—for the first time ever you could do everything on one machine. 

    It was in August of 2002 when I realized this for myself.  For the first time ever I could get rid of my multiple operating systems.  No more Windows for Office and Linux for programming.  From that moment I was finally able to do everything in one place.  And not only did Apple finally make the one machine to do everything, but they made doing everything fun.  Everything I do on my Mac is entertaining, while everything I do on Windows is work—or at least that’s how it always feels. 

    So, OS X gets my vote because it is the be all…end all, the alpha and the omega, its everything in one and its also fun to boot.  OS X has everything necessary to satisfy every computer user and it does so in a way that just makes you smile.

    Chris had this to say on Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 5
  • The best Apple OS? NextStep. It did almost everything OS X does, and ran well-on 30mhz Motorola 68030 chips. Did I mention it did this almost twenty years ago? True geeks will remember it’s final days as OpenStep, when it ran on PC hardware as well as Next, When it was the easiest cross platform developemnet system ever. Those were the days.

    The best Apple OS of al time? The one they bought and killed.

    parody had this to say on Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 1
  • Short answer: uname -a

    The best Apple OS is definitely Darwin - no matter what name or future name rides on it (ie. Mac OS X). Every bit of stability, pre-emptive scheduling, advanced memory management and even the responsiveness of the Graphical User Interface should be attributed to the Darwin kernel.

    Why the Darwin kernel and not talk about the applications, graphics or features? Well that’s because anyone’s opinion on such “subjective” material could all be true. People can argue about features, applications and graphics till apples turn into oranges; and it’s only a matter of time when Linux and Windows catches up with the “nice interface” and “catchy features.”

    As far as graphics and user friendliness is concerned, I feel that Apple was the best since day one - doesn’t matter whether it was an Apple II or Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X. Everyone else just copied.

    Yes, sad but true - everyone else just copied.

    So how do I judge the best OS then?
    - Count the number of times Darwin OS crashes/panics vs. Windows and Linux Measure the system uptime.
    - Measure responsiveness of “cool” graphics when heavy background processes are running
    - Measure security of the OS.
    - Look at code portability (for developers out there - POSIX compliancy)

    I’d go on but it’s 2:49 AM.

    So what’s my point? That when the kernel or OS is as rock solid as Darwin, people will love to develop applications on it. Apple’s graphics engine will run on it smoother and remains sleek. And well, the end user, remains satisfied always.

    Like I said: uname -a

    aeka78 had this to say on Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 1
  • In my opinion, the best release is probably Raphsody DR1, released in
    September 1997. This was the first OS release from the recently
    merged Apple-NeXT, and was the first version of NEXTSTEP (aka
    NeXTStep aka OPENSTEP) in a Macintosh skin.

    While that system wasn’t stable (some would claim that the first
    stable Mac OS X release was 10.2) or highly useful, it was the
    transition from the aging “Classic” Mac OS to a more modern platform.

    For while the old OS was highly respected, UI wise, it’s internals
    were more suitable for the eighties, when one would pay $3000 for a
    computer that was less powerful than a 3 years old cell phone.

    Not that UNIX, with it’s root in the 1970s is a modern OS: but it’s
    much more scalable, and much more suitable to exercise the
    supercomputer we currently call “home computers”.

    And besides, UNIX has much more hacker cred: I doubt any other OS
    would make me “switch” from my hand-built Linux throne, and become a
    drooling Mac-fanatic like the ones I used to laugh at only seven years
    ago (though I wonder what will happen if I’ll travel back to 1995, and
    tell Mac users then that in less than a ten years time, every new
    Macintosh computer would come with a command line and a copy of
    Emacs).

    shayel had this to say on Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 1
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