Is it just me, or has there been a complete lack of excitement from the Mac community, or the whole world in general, about the recent release of Mac OS X 10.1? It was just released two days ago, so the world should be up in arms. press releases should be flying, message board should be lighting up, Mac users should be drooling, but none of this seems to be happening; at least not on the scale that I thought it would.

Ever since the initial Mac OS X demos from Steve Jobs, I have been waiting anxiously for this superior OS. Unix Underpinnings, a very cool Aqua interface, protected memory, far fewer crashes, the future. And when Jobs demoed OS X 10.1, with huge speed increases, many bug fixes, DVD playback, CD burning, and so much more, I just went crazy. I wanted it the very next day. And that feeling has not wavered, even to this day. But why aren't more people showing this?

I see three reasons for the lack of excitement. The official selling doesn't start until Saturday, the upgrade paths, and the lack of apps. The first one may be the biggest. Sure, Jobs officially announced the update on Tuesday, but it won't be in stores until Saturday. This means that the majority of users can't even get their hands on it for a few more days. I'm sure once more users have it in hand, the messages boards will be overworked like never before.

On top of that, Apple's chosen upgrade paths for the new OS are totally off the wall. Option A) Mail or fax a printed pdf form into Apple, with proof of purchase, and payment ($20) for shipping and handling. Not only does this cost you money, but it also states a 6-12 week for delivery, that's absolutely horrible. Option B) Stop by a local Apple Retail Store or participating Apple Reseller and pick up a free copy. The problem with this methods is many people don't live near either an Apple Store, or a participating Apple Reseller. Another option here would be nice.

And finally, the lack of major applications for the new OS is holding a lot of people back. Office for X will be released in October, Photoshop who knows when, and very few games have made it to the OS so far. If people can't get their work done, they won't switch, no matter how much better the OS itself is. As soon as we see more major players bring their software titles to Mac OS X, we will be seeing a lot more people joining the ranks.

This is not good news for Apple. Mac OS X 10.1 was supposed to be the OS that blew us away, and stop people from "upgrading" to Windows XP. But the current media coverage and hype won't get this done. Hopefully, this will all start to change Saturday, or Apple will be in for some tough times.