I just realized that there is no menu to select a running application (that's what the dock is for). There is no hide all other applications or hide this application. I can option click out of my current application and it will hide it, although there is no indication that an application is hidden. You can minimize windows into the dock and it will show an icon for the window, but hidden applications on the dock aren't greyed out or otherwise marked. At least they extended the dock all the way to the bottom of the screen, to give it an infinite dimension. I guess I can live without the ability to hide all other applications. Oh well, back to the System Preferences.

The International panel allows you to configure your language (English, Dutch, French, Netherlands, Italian, Spanish, and some pictogram language -- Chinese, Japanese -- are listed), set the date format, set the time format (including 24-hour time, alas it doesn't affect the menu bar clock), set the number format, and choose from a couple of dozen different keyboards. The Internet panel is less featured than in Mac OS 9. You can set up your iTools account, primary email settings, some web settings like home page and search page and download page, and your news server settings. I went through the select dialog box to choose a download folder and we come to a fact that I forgot. Although my four disk partitions show up as separate icons on the desktop, they are not top level folders. So when I chose my download folder, it's really "/Volumes/Angela_3/Downloads" and not just "Angela_3:Downloads". Something to keep in mind if you're setting up absolute pathnames. I didn't see any way to set up application helpers and file extension mappings (or proxy servers) like I could with the Mac OS 9 Internet Control Panel. It may be because I'm not logged in as root. I do remember setting up the proxy settings when I was entering all the Internet settings after Mac OS X first booted up, so it's there somewhere, just no as a Control Panel.

I notice as I'm typing this that Mac OS X is a bit slower. Not the actual typing, but cursoring around with the arrow keys. The Keyboard panel allows me to set the key repeat rate and delay until repeat, which I increased to the fastest and least, respectively and it's not as fast as in Mac OS 9, though it is fast enough to be usable. Slowness in a user interface is bad and every System is slower than the last. I expect to get used to it, such is the price of progress at times. Get a better machine.

The Login panel has a section for items that automatically open when you log in. You can also set the account that automatically logs in when you start the computer. You can disable Restart and Shut Down (both, not one or the other), let the computer give you a password hint if you miss your password three times, and set up a custom password authenticator (such as Kerberos). The Mouse panel is much the same as in Mac OS 9. You can still set it at maximum tracking and it's not quite fast enough to be blazing.

The Network panel allows you to set up TCP/IP. PPP, proxies, and modem settings. You can configure Internal Modem, Built-in Ethernet, Airport, or create your own. You can even have multiple configurations using the same port. I'm not sure what that means, but I hope it means that I can set up Ethernet and Ricochet to run at the same time. It looks like the three aforementioned configurations are my three ports, and when I add a new configuration I have to select one of those three as the port it uses. Oh, I can have all three ports on. Excellent. Now I have to figure out how routing will be done. You can also set up locations, which are a bit more than the configurations of the TCP/IP control panel of Mac OS 9.