So what's left with X? I mean I now have every app I need on Mac OS X with the release of Photoshop 7 and the ability to synch my Clie. I got rid of Classic on this machine a few months ago, and now I don't feel like I'm lacking any application that I need to get work done. (Which kind of stinks because I'm out of excuses now.) I'm quite happy with Microsoft Office, OmniOutliner, Photoshop 7, Flash MX, BBEdit, and all the other Mac OS X apps I'm using. Vendors that have still not made it to Mac OS X with apps that I used to use on either a regular or sporadic basis have probably lost me as a customer because I have either found a replacement that I like on X or have learned to do without their application altogether.

Some fine examples of this are Fireworks and Dreamweaver. in my opinion, Macromedia dropped the ball on these in a serious way. The reason I think this is that there are other applications that do similar or the same things that made it there first and the demand for native apps was fierce. I used Fireworks almost every day before I switched to X. I've now learned to use Photoshop for the few things that I didn't know how to use it for previously so I don't need Fireworks at all anymore. I never really used Dreamweaver that much to begin with, but had it been available before, I would have bought it. Considering that Mac database connectivity in UltraDev has always been a second class cousin of its Windows friends(Cold Fusion Studio for instance.) I doubt that there will be a compelling reason to purchase Dreamweaver. I think there was an error in strategy there. Unless Macromedia is going to come to market with some innovative, compelling, must have features, I don't see any reason to upgrade my Mac OS 9 licenses to Mac OS X. That's only one example, but one that I think is pretty obvious. In another, the combination of OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle has replaced Inspiration, which I used to swear by for site mapping and visual documentation of technical solutions. If you don't make it over the hump, you are bound to lose customers. This is going to get more bloody for software vendors in the next few months. I care more about getting work done than I love your applications.

The interface of the operating system still has a few quirks that irk me. More specifically, I find the Finder to be slower than it should be, it has some behaviors that are far from intuitive, and some things that I wish were there that are not. I really am annoyed by the list view's window behavior, which is missing some of the basic features of the classic finder. There are some new features, however, that I now just love. One example of this is the column view.

The bottom line is that I am pretty happy with Mac OS X, which is somewhat surprising to me based on it's age and maturity level.