“Familiarity breeds contempt, right? So it stands to reason that anyone who uses a product extensively can find fault with it. I’m no exception – my work requires me to use Mac OS X every day, all day long, and although I am generally thrilled with its capabilities and reliability, some things about it really drive me up the wall.”
What a very frustrated user !?
Well, that’s a headline you don’t see very often!
The problems he brings up are silly personal things. I have no need to constantly watch the items in my trash empty, I just press the button and get on with work.
A _real_ problem would be the way OSX “replaces” upon paste / drag.
If you have a folder containing 10GB of files, and you want to copy a folder from somewhere else and it has 3 small files in it and the same name as the large folder, you click “Replace” assuming that, like windows, the contents of the small folder will be added to the large folder.
No.
Instead 10GB vapourizes off of your hard disk and you can’t undo it. You are left with a small folder with 3 files.
I almost lost 15 years of work due to this “feature” once. Explorer’s merge copy is superior, _end of story_
Ugh, yes. I was about to do the same thing once as well, but before I gave it confirmation, I had a small flash of genius. I read the question over and over, and thought “It almost seems like it just wants to replace the folder”.
I conducted a quick test on some dummy folders, discovered Finder’s true intent, and told it to FOAD. FTFF, Apple!
I sort of agree with you on the replace “feature”. but I seriously doubt that you lost 15 years of work. 15 years? No backup? I find that highly unlikely.
But you are right in stating that the replace feature is somewhat dangerous. Of course: Replace means replace.. and the finder will replace your folder. Perhaps a merge option would be well placed here.
I din’t lose it, I nearly did. After a machine died I was utilizing my backup and trying to merge other data sources into the backup drive before copying over what I needed to the local disk. Granted to say I paused to deal with another small copy somewhere else and discovered the dodgy Replace feature.
Hey, people do stupid things. I was a VMS cluster manager in a prior life for the Pathworks development cluster. I was babysitting one another cluster while its system manager was away on vacation and my boss said “hey, while she is out, see if you can get some of the developer or writer’s disks cleaned up”… so on a Thursday I said “Tomorrow I will be doing a purge/keep=2 on ALL DISKS! Take precautions!”. Next day I did it. Some writer comes running over screaming bloody murder, we almost got into a fist fight… reason? His method of keeping all his notes, all his work, etc. was by using VMS FILE VERSIONS! Example… “wklyrpt.txt;1”, “wklyrpt.txt;2”, “wklyrpt.txt;3”, etc. He literally did this for a year and the other system manager left file versions limit at 65000 for this guy!!
Criminy.
If you have a folder containing 10GB of files, and you want to copy a folder from somewhere else and it has 3 small files in it and the same name as the large folder, you click “Replace” assuming that, like windows, the contents of the small folder will be added to the large folder.
No.
Well, that’s why it’s called “Replace”. Not Apple’s fault if Microsoft’s interface designers have difficulties with the English language.
Well, that’s why it’s called “Replace”. Not Apple’s fault if Microsoft’s interface designers have difficulties with the English language.
That’s a nice way of solving the problem. Pretend as if it’s not even a problem and everyone else who thinks otherwise is stupid.
The word “Replace” is unambiguous. Now I don’t know if this is true since I rarely work on macs and don’t recall this, but if it say’s “Replace” it’s your job read to what says to you. And frankly from a zero-experience perspective it seems that they are both equally intuitive. If OSX tried to replicate the behaviour of Windows I’m afraid it lose it’s cohesiveness.
Well, in this case I have to say I do agree. Replace is the right name for it.
Of course, what I’d like is for the Finder to offer a Merge button
Well, that’s why it’s called “Replace”. Not Apple’s fault if Microsoft’s interface designers have difficulties with the English language.
I’m trying to work out how you came to that amazing conclusion, because I can’t find anything in Windows which says anything about replacing one folder with another folder and does otherwise. If you try to paste a folder into another folder with the same name then it comes up with a dialog asking you if you don’t mind replacing any files with the same name with the ones you’re copying. If I want to replace one folder with another I delete the folder I want to replace then paste the other one in. Not Microsofts fault, that Apple includes an ambiguous (Is it replacing files in the folder? Or is it replacing the folder?) option.
> Instead 10GB vapourizes off of your hard disk and you can’t undo it.
You can’t undo it? What a great design… Every editor has an undo button – what did they smoke to think that deleting files need not be undone sometimes?
(BTW I would’ve tried a recovery tool, because the data was probably still there).
– Morin
Dude…. Replace mean REPLACE.
guess what too…. on Windows, when you drag an item to another location that has the same name as another in that location… it actually REPLACES it. :-0
wow, they work the same.
guess what too…. on Windows, when you drag an item to another location that has the same name as another in that location… it actually REPLACES it. :-0
No it doesn’t. The two folders are merged. The contents of one is pooled into the other. Macs do not do this at all. Maybe you should try it out before spouting off rubbish.
dude… Have you ever READ what windows tells you?
it tells you that if contents in the folders have the same names, then it will replace them.
THAT IS IT!!!
so basically, you cannot read a message box. on the mac, it says “We will REPLACE the folder”
and you think that it will merge them?
fact: Windows does not tell you it is replacing folders.
I don’t get you on this – why would one think folder contents are going to “merge” when it is asking you if you want to “replace” the folder that’s already there?
> Instead 10GB vapourizes off of your hard disk and you can’t undo it.
on windows if you had some disaster like this you simply go back to a system restore point 1 hour ago (or whenever)…
does OSX have a feature like system restore?
I agree, they are personal pet peeves. I don’t think they are silly, but you are entitled to your opinion.
I, too, would like a Merge Folders capability in the Mac OS X Finder. Good idea.
I have my own list of things I hate about OSX, you can read it here:
http://cogscanthink.blogsome.com/2005/09/25/26/
Please note some of those complaints are already depreciated, as solutions were offered in the comments.
11. If you don’t log on to it soon after you resume it goes back to sleep.
So I open the lid to get it to wake up from its sleep and start copying a file between it and another computer. In the middle of the transfer the stupid moron goes back to sleep, disrupting the file transfer! Just because I don’t log on locally doesn’t mean I’m not using it, and there’s no reason for Apple not to understand that.
12. No way to disable the ‘Sleep when lid is closed’-function.
So I’m on a train and get a cup of coffee when I wait for the mac to finish compiling something, but when I close the lid (so that coffee won’t spill into the keyboard and so that I have some place to put the cup) the stupid thing goes to sleep. About half of the time I’ve used my mac I haven’t needed it’s keyboard/display, but Apple dictates that I still must have the lid open, preventing me from placing things on top of the computer. As if that wasn’t enough, the thing smells bad when the lid is up. 🙁
So, even if I want to use it as a file server from another computer I still have to keep the lid open AND be logged on. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
13. No hibernation.
This means that the only way to change the battery is to close all open applications, shutdown, change the battery, boot, re-open all applications and open the files/workspaces that you were working on. Argh!
11. System Preferences –> Energy Saver, and turn that off. Duh. Don’t be so silly.
12. Agreed. I wondered about this as well, until I read an Apple KB article about the issue. The cooling system in iBooks prevents the iBook from working properly when the lid is closed — it will overheat. I don’t know about Powerbooks, but I’ve taken my iBook apart before, and it seems like it has in fact been designed that way.
13. This is called “Safe Sleep”, and it was introduced in the October Powerbooks. Fortunately, it works on many other Macs, including iBook G4s. More information here: http://www.andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/how-to-safe-sleep-y…
Point-and-click utility here: http://www.jackoverfull.altervista.org/applicazioni/suspendnow/inde…
> 11. System Preferences –> Energy Saver, and turn that off.
Umm.. exactly what should I turn off? I have “Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for: Never”
> 13. This is called “Safe Sleep”, and it was introduced
> in the October Powerbooks. Fortunately, it works on many
> other Macs, including iBook G4s.
Ah, thanks, I’ll have to try it on my iBook G3.
If you have it set for Never under the Battery profile, then it should never turn off. Trash your Energy prefs and try again. OS X needs that at times.
> If you have it set for Never under the Battery profile,
> then it should never turn off. Trash your Energy prefs
> and try again. OS X needs that at times.
If there was such a problem with the settings then it would go to sleep also when I’m logged on, but it won’t.
Actually I think the problem is a feature that puts it back to sleep if it’s woken up by mistake. It thinks it’s not being used and goes back to sleep. Windows used to do the same thing a few years ago. If I woke it up from suspend but didn’t touch it for 10 minutes or so it would go back to suspend. However, with windows it was enough to press a few keys to make it stay awake, but with my iBook it’s not even enough to type something into the username field, you actually have to log on or else it’ll go back to sleep.
Powerbook G4s will operate while the clamshell is closed, if an external monitor and USB keyboard/mouse is attached. I use my 12″ PowerBook in this mode from time to time
13. No Hibernation:
Actually that’s not true anymore. Give this a shot: http://www.andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/how-to-safe-sleep-y…
13. Actually you can just swap batteries when the computer is sleeping. There is no need for safe sleep or hibernation. See http://www.apple.com/powerbook/mobilelife.html at the paragraph with the title “Swap Batteries Without Shutting Down”. It works with older models, too.
> 13. Actually you can just swap batteries when the computer
> is sleeping. There is no need for safe sleep or hibernation.
> See http://www.apple.com/powerbook/mobilelife.html at the
> paragraph with the title “Swap Batteries Without Shutting
> Down”. It works with older models, too.
Well, it doesn’t work with my iBook G3. 🙁
That won’t work on iBooks and 12″ Powerbooks, as they don’t have that tiny internal battery inside to keep them alive without the main battery in.
#11 is of great importance! Could you please give more details weather you started the copy process from the laptop to the other computer or from the other computer to your laptop, and did you log off the laptop during this process or it automatically logged off.
> #11 is of great importance! Could you please give more
> details weather you started the copy process from the laptop
> to the other computer or from the other computer to your
> laptop, and did you log off the laptop during this process
> or it automatically logged off.
I woke the mac up from sleep and did not write my password into the password field. (I’m actually logged on, but it’s “locked” when it wakes from sleep.) Then I started using its shared folders from another computer on my local network, but after a minute or so after waking up it goes back to sleep.
1. Completely agree.
2. I’ve noticed this is usually a problem only with home-brew/lone-developer programs that don’t follow Apple’s user interface guidelines too well. No Apple application has ever forced itself to the front, but I have had some 3rd-party applications do so. Still, this isn’t as big a problem as on Windows — I’m almost constantly getting interrupted by other applications on my XP box. Minor warning about something? BAM! You have to see it now or be damned forever! Dialog box confirming the success of something? You have to see it now too.
3. It has to be a limitation of how Trash items are handled. If you ever delete two things that have the same name, OS X handles it by renaming the second item, so as never to have two things of the same name in the Trash. Perhaps not allowing you to open things is a side-effect of how they handle the Trash “database”? If you could open things, you could change them, and save them. Who knows? In any case, yeah it’s annoying.
4. I’ve often wondered this myself, but then I came to the following conclusion: For Software Update to work, applications have to leave a receipt in /Library/Receipts. Only then does Software Update know whether you actually have some piece of software installed. *Most* applications I come across on OS X do not use Installer, but rather are just drag-and-drop icons. I’ll take single drag-and-drop files over Installer packages any day, even if it means I lose out on the centralized software update. I hate Installer, but it’s a necessary evil in some cases.
5. Dashboard is useless. ‘Nuff said.
6. Fortunately for me, I never see this random spinning pizza wheel that so many people complain about. If I’m using my Mac, it just works, and it doesn’t randomly decide to do work that blocks the UI. However, it suffers from a hugely annoying problem that reminds all too much of Windows: Finder + networking + timeouts = F*CKING USELESS.
Let me explain. I usually go places with my iBook. When I’m at home, I have 3 disk mounts present (two for the Mac Mini, one to my PC). If I put the iBook to sleep, go to my girlfriend’s house, and unsleep it, Finder will eventually try to access these now non-existant disk mounts, and *COMPLETELY FREEZE* until the 1-2 minute time-out occurs. You literally cannot do a single thing in the Finder when this is going on. This is *exactly* how Explorer in Windows behaves. As soon as any network troubles occur, the entire thing becomes frozen, and sometimes takes ages to unfreeze. I’ve almost wanted to punch my iBook at times when I’m in a hurry to do something and Finder decides to freeze itself up.
7. Yeah, this is lame. Sometimes Finder will ask you to type the Administrator password to continue with the file/folder operation, but sometimes it will just outright disallow it. This is probably for files/folders that are owned by root:wheel, as opposed to root:admin, but still. You can always use OS X as root though. 🙂
8. I can’t complain here. I would prefer that the Finder give me more detail when copying/moving rather than less. I like the fact that Finder shows me a file count *and* a size count when doing such things. Windows Explorer really needs to shape up in this department — stupid progress blocks and an entirely useless time estimate (based on file *count* rather than *size*! COME ON MICROSOFT!) just do not cut it for power users.
9. See above. I like the extra information. I think it is good that the user is notified of what’s going on, rather than being kept in the dark. If the operation was abstracted and the Trash icon transformed into its full state before the files were actually there, it’d be a lie, and probably lead to more confusion at some point in the future.
The author’s “final injustice” remark is just plain wrong. When I try to empty the Trash and there is a file that is in use sitting there, OS X tells me “The operation cannot be completed because the item ‘NAME’ is in use”, and gives me “Continue”/”Stop” buttons. It has always done this.
10. Dead wrong. The author treats Sidebar items as aliases. They are not aliases. They’re more like a “shadow” of the actual folder/application, and as such, expecting them to behave like aliases is just silly. If I want a particular item to represent my “Pictures” folder, why would I want it to be called anything but what the actual folder is called?
10. The same applies to the folders and objects on the WindowsXP start menu. Right click on My Computer on the start menu and it is indeed, My Computer. The context menu isn’t that of a shortcut.
7. Yeah, this is lame. Sometimes Finder will ask you to type the Administrator password to continue with the file/folder operation, but sometimes it will just outright disallow it. This is probably for files/folders that are owned by root:wheel, as opposed to root:admin, but still. You can always use OS X as root though. 🙂
Do NOT compromise security for convenience EVER. Please remember that doing that is partly why Windows is in the sorry state it is and why we all have to deal with 100 spam messages a day sent by zombies.
I also think nr3 is by design. It makes sense, you don’t want people to open files from the trash because it encourages them to leave them there and still use them. It’s safer to have them move it to a normal folder to use it if you think about it.
I agree with you on the rest. And I also have to mention that although OsX has plenty of annoyances you would have to pay me to go back to Windows full time, having to deal with it at work is enough.
If you would have read that point entirely, you would know that he does not want to be able to edit files in the trashbin. What he proposes, is that if you try to open a file in the trash, you are asked if it should be moved to the Desktop and then opened.
EDIT: And I think that would be quite useful.
Edited 2006-01-08 23:01
“The author’s “final injustice” remark is just plain wrong. When I try to empty the Trash and there is a file that is in use sitting there, OS X tells me “The operation cannot be completed because the item ‘NAME’ is in use”, and gives me “Continue”/”Stop” buttons. It has always done this.”
Actually, I was complaining that the name of the application that’s using the document isn’t revealed.
“10. Dead wrong. The author treats Sidebar items as aliases. They are not aliases. They’re more like a “shadow” of the actual folder/application, and as such, expecting them to behave like aliases is just silly. If I want a particular item to represent my “Pictures” folder, why would I want it to be called anything but what the actual folder is called?”
Why? Because I don’t want the Sidebar column to consume a lot of screen width, so I’d like to be able to edit the folder names to something short and distinct, leaving the original unchanged. Can’t do that. Nor can I create an alias of an item and use it in the Sidebar.
Edited 2006-01-09 18:31
He does bring up one annoyance that is more than just personal preference, and that is the frequency with which the spinning beach ball appears. As the author commented, seemingly trivial tasks will induce the system to lock up. Most of the time it’s not long but sometimes I can wait for almost a minute. It’s not predictable either. I have both a Mac Mini with one GB of RAM and a powerbook with 2 GB of ram, and the same thing happens. I would love to hear from any users who have a system with the new two dual core processors. Is the responsiveness improved? I seem to recall an article in Ars Technica a couple months ago indicating that OS X just wasn’t as good as serving up files/database results as Yellow Dog Linux on the exact same machine, but I can not recall the details except that the problem seemed to be the way the kernel handles multiple concurrent threads/processes?
I have the same problem here with my mini (1.42Gb and 1Gig RAM). I don’t know why… This spinning beach ball is a real problem with OS X. Many time-out that the OS does not seem to handle very well. Or OS X is not 100% able to multitask correctly.
Last time I was at a store, I played with a dual G5 (not dual core) and in 5 minutes of fooling with the installed application, I got the spinning beach ball… It had 1Gig RAM. So it’s not the hardware, it’s the OS that suck with time-out problems.
Apple intends to switch over to flash RAM I believe because Mac OS X caches to the drive so often.
To speed up Mac OS X requires a very fast slim boot drive like a 10,000 RPM WD Raptor or a RAID O set so your getting over 120 MB p/s (uncached 4k writes) or so.
Stock machines are equipped with slow 7,200 RPM 250 and 500 GB hard drives which storage size for multi-media generation is preferred.
OS X multi-tasks extremely well, provided you have the CPU’s which the Mini isn’t.
If you want to improve your Mini’s performance, the best you can do is max the RAM, reinstall Tiger fresh and “short stroke” (less than 50% filled) your boot drive. Disable Dashboard and Spotlight, search versiontracker or Macupdate.com. Turn off the eye-candy using programs like OnyX. Use OnyX “Automation” and reboot, should help quite a bit there.
Sometimes it’s the web too so go offline and see if things improve.
Vista will run just as slow, Mac OS X is a futuristic operating system on dated hardware and single cores are seeing their last days.
If you want to see a dual processor machine maxed out check out this
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html
RAID O pair of 74GB Raptors as boot gives me instant web page, file openings, folder openings etc. I can hear the drives caching when I open a new web page, so this is why I beleive we will see flash RAM sometime soon for Macs.
Edited 2006-01-08 23:45
I am a little confused by what you mean by “flash RAM.” As I understand it, FLASH chips like those that exist in USB keys are slower than actual RAM chips but faster than hard drives. Also, if Apple is thinking of replacing hard drives with flash chips, aren’t they going to run into problems with durability? As I understand it the process of erasure causes FLASH chips to have more limited lifespans, but I am not an engineer so I would be very interested in hearing from someone with more expertise.
Greg
But a whole lot faster than hard disks.
He doesn’t mean to replace system RAM, he means to act as a buffer for a linear accessed disk.
U sure he doesn’t mean Ramdrive?
A NAND-based Flash chip has 1 000 000 read/writes before it oxidates. That’s not usable for caching which reads and writes all the times.
Correct. Anandtech did an extensive performance comparo with Linux and when it came to threads and processes OS X had dismal performance.
Correct. Anandtech did an extensive performance comparo with Linux and when it came to threads and processes OS X had dismal performance.
Many people seem to assume that this translates directly to day to day usage. It doesn’t, the horrible performance with MySQL was due to the way MySQL does things, which is pretty tuned to the way Linux apps do things. Other databases, like Oracle, show no such performance penalties on OS X.
I find unresponsive apps that lock for a few seconds under Debian at work every day, hardly ever on my Mac. I’m sure the opposite is also true for other people with other configs. Just don’t assume that the Anandatech test can be taken out of context and applied blindy to every aspect of the OS responsiveness, most Mac apps where written for Mac to begin with and don’t suffer from the same issues than a ported database system does.
There is always room for improvement, no question there.
Other databases, like Oracle, show no such performance penalties on OS X
I would like to see some hard data of the above, would you please…
I like the ball. At least it’s soothing to look at because it’s so friendly-looking.
Even though I find my mac mini to be infinitely better than the dell it replaced there are still a few things that drive me crazy about it.
How about the click to focus behavior. I would not mind it if it was consistent but it behaves randomly. Depending on where you click on the out of focus window it will sometimes just raise the window and other times it will raise the window and send the click onto the app. This causes me to constantly click on things I don’t want to and not click on things that I do want to. It seems that they left this behavior up to the application instead of the window manager. Each widget seems to behave differently.
That reminds me. Is there a way for focus to follow mouse in OS X? In XP the nvidia drivers/control panel allow this to be configured and both KDE and Gnome enable this, but in OS X, I am not sure how to go about it if it’s even possible at all.
Greg
That reminds me. Is there a way for focus to follow mouse in OsX?
It can be done with third party software : Codetek Virtualdesktop Pro ( http://www.codetek.com/products.php ) I haven’t found a for-free solution yet.
You can enable it just for Terminal.app and X11 apps using the commandline. See http://acs.pha.jhu.edu/general/computing/faq/os/os_x/opt/
Thank you for the reccomendation. That’s an awesome app!
Actually, whilst learning Cocoa recently, there was some interesting stuff on how apps behave when brought into focus.
Basically it comes down to how each individual “object” in the interface chooses to act. However, I have to admit to not being entirely sure on the decisions behind some objects.
Many problems exist in windows as well. Think about this: Dock Items Bounce Indefinitely I can so relate to this problem. There are so many f–ked up apps in system tray which keeps poping up messages and telling me information that i don’t need or don’t care.
And worst is when they keep poping up, like do you want to take a tour of windows….piss off noooooooooo i don’t want to…
Say ‘yes’ and then quit immediately as it starts. That way it’ll never bug you again.
I was referring to the “Tour of Windows” thing. Edit doesn’t appear to me for some reason.
but for the most part, widgets are just glorified desk accessories, and I haven’t seen any widget compelling enough to make me want to switch into Dashboard mode on a regular basis. This author obviously doesn’t have any stock. The stock dashboard widget is fantastic, and i check it several times a day to see how my Apple stock is progressing
I own stocks, but take a long-term view and don’t constantly check my portfolio like an anxious day trader.
One widget that I would like to see is a real-time graph of Amazon sales rankings for my books. That would be interesting, but still wouldn’t cause me to use Dashboard and widgets.
I have a feeling many of these issues will be resolved with Leopard’s completely new Finder. Personally, my #1 gripe about Mac OS X is that if you mount a network drive in the Finder, then disconnect the network cable without unmounting the drive, Finder locks up and you have to stare at the spinning beach ball for about five minutes, or just hard reboot.
[quote]I have a feeling many of these issues will be resolved with Leopard’s completely new Finder. Personally, my #1 gripe about Mac OS X is that if you mount a network drive in the Finder, then disconnect the network cable without unmounting the drive, Finder locks up and you have to stare at the spinning beach ball for about five minutes, or just hard reboot.
[/quote]
Just force quitting the finder will solve your problem
I completely agree. This is a very annoying behavior.
I never _ever_ see the spinning beach ball. And this is on a 466MHz G4 with 384MB of RAM, Tiger, Xcode+Safari+Adium+iTunes+a bunch of other apps always running.
The most likely reason for a spinning beach ball is a permissions problem caused by some badly written installer. The solution?
1. Bug the developer to use simple drag & drop installation if possible.
2. Go to Applications/Disk Utility, select your Hard Disk and click on “Repair Disk Permissions”
3. Restart (just in case)
If you still keep having spinning beach balls, don’t assume that it is “normal” – it is not (*), and you should try to fix it. Erasing the preferences of those apps that cause problems and/or cache files is another option.
(*)OK, except for mounting network services in the Finder, particularly FTP
You seem to think that this spinning ball happen only because of bad apps. The problem is that I get the spinning ball JUST by using OSX… Nothing else. I don’t even have networked drive.
So in this case, the developer would be Apple… And seeing their forum, I can tell you that they know about the problem, since well before Tiger.
… are the stupid websites that have 3/4 of a page in ads, 1/4 content, and the content is only 1 paragraph so you have to go through 10 pages of garbage in order to read garbage…
Having said that
1. Dock items bounce indefinitely: so? look at what the darned app wants – it MIGHT be important
2. Programs force themselves to the forefront: again te same as #1 – this is just another way for an app to get attention – it MIGHT be important do it now before you forget what you were doing
3. Trash items cannot be opened: hmmm… why would you want to open a trash item? imagine that it might be a virus that was trashed automatically – why would you want to run it.
“This dialog box is doubly infuriating because first it tells you something you probably already knew” – if you already knew it why the heck did you try to run it???
4. Software update off-limits to third parties: Windows does the same thing! It’s all a matter of security. Apple is a trusted source so it can use its own software to get/install updates. Why would apple want to be liable for damages caused by a third party app that came through Apple’s updater? Versiontracker.com has such an update app.
5. Dashboard widgets are modal. – OK… personally I dont mind hitting my F-key to get the weather – instead of clicking on the HD, on the apps folder, on the subfolder, on it’s subfolder, on the app. An no – I dont want to put it on the desktop. I dont use it often, but it is nice to be able to have a basic calculator, IP check and weather with a press of a button.
6. Pinweel pauses are painful:
“Call me unrealistic or naive, but I can’t understand why my relatively powerful Mac with seemingly boundless amounts of free memory and disk space would ever be so busy during normal operation that Tiger can’t keep up with modest user demands (writing, emailing, browsing).”
You are naive. even a powerful mac with oodles for RAM at the end of the day it is JUST a machine with limitations. Nothing is perfect, nothing.
7. Permissions roadblock – Permiossions are good – no matter what you say! Yes it is a nuisance to be asked for permissions. Just make your passowrd a blank one and just click OK.
8. Exposing Package Contents is confusing – Why do you want to see the packages contents to begin with? If you are average joe user – you have no need to poke around in there. I suppose you pocke around your dll files in windows too 🙂
9. Dumb deleting – OK, obviously you snoozed in the UI development class. A good UI developer lets the user know what is going on. This means show a progress bar when you delete. It can be done in the background, but if something freezes, or dies, or needs user input, or takes inordinate amount of time – it has to be there.
10. Sidebar items cannot be renamed. The items on the sidebar are shortcuts to actual items. If you want to rename the items in the bar – rename the original items.
It just sounds to me like this person like to whine…. what a waste of our collective time….
“6. Pinweel pauses are painful:
You are naive. even a powerful mac with oodles for RAM at the end of the day it is JUST a machine with limitations. Nothing is perfect, nothing.”
If he is naive, you’re st*pid. Limitations? This is a software glitch all the way. And for once, it’s something that Window XP (or even 2000) does not have. You realy have to do something stupid to freeze XP, but OS X goes beach ball just like that, for nothing.
I love my Mac, but i’m not gonna close my eyes on something like that, I’m no fanboy.
7. Permissions roadblock – Permiossions are good – no matter what you say! Yes it is a nuisance to be asked for permissions. Just make your passowrd a blank one and just click OK.
Noooo..! Don’t ever make your password a blank one. It’s a big no no!
Don’t run as root, use safe passwords. It’s annoying but it’s necessary to retain a reasonable level of security.
I was just trying to make a point that if he does not want to have such problems he can do this 🙂 PErsonally I would never do it – but you can (although not advisable) 🙂
mini-me: Personal attacks, refuting his problems as invalid, will that solve the problem? Many of the problems he says are genuine and exist in windows as well. Luckily Microsoft is listening to these problems and trying to solve them. I can only hope that Apple is not run by people like you.
I never launched a personal attack on the user – I did not call him names – I just question why he complaints about what he complains (and why it takes 10 pages to do so!)
3. Trash items cannot be opened: hmmm… why would you want to open a trash item? imagine that it might be a virus that was trashed automatically – why would you want to run it.
First of all, who are you to decide why a person may or may not want to do something? No one has to justify them self to you. Just because you do things one way doesn’t mean everyone else on the planet has to do things the same way as you. Get over yourself.
Second, .. “it might be a virus that was trashed automatically” – WTF? Are you the most computer illiterate person of all time or what? (First of all, how many viruses are there for OSX? More importantly, have you ever heard of a virus that infected someone’s computer only to automatically put itself in the trash so that it would unleash it’s nefarious payload on the unsuspecting user who runs the item *from* the trash can?)
>>Second, .. “it might be a virus that was trashed automatically” – WTF? >>Are you the most computer illiterate person of all time or what? (First >>of all, how many viruses are there for OSX? More importantly, have you >>ever heard of a virus that infected someone’s computer only to >>automatically put itself in the trash so that it would unleash it’s >>nefarious payload on the unsuspecting user who runs the item *from* >>the trash can?)
Actually I am quite literate – thank you 🙂
There are no OS X virii, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot get a windows virus/trojan attached in your mail. It will be inactive on OS X but it can be stripped and trashed.
I never claimed the virus would put itself in the trash – another app which scans your mails might.
There are no OS X virii, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot get a windows virus/trojan attached in your mail. It will be inactive on OS X but it can be stripped and trashed.
I never claimed the virus would put itself in the trash – another app which scans your mails might.
OK … so your virus scanner detects a Win32 virus and puts it in the trash. Fair enough. What OSX user is going to try to execute it? And, as you pointed out, even if they did, what does it matter? The x86 Win32 code is pure garbage to the PowerPC CPU / OSX API.
(Personally I have no real use for a “Trash” system. I delete files I want off my system. And when I delete them, they are really gone. That’s what *I* want. But other people may be in the habit of storing files in the “Trash” that they want to keep around until such time as they are *really, really sure* they want to delete them. That’s their choice and I don’t have a problem with it. And if it makes life easier for them to at least have the option of viewing said item straight from the trash can, I don’t have a problem with that either. So again, who are you to dicate that no one should have that need?)
“1. Dock items bounce indefinitely: so? look at what the darned app wants – it MIGHT be important.”
There are plenty of apps and utilities that bounce their icons for trivial events like “I just completed the task you asked me to do.” I know why they are bouncing, and it’s just annoying that they continue to do so.
“2. Programs force themselves to the forefront: again te same as #1 – this is just another way for an app to get attention – it MIGHT be important do it now before you forget what you were doing.”
Nothing the computer does is ever more important than what the user is doing. Period.
“3. Trash items cannot be opened: hmmm… why would you want to open a trash item?”
To see if a trashed doc really is something I want to delete.
“4. Software update off-limits to third parties: Windows does the same thing!”
That’s a damn fine reason for continuing to do something wrong.
“6. Pinweel pauses are painful: You are naive. even a powerful mac with oodles for RAM at the end of the day it is JUST a machine with limitations. Nothing is perfect, nothing.”
I know nothing is perfect. That was the whole point of the article.
“7. Permissions roadblock – Permiossions are good – no matter what you say! Yes it is a nuisance to be asked for permissions. Just make your passowrd a blank one and just click OK.”
Again, my philosophy is that the user is king of the computer, not the other way around. The computer should work the way the user wants, the user should not have to make an effort to satisify the computer’s arbitrary demands.
“8. Exposing Package Contents is confusing – Why do you want to see the packages contents to begin with? If you are average joe user – you have no need to poke around in there. I suppose you pocke around your dll files in windows too :-)”
Read my article again, my friend. I _don’t_ want to have the package contents exposed unless I’ve explicity asked for that.
“9. Dumb deleting – OK, obviously you snoozed in the UI development class. A good UI developer lets the user know what is going on. This means show a progress bar when you delete. It can be done in the background, but if something freezes, or dies, or needs user input, or takes inordinate amount of time – it has to be there.”
No, a good UI developer does not force the computer’s model of the world upon the user. It mimics the user’s conceptual model of the world.
“10. Sidebar items cannot be renamed. The items on the sidebar are shortcuts to actual items. If you want to rename the items in the bar – rename the original items.”
Right, they are shortcuts to actual items. They are not the actual items. As such, they are kinda like aliases, yes? Can’t I rename an alias without affecting the original? If so, why can’t I rename a Sidebar item?
7. its one problem with the user is king mentality, and that is when a virus hits. basicly if the user is king then anything that happens under the users account is allso king.
security vs usability, the eternal discussion…
Programs Force Themselves to the Forefront
Well, don’t we know that one. It’s a typical flaw, and one you’ll meet (almost) regardless of the platform.
And yes, it’s annoying. And one I see often with K-Meleon (on windows). And certain applications in Gnome. Hopefully Apple can pull out some magic here – they’ve done magic before.
It seems to be a flaw which depends on the application rather than the system. The only way to fix it would be for the user to decide whether new windows could steal focus or not, and making sure the user setting cannot be overridden by the coder.
The only program in Gnome which can force itself to the front is metacity; the window manager. All others have to request focus and the window manager has to grant it.
I believe there’s an option on Gnome, in gconf of course, to make it so that programs only come to the front if you aren’t busy.
In Windows, and I think MacOS, it depends on the program. In X11 it’s the window managers fault.
I will see if I can find it
I’m not sure if I’m the only one with this, but the most annoying thing for me is the possibility to click on disabled menus. You open a menu for e.g File and you want to click on the Open menu and below that the Save menu is disabled, but you can easily miss the Open menu and click on the disabled Save one (or on the separator), especially if you use VNC, so after missing the Open menu you can start from the beginning because the menubar disappeared. It makes me nuts! Did anyone notice this too?
First, I’m not an OSX fanboy. I’m an Open Source advocate. So if I have a perceived bias, well, at least you know why.
I’ve had an iBook for about 15 months now, so I’ve used OSX enough to have some opinions about it. (Personally though, I think Gentoo/Ubuntu + Gnome is way better.)
I agree with some of the things the guy pointed out. But I have some other things I don’t care for with OSX. They are:
The dock. It’s pretty. (I guess.) But that’s the only thing it has going for it. (And the pretty part quickly wears off after you’ve seen it for more than a minute or two.)
Window control buttons are in the upper left. I hate that. I have used a ton of Window Managers with a variety of button designs, and different functions including window pinning, window shading, and more. So it’s not just the case that I think Microsoft Windows put the buttons in the upper right and in such and such order, so that is where they *should be* for all other Operating Systems. That’s not the case at all. I prefer Window Managers that allow *me* to define not only where the buttons go, but what function they perform. I do want some buttons in the upper left (window pinning and window shading), but I want the minimize/close button on the right side. Go ahead … flame me for being so picky.
The “maximize” button doesn’t work. Again, drawing on my experience from at least a half dozen other Operating Systems including OpenBSD, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD (which I guess I can just clump all together as XFree86 / Xorg for the sake of this discussion) BeOS/Zeta, OS/2 Warp, MS Windows, QNX, and others … (and at least a dozen Window Managers – OpenBox, BlackBox, Fluxbox, Window Maker, Metacity/Gnome, KDE, XFCE, fvwm, sawfish, afterstep, enlightenment, icewm, twm, and many more… ) … I’ve come to expect the maximize button to … well … maximize the window. In OSX, it just resizes/moves the window – apparently at random. So-called “smart” maximizing. But to me, it’s anything but smart. (I have my iBook sitting next to me right now. It has a fresh install of OSX on it with all the updates. (A complete and TOTAL format and re-install. I didn’t just re-install OSX over top of itself and preserve my old settings. I actually re-partioned the drive so I could install Linux, and then I formatted the OSX partition and did a re-install. So all my old OSX settings are GONE.) I’m using Safari. (Not some 3rd party browser.) I just clicked the green button to “smart”-maximize the window. Instead of doing anything even remotely close to what I would expect, it instead moved the window from the middle of the screeen to the lower left part of the screen. The bottom part of the browser window is now hidden behind the dock and at least part of the window is now “hanging” off the bottom of the screen.
Windows “hide” behind the dock. OK – the dock is a really bad interpretation of the NeXT dock that it was originally modeled after. But one of the most irritating things about OSX is that a new Window will open up and parts of it will be under the dock. (If you’re an MS Windows user, this would be like opening your web browser and having the bottom part of the web browser window tucked behind the start menu / task bar.) And worse, you can’t resize the window without moving it around first … because the only part of the window that allows you to resize is in the lower right corner of the window. (Which is burried under the dock, and is unusable.)
Installing programs. I think FreeBSD ports, Gentoo’s portage, or Ubuntu’s Synaptic is a lot better. Even “setup.exe” is better. Click setup.exe, follow a few prompts, the program is installed. With OSX, you double click the download to open it. *IF* it’s a dmg file, it’s a simple matter of opening the hard-drive, navigating to the point where you want the app to be installed at, then going back to the original window which contains the app you want to install, then drag that app icon to the the other window. Then unmount the dmg mount point. (Perhaps easier is to drag the icon over top of the hard-drive and hover, wait until the hard-drive window opens, drag to the folder you want to install it to and hover, wait until that folder opens, then find the sub folder you want to install to and hover over that folder, wait for that folder to open, and then let go. Then unmount the dmg mount point.) And if it’s not a dmg, then you … umm… open the pkg file (if it’s a pkg file), then you … umm…. read the README (if there is one). Follow the directions that the README gave you (if there was a README.)
Oh yeah .. and OSX is slower than molasses rolling uphill in the middle of January.
(If you’re an MS Windows user, this would be like opening your web browser and having the bottom part of the web browser window tucked behind the start menu / task bar.)
Try moving the start bar in Windows from the bottom and to the top, and see what happens
Exactly as you described. I don’t know if this happens if you place the start bar to left or right, but it sure does happen with the start bar in the top.
And I’m doing that for ease of use. Saves a lot of movement with the mouse when walking through the start menu (when I use it – doesn’t happen so often anymore).
“Installing programs. I think FreeBSD ports, Gentoo’s portage, or Ubuntu’s Synaptic is a lot better. Even “setup.exe” is better. Click setup.exe, follow a few prompts, the program is installed. With OSX, you double click the download to open it. *IF* it’s a dmg file, it’s a simple matter of opening the hard-drive, navigating to the point where you want the app to be installed at, then going back to the original window which contains the app you want to install, then drag that app icon to the the other window. Then unmount the dmg mount point. (Perhaps easier is to drag the icon over top of the hard-drive and hover, wait until the hard-drive window opens, drag to the folder you want to install it to and hover, wait until that folder opens, then find the sub folder you want to install to and hover over that folder, wait for that folder to open, and then let go. Then unmount the dmg mount point.) And if it’s not a dmg, then you … umm… open the pkg file (if it’s a pkg file), then you … umm…. read the README (if there is one). Follow the directions that the README gave you (if there was a README.)”
Or, to put it in another way, “Double click the disk image, drag the app to wherever you please. Unmount the disk image.”
Doesn’t sound that complicated
Particularly if you consider that steps 1 & 3 are the exact equivalents of “Insert CD / Eject CD”
What? You have to open the folder where you want to put it? That’s exactly what you would do if instead of an app you where copying a file. The whole concept of OS X “self packaged app” is that you treat it as just any other file. You put it wherever you want: I, like many others put it in my Applications folder, and as many others, I have my Applications folder added right at hand in the Dock. “Installing” is just a double click on the disk image and a drag to the App folder in my Dock.
“And if it’s not a dmg, then you … umm… open the pkg file (if it’s a pkg file), then you … umm…. read the README (if there is one). Follow the directions that the README gave you (if there was a README.) “
Er… if it is a pkg, it is an installer (usually titled “App Name Installer”) which is what you said you prefered… Or are you going to tell me that the OS X installers are hard to figure out…?
Er… if it is a pkg, it is an installer (usually titled “App Name Installer”) which is what you said you prefered… Or are you going to tell me that the OS X installers are hard to figure out…?
The problem with installing applications isn’t installing the– it’s removing them. There is no un-installer! Dragging apps to the trash does not delete all files associated with the app, you see.
1.) Yes, yes yes. But at least it bounces less, althoug going to a dull occasional flash might be nicer.
2.) This is MacOS’ design fault. If it uses a proper window manager based setup this would be stoppable. It’s probably also the developers fault for not checking some things he was supposed to before asking for focus.
3.) Yea, that’d be annoying.
4.) Yea, it could be cool.
5.) Dashboard widgets are a waste of time… Cutesy, semi-informative at best.
6.) I’ve a similar problem: Locking up finder screws everything up; and it’s not very hard to do if you are playing with network protocols on finder. I had a lab machine to where you had to hold the power button to shut it off over this.
7.) This is a good feature. Quit whining and be glad you don’t have widgets you didn’t install running.
9.) Likely makes the code more maintainable by making a move to the trash like any other move.
10.) Ok.
Got sent these by a friend, they seem to fit in here, but they mirror my thoughts anyway, and while OSX might have problems, so does every other OS
http://homepage.mac.com/olepigeon/.Movies/real_vista_episode_1.mov
http://homepage.mac.com/olepigeon/.Movies/real_vista_episode_2.mov
Please, so turn the bouncing OFF!.
What a stupid thing to complain about.
Pardon me, but it’s even more stupid to criticize someone if you jump to conclusions and don’t bother to read the actual complaint.
The complaint is that icons bounce indefinitely, not just that they bounce upon launch. I know I can turn that off in the preferences, but I have no control over icons that bounce forever to alert you to so-called “problems” or things the developer thinks need your immediate attention.
Well I must say that copy-by-replacing behavior seems like a very serious dataloss issue that should be resolved. The indefinite bouncing of icons on the Dock seems like something really annoying too. In Windows XP and Gnome, I’m annoyed by the fact that the task bar blinking never stops. It should blink for a couple of times, then it should just keep the highlighted color to indicate that it requires your attention, but not keep blinking the damn thing all the time!
I do think Windows XP does exactly what you said, at least for me. o_O
I’ve got two big problems with OS X:
1. No application installer/uninstaller. Heck, I’d even take a ‘make uninstall’.
2. That darn “Command/clover” key. I use a fancy programmable keyboard, and used to constantly switch between native OS X apps and X11 apps. It was a pain to always have to switch the keymapping back and forth.
I switched to GNU/Linux + IceWM and, except for printing (which I haven’t bothered to set up yet), I’m happier and more productive.
It’s also very nice to have virtual desktops.
WOW, you poor, poor soul, is dragging a folder to the trash way to hard for you..
Damm and people actually complain that OSX likes to coddle people
“I’ve got two big problems with OS X:
1. No application installer/uninstaller. Heck, I’d even take a ‘make uninstall’. ”
The preferred method for installing apps is “Drag the app to your hard disk” and to uninstall “Drag the app to the trash”, but yes, those applications that need installers because they need to install components in several locations should have uninstallers (a few do, but are the exception)
“2. That darn “Command/clover” key. I use a fancy programmable keyboard, and used to constantly switch between native OS X apps and X11 apps. It was a pain to always have to switch the keymapping back and forth. ”
Would you prefer a “MS Start Key”? 😉
Check the X11 Preferences window, and under Input there is an option to keep the System keymap & X11 synchronized.
“It’s also very nice to have virtual desktops.”
Yes, I use them every day on my Mac
Try Desktop Manager – http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/
(works great, and it’s free with a GNU license)
Well, what this author complains of is really of good value for the bug team at Apple to solve.
Especially important and very dangerous bug (which by the way exists in windows XP too) was number 2, and this should be solved in many many OSs, Linux, Unix and Windows are all not immune from it.
the 2nd most important problem is #6 the spining wheel. I have this problem still in OSX even under X86 systems. It is related to incomplete programmability of OSX to error handling;In certain situations it would be a hanging application, or hardware inturrupt that OSX didn’t unlock itself from after passing a certain amout of time (called “DefaultTimeout”); Windows still hangs and freeze sometimes with certain applications or hardware inturrupts but it seems less severe if it happens than in OSX which will not recover from it by time (Wait 5 minutes and check back to see that windows is more frequently gets itself out of this situation with informative message, while OSX doesn’t tell you anything unless you have started the application from within the console)
If I had one thing I’d like to be able to do in Mac OS X is to turn off the dock. And I’d like virtual desktops built in.
A more useful article would be, “Ten things I hate about whiny tech writers”.
spook wrote:
> > 1. No application installer/uninstaller. Heck, I’d
> > even take a ‘make uninstall’.
>
> WOW, you poor, poor soul, is dragging a folder to the
> trash way to hard for you..
Anyone can drag an app folder to the trash.
How about if you install a driver and then need to back it out? How about a system library?
With Debian, for a library it’s just “apt-get remove foo”. With Mac OS X it’s “oh crap, um, where did that installer copy all those files to anyway?”.
As for stuff on Debian that doesn’t fall under apt-get, at least there’s usually a “make uninstall” or something similar.
Ironic that people keep saying that uninstall in OS X is easy, when half of Apple’s own apps use a package installer that has no uninstaller.
Finder’s network handling sucks. That’s my number 1 hate of OS X. It just freezes up and you can’t do _anything_ when it has network problems. It is just ridiculous!
Networking should be done in another process/thread so that the Finder is still usable.
Having just bought a new Quad machine I’m underwhelmed at the speed of the file system. I have 2 Firewire 400 drives and one Firewire 800 drive attached. I also have an extra internal drive. With any application that allows you to open a file the “Open File…” dialogue box can take 30 seconds to appear. Pathetic!
I was running a similar setup on a 20″ iMac Rev A with similar results.
Judging by the other responses about network drives this sounds like a similar issue.
My favourite issue with MacOSX is the column view in the Finder. When you have Preview switched on and a Quicktime movie is selected it tries to display the first frame. For some reason it has to scan the entire file which in some cases for me is huge. Ugh! And worse as most first frames of movies are black and so a complete waste of time! And it locks up the “threaded” Finder!
Edited 2006-01-09 03:02
The point about previewing QuickTime movies is a good one indeed. I’ve noticed that too. Very annoying. Even worse is when the OS attempts to preview a corrupted QuickTime movie; it just hangs.
insist on trying to make reasonable replies to an article that must have been meant as a joke.
I recall an urban myth story about a Tech support guy who got fired for:
“You need to collect all the pieces and paperwork that came with your computer, box it up, and return it to the store.”
“Oh no! You mean…?”
“I’m afraid so. You’re just too stupid to own a computer.”
Actually, he does have some legitimate points hidden in that proposterously anal complaint list: there should be a way to find out what process is making a file “busy” (Windows has major problems with that too.) Permission errors and the spinning beachball hang, while both have gotten steadily better, are bugs that need to be fixed.
there should be a way to find out what process is making a file “busy” (Windows has major problems with that too.)
On Windows you can use this tool:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
It will tell you which process is using a particular file, and let you kill the file handle or the whole process.
there should be a way to find out what process is making a file “busy” (Windows has major problems with that too.)
On Windows you can use this tool:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
It will tell you which process is using a particular file, and let you kill the file handle or the whole process.
On Linux, you can use lsof to get the PID of the offending application and then kill it so that you can release the resource being held by it.
Well, on Linux (and I guess other Unixes as well), you _can_ delete a file that is in use.
The thing is, only the directory entry will be deleted. The inode and the file “behind” it will continue exists, until all handles to that inode are closed. At that moment, the file itself will disappear as well.
However, you are right about lsof. fuser might be even better, in some cases. I like it for checking TCP ports in use.
i know you can remap your keyboard, but i don’t want to bother since i’ve got several macs and i have to use pc’s for work. the mac key for going to the beginning of a line (home key), on mac it’s apple key + left arrow. end key = apple key + right arrow. copy = apple key + c.
cut = apple key + x. paste = apple key + v.
if i make the apple key = control key, what good is the control key?
now try highlighting an entire line with the keyboard on mac–argh..
java sdk still 1.4, sux. my class forces me to use 1.5 to gain generics support, i have to turn on my linux server, annoying. i know they have 1.5 runtime support, but i’m talking about development here. apple is slow as hell in this support.
quicktime absolutely sux in terms of reading my avi files, the sound is always jittery.
i’m sure i have some more gripes, but these are my biggest ones, not all that bad.
judging by the number of posts, i imagine everyone’s flaming the editor for having an opinion, let him be, he’s probably got all constructive criticism, just glancing at his top ten, it seems like legitimate gripes. so f all of you bitches that gripe about someone’s opinion. that’s like beating a baby with a baseball bat, it’s just a baby for godsakes.
“java sdk still 1.4, sux. my class forces me to use 1.5 to gain generics support, i have to turn on my linux server, annoying. i know they have 1.5 runtime support, but i’m talking about development here. apple is slow as hell in this support.”
skynet:~/Dev/Java DevL$ javac -version
javac 1.5.0_05
Looks like 1.5 to me…
I expected to roll my eyes at most of the complaints — and I’m a bit skeptical about the “Dashboard” bit — but the author nailed many of the annoyances of OSX that I’ve never put into words for myself. Especially the Dumb Deleting; I’ve had too much experience with this:
I don’t expect Mac OS X to allow me to delete a file that’s actually being used by another application, but is it too much to expect to be told the name of the application or thread that’s laying claim to the document?
One need only read Tog on User Interface to see that this is a lesson that Apple knew once (or claimed to). But — is this actually possible in Mac OSX, in BSD? even if I know the application or thread name, will the user understand it? Some thread names are pretty weird.
Someone can tell me, why all articles on informit are always piece of crap ?
I am pleasently supprised by the quality of comments on this thread (so far).
I hope it doesnt deteriorate into a slashdot style troll-fest which reaks of “at least its better than __insert competing product here__”, “just use __insert competing product here__ instead”, or my personal slashdot favorite “The reviewer must be stupid”
Keep up the great work guys!
the number one on that list should be the MAC os x does not run on a AMD Athlon X2 and the AMD Athlon FX 55 CPU.
Edited 2006-01-09 07:32
Except it does
What I hate most about OSX: you can resize a window only in its bottom right corner. Very uncomfortable if the window is near the bottom or right edge – you have to move it first!
An the green “intelligent maximize” button resizes the window in a matter I rarely want it. No solution for me.
Resizing on all window edges (like in all other GUIs) would be MUCH more comfortable.
Edited 2006-01-09 07:59
I love the intelligent maximize button! Both GNOME (metacity) and Windows have an absolutely idiotic resize policy on wide-screen monitors (fill the whole screen). Almost invariably, this policy leaves you with tons of empty space on either side of the window. OS X, on the other hand, maximizes vertically, but not horizontally. This makes it much more usable.
You can set up GNOME, and Windows with the VirtuaWin program to resize windows horizontally only, or vertically only, or both. I use it every day – full maximization for browsers, picture viewers, etc. Vertical only for terminal windows, GAIM buddy list, etc.
…even easier in KDE. Left-click (on maximise) = maximise. Middle-click and right-click maximise vertically-only, horizontally-only (yes, this has its uses too).
From the article: “Another thing I don’t like about Dashboard is that it’s too easy to invoke by mistake, either by pressing F12 when you really want to eject optical media or by clicking the Dashboard icon in the Dock when you intended to click the Finder icon instead.”
How hard it is do move the Dashboard icon away from the Finder so you don’t click on it by mistake? Not hard, just drag it to wherever you like. In fact, if you don’t want it, just drag it off the Dock and that’s it. Again, not particularly difficult to figure out.
F12 is inconvenient? CHANGE IT TO SOME OTHER KEY/TO NO KEY AT ALL if you don’t use it. Just 3 clicks: System Preferences > Dashboard & Exposé and select the key/mouse shortcut.
Is this a real complain, seriously? 0.o
The main complaint is that Dashboard’s modality is a huge departure for Mac users and a bad idea.
The other nits I was picking are small, but the fact is that it’s easy to mistakenly invoke the Dashboard and that it’s not obvious how to return to the normal mode. Invoke the Dashboard on someone who has never seen it before and watch their reactions of panic and confusion.
My biggest complaint remains being able to close all of a programs windows yet STILL have the program running with no obvious visual cue’s it’s still going if you click on another window… at least not without pulling up the dock and if it’s a program that’s normally on the dock, the only thing there to tell you is a baby sized triangle barely 3 pixels tall. This is NOT good design… EXTREMELY counterintuitive.
Goes hand in hand with the ‘single menu for all programs’ nonsense, which while it worked fine at 512×384 on the original mac, ends up being nothing but annoying at 1600×1200 on a 21″ monitor when you have multiple applications open/tiled, having to scroll across the whole screen just to get to the menu.
The lack of keyboard shortcuts to the menu is also a huge drawback in my book – while certainly some options have standard apple-key combinations… There’s no standard way to navigate the menu without the mouse… That’s just stupid.
I still find the way it handles windows, especially it’s shrink/enlarge buttons completely useless, in many cases refusing to do a simple ‘use the full screen’ and more often than not having both ‘settings’ near identical.
I’m just thankful they pulled their head out of their backsides long enough to integrate support for multiple buttons and scroll wheels into the base OS, instead of having to run YET ANOTHER third party crapplet to add what should be basic functionality. For a company people claim ‘innovates’ so much, I’m frequently amazed at how they lag a decade behind on the simplest of things.
Another gripe would be how it handles X based programs. That you have to manually start X11 THEN start your desired program is a extra step that you’d think the OS could be made smart enough to handle automatically – especially given how quickly the X server compatability layer loads and unloads.
That and the inability to turn off a lot of CPU/GPU chewing visual effects… I hate transparancies, shadows don’t really ‘do it’ for me, pin stripes give me a headache and generally a lot of other ‘details’ I just don’t need or want. This is someplace even Microsoft was smart enough to code in the option to just ‘turn all that crap off’. Again 3rd party applets let you change this behavior, although in some cases these 3rd party programs consume even more memory and CPU, defeating half the purpose of ‘turning that shit off’ (like on a Mac Mini)
I’d also complain about the lack of a easy location to find your applications without having to open a dozen odd windows or pour over a unorganized list of twenty plus items. The ‘find’ is ok if you know what you are looking for, but just figuring out what programs are installed is a pain in the ass. Thankfully there are five or six third party applets to make the applications directory into a menu.
A lot of his complaints though do not bother me on my iBook:
1) The dock item bounce behavior can be changed in system preferences (and changed even more via some third party proggies)… Pretty easy to find in fact.
2) Welcome to true multitasking, something Apple is still getting a handle on the concept of. (and something OS 9 really wasn’t… OS9 was still cooperative like Win 3.1).
3) I usually empty the trash within seconds of moving anything there… therin I’ve never even THOUGHT of running a program or viewing a file from it. My advice: Use better filenames.
4) 3rd party updates through the OS update manager? Bad idea IMHO as it would require someone on staff to verify said updates won’t {censored} the whole OS, resulting in something akin to the WHQL… and we know how well THAT worked out… When was the last time you installed an up to date WinXP driver that didn’t come up with the message “This driver has not been certified by the WHQL”
5) UHG. Widgets. Goofy @#$5ing crapplets that chew up memory all the time for things I DON’T {CENSORED} USE OR WANT. First damned thing I delete off a OS X install is the dashboard and everything associated with it.
6) This one I encounter a good deal… That it can lock up on a task so badly that the only way to handle the situation is to force-quit, you learn the command-option-esc shortcut DAMNed quick, especially since the most common application to have problems seems to be the finder. (Which is the only way to force-quit using the mouse) For all their efforts OS X Multitasking still SUCKS, even if they came up with one of the neater ways to handle program switching (Expose). Guess even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
7) Oddly enough, I have NO problems with how it handles permissions – it’s nice to finally see a mainstream OS (sorry linux, you aren’t mainstream on the desktop yet) do it RIGHT.
8) Noticed it, shrugged, kept on going. Truthfully I like to see what’s going on under the hood.
9) I LIKE that it shows me what it’s doing… That’s way better than the alternative, which would be the thing that’s complained about in #6
10) Workaround – make an alias to the item on the desktop, rename the alias, then drag it to the sidebar… Interestingly you can delete the alias off the desktop and it will continue to function from the sidebar.
All in all though, there’s a lot to like in OS X… application and driver installation is COMPLETELY painless and just works (yes linux, I’m pointing at you), program removal is a no-brainer with no worries of programs leaving remnants of themselves behind (yes Windows, I’m pointing at you) the font rendering technology while not as good as MS Cleartype is still ahead of anything I’ve seen on the open source side of things (that whole screen legibility vs. authenticity to print styling debate)…
Now if we could just get them to pull their heads out of their backsides again so we could run it without the CRAP apple hardware… Sorry apple zealots, but to me the rinky fisher-price styling and rinkier internals do NOT bespeak quality to me… I’ve seen el-cheapo Packard Bells which were better made than many of the high-end G5’s.
“The lack of keyboard shortcuts to the menu is also a huge drawback in my book – while certainly some options have standard apple-key combinations… There’s no standard way to navigate the menu without the mouse… That’s just stupid
Ctrl-F2: Move focus to the menu bar
Ctrl-F3: Move focus to the dock
Ctrl-F4: Move focus to the active window or next window
Ctrl-F5: Move focus to the window toolbar
Ctrl-F6: Move focus to the floating window
…
And so on.
Check System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts. You can edit them, and even assign new shortcuts for individual application menu items. (!)
You can also enable/disable “Full keyboard access”, so you can use Tab to move focus between all controls or limit it to text boxes and lists only.
Hmm. Must be the crap G3 iBook that’s my only at-home Mac… as ctrl F2 does what normal F2 does, increase brightness. I’ll try it in a couple hours on a G5.
oop.. CTRL-FN-F2… now that’s convoluted. No offence, but what the hell’s wrong with alt-F? Ok, at least I have arrow navigation which while slow and painful is at least functional. Still don’t see why they can’t do ‘out of box’ simple one-key menu controls like Win, KDE or Gnome.
I’ve been using OS X on and off now for about a month, been a real love/hate relationship. Every time I like it something minor crops up that makes me swear at Apple and the whore that brought them into this world…
Just like Linux and Windows…
Edited 2006-01-09 10:21
Make sure that Keyboard Navigation is enabled in the System Preferences (btw, this is on Tiger, I’m not sure about Panther though)
Edit: In response to your edit: If ctrl-F2 is inconvenient on your laptop, just change it to something else
Edited 2006-01-09 10:25
“10) Workaround – make an alias to the item on the desktop, rename the alias, then drag it to the sidebar… Interestingly you can delete the alias off the desktop and it will continue to function from the sidebar. ”
Sounds reasonable, but you can’t put an alias in the Sidebar, so this isn’t a workaround.
Forgot, the bouncing application behavior only bothered me with one program (Proteus) which lets the user change that behavior in IT’s setup…
Which to me means the bouncing behavior is NOT a function of the operating system, but left up to the writer of the application.
I never knew Macs really replaced things when you replace things! Maybe I need a Mac.
Maybe I’m just weird, but that’s exactly what I want to happen. I hate the fact that ‘replace’ seems to mean ‘merge’ – presumably to protect silly people from themselves. If I want to merge I add files to the directory, If I want to replace, I want to replace – no messing around.
But then I hate ‘trash’, ‘recycle’ or ‘wastebin’ too. I like ‘delete’ – as in delete, get rid of, vanish.
I like machines to do the things I think I’m telling them to do, not reinterpret the language because they think I am inferior and stupid. Maybe I’m just weird.
… are the stupid websites that have 3/4 of a page in ads, 1/4 content, and the content is only 1 paragraph so you have to go through 10 pages of garbage in order to read garbage…
Actually, for articles like this i like to hit the ‘Print’ button, and the site gives me a very clean, spacious version, with all the items on one page.
oh yeah, i can’t stand finder. spotlight is a move in the right direction in general for file system interfaces, but i still like having some easier, lightweight navigation mechanisms, windows has done a pretty good job of it, if you turn off the folder tree view on the left, it’s pretty fast, simple, and customizable.
i think i may try to write my own windows navigation utility for mac based on cocoa. or maybe midnight commander works, lol.
some of those issues sounds similar to what i have experienced on windows. isnt mac supposed to be a superior system when it comes to user experience?
…with Mac OS X is the overall sluggishness of the UI. I liken working with OS X to wading through a knee-deep pool of molassis. It just feels sluggish and unresponsive compared to WinXP. It’s not slowness in any given area of the UI that causes this, but an overall effect–sort of a “death by 1000 cuts”.
I have a dual 2 GHz G5, so I don’t think my hardware is underpowered.
# Trashed Items Cant Be Opened
Is that a prob., I mean really? You can’t in windows can you? I never tried.
# Software Update Off-Limits to Third-Parties
Well, I can’t update Netscape through windows update. Should I write a article?
It’s not a problem if you always use a Mac. Who’s wrong? Well, I think “replace” says it all. If not, it should say anything else. An example: suppose I have a block of papers (reports, whatever) and my boss tells me “here are the new reports, replace that with this”; should I merge them? Not.
UPDATE: a better option would be to ask you to replace contents or merge them.
Edited 2006-01-09 20:38
Well, it happens with Windows too. There is no perfect system. You can easily download, install and uninstall packages with Windows, but then you can do that better with Linux repositories, even if it’s not the best for all users. You can install and “uninstall” applications in OS X easily too, but then it’s all about getting used to. Most people I know use Windows and install/remove applications the Windows way. I still prefer the Linux way. I’m used to it.
http://appzapper.com/
whilst it’s not bad for the system to leave all those old .plist files around, i certainly understand the annoyance.. this app seems to work quite well
What is not to like about OS X? Why am I even asking this queston? You do not like that trashed data cannot be read? or that if you tell the OS to copy files it actually does it? I am going to puke…..all over you.
“What is not to like about OS X? Why am I even asking this queston? You do not like that trashed data cannot be read? or that if you tell the OS to copy files it actually does it? I am going to puke…..all over you.”
Sad and lame is how I would characterize your criticism of my article. I can only assume that it’s too much to ask you to consider the points raised and give them more than a moment’s thought.
Yes, I don’t like that I can’t open a file that’s in the Trash. And I explain why, and I offer a better solution.
Yes, I don’t like the way the Finder copies packages. Do you really think it makes sense to expose the number of items in a package when elsewhere in the UI it’s treated as a single item?