[I'mDaMac]

I am steadily leaning towards the conspiracy theory of forked builds within Apple. It is a common practice in the development of software and I don't see why Apple would be any different. If anything, I like to believe this is so, since I find that the build sent to developers recently (4K78) is not up to what I deem "Apple standards." It's good. By far the best build yet, but not quite enough to be crowned an FC build, IMHO. The folowing is pure speculation on my part but it is nonetheless based upon factual observations during the course of testing builds of OS X from DP1 to the Public Beta and finally the supposed FC build 4K78. I base my findings on two features which are conspicuous by their absence.

The first has never made an appearance in any build that I know of but the utility is of the utmost importance to PowerBook users, and that is the mounting of PCMCIA cards on the desktop.They don't. For those of you who use PowerBooks you know that PCMCIA cards mount on the desktop and to remove them you simply drag them to the trash and they eject. I have used two cards in my PowerBook (MacAlly USB and Newer FireWire2GO), which work flawlessly BTW, under OS X and haven't a clue on how to remove them short of shutting down or re-booting into OS 9.1. The eject buttons don't work and there isn't a utility or obvious way to eject the cards. There also isn't any documentation to this under "Help." It should have made it into one of the builds by now. I KNOW Apple doesn't expect me to re-boot or shutdown in order to eject my PCMCIA cards. If anyone knows how to accomplish this in the PB or later builds PLEASE post how, it's driving me nuts.

The second is actually a feature that Steve Jobs himself gave a demo of at MacWorld Tokyo and also isn't in the so-called FC build. It is the point size slider in the font panel. If any of you remember, Steve re-sized fonts dynamically using a slider control in the fonts panel; this is not in the FC. Why? The MacWorld Tokyo keynote was given on Feb. 22, 2001, which was actually the evening of Feb. 21, 2001 in the U.S. The FC CD has a creation date of Feb. 23, 2001 (which we can assume is U.S. time since Cupertino is in California) and a modification date of March 1, 2001. So this puts this build as more recent than the MacWorld Tokyo build; or is it? Now consider that the builds, according to reports, have been almost nightly. Just how old is this supposed FC build that Apple is distributing. Is there indeed a separate build with a different feature set that Apple is going to combine with these [public] 4KXX builds into what will eventually become the true GM? I like to think so. What do you think?


P.S. I know, I know, it's some thin evidence but it's all I have to hang onto at this point. I'm disappointed by this so-called FC and I'm hoping there is more.


(edited for clarity)

[This message has been edited by I'mDaMac (edited 03-10-2001).]

[machdreamer]

Man, you and me both.

I'm trying real hard to love this new OS, but it seems somewhat sluggish and is missing some of my favorite OS 9 features. However, it is pretty usable and inherently exciting (O brave new world, that has such an OS in't), and I know that as time goes by it'll become faster and that 3rd party developers will address many of my concerns.

The main problem I have with it is that my Wavelan PC card *doesn't* show up on the desktop. Anybody out there have a solution for that one?

[Cipher13]

I think every leaked build has been a small portion of the then-current dev release.
Put all features missing in new ones that are present in old ones, and you come close to an old, full developer copy of OSX.

Indeed, even 4K73 (latest I have) is awful

Jobs is gonna amaze us come the full public realease - maybe not the 24th, but when he proclaims it to the world loud and clear.

Cipher13

[This message has been edited by Cipher13 (edited 03-10-2001).]

What a weird thread.

All of you who are hoping for a miracle come 3/24 are going to be sorely dissapointed. There is no March surprise. There are no forked builds. Imagine a bit more speed and a bit more stability and of you with pirated copies have a decent idea of what you are going to get.


1. The PCMCIA eject thing is an oversite and will eventually be fixed (fix might even make it by 1.0, but don't hold your breath). Most folks with these cards just keep them in their machines and don't swap. This is a minor issue for most. You can always reboot.

2. Haven't confirmed this, but I've been told the font slider is a feature specific apps can access. It is not yet in the default font control panel except on the one customized for Japanese apps.

3. Does the wavelan PC card need a driver in 9? If so, it won't show up without a driver in X.

4. Anyone who says the k73 build is "awful" has no idea of what a complex engineering challenge is is to meld MacOS and Unix. This build is very useable especially if you are using standard hardware (slower on exotic hardware).

If you are a pro you shouldn't expect to be able to do all your work in X for at least a few months. Be patient. It's a whole new world and there is much to work out.

[jamesa]

Originally posted by technote 31:


1. The PCMCIA eject thing is an oversite and will eventually be fixed (fix might even make it by 1.0, but don't hold your breath). Most folks with these cards just keep them in their machines and don't swap. This is a minor issue for most. You can always reboot.

I remember right after the release of the PB there was a technote on this. It ran something along the lines of - yep, it doesn't work, yep, we know it doesn't work. They finished up saying that it would be released in a "future" version update. Hmmm...

[mmurray]

1. The PCMCIA eject thing is an oversite and will eventually be fixed (fix might even make it by 1.0, but don't hold your breath). Most folks with these cards just keep them in their machines and don't swap. This is a minor issue for most. You can always reboot.

People using Wavelan or Skyline cards can't just leave them in the machine they have a big aerial sticking out the side. This is the OS that you restart so infrequently it doesn't have a restart menu item - great.

3. Does the wavelan PC card need a driver in 9? If so, it won't show up without a driver in X.
[

It doesn't need a driver in 9.

Michael