A little less than a month since Tiger was released, I’m sure some of you aren’t satisfied and you’re looking for more. Of course the real changes may not come until the end of 2006, in time to trump Microsoft’s Longhorn, if that is ever released. So there’s plenty of time for Apple to consider the changes it wants to make for 10.5, and perhaps do a few in a Tiger maintenance update.

Now it’s true that maintenance updates, like the recently released 10.4.1, are designed mainly to fix bugs and make things run better. But if you recall Panther, and the memory is fading I’m sure, you’ll remember that an irritating shortcoming in the login dialog brought up when you clicked Network in the Finder was fixed. The shortcoming? That it didn’t have an option to remember passwords for the next session, for example.

Already I’m hearing complaints here and there about two of the centerpieces of Tiger, Spotlight and Dashboard. When I interviewed author Matt Neuburg on this week’s episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, he was naturally delighted to promote his new ebook, “Take Control of Customizing Tiger,” but he also had some pointed criticisms to offer. It just goes to show that authors of computer help books don’t have to be cheerleaders.

Spotlight, for example. He loved the idea, but not the look, which he thought had an interface that wasn’t Mac like. He wasn’t a fan of Dashboard either, and felt that widgets should exist on the normal application layer, so they could pop up right next to a regular application window. Of course, third parties are addressing that limitation, if you consider it a limitation, but you can see that there are going to be lots of opinions of what what works and what doesn’t.

I’ve already weighed in on the lapses in the Open/Save dialog boxes, with my fervent wish that Apple would look to SuperBoomerang, Action Files and, of course, Default Folder for inspiration as to how it should be done.

The Mac OS X Finder still remains a point of contention with some, who long for the way it was handled in the Classic Mac OS. Personally this is one area where I prefer things the way they are, with one big improvement. And that’s the ability to remember size and view settings. Sure it’s gotten a lot better if you compare the Tiger Finder to the one that first premiered in Mac OS 10.0. But it’s not quite there yet. I prefer column view, and have selected the option in Finder preferences to open all new windows that way, but more often than not, those new windows will appear in icon view. Stubborn little thing.

One of the Tiger Finder’s shortcomings is an obvious bug. Here’s how you make it happen. Perform a Spotlight search and save it as a Smart Folder. Now click on the Smart Folder and give it time to build a list of relevant files. Now click on a regular folder icon in the Finder’s Sidebar. Even if that regular folder is set to column or list view, there’s a strong chance it’ll switch to icon view. Switch it back to column view and try again, and the problem is apt to reappear. I’m sure it’s a bug and not a feature, but you do get the idea.

The Apple menu remains undeveloped, and many of you prefer the Classic Mac OS version that first premiered in System 7, with the ability to add items, such as links to applications and documents, in a jiffy. True third party developers have addressed that shortcoming, but it seems to me Apple has done nothing more than spruce up the icon. It’s time to revisit the Apple menu and see where it can be improved. Just adding that one feature, the ability to customize, may be just the ticket, but perhaps some imagination is called for.

In past articles, I’ve also suggested some or all of the functions of the Go menu might be merged into the Apple menu. However, I’ve come to accept the logic behind it, that its features relate primarily to Finder functions, such as direct access to folders.

Moving further, it still seems to me that Mac OS X’s fax feature remains incomplete, which is why I only use it to send faxes of documents that I do not plan to actually print. One particular feature, touted as a Tiger improvement, just doesn’t work for me. The Help menu, for example, states, “To view the Fax List, click Set Up Fax Modem. From there, you can view and edit a fax modem’s information, including its name, location, and available options. You can double-click a fax modem in the Fax List to see its queue and view current and completed jobs.” Not quite. I still can’t make it display completed jobs. For now it appears that the developers of Page Sender, my favorite fax application, have nothing to fear from Apple.

In the scheme of things, perhaps my quibbles are minor, and it’s also true that some can be addressed in a Tiger update. No reason to wait till 10.5, where I really believe Apple ought to do something to truly amaze us. You still interact with your Mac in essentially the same fashion as you did 20 years ago. Isn’t it time for a fundamental change? And I’d like to see Apple again lead the way.

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You have to feel smug when you hear the statistics. Over 80% of PC users have been infected by spyware, and, dozens of spyware applications are typically found on their computers. Even the fastest Pentium-based workstations can slow to a crawl under this abuse. If you want to get a small picture of the damage Windows users face, read attorney Eric J. Sinrod’s article in USA Today on the subject. No wonder Congress is struggling over bills to protect us against the malware scourge.

Of course, these are Windows problems, right? Serves them right for using an operating system that wasn’t originally designed with security in mind. Whether home or business computers, I just wonder how many hours of work are squandered fighting the losing battle against these security leaks. Shouldn’t they all just switch to the Mac and enjoy a safe, secure computing experience? I mean, when was the last time a Mac OS X virus appeared, other than a few “proofs of concept”? In fact, when was the first time such a threat appeared?

Despite the apparent safety of the Mac platform, that hasn’t stopped such companies as Intego and Symantec from delivering virus protection software for the Mac. So what’s the point, other than to sell product, you may ask?

Well, it’s not as simple as that, not by a long shot. First and foremost, even if there is no immediate Mac virus threat, consider what might happen if you unknowingly forward a virus infected message to a Windows user. Today’s Mac virus prevention software is designed to detect a Windows virus, so you don’t end up being the “Typhoid Mary” or “Typhoid Martin” who unwittingly infects a PC user. Maybe you don’t care that much, but when you consider the fact that you have to interact with Windows users all the time, why do you want to be the source of even more misery?

Just as important, don’t get complacent! Every month or so, Apple releases a Mac OS X update designed to eradicate security leaks. For example, yesterday’s Keynote 2.0.2 update which, among the bug fixes, addresses a problem where “A maliciously modified Keynote presentation could be constructed to retrieve files from the local system.” So if you’re a Keynote 2 user, you are best advised to launch Software Update and let it do its thing.

Every time Apple plugs a security hole, it just shows that we are vulnerable. No operating system is immune. Yes, Mac OS X may be more resilient in protecting us from such things, but you have to be on guard anyway. Right now, with the Mac’s market share in the low single digits, maybe we’re not targets, at least not yet. But if the Mac’s market share continues to increase, the situation may very well change. In a recent published report, Steve Jobs warned that “”One thing you never want to do in dealing with security and viruses is be cavalier.”

Now I don’t want to have to say “I told you so,” but over the years, a few dozen Mac viruses have been unleashed. In fact, I still remember, back in 1989, when I installed a new Mac in my home, and, within minutes after installing a shrinkwrapped commercial application, encountered a virus infection. I probably wouldn’t have recognized the problem immediately had another application, QuarkXPress, delivered a warning that it couldn’t open because a virus had infected the system. I don’t know if today’s versions of XPress have similar features, but I have to thank the programmers at Quark Inc. back then for saving the day. I hadn’t thought about a virus threat, and, without software at hand to combat the problem, I ended up wiping the hard drive and reinstalling everything from scratch.

In the days just prior to the arrival of Mac System 7, large numbers of Macs were infected by a desktop virus, which damaged the database files that kept track of icons and application links. At the time, I was running the Mac section of a graphic arts service bureau, and nearly every floppy we got from clients was infected. Fortunately, after that exasperating close encounter back at home, I had the foresight to make sure all the office Macs were equipped with virus prevention software. I never regretted that move for a moment.

Although I have been skeptical of claims that Tiger’s Dashboard widgets are vulnerable to malware infections, the fact of the matter is that any application you run on your Mac has the potential of being infected in some fashion. In addition, Apple provides lots of system level features that application developers can tap to ease the process of creating new products. There are tools for both audio and imaging programs, for example. And, of course, there’s AppleScript. Consider for a moment what might happen if someone creates a script that masquerades as something useful, but, behind the scenes, deletes your files.

Spyware? Well, it hasn’t happened to us yet. The fact that you have to enter an administrator’s password to install an application should give you pause to think of what you’re doing, so you only install software you really want. But some applications don’t have installers. You just drag them to the Application’s folder and they’re ready to roll. Remember, the big problem on the Windows side of the world is that applications install themselves behind the scenes, without warning, without the option to just say no.

At the sime time, you should make sure you get your software from a trusted source, such as one of the popular software update sites, or direct from the publisher. Don’t be tempted by the ease of finding stuff on a peer-to-peer network, and before you break out that copy of Bit Torrent, think carefully what you’re doing. It’s always possible that a seemingly benign system enhancement might just secretly monitor your keystrokes and send it off to an Internet criminal to use as part of an identity theft scheme.

Remember what Steve Jobs is telling you. Be careful. Yes, it can happen here, and, yes, I do recommend virus prevention software for anyone who shares files with another computer or travels the Internet. And that means the vast majority of Mac users.

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An application quits, and you see a message asking you to decide what to do next. You can, among the choices, decide you just want to reopen the application and maybe subject yourself to more punishment. Perhaps click the button that promises to send a report about the problem to Apple, hoping that, among thousands and thousands of other reports, someone will take notice and do something about it.

But that’s just the beginning. Your Mac begins to slow down big time after installing new software, perhaps that 10.4 upgrade you just received. All too often you see a multilingual message telling you that you must restart your computer. Nothing works the way it should, and you wonder whether it’s all worth the fuss and bother. If you’re a switcher from the Windows platform, you begin to regret your decision. You come to believe you’re simply trading aggravation for more aggravation. Why are personal computers so unstable?

Consider the situation. You, the Mac user, have a computer with processor that, if it’s a G4 or G5, can be regarded as a supercomputer. Or at least that’s what Apple tells us. It’s supposed to deliver the same processing power as the computer that once filled an entire large room. It’s supposed to “just work,” and yet that’s just a pipedream. If the family vehicle became that unreliable, you’d hardly make it to the corner convenience store without stalling or suddenly accelerating for no reason.

A supercomputer on a desktop and it can’t figure out how to fix itself. What’s wrong with this picture? This isn’t to say that there aren’t tools around that will repair problems. If you know your way around the command line, you can take advantage of a rich set of arcane processes, such as repairing disk permissions, updating prebinding, fixing the launch database and lots of other stuff. But what does all that mean, and why do you need to keep your Mac running in the wee hours of the morning to run some minor housekeeping chores? Didn’t you buy a Mac because you didn’t want to deal with command lines?

Of course, a few smart programmers figured out ways to put friendly faces on Mac OS X’s maintenance functions, so you can just point and click. That assumes, of course, that you know which button to click and what it’s supposed to do for you. Or maybe you just click everything in sight and hope for the best. Does this make any sense to you? It doesn’t to me, and I am supposed to know my way around the typical troubleshooting dilemmas. Why does it have to be that way?

Now I don’t pretend to understand the programming obstacles, but there ought to be self-checking processes that would determine whether permissions have gone amuck, whether the wrong application will launch when you try to open a document, whether preference files are corrupted. True, some of those maintenance utilities can be set to operate behind the scenes, on a prescheduled basis, so you know that at least some of the things that befuddle you will get fixed, whether the fix is needed or not.

But remember that these utilities were created to fill gaps in the operating system, to perform the tasks that Apple didn’t for some reason, want to do for itself. Take a look at Cocktail, Macaroni, Tiger Cache Cleaner and all the rest. Most or all were created by just one or two clever programmers, usually working part time in the evenings or on weekends. Apple Computer has a staff of hundreds of men and women working on Mac OS X. Hundreds of millions of dollars of research and development money is on hand to fund their work. Tiger has 220 new or improved features, but none of those features will fix your Mac for you.

Why wasn’t some sort of self-repair routine included among those features? Can’t be done? Maybe, and don’t take this seriously, maybe Apple needs to hire some of the developers of those Mac OS X maintenance programs and give them the resources they need to build these features into the operating system. Or maybe self-repair just doesn’t rate so high on the list of priorities, and that’s unfortunate.

Now I’m not going to revisit the argument whether some of these maintenance chores, such as repairing disk permissions, are really necessary. I’d rather think that all this stuff is only required when things have really gone wrong but, as I said, it shouldn’t come to that point. If the system can’t fix itself, there ought to be a message telling you what to do next; a help message, if you will. I mean, Tiger already has a feature that diagnoses the state of your network if you can’t get online, so why not take it to the next logical step?

Why indeed? If Apple’s bean counters added up the expense of providing technical support for matters that could have been dealt with automatically by some sort of built-in repair routine, I bet they’d be shocked. And maybe those figures would offer an incentive to set things right, and I’d like to see happen it long before 10.5 arrives.

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