10 Mac OS X Pet Peeves

[coolsoldier]

I started to write this up as a post, but it got too long, so I posted it as an article on my website:

Mac OS X Pet Peeves (http://www.runningincircles.com/2003_10_01_arch.html)

[rainman::|:|]

the most memorable for me is that when you do command-f for find, the filename field is not active by default. so, you need to use your mouse to click in it, then go back to the keyboard. obviously an oversight as apple usually gets these things right...

pnw

[latergator116]

I dumped Mac os X and switched over to Yellow Dog linux built ecspecially for the Mac(http://yellowdoglinux.com/) It is much faster. Sure Mac os X never freezes but it consatntly locks up and file sharing sucks. Also, 10.2 seems to have more bugs than 10.1.

[Nermal]

My problem with Linux is the lack of application support. I had used several flavours of Linux before getting my Mac, and while I liked Linux a lot better than Windows, I was frustrated with not being able to run my favourite applications. I saw that there were Mac versions of several useful apps, which was essentially the best of both worlds. I'm glad I switched :)

[latergator116]

hey Nermal, you are right but the newest version of yellow dog comes with tons of apps and is much more stable than the original one. Also it is nice because it has multiple desktops

[Doctor Q]

I always fault Microsoft for trying to make its software "too smart", by which I mean that it tries to guess the user's intention, looking very clever indeed when it guesses right and quite foolish (and frustrating to the user) when it guesses wrong. MS Word is especially guilty of this.

I think Apple tried to get "too smart" with file extensions. They tried to have the best of both worlds, hiding them for "convenience" and displaying them "when appropriate". The result? Non-intuitive behavior and user confusion. I've learned to always uncheck the "hide extension" checkbox to keep out of trouble.

By the way, paulwhannel, when I use Command-F (File->Find) in the Finder with the latest 10.2.8, the focus is initially in the file name text box.

[Freg3000]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
the most memorable for me is that when you do command-f for find, the filename field is not active by default. so, you need to use your mouse to click in it, then go back to the keyboard. obviously an oversight as apple usually gets these things right...

pnw

It works for me.

[coolsoldier]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
[B]I think Apple tried to get "too smart" with file extensions. They tried to have the best of both worlds, hiding them for "convenience" and displaying them "when appropriate". The result? Non-intuitive behavior and user confusion. I've learned to always uncheck the "hide extension" checkbox to keep out of trouble.

Somebody posted in the comments for the article that you can choose "Always Show Extensions" in the finder prefs. This is still annoying though, because 9 times out of 10 I don't need an extension. "Smart" extension hiding is not a problem itself, but poorly implemented "Smart" extension hiding is. If it would always hide them, they'd work just like the old os 9 typecodes, which I personally would like as long as they were hidden everywhere and they wouldn't let 2 files have the same display name.

[rainman::|:|]

Originally posted by Freg3000
It works for me.

really? just tried it again and still doesn't work that way for me. hasn't since 10.1 i think... what version are you using? i wonder what could be causing this behaviour. highly annoying.

pnw

[Freg3000]

I am using 10.2.6 (paranoid about 10.2.8). I can't ever remember it not working for me, although I really never paid much attention to it. If you are running 10.2.8, I'll upgrade to see if it is a bug there.

What do I have to lose.....:)

[mnkeybsness]

in panther, the CMD+F thing works just fine, no need to go from mouse to keyboard at any time.

[Doctor Q]

As I mentioned above, I'm on 10.2.8 (first the evil version, then the upgraded version) and Command-F works properly for me.

[XnavxeMiyyep]

Originally posted by latergator116
I dumped Mac os X and switched over to Yellow Dog linux built ecspecially for the Mac(http://yellowdoglinux.com/) It is much faster. Sure Mac os X never freezes but it consatntly locks up and file sharing sucks. Also, 10.2 seems to have more bugs than 10.1. But if you've used the beta of 10.3, you'll notice that the speed has significantly increased, and I haven't had any lock-ups, even in the beta version. So when 10.3 comes out, you may want to consider switching back to OS X.

[latergator116]

But if you've used the beta of 10.3, you'll notice that the speed has significantly increased, and I haven't had any lock-ups, even in the beta version. So when 10.3 comes out, you may want to consider switching back to OS X.
Since I havent used 10.3 yet, I will give it a try when it comes out.

[VladDracul]

Originally posted by latergator116
I dumped Mac os X and switched over to Yellow Dog linux built ecspecially for the Mac(http://yellowdoglinux.com/) It is much faster. Sure Mac os X never freezes but it consatntly locks up and file sharing sucks. Also, 10.2 seems to have more bugs than 10.1.

Faster doing what exactly?

If by faster you mean X Windows vs Aqua, you must be running a version of Linux that no one else seems to have. Actually, X Windows has always been my chief complain about all Unix flavors. SGI IRIX had the best version, but it was still lacking. Mac OS X is the only Unix flavor that has solved the GUI paradigm well enough to warrant its usage as a desktop OS.

If by faster you mean the kernel itself, you might be right; but unless you are using your machine as a server, you will never notice the difference.

[latergator116]

Faster doing what exactly?

If by faster you mean X Windows vs Aqua, you must be running a version of Linux that no one else seems to have. Actually, X Windows has always been my chief complain about all Unix flavors. SGI IRIX had the best version, but it was still lacking. Mac OS X is the only Unix flavor that has solved the GUI paradigm well enough to warrant its usage as a desktop OS.

If by faster you mean the kernel itself, you might be right; but unless you are using your machine as a server, you will never notice the difference.

Well, yellow dog does everything faster. Applications open in 5 seconds or less. It just has an overall faster response.

[cubist]

Originally posted by coolsoldier
... If it would always hide them, they'd work just like the old os 9 typecodes, which I personally would like as long as they were hidden everywhere ...

Blech. The type/creator codes were a horrible feature of older Mac OSs. They're only acceptable if every file you ever use begins and ends its life on the Mac. I had to keep an alias to File Typer on my desktop. Invisibility of critical things is a bad thing from a usability standpoint.

Pet peeves for Mac OS X... I'm not crazy about the dock; I'd like something like Windows' alt-tab to switch programs. I think Panther's Expose will do the job; looking forward to it.

Also I want to resize and/or move windows from any side - didn't we have this thread already?

[tomf87]

Originally posted by cubist
... I'd like something like Windows' alt-tab to switch programs. I think Panther's Expose will do the job; looking forward to it. ...

Already there... Use COMMAND-TAB to switch programs. If multiple windows are open use COMMAND-` (the tick, not apostrophe) to switch windows.

My main complaint with COMMAND-TAB is if a window is minimized. Let's say I have iTunes running and minimized. If I switch to iTunes via keyboard shortcut, it doesn't automatically restore the window.

[whooleytoo]

Originally posted by cubist
Blech. The type/creator codes were a horrible feature of older Mac OSs. They're only acceptable if every file you ever use begins and ends its life on the Mac. I had to keep an alias to File Typer on my desktop. Invisibility of critical things is a bad thing from a usability standpoint.

I have to disagree here, I think storing type/creator codes as meta-data within the file was the right way to go, and Apple effectively "downgraded" to be more compatible with Windows.

The ability to render a file 'unopenable' just by changing it's name (i.e. it's extension) is frankly ridiculous. And the warning dialog that pops up gets pretty darn tedious too!

I believe the type SHOULD be hidden, as you're not likely to want to change the type without also converting the data contained in the file to match the file type.

IMO :D
Mike.

[coolsoldier]

Originally posted by tomf87
Already there... Use COMMAND-TAB to switch programs. If multiple windows are open use COMMAND-` (the tick, not apostrophe) to switch windows.

It's there, but it doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to. Example:
I have Mail, Safari, and iTunes open. From Safari, if I hit CMD-TAB, it switches to Mail. If I his command tab, again, it switches back to Safari, skipping iTunes completely. It seems that, at least on my system, CMD-TAB only switches between the two most recently used programs, instead of cycling through programs like it should.

[Freg3000]

Originally posted by coolsoldier
It's there, but it doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to. Example:
I have Mail, Safari, and iTunes open. From Safari, if I hit CMD-TAB, it switches to Mail. If I his command tab, again, it switches back to Safari, skipping iTunes completely. It seems that, at least on my system, CMD-TAB only switches between the two most recently used programs, instead of cycling through programs like it should.

In 10.1, Command Tab cycled through all open programs from left to right in your dock, starting with the current App. In Jaguar, Apple turned Command Tab into something that would go back to your last App first, and then continue.

Annoying for some, good for others.

[5300cs]

Most likely this was already mentioned in another thread, but when I have my TiBook connected to my iBook, then I put my iBook to sleep, the Finder hangs on the TiBook when I try to unmount the network volume.
It infuriates me to the point of physical violence waiting for that friggin lollypop of death (or whatever it is) to go away. I almost always have to force quit the Finder, which sometimes goes nuts and causes me to force reboot- just like the good old days of Win98 :rolleyes:

I also remember someone saying a while back in another thread that the dock doesn't use Quartz Extreme .. now there was a great idea :rolleyes: watch the CPU monitor sometime when going over the dock w/magnification on.

Other than those 2 huge peeves, I like everything else. :) :D

[Powerbook G5]

Originally posted by latergator116
Well, yellow dog does everything faster. Applications open in 5 seconds or less. It just has an overall faster response.

What are you opening that takes so long? Most everything opens within a fraction of a second or a second or two with OS X on my PowerBook. The slowest thing is Photoshop, but that is no more than 6 seconds probably.

[Fukui]

Originally posted by whooleytoo
I have to disagree here, I think storing type/creator codes as meta-data within the file was the right way to go, and Apple effectively "downgraded" to be more compatible with Windows.

The ability to render a file 'unopenable' just by changing it's name (i.e. it's extension) is frankly ridiculous. And the warning dialog that pops up gets pretty darn tedious too!

I believe the type SHOULD be hidden, as you're not likely to want to change the type without also converting the data contained in the file to match the file type.

IMO :D
Mike.
Well, I'm one of those people that think that the extendion IS the type code, for ex. jpg is the type, it just should always be hidden thats all. I really don't like all this metadata stuff because it gets in the way with other platforms that use flat files...MS Word docs on OS X for example store part of the file in a reasource fork for crying out loud! @_@

Metadata should be a part of the filesystem itself, and thats it. Unless you are transfering files from HFS to HFS all metadata should be removed.

I was hoping that with Pather they would switch to Ext3 or UFS2 or/and get rid of AFP for NFS and Rendezvous...but oh well!!!!

@_@
@_@
@_@

[latergator116]

What are you opening that takes so long? Most everything opens within a fraction of a second or a second or two with OS X on my PowerBook. The slowest thing is Photoshop, but that is no more than 6 seconds probably.

well i have a 800mhz eMac and everything seems to take long. I opene iMovie and it takes about 7 or 8 seconds to give me a window and then it gives me the lolipop for about 5 seconds. A lot of times when I just clisk on a menu or something it will put a lolipop on me. Safari also always seems to "unexpectedly" quit on me a lot.

[Powerbook G5]

Originally posted by latergator116
well i have a 800mhz eMac and everything seems to take long. I opene iMovie and it takes about 7 or 8 seconds to give me a window and then it gives me the lolipop for about 5 seconds. A lot of times when I just clisk on a menu or something it will put a lolipop on me. Safari also always seems to "unexpectedly" quit on me a lot.

What version did you use? I only have experience with 10.2.7 and 10.2.8, but both of them give me no lag with anything and I have yet to have anything quit on me or hang. Maybe Apple made some significant speed increases recently with Jag? My computer is only 1.25 GHz, so it isn't like it is vastly faster than yours, so maybe it is a software issue with versions.

[tomf87]

Originally posted by Freg3000
In 10.1, Command Tab cycled through all open programs from left to right in your dock, starting with the current App. In Jaguar, Apple turned Command Tab into something that would go back to your last App first, and then continue.

Annoying for some, good for others.

Hold down Command while you hit Tab.... The programs will darken along the dock that are opened. Release them when you are on the program you want to switch to. ALT-Tab in Windows does the same thing.

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by latergator116
well i have a 800mhz eMac and everything seems to take long. I opene iMovie and it takes about 7 or 8 seconds to give me a window and then it gives me the lolipop for about 5 seconds. A lot of times when I just clisk on a menu or something it will put a lolipop on me. Safari also always seems to "unexpectedly" quit on me a lot.

Part of the problem may be insufficient RAM and a slow disk drive. Yes, that's how Apple sells them--no, it doesn't have to make sense to sell them that way.

iMovie is rather big, so if memory is full, you'll have some swapping going on. I tried several other applications on my G3/800 with 704MB and nothing else lagged the way iMovie did. With 10.2.8, it's all quite quick.

[pyrotekniks]

[edited]

[coolsoldier]

Originally posted by latergator116
well i have a 800mhz eMac and everything seems to take long. I opene iMovie and it takes about 7 or 8 seconds to give me a window and then it gives me the lolipop for about 5 seconds. A lot of times when I just clisk on a menu or something it will put a lolipop on me. Safari also always seems to "unexpectedly" quit on me a lot.

Jeez, something's really wrong there! Do you have enough RAM? Even my old 350Mhz G3 iMac never takes more than about 10 secs to get a program up and usable!

[VladDracul]

Originally posted by latergator116
Well, yellow dog does everything faster. Applications open in 5 seconds or less. It just has an overall faster response.

But there's no way you can accurately compare this aspect of X Windows and Aqua. It is true that a menu will look snappier on most Linux systems, but try dragging a window or scrolling. You will see that there is a considerable difference between the two in favor of Aqua. Not to mention font smoothness, ease of operation, etc.

Seriously, if there is one reason to switch between all the different flavors of Unix, Linux included, and Mac OS X, that reason is OS X's GUI environment.