Mac OS 10.3: System Prefs
Posted on January 20, 2004
Pros
- The new Keyboard Shortcuts panel is very cool. It allows you to change global keyboard shortcuts for the system as well as individual applications. Caveat: Does not work on Classic applications or Classic itself. For example, turning off Command-Option-D for hiding the Dock in OS X works great, but when you switch to a Classic application like QuarkXpress 4.x, the shortcut still calls the Dock.
- Login Items has been renamed to Startup Items and is now found in the Accounts panel, which makes more sense, because if you're an admin, you can now customize multiple users' startup items at the same time.
- Closing the System Preferences window quits it as well and behaves like a control panel (Jaguar kept the app open).
Cons
- No more Internet Preferences! In yet another Microsoftian move, Apple has moved some of the global internet preferences to Apple's own applications, and completely hidden other preferences. To set the global web browser, you have to access it from within Safari; to set your favourite email program as the default, you have to use Apple's Mail to do it. Other protocols, such as the very important FTP, is nowhere to be found. In order to change OS X's default behaviour of using the Finder for FTP (and to set defaults for many other internet protocols), you can download the free third-party utility, MoreInternet.
- From all accounts on many web forums, you'd be well advised to stay away from Panther's FileVault feature. This password-protects your home folder, but many people have had problems with it, resulting in data loss. Don't use it unless you absolutely have to, and even then, make sure you do some research and testing first.
Use British spelling in your searches