Apple's Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar released - Stores report long lines of customers for late night debut

MacCentral.com ^ | August 24, 2002 | Jim Dalrymple

[HAL9000]

Jaguar launch events pack retail stores

Apple Computer Inc. on Friday officially launched Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar at its 35 retail locations across the United States. So far, the events have seen hundreds of people waiting in line to get their hands on the new operating system and to get a glimpse of the demos Apple staff are putting on the theaters.

"This is the greatest night in Apple's software history," Ken Bereskin, Apple's director of Mac OS product marketing told MacCentral from Apple's Palo Alto Store tonight. "Our customers are very excited, this whole night is great."

Independent Apple resellers on the East Coast, where the events have now ended, report high customer turnout and brisk sales of Jaguar for the 100 minutes it was on sale. Mark Gregory, owner of the Mac Authority in Nashville, Tennessee, said the turnout at their Jaguar party was much higher than anticipated.

"We had a really good turnout and sold lots of copies of Mac OS X 10.2," said Gregory.

Many people took Apple Senior Vice President of Retail, Ron Johnson's words to heart and showed in droves wherever Mac OS X 10.2 was being sold. In an interview with MacCentral yesterday, Johnson said this is "100 minutes people won't want to miss."

Chad Wollman came to the Palisades Apple Store in West Nyack, NY with his family early in the evening to make sure he would get a copy of Jaguar. A recent Apple "Switcher," Wollman purchased an iMac, giving his father the Dell laptop he used to use.

"I just switched six months ago. I gave it a long shot and just fell in love," Wollman told MacCentral.

One hour before the event started at Palisades, six people were in line waiting to get their copy of Jaguar, but it didn't take long for the crowd to form. By 10:00 pm the line had grown to 100 people and well over 200 were waiting just 20 minutes later when Jaguar officially went on sale.

Apple employees racing to fill customer requests at the Palisades store described the mood as being like "opening day." Another employee added, "this is about ten times more hectic than opening day."

Many people prepared in advance and made a backup of their computers even before they left to purchase Jaguar. Loren Brichter, who lives about 40 minutes from the Palisades store, said she would install Jaguar tonight.

"I've been waiting for a year for this. I've been an OS X user since the public beta. I have the titanium at home, and I'm really excited about quartz extreme," said Brichter.

Not everybody that attended tonight's events came to purchase Jaguar. In fact, some people already had the new operating system, but just couldn't miss the excitement of an Apple event. Foster Bass, who received his Jaguar order earlier today, was at the Palisades for the event tonight.

"The excitement around an apple event is something that I can't miss," said Bass. "I got here at 10:00 pm thinking I would be early and there were already several hundred people here, to my surprise."

Lines continued at the cash registers as the event was supposed to close at midnight. Lines for people waiting to pay stretched out the door and employees were stationed in the mall's hallway to make sure people didn't walk off with product while on line.

(More photos at MacCentral.com)

[HAL9000]

From Slashdot.org -

Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" Reviews Pour In

"The reviews on Apple's new Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" are starting to come through.

The New York Times (free reg required) heaps on the praise: 'Mac OS X 10.2 is the best-looking, least-intrusive and most thoughtfully designed operating system walking the earth today.'

MacCentral is positive: 'From what I've seen Jaguar is leaps and bounds ahead of Mac OS X 10.1 in both speed and functionality.'

MacWorld has also chimed in: 'for most users, there are a lot of important improvements in this upgrade: performance boosts, improved printing, and interface enhancements will be immediate benefits. And over time, Mac OS X 10.2's new technologies (including Quartz Extreme and Rendezvous) will make the update even more valuable.'"

More reviews -

PC Magazine - "But the bigger news from Apple is the release of OS X 10.2 ($129, or $199 for a five-license family pack). Apple is clearly serious about enticing Windows PC users to switch. This release has far more essential improvements for professionals working in multiplatform environments than for home users. "

Wall Street Journal - " Jaguar is a big step forward for the Mac, and continues the effort to differentiate Apple's operating system from Windows XP. In my view, it's worth the price."

[Auntie Mame]

I'd sure like to hear from any freeper Apple users who get this. I'm sorely tempted, but want to be very careful about discontinuing my history of being at least four operating systems behind.

[johnboy]

aka: "mass hysteria reported as desparate macaholics seek some way to make their absurdly overpriced computers perform almost as well as last year's bargain-priced pc's."

these people are so pathetic that i have actually had a change of heart by which i pity these lost souls, instead of revile them.

[HAL9000]

I've ordered it, but it's not here yet - darn it! It's coming by snail mail through Apple's $20 upgrade program for recent Mac purchasers.

[Billy_bob_bob]

I'll be picking up my copy as soon as my local store gets has it on the shelves. My biggest gripe about OSX is that the printer support is very weak compared to my PC, but that is supposedly addressed in this release. All in all I think OSX is first rate and I'm looking forward to this newest release. Did I mention I've been using Unix systems for about fifteen years now?

[Looking4Truth]

I'm not going to get into the benefits of Mac vs. PC. My question is this.

What kind of loser waits for hours and hours (even days in some cases) for this or concert tickets or the latest restaurant or whatever?

[Billy_bob_bob]

Hello! How recent is "recent"?

[monkeyshine]

Will it run on a G4 450, and will it upgrade from OS 9.0?

[HAL9000]

How recent is "recent"?

July 17th

[HAL9000]

Will it run on a G4 450, and will it upgrade from OS 9.0?

Probably. See the System Requirements page to verify that.

[monkeyshine]

What kind of loser waits for hours and hours ... for concert tickets

When I was in High School I got up very early to wait in line for tickets to see "Tommy" by The Who. This was a very special concert, a one time only affair, in a relatively small theater.

We got there and were 6-9th in line. About 1 hour before the tickets went on sale, they told us that it didn't matter who got there first, we had to reach into a box and pull out a wristband. Depending on the number on the wristband would determine where we were in line.

Since there were several of us we felt fairly confident that one of us would get a decent number and buy 4 tickets, one for us all. But to no avail. The best we got was 12th in line. Maybe if we were lucky there would be tickts left for us.

About 20 minutes before the tickets went on sale, some other people we knew from school showed up. One of them worked for a ticket broker. He came to the line and looked at the numbers on our wrists. He then went to the trunk of his car, and pulled handfuls of wristbands out of a box in the trunk. He and the other guys gave themselves wristbands placing them in 5 of the first 7 spaces in line, bumping us even further. The concert sold out before we got to the window.

I have never stood in line to buy advance tickets again. I figure it's rigged at every Ticketmaster location in the city like just like that. Someone inside steals and sells the wristbands to a broker, who then go get the choice seats for resale. Waiting in line is pointless.

[montag813]

How pathetic...lemmings scurrying to an Apple-orchestrated P.R. event. Of course, Apple users are lemmings by nature, and mainly Communist.

[HAL9000]

Of course, Apple users are lemmings by nature, and mainly Communist.

That's shocking. I had no idea that President Bush, Rush Limbaugh and Rev. Billy Graham were Communists. We must alert the media to your wacko conspiracy theory.

[Bush2000]

So far, the events have seen hundreds of people waiting in line...

Hey, Hal. It looks like all of you Mac users showed up for Jaguar...

[Knitebane]

How typical. You never miss an opportunity to bash anything that isn't Microsoft.

Now run along and tell Gates and Ballmer that you've earned your paycheck this week.

[HAL9000]

Hey, Hal. It looks like all of you Mac users showed up for Jaguar...

Except for yours truly. I hope they saved a copy for me.

[Lil'freeper]

Ours should be here today- can't wait!

[Glenn]

Apple users are lemmings by nature, and mainly Communist.

You're clueless, of course. But I suspect you know that already.

[rintense]

Geez, I bet Michael Dell hates that picture of GWB. Hehehe. For the record, I am a Mac purist. When I got my first corporate job 6 years ago, I was forced against my will to use a WIN box. Haven't used a Mac since but still think it is the best computer out there.

For the record, I am using a Dell as we speak. My first Mac ever was a Quadra 660AV. And sitting in my garage is a one of the very first Macs ever- that old, wonderful all-in-one Macintosh with a 212k hard drive.