Things you like/love about OS X

[BGH]

My fav feature is definitely expose and in particular being able to activate it via moving the mouse up to a corner of the screen. So quick, simple and intuitive to switch windows. I forever find myself flicking my mouse to the corner of the screen at work only to remember that it doesn't work on Windows.

Thing I hate most is easily finder. Just too basic and cumbersome. How hard is it to put in a tree view?

[abel]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Quicksilver yetThat alone is almost a reason by itself to go mac imho.

Anyway, expose as mentioned is cool. Also the whole integration thing is really really cool. I know many people will sneer at this, but the fact that ical, mail, address book, iphoto etc. are all great apps that come standard with the OS means many many 3rd apps make use/integrate with them.

Hate :
-window resizing as mentioned is crap.
-I do think the maximize everything style of windows is better when you're stuck with small real estate.
-Office 2008
-What's with all the cool photographic PS plugins not having intel mac version.
-Plugging in friends' USB drive, only to realize they're formatted in NTFS

-I hate the way mac browsers keep making copies of the same file. I often end up with like 5 versions of the same pdf in my download folder.
-Which brings me to my other point, is there any way to set it so that browsers do not save "viewed" file (such as pdf) in the designated download folder? IIRC unless told to "save as" windows browser just put such files in the temp folder and clear it periodically.

[Lynx]

I don't get what is so great about Expose. What is the point of it - to facilitate switching windows? Right. How can people rave about something that should be so simple and yet OSX makes it such a chore. Why would you want to use 3 actions to do something that should only take 2?

1. Activate Expose by moving cursor to screen corner or squeezing mouse (this feels retarded).
2. Move cursor back over window you want to use.
3. Click button.

That as opposed to Windows' task bar where everything is /already there/, and shows you what applications you have open /at all times/.

Just by the way, what was the method of switching windows before they invented Expose? IIRC the early versions of OSX did not have this. So what was done then? Relying on keeping neatly arranging defocus'd windows so you can click on an inactive one when required? Mousing up to 'Window' on the system bar and choosing there?

I would really love someone to convince me that OSX does it better, but I alreadys come back feeling that its so cumbersome and inefficient. I started a thread about this a while ago (What is so great about Macs?)

[BGH]

Originally Posted by Lynx

That as opposed to Windows' task bar where everything is /already there/, and shows you what applications you have open /at all times/.

Yeah I have to admit that this is a bit of pet peave I have with OS X. The task bar in Windows make it easy to see exactly how many windows you have open and what they are. In Mac OS X you have to check for the tiny little dot next to the icon in the dock (which may or may not mean that there are currently windows for that program). Plus there is no way to easily tell that you have multiple windows for that program open. I think it would be good to have a little counter imposed over a dock icon to let you know how many windows you have open for that program.

Often I'd jump on my ex's macbook and find out that she had 5 or 6 browser pop ups sitting in the background doing nothing. She used to just say that she didn't even know they were there and to be honest I cant really blame her.

[bugayev]

Originally Posted by Lynx

I don't get what is so great about Expose. What is the point of it - to facilitate switching windows? Right. How can people rave about something that should be so simple and yet OSX makes it such a chore. Why would you want to use 3 actions to do something that should only take 2?

1. Activate Expose by moving cursor to screen corner or squeezing mouse (this feels retarded).
2. Move cursor back over window you want to use.
3. Click button.

That as opposed to Windows' task bar where everything is /already there/, and shows you what applications you have open /at all times/.

Just by the way, what was the method of switching windows before they invented Expose? IIRC the early versions of OSX did not have this. So what was done then? Relying on keeping neatly arranging defocus'd windows so you can click on an inactive one when required? Mousing up to 'Window' on the system bar and choosing there?

I would really love someone to convince me that OSX does it better, but I alreadys come back feeling that its so cumbersome and inefficient. I started a thread about this a while ago (What is so great about Macs?)

I find that using Leopard with Spaces and then Expose, I would move my mouse LESS than to go all the way down to the bottom of the screen, then picking the one I want.

I bind my mail client to one space, browser(s) to another, terminal to another and then IM to another. This keeps a good logical separation for me and I find it great.

To change spaces, I can either hit f8 then switch spaces and then invoke expose, or go down to the dock and do it that way.

Either way, I do find it more efficent than Windows.

The main thing is though, as always, to initially stop thinking that you are still using Windows.

[Semi-Evolved]

Like:

The Window Frames. They're compact, and look decent without being too distracting, particularly with the Graphite theme.

The Unified Menu Bar. For single monitor usage, it's simple and consistent.

The Apple Menu. It's a nice and consistent place to put system functions.

The File System Layout. It's clean and straightforward.

Largely consistent interface. For the most part it's pretty decent.

Hardware integration. It doesn't work with most hardware, but the hardware it works with it works well with.

Tight POSIX integration. Despite the fact that it's changed very little in the last decade or two, POSIX is still a rather good system design.

Nice Window Management. Expose, clean minimisation, assorted shortcuts for window management, makes it pretty decent.

Dislike:

The Unified Menu Bar. FOr multiple monitor usage, it makes using applications on secondary screens tedious.

The File System Layout. Hiding folders with POSIX names is a terribly hacky way of doing things.

Resizing. Only being able to resize from the bottom right corner is ridiculous for an OS that lacks a maximise function.

The Dock. It's not the worst interface paradigm ever, but it's pretty poor for handling large numbers of applications. At the very least, it needs a textual mode to ease heavy multitasking.

Finder. Rubbish file management for the masses.

Flakey SMB Share support. Enough said; it's flakey.

Spaces. They're bad on POSIX, and they're bad on MacOS. Better window management and better multi-screen support is the way to go, not a hack like virtual desktops.

Utterly Hate:

Brushed Metal.

Things I really wish it had:

A CODEC based media system. "No, you can't have FLAC in iTunes".

[ghettro]

Originally Posted by Lynx

I don't get what is so great about Expose. What is the point of it - to facilitate switching windows? Right. How can people rave about something that should be so simple and yet OSX makes it such a chore. Why would you want to use 3 actions to do something that should only take 2?

1. Activate Expose by moving cursor to screen corner or squeezing mouse (this feels retarded).
2. Move cursor back over window you want to use.
3. Click button.

That as opposed to Windows' task bar where everything is /already there/, and shows you what applications you have open /at all times/.

Just by the way, what was the method of switching windows before they invented Expose? IIRC the early versions of OSX did not have this. So what was done then? Relying on keeping neatly arranging defocus'd windows so you can click on an inactive one when required? Mousing up to 'Window' on the system bar and choosing there?

I would really love someone to convince me that OSX does it better, but I alreadys come back feeling that its so cumbersome and inefficient. I started a thread about this a while ago (What is so great about Macs?)

It is slightly annoying that you can't see every window open at once like you can in the windows taskbar. Although one solution is to right click the dock icon of the program you want to go to and then select the sub-window you want within that program, it's effectively the same as when you have grouped windows on the windows taskbar, although not as quick as windows when you only have a handful of things open without grouping.

I think expose is a different thing altogether though. I find it much better than the taskbar for when you have visual content open where the filename is not very meaningful but the thumbnail is. Like if I had 10 photos open in photoshop, they would be numbered DSC 12312## or whatever, windows I could have to choose by filename or alt tab it, expose allows me to see every image at once and go from there, or I could choose it by filename if I wanted to, or apple tab it. I find using too much expose makes me dizzy though

Same rule applies for browser windows, especially as sometimes webpage titles are a bit spurious, whereas I tend to remember the visual page content better.

I think multitasking with heaps of apps and windows open is much improved with leopard and Spaces. I also assign mail & ical to one space, itunes to another and leave the other two free. This reduces the clutter a lot.

Generally though, I find the dock and expose more visually based, whereas windows is more text based. You have big sizeable icons on the dock and they can tell you alot by how they are animated (bouncing constantly, bouncing intermittently etc), it can indicate things like the ul/dl rate or percent complete of a task without needing to hover over it or open the app. The icons in Windows are static, the most they can do is flash in the taskbar in one way but that's about it.

Oh that reminds me, I hate how OS X appends long file/folder names by putting elipses in the middle of the sen....nce. I can never bloody tell what it is, couldn't they just append the end? This problem is exacerbated in the columns view in finder.
Sometimes I wish there was just a two paned view like Explorer or Nautilus, although there is a breadcrumbs type tree indicator in Leopard's finder which is an improvement as well as the improved sidebar but I still find it waning.

Another thing is modified date, I am used to organising my folders by modified date, windows uses the modified date from when the file was modified on the local system. OS X uses the modified dates from whoever originally created the file. This is annoying, particularly when you want to list your downloads folder and sort by when it was downloaded (so most recent is at top). Strangely you can sort by "date added" in the stacks feature which will show them arranged this way in your dock but I haven't yet found out how to do this in finder. Anyone know?

Also file associations is funny, files will always open with what just last edited or opened them. Even if you change all JPGs to open with preview, if you edit one in photoshop and then save it, close photoshop. Then you double click it in finder it'll go try to open it in photoshop. So I am forced to drag it to preview instead.


The thing about the + button on OS X I think has to do more with the way the OS works. It's more useful to not have the window take up the whole desktop space because you tend to drag and drop more between applications than you do in Windows.

[~Coxy]

I'd like to point out that the Windows taskbar doesn't show every window open either. Many apps show only one button for multiple windows and some windows don't even show up at all, especially dialogs and settings windows.

I prefer Dock+Expose and others prefer Taskbar. Neither is better for all situations.

[ghettro]

True, although the same with expose - particularly with preference type mini-window

[norbs]

Love Quicksilver. Love Adium.

Hate iTunes, the network sharing system and sweet jesus why isnt there a CUT/MOVE on right click in Finder?

[proffesso]

yep, I want explorer for osx...finder just gives me the shits for the most part.

not just explorer, but give me compressed file listings too.

another thing that shits me is time machine....why the fuck cant I backup to ANY of the storage options I already own

agree on single menu bar for multi-screen work, but i also want to do away with application specific menubars...just make some super cut down thing purely for os functions only, and leave all applications to use menus embedded in thier windows.

still want a queuing file transfer, or at least an option for right click "add to queue"...hate moving tons of files around at once, makes all transfers slow.
at least osx groups them all into a single window, but still.

windows has Teracopy which is fantastic...apart from the slight dealbreaker of crashing somtimes :/

iTunes...dont hate, runs well, but im sure its due for a makeover soon.

and I just want some simple UI color adjustment options...I run my windows very dark, I want to run osx the same way

I know there are theme apps for 1.4.x.....but what about 10.5.x?

[ghettro]

I always found it pretty stupid in OS X that although many other apple written and mainstream applications allow you to cut with apple+x it doesn't work in finder.

[nap]

Originally Posted by Lynx

I don't get what is so great about Expose. What is the point of it - to facilitate switching windows? Right. How can people rave about something that should be so simple and yet OSX makes it such a chore. Why would you want to use 3 actions to do something that should only take 2?

you're right, personally i find the PC more productive, but the Macs are 'cool' to use because of features like this. Sorta like the modern LCD TVs, some of them have glass panel (Sony) that glow!! no benefit except it looks great

[nap]

Originally Posted by ~Coxy

I'd like to point out that the Windows taskbar doesn't show every window open either. Many apps show only one button for multiple windows and some windows don't even show up at all, especially dialogs and settings windows.

.. you can change that, just click right on the start taskbar -> Properties -> Group similar taskbar buttons.

[chip]

I love how un-robust HFS+ is.