Mac OS X users, we know exactly what you're thinking: this new operating system arrived just too darn fast. After all, Apple bought NeXT in late 1996, and here we are, using the end result of that purchase a mere five years later. Only five years for the development of an operating system? Hold up there, Sparky, we're Mac users; we're not used to that kind of blazing developmental speed. Where was the ill-fated collaboration with IBM in all of this? Where was the horribly mismanaged OS project that sucked up millions of dollars and uncountable man-hours before it was finally scrapped as a lost cause? 'Cause, you know, five years... that kind of speedy delivery's enough to give us Mac users a pretty severe case of whiplash.

In fact, it was far less than five years, because Mac OS X 10.0 actually shipped way back in March-- and that's another problem we have with the speed demons in charge of Apple's OS development: the updates are arriving too quickly, too. Geez, 10.0 hits the shelves, a mere six months elapses, and suddenly we find ourselves staring at Mac OS X 10.1-- an overhaul major enough to have quieted a fair number of 10.0 complaints. Of course, there was one complaint that it only exacerbated: "These Mac OS X versions are coming so fast and furious our mortal minds simply can't handle the sheer velocity!" Never mind that 10.1 essentially only "fixed" a bunch of stuff that was wrong or missing in 10.0; a major upgrade is a major upgrade, and many a Mac user just couldn't handle the G-force and died in staring incomprehension of Apple's blistering rate of development.

But never let it be said that Apple doesn't listen to its customers. Faithful viewer scubus pointed out an eWeek article which indicates that the mothership is tightening the spigot a little when it comes to these rushing OS X upgrades. The next "significant revision," code-named "Jaguar" and expected to ship under as 10.2, was reportedly slated for delivery this January at Macworld Expo; now, however, Apple has seen fit to postpone that release until "early summer." eWeek claims that this decision was based on "internal concerns over the quality control of recent OS updates," but we know better. True, Mac OS X 10.1.1 did indeed introduce a few stability problems for some people when that update surfaced a few weeks back, but we'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the real reason for the delay of 10.2 is because if Mac users were to get yet another major OS upgrade just four months after the last one, our heads would shoot off our necks with a satisfying little popping noise.

So fear not, folks; Apple's looking out for our welfare by reining in these fast and furious OS updates so we don't suffer any undue mental trauma. And if this means we get OS versions that also just happen to have more features and fewer bugs, well, heck-- that's one nice side effect. Best of all, for those of you addicted to speed, fear not; minor updates should arrive frequently enough to take the edge off. Why, we understand that 10.1.2 is due any day now...