As I write this, my copy of the new Macintosh OS X operating system, code-named "Tiger" is on it's way to me via FedEx. This morning, The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg said about Tiger:
Overall, Tiger is the best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market, despite a few drawbacks. It leaves Windows XP in the dust.
The new OS includes Spotlight, a very powerful search function that will change the way people manage their documents and data files, a new iChat video conferencing application that you need to see to believe, a RSS-enabled Safari Web browser that I blogged about here way back in June 2004 and Dashboard.
Dashboard is a great idea. Unfortunately, it's not a new idea. A piece of software called Konfabulator (one of my personal favorite shareware apps) has been doing the Dashboard thing for several years. Apple decided to "borrow" the idea without compensating Arlo Rose, the Konfabulator creator. Good news for Konfabulator is that it is now available for Windows and is more than worth the $24.95 they ask for it.
So sorry for the rant. Got carried away there. This post is about a book, "Revolution in the Valley - The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made." Andy Hertzfeld, one of the major brains behind the Mac compiled this book from stories on his Web site Folklore.org about the Mac, written by the actual people who built the original Mac. It's a pretty, coffee table-like book with lots of pictures and nice design. For those who have read the stories on Folklore.org, some of the chapters will be second-time reading, but even for me it was great the second time around. And it $24.95, it's actually a good deal for a hardback book with quality paper and spot color on every page.
I'm not sure if Steve Jobs has taken this book off the shelves of the Apple stores.
More on Tiger tomorrow...
-aB
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