Mac OS 8 is on its way as hardware problems linger Mac OS 8, due to reach customers soon, is the biggest change in the Macintosh operating system in many years. The migration should be managed accordingly, with full backups and careful attention to Apple's documentation and online updates prior to installation. Modifications to the Finder and its user interface are dramatic, and the new Open Transport may be one of the best things about the update, bringing long-awaited and important fixes. Mac OS 8 is limited to running on 68040 and PowerPC hardware, though, and additional compatibility issues will take time to sort out. One of the first things to watch is Apple events-based scripts, which may need reprogramming. Extensions or control panels that use Apple events to communicate with the Finder may also need replacement. On the positive side, general performance of the new Finder should be faster with its PowerPC-native code and multithreaded operation, although the file system has not yet been upgraded. Cache is an important tuning parameter. Use Apple's default settings in the Memory control panel and avoid small cache settings for best Finder performance. Apple's new system font may be aesthetically unacceptable, but the traditional Chicago font is an option (requiring a restart to take effect). These are just a few preliminary things to consider with Mac OS 8. I'll be tracking issues and experiences with the new operating system in the weeks ahead. Hardware problems The reliability of Mac OS 8 has not yet been tested by the Mac community at large, but the improvements in Mac OS 7.6.1 and early reports about Mac OS 8 indicate that Apple is on the right track with software quality. Hardware quality seems to be lagging a bit behind. I've written in previous columns about defects in the Power Mac 5500/6500 and in the 5400/6400 series (see 06.23.97, Page 32, and 04.28.97, Page 32). Some readers report frustrating runarounds from Apple when trying to get these problems fixed. Apple's Multiple Scan 15 monitors have also been quite troublesome (see http://www.macintouch.com/multiscan15.shtml), following an earlier disaster with the company's AppleVision 1710AV displays. Apple has been replacing many of the defective 15-inch displays free of charge. RAM vs. networking My reports of bizarre interactions between interleaved RAM and network performance brought a series of letters confirming the problems (see http://www.macintouch.com/pciram.shtml). This affects even some Macs fresh from the factory with no third-party memory installed. Among other tips, readers found that moving interleaved DIMMs to a different location sometimes eliminated the problems. Also, problems can occur with one networking protocol while another performs more normally.