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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Mac OS X/archive1

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Mac OS X

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This article is really well writen, comprehensive. Describes the most important things related to Mac OS X. There is also a 'Criticisms' section; the article shorty describes Mac OS X versions (and there are articles about them that have more content related to specific version); it cites it references. It meets all the requirements written on Wikipedia:What is a featured article?, so I proposed it. Of course, I support the nomination. --Emx 22:27, 12 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'm listing this nomination on the main WP:FAC page (this page was not included). — Miles (Talk) 01:24, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. In the Jaguar section, there's the following statement:
    Some consider version 10.2, or Jaguar, the "first good release" of Mac OS X.
    Who made that statement? Is it relevant? Isn't it a bit too weaselly? Titoxd(?!?) 01:30, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Looking deeper at the article, it's only the tip of the iceberg. Let's have a look at the entire article, section by section:
    • Lede: I guess it is ok.
    • History: I found this section to be lacking substance. No release dates of versions, no sales figures, just a lot of discussion about Steve Jobs's role in NeXT and Apple. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if it were written correctly:
      • Mac OS X is based on the Mach kernel and the BSD implementation of Unix, which were incorporated into NEXTSTEP, the object-oriented operating system developed by Steve Jobs's NeXT company after he left Apple in 1985.[1] - rewrite: two sentences mushed into one, loses clarity
      • Jobs was re-hired, and later returned to the leadership of the company, shepherding the transformation of the programmer-friendly OPENSTEP into a system that would be welcomed by Apple's primary market of home users and creative professionals, as a project known as Rhapsody. - same problem here, with the Rhapsody clause. And how about a reference?
      • Mac OS X has evolved through its successive versions - what is that supposed to mean?
    • Description: here's some issues here as well:
      • On top of this core, Apple designed and developed a number of proprietary components including the Aqua themed Quartz Compositor and the Macintosh Finder user interface shell. - grammar, hyphenation problems
      • Wikilink Unix-like operating system (introduced in the lede, I know, but by the time you get here, you have scrolled down two pages).
      • Pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection, for example, improved the ability of the operating system to run multiple applications simultaneously without their interrupting or corrupting each other. - grammar: "their" is wrong here. Also needs a ref.
      • use of soft edges, translucent colors, and pinstripes similar to the hardware of the first iMacs, brought more color and texture to the windows and controls on the Desktop than OS 9's "Platinum" appearance had offered. - comma splice; also, ideally wikilink the "Platinum" user interface.
      • Some, including numerous users of the older versions of the operating system, decried the new look as "cutesy" and lacking in professional polish.[3] Others, however, hailed Aqua as being a bold and innovative step forward in a time when user interfaces were seen as being "dull and boring".[4] - Weasel words
      • Wikilink first occurence of compiler.
      • It supports the ability to target both platforms for which Mac OS X is sold, allowing an application to be built to run only on PowerPC, only on x86, or on both processors as a universal binary. - too technical: for those who don't know that Intel chips run on an x86 architecture, as Windows does, this won't make any sense.
      • The server edition, Mac OS X Server, is architecturally identical to its desktop counterpart but usually runs on Apple's line of Macintosh server hardware. - comma issues here as well. Also, why is this paragraph copied verbatim into the lede? It needs expansion here.
    • Compatibility: more issues here as well:
      • Spell out the first time you use any abbreviation, such as API.
      • However, on July 11, 2005, Apple announced that "features added to Cocoa in Mac OS X versions later than 10.4 will not be added to the Cocoa-Java programming interface."[6] - as my best friend would say: "And why should I care?" What is the relevance, importance or notability of this?
      • Projects such as Fink and DarwinPorts provide precompiled or preformatted packages for many standard packages. Since version 10.3, Mac OS X has included X11.app, the company's version of the X Window System graphical interface for Unix applications, as an optional component during installation.... - {{fact}}
      • Hardware: the entire section needs references here as well.
      • These rumors subsided until late in May 2005, when various media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal[8] and CNET[9] reported that Apple would unveil Marklar in the coming months. - unclear structure: did the rumors died in 2002 and resurfaced in 2005, or did they persist until 2005?
      • However, Apple encourages Developers to produce Universal Binaries with support for both PowerPC and x86. - {{fact}}
      • Moreover, some PowerPC software, such as kernel extensions and System Preferences plugins, is not supported on Intel Macs. While Intel Macs will run PowerPC binaries as well as x86 and Universal Binaries, PowerPC Macs will only support Universal and PowerPC builds - grammar, missing period at the end of the sentence, and {{fact}} again.
      • Although Apple stated that Mac OS X would not run on Intel-based personal computers aside from its own, a hacked version of the OS developed by the OSx86 community is available illegally through file-sharing networks. However it is no longer up to date with Apple's system updates; using the kernel from a previous update. - copyedit and add references.
    • Prominent features: this entire section is a list. Convert it to prose, and make sure you have references for it.
    • Pricing: {{fact}} again.
    • Naming: more {{fact}}s:
      • The character X is a Roman numeral and is officially pronounced "ten", continuing the numbering of previous Macintosh operating systems such as Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9. - if it is "officially" pronounced, give a link referencing where Apple states that.
      • Mac OS X versions are named after big cats. Prior to its release, version 10.0 was code named "Cheetah" internally at Apple, and version 10.1 was code named internally as "Puma". After the immense buzz surrounding version 10.2, codenamed "Jaguar", Apple's product marketing began openly using the code name to promote the operating system. 10.3 was similarly marketed as "Panther". Version 10.4 is marketed as "Tiger". "Leopard" has been announced as the name for the next release of the operating system, version 10.5. Apple has also registered "Lynx" and "Cougar" as trademarks. - refs needed here as well, for the codenames, and also for the trademarking of Lynx and Cougar.
    • Timeline: Oh boy. Not a single reference until we get to Leopard. That's just bad.
      • Leopard is unreleased software: that makes the article unstable, so I'm afraid it doesn't pass Criterion 1(e) right there.
    • Criticisms: run a spell check. Also, "demoability" isn't a word.
      • It seems quite surprising to me that there are only two criticisms described here, when you already mentioned several more above.
      • Check the citations here, so they meet WP:FN and the positioning with respect to punctuation, as described there.
  • Overall, I wish I could say that this article is close to FA status, but I'm afraid that's not the situation here. As a result, I'm obliged to object, and recommend that it be referred to Wikipedia:Peer review. Titoxd(?!?) 02:18, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Since there's no way I could possibly add anything to the above, I'll just go with oppose per Tito. -- Kicking222 15:33, 13 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose per Tito. Thanks for a lot of work...--HereToHelp 00:01, 19 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak oppose per Tito. Yao Ziyuan 15:50, 20 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose Lead needs to put in actual times, not vague terms like "current" or "now" (Try "As of 2006,..."). Also lead should summarize the whole article but does not (none of the cat name versions are mentioned in the lead, for example). Final point, many of the headers and subheaders contain the name of the article and should not. So "Mac OS X v10.0 (Cheetah)" could be "Version 10.0 (Cheetah)" or "v10.0 (Cheetah)" and "Criticisms of Mac OS X" would just be "Criticisms". I was going to make these comments at WP:PR where the article was listed only 2 weeks ago, but saw it was already up for FAC. Hope these comments help, Ruhrfisch 02:47, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
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