Hunting Big Game

So I got Tiger. Me and thousands of other loyal Mac users around the globe. As a loyal Mac fan since... well, let's just say Steve Jobs has left and returned to the fold in the time I've been a Mac fan. Anyway, I eagerly awaited the release of the next revolution in the Mac world--that of Tiger, OS 10.4. The next Big Thing for we Macheads, allowing us to do more, faster and cleaner than ever before. But at the risk of being shot and lynched, I'm probably the first to pronounce the new OS as... Huh. Ok, I guess. Not the "1984" revolution by far, but Ok. Worth the $129 (or $69 for students)? I don't see it. Major upgrade? Ok, I'll buy that. Worth calling a whole new OS? Nah. Granted, Spotlight is cool, working just like iTunes' search function. However, it's just as many steps as hitting the OpenApple/F hotkeys and typing away, so gadget level = cool. Practically? Eh. It doesn't seem to run any faster on my dual 1.8 GHz, 512MB RAM, FX5200 (what a lame choice of video card for an otherwise hot-rod machine, but that's another rant altogether) G5 machine, and so no huge revelation there, and Dashboard seems to be an official collection of mini-programs that had been floating at one corner or another of the computing world anyway. Mail is streamlined a bit, but since the drawer is now part of the main window, it's kinda just window dressing. And last but not least, (it may just be the gremlins living in my printer...) the driver software for my HP PSC 950 inexplicably disappeared, causing a reinstall to be necessary. All in all, I think Tiger should have been billed as an upgrade, not a full OS. But if anyone asks, we're out of tar and feathers here. [Britt Godwin]