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taylorpc

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 29, 2005
58
0
St. Louis, MO
An earlier post regarding Spotlight made me wonder: what is your favorite feature of OS X? I find it particularly irritating to go without the ingenious Expose'. I switched over only a year ago, and I'm finding new things every day that I just love.

Your favorite doesn't necessarily have to be a named feature, such as spotlight or dashboard, but maybe it's something about OS X that you prefer over other operating systems in general.

Thoughts?
 

emaja

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2005
1,706
11
Chicago, IL
It's a tough call since the entire OS has tons of little features that really don't do a whole lot by themselves, but when you consider that one company has put them all together in one package, it becomes quite impressive.

One usefullness, I couldn't use a computer comfortably without Expose.

One potential, Automator and Spotlight are a little raw, but I am sure that we will see big improvements with the launch of Leopard.
 

metalgearmac

macrumors member
Dec 29, 2005
48
0
Favorite OS X feature? OS X itself, after coming home from using windows at school OS X is heaven.
 

ero87

macrumors 65816
Jan 17, 2006
1,196
1
New York City
Expose, spotlight, the minimize "genie" effect... all crucial. I use spotlight freakishly often, probably when it's not necessary. We're spoiled.

BTW, i've been reading these forums for a while but i still can't figure out... what does GUI mean?!?
 

nightdweller25

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2005
421
0
ero87 said:
Expose, spotlight, the minimize "genie" effect... all crucial. I use spotlight freakishly often, probably when it's not necessary. We're spoiled.

BTW, i've been reading these forums for a while but i still can't figure out... what does GUI mean?!?
Graphical
User
Interface
 

sunfast

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2005
2,135
53
I do love expose - I'm always squeezing my mouse at work and getting annoyed when it does nothing.
 

After G

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2003
1,583
1
California
My favorite feature is the user community.

Windows users seem annoyed when you ask them for help with stuff.
 

trainguy77

macrumors 68040
Nov 13, 2003
3,567
1
Expose I can't live without it. Heck I hate using a computer that does not have the same mouse button mapped to it!
 

Laser47

macrumors 6502a
Jan 8, 2004
856
0
Maryland
I absolutely love expose' and cant imagine OSX without it.
I also love the way it works. Doing things on the Mac make sense contrary to windows, a good example is how you can drag and drop anything anywhere. Want to watch a quicktime movie simply drag it to the quicktime icon and it opens.

I also love how its different. Ive used windows for a very long time and got bored of it. I played around with several linux distro's but kept going back to windows.

Oh and one more thing. I like arguing with kids at school who say when they talk about how macs suck and think of themselves 'hackers' or computer geniuses, you know the kids who open Command prompt within windows and type dir and say they are hacking or the kids who type fdisk and expect something to happen. Yet bringing up the word Unix always brings up blank faces.

Words cannot express how much I love the Mac platform.
 

igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
The ease with which peripherals and storage devices can be connected and ejected especially endears my Mac to me.

Edit: It does it so quickly, too. On Windows, I'm always waiting for the computer to recognize my flash drive. On my Mac, it's almost instantaneous.

Plus, how easy is it to set up a printer? Tell Bonjour to look for it. Done!
 

trainguy77

macrumors 68040
Nov 13, 2003
3,567
1
igucl said:
The ease with which peripherals and storage devices can be connected and ejected especially endears my Mac to me.

Edit: It does it so quickly, too. On Windows, I'm always waiting for the computer to recognize my flash drive. On my Mac, it's almost instantaneous.

Plus, how easy is it to set up a printer? Tell Bonjour to look for it. Done!
You don't need to tell Bonjour to do it....it just does:)
 

igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
trainguy77 said:
You don't need to tell Bonjour to do it....it just does:)

True. But you do have to select the printer it found, at least the first time. :)
 

jalagl

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2003
802
1
Costa Rica
Expose. Hands down.
I miss it on my work Windows box.

I also use Spotlight to launch programs and search/open documents almost exclusively... the less I use Finder, the better :)
 

taylorpc

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 29, 2005
58
0
St. Louis, MO
After G said:
My favorite feature is the user community.

Windows users seem annoyed when you ask them for help with stuff.

I have found this to be true, as well. Windows users are very happy to tell/show you what they can do... Mac users can't wait to show you what YOU can do.
 

luko

macrumors newbie
Mar 10, 2006
9
0
jalagl said:
Expose. Hands down.
I miss it on my work Windows box.

I tend to use Expose alot on my Powerbook because of the samller screen estate, but not on my 20" ACD.

Also, I still think window management is better in Windows. I know OS X has a few more ways of switching applications but sometimes it's still not as fast as windows at getting to the window you want.

Example, you have Mail, 3 Finder windows and 3 Safari Windows Open. Mail is on top obscuring the windows behind. You cannot switch to Finder window 2 is one action. If you do expose you have to think, and really look for the window you want and considering most finder windows look the same it's not often easy, same goes with text documents. CMD-TAB will get you to Finder, but once there you'll have to activate your window still. Same thing with the dock, most of these methods of switching requires 2 or more actions.

Where as in Windows, all your windows are on your taskbar so you can get to the exact one you want in one action. The only problem with this is if you have a small resolution the taskbar becomes unreadable. Thankfully I don't have a small resolution.
 

Uma888

macrumors 6502
Jan 10, 2005
411
0
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Dashbord
FrontRow
the Dock
The ability to use the full resolution of my display, and read text wiout damaging my eyes (try looking at xp 1600*1200, you will go blind)
look n feel of osx
Support for more applications (file formats) than i initially though
too many other things to list
 
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