Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 9th May 2009 09:58 UTC
Since it's weekend, which usually equates to no news, we figured we'd follow in Engadget's footsteps by asking you, our dear and loving readers, what you would change about Apple's current Mac Pro. Engadget readers already had a few things to say - this is the internet after all. And since this is OSNews, we add a question of our own: what would you change about Mac OS X?
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Member since:2008-11-18
"... the paradigm is different.
Maybe that's why they haven't gotten around to implementing Cut in Finder?
" Cut in Finder? Can you elaborate more... What do you mean?
"1. Screens are getting bigger and bigger these days... Does it make sense any time you open an application to take the whole screen? Have you seen that on a 30 inch monitor? It is ridiculous. It is waste in pure form.
Most people will not go above 20-22", because of the physical space in their rooms and on their desks. And let's not forget that laptops are becoming more and more popular by the day. "
Of course, not all situations are equal. Netbooks are terrible with this paradigm... Laptops, are fine, especially Mac Laptops because even though they are small, they have high resolutions.
For example, MacBook Pro 17 inch, is 1920x1200.
And it is not as big as 17 inch PC Laptop.
"Drag and drop seems more natural
Copy/paste can be explained by a real-world metaphor - you take an object, put it into your pocket (clipboard) and take it where it's needed. It's not rocket science. "
Of course it is not rocket science... But in order to explain cut/paste, you are using drag and drop... Can you see it?
A tricky user could tell you... Is not easier if I just put the thing where I want directly instead of placing it first in my pocket? And you might argue: Of course it is easier if you know where you are going to place it. In Mac it would be easier because you see the target, but in Windows would be very difficult because you don't. In a pure philosophy design, of course.
I understand the whole paradigm difference, and the fact that windows should stay visible for drag and drop, but wouldn't it make more sense to have all the windows visible, say on a taskbar thingy, so that you could drop what you need there? I usually stop midway in a drag and drop operation because I forget where my target window is. Sure I can use Expose to locate it, but it adds unnecessary complexity.
It could... But I believe there must be a problem. And it crosses my mind, for example, if you have to drag and drop a text selection that needs to be inserted into some place. With tiny Windows, would be very difficult to find the place to insert the text.
In Exposé this is easy. Suppose you have the left/down corner to activate Exposé:
You Select the text, drag the selection to the left/down corner to the screen, Exposé activates, choose the window, then place it where you want it, and release the selection. That's the way I have seen Mac users do it. It seems perfectly natural, and once you get used to it, seems almost the way you do it in the real world. A little Minority Report, but it is closer to real life.
Cut and Paste works, but it is more abstract. There is no spatial orientation, people do not have feedback of what they are doing, they need to focus and remember they place something somewhere they do not know where it is and it will appear there when they hit paste. You get used to it, and people will understand it, but the other way seems more real, more natural, more human.
I have known many switchers, most of them, if they get the metaphor right, they never go back to Windows. Most of frustrated switchers is because they want to use Mac OS X as Windows, and it is not. If it were, it would be Windows, not Mac.
Member since:2006-05-18
Cut in Finder? Can you elaborate more... What do you mean?
Cut, as in Ctrl+X, to move files.
Drag and drop is fine for beginners, because as you said it's easier to understand, but it can only go so far. If you need to have a workflow and do things fast you need to work with keyboard shortcuts, or at least to do things more precisely and consistent.
Ctrl+C, scroll, Ctrl+V is certainly much faster than click, hold mouse button while you go over the scrollbar button, or while you clumsily move the mouse wheel with another finger, do some precision pointing to find the right place to drop the text, and then release the button without moving the pointer.
Or Ctrl+C, Alt+Tab (or click on taskbar to swich window), Ctrl+V, instead of click, hold mouse button, activate Expose, find the window (but be careful not to release the button), activate window, release button.
It's a mess.
Sure, Drag and Drop has its place, but not for copy and paste if you want to do something remotely serious with your computer.
For example, MacBook Pro 17 inch, is 1920x1200.
I, for one, didn't want to buy a 19" monitor because the default resolution was too high - 1280x1024. Unfortunately it's the only option and I had to settle for it.
I'd buy a higher resolution monitor only when the GUI of the OS I use will be made using vector graphics and would look fine scaled regardless of resolution and scale factor.
Member since:
2006-05-18
Maybe that's why they haven't gotten around to implementing Cut in Finder?
Most people will not go above 20-22", because of the physical space in their rooms and on their desks. And let's not forget that laptops are becoming more and more popular by the day.
Copy/paste can be explained by a real-world metaphor - you take an object, put it into your pocket (clipboard) and take it where it's needed. It's not rocket science.
I understand the whole paradigm difference, and the fact that windows should stay visible for drag and drop, but wouldn't it make more sense to have all the windows visible, say on a taskbar thingy, so that you could drop what you need there? I usually stop midway in a drag and drop operation because I forget where my target window is. Sure I can use Expose to locate it, but it adds unnecessary complexity.