So we've been using Mac OS X for over a week, now-- and even if we'd been writing non-stop since then, we still wouldn't be finished with a review even nearly as long and as in-depth as John Siracusa's over at Ars Technica. Heck, it'd probably take us nine solid days to read that thing, let alone write it. That's not a criticism, mind you, because we're big fans of John's previous articles on earlier builds of Mac OS X, and always find his points accurate and insightful. In fact, we agree with just about everything he says, so if you want our extensive and detailed opinion of Mac OS X 10.0 and what works and what doesn't, plow through John's seventeen-page analysis and then stick this on at the end: "Ditto. --AtAT"

While our experience with Mac OS X has generally been a positive one, John does a great job at homing in on those aspects of the operating system that clearly need more work-- and there are a lot of them, such as inconsistencies in the Finder, soggy performance, and hefty resource requirements. Don't get us wrong: the article isn't just a whine-a-thon. When a portion of the Mac OS X experience is nifty, props are freely given, but when things aren't right, that fact is objectively stated in no uncertain terms. Is there a smattering of opinion here? Of course, but it's clearly labeled as such, and we feel that John has done an outstanding job of describing Mac OS X's pros and cons from several perspectives, from newbie to geek. We're guessing that the vast majority of open-minded Mac users who examine his points will find that their own concerns are adequately represented. (Then again, being card-carrying Steve Jobs Fan Club charter members, what do we know?)

Anyway, many thanks to faithful viewer Simone Bianconcini for clueing us in on the Ars review. Our advice to any of you interested in Mac OS X would be to rustle up a big bowl of popcorn, take the phone off the hook, and settle in for some heavy reading. And our advice to the Mac OS X development team would be to treat the Ars article as pure gold, because it's probably at least as valuable as all the rest of the user feedback on the system that Apple has yet received; consider it a manifesto for Mac OS X 10.1. At the very least, you should check it out just to see what happens when you launch every single application installed with Mac OS X, plus a hearty helping of third-party apps. Now that's a Dock!