Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The best OS out there. Period.
I used to hate Macs especially because of their OS. It was old, unstable and Mac users had to wait ages for updates which they had to pay to get. Well, MacOS X, is by far the most complete and beautifully engineered OS out there (at least on a commercial basis). It is based on NeXT (using the Mach ker.nel) and BSD -- a feature which offers a lot to someone coming from a UNIX platform -- and clearly the best GUI out there. Some may argue that it is not as polished as it could, but, hey, what is? Windows or Linux? Besides, Apple is releasing free *until now* revisions for download every couple of months and it has improved a lot since 10.0. (the current version at the time of writing is 10.1.2). Release 10.2 is rumoured to have great new features old Mac users requested as well as more language packs and a speedier Quartz. (the graphics engine) I recommend this to anyone open-minded enough to leave windows behind him/her.
Rating:  - Stable but Often Slow
Mac OS 10.1, the long-awaited gift from Apple, is impressively stable. The stability of this OS gives it an edge over the older build of Mac OS 9 (and older systems). Dynamic memory allocation and preemptive multitasking are positive aspects too.However, I would not suggest OS X on a G3 unless you are ready for slow resizing and tediously long launch times. Indeed, even though it is slower, I feel that I am obliged to use OS X on my 600 MHz iBook - not because Apple is phasing out "classic" support. The only thing that truly binds me to OS X is that it is much more stable than OS 9. However, seeing how good things are coming with the new ideas from Apple as they update the system, I would suggest keeping an eye open. Perhaps OS X will speed up soon.
Rating: - Leave your OS 9 at the door
After using the Public beta and Mac OS X 10.0 (the first public release), with this release I made the "permanent" switch. It's not perfect, but it gets 5 stars because Apple has done more than anyone could hope for considering this is only the 2nd retail release of this OS. The wonders of Mac OS X have only just begun...Eye-candy aside, this release is most importantly stable, much more feature complete (DVD Player and Disc Burner support), and it utilizes dual processors beautifully. I haven't locked up the machine once. Sure, you'll have to boot into Mac OS 9 once in a while and it won't be blazing fast on older systems. Office v.X is due shortly, and popular apps from Adobe, Macromedia, and others have already gotten the X treatment or development is underway. Third party hardware is still largely unsupported, but many inkjet printers connected via USB are supported in some capacity right ouf of the box. Drivers are trickling out from Epson, HP, and others. The good news is most OS 9 drivers work just fine in Classic and with Classic apps. Developers and technogeeks will enjoy the Unix underpinnings, bundled copy of Apache, Terminal access, SMB support, and robust networking capabilities... If you're still unsure, just do your homework. Mac news sites are chock full o' Mac OS X reader reports, troubleshooting tips, and capatability reports.
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