Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

TheSpaz · Jun 5, 2005, 10:35 PM

Got anything you want to say about Tiger that made you very happy? A bug fix... a change that has made headaches go away.

I don't mean stuff like: I love Dashboard and Spotlight.

Like... the little things you've noticed after using Tiger for a little while and said "Wow, that works now... cool!"

I'll start with one: Using iDisk and Browsing Servers in the Finder are much much faster than it was in Panther. I used to have to wait and wait before folders would show up if I was accessing my PowerBook from work. I am pleased that it's much smoother now.

Tyre MacAdmin · Jun 5, 2005, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

change that has made headaches go away.

Tiger is in my judgement maybe 33% faster than Panther. If you spread that out over the release dates for the next ten years... say, OS XXXIX should be actually up to an acceptable level. All I can say is we're moving in the correct direction... somebody must have got out and pushed!

xenu · Jun 6, 2005, 02:36 AM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

Tiger is in my judgement maybe 33% faster than Panther. If you spread that out over the release dates for the next ten years... say, OS XXXIX should be actually up to an acceptable level. All I can say is we're moving in the correct direction... somebody must have got out and pushed!

Tiger is fast on a 700 Mhz G4 iMac, and faster on a 1.25 GHz Powerbook. I like it.
I also had no problems with Panther, that weren't my fault, or due to crappy software.

alphasubzero949 · Jun 6, 2005, 04:20 AM

Locking out non-admin users from fiddling with the printer settings.

Krypton · Jun 6, 2005, 05:10 AM

Live Finder updating means I don't have to wait 3 seconds for files to show up when working on my website or producing graphics.

TheSpaz · Jun 6, 2005, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by Krypton

Live Finder updating means I don't have to wait 3 seconds for files to show up when working on my website or producing graphics.

I love that feature! I'm also glad that Photoshop an Illustrator files don't disappear and then move to a different spot in the Finder after a save... it stays put finally.

chris v · Jun 6, 2005, 10:03 AM

I can re-size columns in open/save dialogs, and I have scroll bars in Adobe apps now. Yay!

Tyre MacAdmin · Jun 6, 2005, 10:46 AM

The only thing I don't like right now is how the Finder never remembers the places I position my drives on the desktop. It gets changed every time I reboot... annoying! I do like the new widgets though... that makes using stickies a non-cluster way for me to keep track of things.

owl1 · Jun 28, 2005, 01:33 PM

I have tons of photos, and s-light is so helpfull in finding them.

clarkgoble · Jun 28, 2005, 03:05 PM

1. Live updating
2. Safari speed and RSS (I know the speed was added to 10.3.9 as well, but still...)
3. Dashboard for weather
4. Updated mail (minus those ugly buttons)
5. XCode 2

Randman · Jun 28, 2005, 03:10 PM

Continued integration. Mail is good, Safari 2.0 is very nice. I find Spotlight to be very helpful once you get the hang of it, same with Automator, to a lesser degree.
And I like Dashboard. It does save a ton of time when working.

monkeybrain · Jun 28, 2005, 04:19 PM

The slideshow feature in the Finder is cool, so easy to use that I wish it was the same in iPhoto (where you have to click in a dialogue box before going fullscreen). Of course it's still buggy, but already better than I expected and a bonus too (I never thought they were going to add a slideshow).

fisherKing · Jun 28, 2005, 05:18 PM

just generally, tiger seems faster, more stable.
tighter. cleaner.

when i have a lot going on (say, rendering a qt file, listening to itunes, surfing, printing, etc),
my powerbook doesn't seem to be struggling.

spotlight is nice (needs improvement), dashboard doesn't do much for me.
automator is okay, need to explore it more (need more options!)

but overall, everything works. well. which is want i want from an OS.

Don Pickett · Jun 28, 2005, 05:56 PM

Fine grain thread locking in the kernel. By far the best thing about Tiger, IMO. Although, I have to admit that Dictionary runs a very close second.

OptimusG4 · Jun 28, 2005, 08:28 PM

Spotlight. Quartz Composer. Stability.

Kerrigan · Jun 28, 2005, 08:49 PM

It is not as good as Linux in terms of stability and ease of use

msuper69 · Jun 28, 2005, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

The only thing I don't like right now is how the Finder never remembers the places I position my drives on the desktop. It gets changed every time I reboot... annoying!....

Off-topic.

This thread is about good stuff - not problems.

msuper69 · Jun 28, 2005, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

It is not as good as Linux in terms of stability and ease of use

And how is that something you like about Tiger?

Off-topic. Geez!

msuper69 · Jun 28, 2005, 09:27 PM

I like Spotlight because now I don't have to go frantically searching using the old Finder search when I have misplaced a file in my home directory. That is more than enough for me to make Tiger worth every cent/euro/drachma/yen/whatever.

Spotlight has changed the way I use computers (well, at least my Macs-damm Windows boxes at work-I forget that I don't have Spotlight there-or the Dock-or Exposé-or ... well, you get the idea!). Spotlight is one feature where the marketing and the reality are one and the same.

At least for me-YMMV.

CaptainHaddock · Jun 28, 2005, 09:30 PM

Good things I have to say:

1. It's faster.
2. Tiger fixed that annoying display glitch with inactive window shadows.
3. Sending a file in Mail no longer permanently marks that file as "in use".
4. I use the pop-up dictionary and thesaurus constantly. (I'm a writer.)
5. Automator is awesome for renaming files and doing other repetitive tasks.
6. Tiger fixed an annoying network bug where enabling Windows file sharing could take 50% CPU.
7. Rebooting is fast! (The once a month I do it.)
8. Safari keeps improving. It's my regular browser again.
9. The improved wifi reception is appreciated.
10. I like the new Quicktime.
11. They finally added a Canadian English keyboard option.
12. Tiger can utilize some of the advanced features in Opentype fonts now.
13. Watching 100 Apple engineers outshine Microsoft's legions of Windows engineers never fails to amuse.

I've restricted myself to unpublicized bug fixes and "pleasant surprises". Naturally, I appreciate a lot of the major features too, like Spotlight.

danman · Jun 28, 2005, 10:07 PM

Linux is easy to use? LOL that's funny. What a bunch of crap.

msuper69 · Jun 28, 2005, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by danman

Linux is easy to use? LOL that's funny. What a bunch of crap.

I had to pick myself up off the floor after reading that one. Very funny.

Tyre MacAdmin · Jun 28, 2005, 11:03 PM

Tiger just gets better once you know your command line... which is what i guess you're implying by "Linux is hard"

clarkgoble · Jun 29, 2005, 02:30 AM

Linux and easy to use was funny.

I should add that the Dictionary is something else I really love. Not quite as great as the built-in spell checking in Cocoa edit panes. But close. Of course the spell checking was part of 10.3 not 10.4.

I just downloaded Graphics Converter and I believe it leveraged CoreGraphics to do a lot of filters. I rarely need to use Photoshop now. (I have an older version of Photoshop, but realistically I don't use most of its features)

Macpilot · Jun 29, 2005, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Krypton

Live Finder updating means I don't have to wait 3 seconds for files to show up when working on my website or producing graphics.

On my Tiger machine, the Trash icon in the Dock still does not update without clicking on it. For example, when deleting songs from iTunes, no trash shows up in the icon till I click it, which is still a minor hassle since it requires 2 clicks to empty the trash instead of 1.

stongey · Jun 29, 2005, 03:18 PM

Preview now displays JPEGs that are not complete. Used to have to use GraphicConverter, now I don't.

Small thing, but it makes me happy.

Chinasaur · Jun 29, 2005, 06:50 PM

Tiger was supposed to have better SMP support. Can any dual owner verify? Confirm? Any noticeable improvement?

MartiNZ · Jun 29, 2005, 06:59 PM

I really like the rollover dictionary cmd-ctrl-d feature - it is certainly one of those things that has changed the way I interact with my computer, which is something they aim for....

Interestingly it has also affected the way I interact with other things ... but I've found that there is no such feature in books

.

timmerk · Jun 29, 2005, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

Tiger is in my judgement maybe 33% faster than Panther. If you spread that out over the release dates for the next ten years... say, OS XXXIX should be actually up to an acceptable level. All I can say is we're moving in the correct direction... somebody must have got out and pushed!

33% faster! How about 10% slower! Only thing that is faster for me is boot up time to login screen

Ji Eun · Jun 30, 2005, 12:53 AM

Displaying a folder full of thumbnail images in finder is finally up to XP's speed.
Safari 2 and RSS.
"Open at login" option from the dock can be handy, though I haven't used it.
Slideshow from *anyplace* is just amazing.
Applications launch soooo much faster than 10.3.
GUI is much more responsive, i.e. window resizing, scrolling.
Cmd+Ctrl+D
Greater flexibility in time / date menubar options.
New default Aqua wallpaper is purdy ;P
Login / Logout is faaaast, as is startup / shutdown.

osxrules · Jun 30, 2005, 09:45 AM

One thing that really pleased me is that disk utility now only uses the same disk space for an encrypted disk image as the data itself and you input the password at the start of the process. In Panther, it used to use double the space for some bizarre reason and the password was input half way. It only did this with encrypted images though.

It's hard to talk about responsiveness because I got Tiger with a new machine, which is a G4 up from a G3 and 1GB DDR Ram from 384MB SDRam. I still think Spotlight could be faster but I love that it indexes the contents of files too. I don't like that I can't search certain folders but for that may well be in the interests of efficiency.

I loved Dashboard at first but quickly grew tired of it like it's just a gimmick. Also because I realised the widgets were using nearly 1GB of my hard drive space in virtual memory. I still use Dashboard but I don't keep the programs running, I just drag what I need into the window when I need it. Probably I'll eventually just get apps that do the same thing as my widgets.

Startup in Tiger is much faster; roughly twice as fast for me than Panther but again I'm on a faster machine with more ram.

I don't like that the kernel is using nearly 1.5 times the virtual memory of Panther though.

I love the Safari archive feature. I wanted that for ages.

Icon view is faster - pretty much instant for me. That's a great help when sorting photos. I didn't know about the slideshow either, that'll possibly replace graphicconverter for that job.

Overall, I'm content with Tiger but not blown away by it. I guess I expect the more versions they release, the fewer major improvements will need done. I'm looking forward to the Intel Macs more than Leopard to see what capabilities that will bring.

TheSpaz · Jun 30, 2005, 04:45 PM

You know what's pretty cool in Tiger...?

I now can hide Apps while a sheeted progress bar is out... I'll explain what I mean. When you're exporting a GarageBand file to iTunes, a sheet slides down with a progress bar in it... in Panther you couldn't hide the App while it was doing that... you could only just have it in the background with your other work on top of it. However, in Tiger you can hide GarageBand while it's exporting a project to iTunes... YAY!

brettcamp · Jul 1, 2005, 03:44 PM

I'm seeing most of the benefits others have mentioned, too, as well another one I can't quite believe: since I Tigered, my Powerbook now shows a stronger AirPort signal, even though I haven't moved the router or Powerbook. Could Tiger have somehow improved AirPort reception? Hard to believe.
One little glitch: you used to be able to select text in mail and drag it to the subject line of a Mail message. Can't do that in Tiger, although you can drag and drop text to the addressee and CC lines. no biggie, but I wonder why they did that?

Tyre MacAdmin · Jul 1, 2005, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by timmerk

33% faster! How about 10% slower! Only thing that is faster for me is boot up time to login screen

I can see a slight difference in acceleration with Tiger compared to Panther. The problem I run in to is that I have a ton of apps open and background processes running... and when I'm full tilt thing's still feel as slow as Panther. The gui gets back to it's slow ways. Compared to XP this does not happen... but then again that's a little different.

Don Pickett · Jul 1, 2005, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

I can see a slight difference in acceleration with Tiger compared to Panther. The problem I run in to is that I have a ton of apps open and background processes running... and when I'm full tilt thing's still feel as slow as Panther. The gui gets back to it's slow ways. Compared to XP this does not happen... but then again that's a little different.

How much RAM do you have? The difference between 512 megs and 1 GB in my Pismo is considerable.

Tyre MacAdmin · Jul 1, 2005, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Don Pickett

How much RAM do you have? The difference between 512 megs and 1 GB in my Pismo is considerable.

1.5GBs PC133 333

It's an old rig, granted, but Linux scales perfectly on it. I do a lot of cpu intensive work, but it makes me wonder if they're putting this thing together with applescript studio or do they have any real programmers who know their tricks good. Slapping together a flashy OS just to get sales is not the way of the Jedi... but that's the capitalist culture that I live in... therefore I question everything and am very harsh on my critiques (partly comes from art school also) It's best to ask somebody else if you're looking for praise on your work... but if you want to get damn good at something I can help. That's my philosophy. It makes enemies but it also makes heros.

mAxximo · Jul 1, 2005, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

Slapping together a flashy OS just to get sales is not the way of the Jedi... but that's the capitalist culture that I live in... therefore I question everything and am very harsh on my critiques (partly comes from art school also) It's best to ask somebody else if you're looking for praise on your work... but if you want to get damn good at something I can help. That's my philosophy. It makes enemies but it also makes heros.

Bravissimo.

jimcpherson · Jul 1, 2005, 08:30 PM

1) improved disc burning using Finder (I didn't bother reinstalling Toast)
2} improved Font Book (I didn't bother reinstalling Suitcase)
3) pushing the button on my scanner now opens (a much improved) Image Capture (I didn't bother reinstalling my Epson Scanner software)

Don Pickett · Jul 2, 2005, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

1.5GBs PC133 333

It's an old rig, granted, but Linux scales perfectly on it. I do a lot of cpu intensive work, but it makes me wonder if they're putting this thing together with applescript studio or do they have any real programmers who know their tricks good. Slapping together a flashy OS just to get sales is not the way of the Jedi... but that's the capitalist culture that I live in... therefore I question everything and am very harsh on my critiques (partly comes from art school also) It's best to ask somebody else if you're looking for praise on your work... but if you want to get damn good at something I can help. That's my philosophy. It makes enemies but it also makes heros.

Don't know what to say. I find Tiger to be noticeably faster.

Tyre MacAdmin · Jul 2, 2005, 08:25 PM

It maybe on your configuration... Tiger is faster on mine... but not to the point I feel it should be.

Clive · Jul 2, 2005, 10:03 PM

Yes, they finally fixed the bug in Finder views where the settings for "calculate all sizes" and don't "use relative date" actually "stick" rather than going back to defaults within a few clicks.

Tyre MacAdmin · Jul 3, 2005, 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by mAxximo

Bravissimo.

thx!

Ji Eun · Jul 4, 2005, 03:58 AM

Originally Posted by Tyler McAdams

I can see a slight difference in acceleration with Tiger compared to Panther. The problem I run in to is that I have a ton of apps open and background processes running... and when I'm full tilt thing's still feel as slow as Panther. The gui gets back to it's slow ways. Compared to XP this does not happen... but then again that's a little different.

eh? when i have a few apps open in windows this is what usually happens on my machine

ah yes, the joys of the Windows

MartiNZ · Jul 4, 2005, 06:16 PM

Hmmm looks nice In my experience Windows is much more prone to becoming unresponsive when a bunch of windows are open. When on a network, even just opening 'My Computer' chokes the system for a good 5-10 seconds - whereas it seems to me OS X has always had good skills with such networking and it only improves with each release.

And now we're not far away from having no bugs at all in the system

, a.k.a. 10.4.2.