I think an OS ought to be able to protect itself from stuff like that. It ought to at least be a design goal.
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Aqua To See Leopard Refresh?
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I think an OS ought to be able to protect itself from stuff like that. It ought to at least be a design goal.
Shapeshifter
Reading this thread has rekindled my interest in Unsanity's 'Shapeshifter' but does anyone have any horror stories about the app or warnings before i go and trash up OS X?
I'd like to play around with my interface, but will my Mac be slower/buggier/less responsive etc. ?
MA.
Reading this thread has rekindled my interest in Unsanity's 'Shapeshifter' but does anyone have any horror stories about the app or warnings before i go and trash up OS X?
I'd like to play around with my interface, but will my Mac be slower/buggier/less responsive etc. ?
MA.
Actually, Windows DOES have features that are missing in OS X. And whether one of them works perfectly isn't really the issue.
- restore feature from trash
- deinstall feature (would be sufficient if the trash would ask you whether you wanted to trash the .plist, app support folder, etc. too when you drag an .app in there)
- easy way to share folders/files
- reencoding of large audio files to a smaller bitrate when exporting to an mp3 player
etc.
There are enough things OS X could do better. Sometimes Windows is ahead, when some programmer has a lucky day and isn't hindered by policy.
- restore feature from trash
- deinstall feature (would be sufficient if the trash would ask you whether you wanted to trash the .plist, app support folder, etc. too when you drag an .app in there)
- easy way to share folders/files
- reencoding of large audio files to a smaller bitrate when exporting to an mp3 player
etc.
There are enough things OS X could do better. Sometimes Windows is ahead, when some programmer has a lucky day and isn't hindered by policy.
Ok, after reading the last few posts I had to chime in. Now, I'm not a programmer or an expert. I have used PC's back when the MS-DOS prompt was the GUI. Then Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, XP. I used to custom build desktop machines, and I thought they were da bomb lol. My last PC was a custom built lian-li aluminum tower with an AMD P4 3.2 processor, 256 MB nVidia, 8 GB RAM, blah blah blah. Back then, it was top of the line. When the HD Aluminum Displays came out, I bought a 23" monitor, and still use it to this day. While living in NYC I enrolled in grad school at Columbia and as a lot of our research requires SPSS running on Mac systems, I bought a Power Book G4 in 2004. LOVED IT. For the year I had it, not one problem. NOT ONE. Everything worked right out of the box. Airport detected all wireless networks without having to go into Windows XP and tweaking the system. Bluetooth, no problem. Didn't crash once. Still hasn't. In all my years working on Windows systems, it was such a foreign concept to me. No device manager issues, no blue screens or freezing, losing work. So, I bought a Power Mac G5 in December last year. LOVED IT. Finally, I traded up to a Mac Pro 2.66 with 2 gig RAM, and currently have Vista running on a slave drive. All the comments about Windows and Macs are comparing apples to oranges - no comparison. The comment made eariler about having limited access to programs and subsequently dragging an application to the dock takes away from the "out of the box" simplicity". Are you kidding??? Seriously? If it is such an issue for you to click and drag an application to the dock, then you have got to be the laziest and most negative person I have ever met lol. Why do you think professional photographers and designers primarily use Mac's (with the exception of architects as AutoCad is Windows)? Cause it's elegant, simple, powerful and reliable. Last month I brought my Mac Pro and display back to NYC as a photographer friend of mine was commissioned for a shoot and wanted an extra maching. Aperture is a fantastic program and the machine handled huge amounts of RAW data with no problem. Vista was extremely slow and difficult to install, and not just on my machine but on a friends PC as well. It looks like a tweaked version of XP with a transparent glazed effect. All the same components are there, the control panel, start bar, etc. As I'm running Vista in 64-bit mode I had to search for audio drivers, video drivers and I had to rewrite iSight drivers to get the camera to function but with no sound. Disappointingly, Vista crashed numerous times yet unlike previous versions Vista sometimes doesn't give you any warning or info, it just reboots. Further, Windows doesn't allow the transfer of user information when upgrading to another Mac system as smoothly, if at all, as Mac Tiger. Just connect a fire wire cable and walk away. Uninstalling programs? Drag to trash. Done. No extraneous files or registry issues. Camera's, phones, PDA's - all connect seamlessly. Nice. Graphics far outweigh anything I have ever seen in the industry. I compared Vista running on my system to Mac OS running on a Power Mac G5, Vista looked like a five year old hand drew it. I'm sorry, but nothing compares to the Mac OS. Nothing.
I think some sort of Apple coded application removal tool that does the job correctly would be welcome. It might just be a glorified search, like AppZapper appears to be, but it would beat digging through the drive to find your pref files, which may or may not be labeled intuitively. I don't think anyone is saying, "hey, I want a half-baked Add/Remove Programs feature like in Windows." While we aren't plagued by the registry, all the files related to an app are not located in the Applications folder.
I never use the add/remove program function in Windows. I can't tell you how many times I've been told that a program was successfully removed and then saw that none of the files were even deleted at all--including the exe itself. add/remove does not work even when it "works."
What's idiotic about this issue is that on Macs, an application typically stores support files in one of a few predictable places (/Library/Preferences/, /Library/Application Support/ and/or the corresponding places in your home directory.) Removal of those files does not affect the functioning of the system (unlike trying to remove things from the Windows registry) and leaving them behind takes up a negligible amount of space and likewise does not affect the system. On my iBook right now, those locations combined add up to 40MB--hardly something to lose sleep over.
There are definitely things OS X could do better. A better trash UI would be nice (choosing between secure empty [no recovery] or empty) and a deinstall feature could be part of Time Machine.
I'd also like a much better FTP integration into the Finder, and I like your idea about iTunes re-encoding lossless files to smaller bitrate when syncing to an iPod. These are all good points.
OSX has much room for improvement, I just disagree with the idea that making it more like Windows is such a good idea. Stealing stuff like Fast User Switching and making it 'Mac-like' is fine, but if I see a Start bar in Leopard I'm going to be upset.
Shapeshifter is pretty much benign, but the available themes are overall kind of meh. The meh kind of follows what's in store for a would-be theme maker, though: there are zillions of elements that need to be provided, and not many people are going to be dedicated enough to do the whole thing well as a hobby.
All I am saying is that we shouldn't be afraid to take some clues from Windows. Once in a while they have some good ideas about things. Not often but why pass on good thoughts even if they're from someone completely clueless?
Better than the other way around, I guess.
I'll probrably at least give it a go, so long as it's not going to make my MacBook start oozing green smoke
Thanks.
Maybe I'm lazy but I've never once removed pref files from my system after trashing an app. Why would you worry about it? Is the effort really worth it to reclaim the 16Kb occupied by the plist file?
I don't see what it hurts just leaving that stuff there. In fact, I've been pleasantly surprised on more than one occasion when I've reinstalled an app that I removed previously only to find that all the preferred settings are still there and ready to go.
No hurt in leaving the prefs there but sometimes there are things in the app support folder that take up a lot of space. Or stuff in the documents folder or someplace else. In that case it'd be nice to have the trash ask you whether you want to put the rest of the files there too.
Windows features in OS X
I would like to see three Windows features implemented in OS X:
1. A bundled Remote Desktop feature, with built-in client software, and a client for Windows, that allows one user at a time to operate the computer remotely. It's possible for me to operate my Dell from my Mac, why not the other way around?
2. An easy, consistent, system-wide way to make menu selections without a mouse. Sometimes in the middle of typing, it's more convenient to use the keyboard. Other times it is more convenient to use the mouse.
3. Keyboard shortcuts that perform system functions no matter what application I'm in. For example, Win+E always opens Explorer.
Of course, Apple would do this up right.
I would like to see three Windows features implemented in OS X:
1. A bundled Remote Desktop feature, with built-in client software, and a client for Windows, that allows one user at a time to operate the computer remotely. It's possible for me to operate my Dell from my Mac, why not the other way around?
2. An easy, consistent, system-wide way to make menu selections without a mouse. Sometimes in the middle of typing, it's more convenient to use the keyboard. Other times it is more convenient to use the mouse.
3. Keyboard shortcuts that perform system functions no matter what application I'm in. For example, Win+E always opens Explorer.
Of course, Apple would do this up right.
In the long run, I think Apple has one area that it has to beat Microsoft in. If MS wasn't neck deep in security issues, they'd of implemented WinFS into Vista. Apple has to jump the gun with this. The future will have no folders, IMHO.
As for the GUI, why is it so difficult for Apple to offer choices? Why must we settle for one theme or resort to 3rd party measures?
As for the GUI, why is it so difficult for Apple to offer choices? Why must we settle for one theme or resort to 3rd party measures?
1. It's there. Go to System Preferences > Sharing and turn on Apple Remote Desktop. That's just Apple's implementation of VNC. Download any VNC client and you're set.
2. You can turn on full keyboard access in the Universal Access system prefs if that's what you're talking about. If you're talking about the Alt+letter thing in Windows, I totally disagree. There's no way to make that consistent from app to app and so that is useful only to people who spend the time committing all those things to memory. If you need specific shortcuts in an app, OS X allows you to customize those.
3. I disagree with this and it wouldn't make sense on a Mac. On Macs, the Finder is treated like another application (because it is) as opposed to how Windows does it. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally invoked that @#$%& Start menu by bumping the wrong keys in a given app. If I'm in an application, I really don't want my keystrokes mistakenly going to other applications. It's disruptive to a workflow.
In Linux you get a lot of choice. Obscure command-line options, and configuration files. It's rare to just _use_ a program. You have to customize it. I think part of writing good programs is making it do what 90% of people need with as few choices as necessary.
What differentiates Pro apps is choice. People that need the extra flexability and are willing to spend extra time learning and configuring their software can use those. The minimalism of Apple's core products is exactly what makes them so attractive.
To anyone who is a developer with access to the seeds of leopard it is absolutely apparent that the Finder, and Mac OS X as a whole is getting a whole new theme. The signs are everywhere in OS X, from the way they have the vector widgets and buttons setup to xcode tools. A new theme is coming.
I think what this user means is something actually on par with Remote Desktop, not VNC. VNC is old school tech, and send every pixel to the remote machine. with Remote Desktop on windows, it's fast enough to be usable because it sends coordinates for cursor and window movements. Apple could have an advantage in this area with their display technology 'aqua' because it's based on PDF which is very compressible.
Well to design a GUI with 'choices' they have to design multiple versions, test them and insure they work and don't fail under something like Universal options. This costs money and takes time to do, and unless there's a clarion call for such a thing, it's not worth the money or time. This, of course, is ignoring Jobs' affinity for 'whole widgets' which has worked very well for Apple of late.
Personally, I like aqua and I like that it's nearly consistent across multiple Macs. This makes my job of IT support a lot easier.
There's a way to make it consistent from app to app. Windows does it. They underline the letter that activates the menu. That's consistent, and no memorization is necessary.
So much for out of the box ease of use.
Like it or not MS has features that apple should have. The add or remove programs dialog box that really does remove all the entries that X, Y, or Z program installed. Unlike OS X where even if you delete the program it still leaves crap behind scattered through your system library or your profile's library.
Or the system rollback feature that can be a godsend in Windows when a patch goes bad, which we all know never happens in OS X.
...
Dont get me wrong. I think OS X is great but there are some key features, or lack thereof, that screams left in the 90s.
"Remove program" in Windows removes the program and any required libraries that are not used by other programs (in theory). It does not remove user-made files with the program. Applications are divided on whether configuration files are considered user-made or not.
Dragging an application bundle to the trash can does exactly the same thing. Only it's easier because all the libraries are included in the bundle rather than in an OS-centric location. Apple is more stringent about what libraries should be shared across the entire OS than MS is. As a result, we don't experience DLL-hell.
There is an exception on OS X and that is programs that require to be installed (MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc.). These programs are intrusive and install things in system locations. This is discouraged by Apple guidelines. Most programs that do this are ports. These installed programs offer the same DLL-hell that MS has. Apple at least keeps it to a minimum.
So much for out of the box ease of use.
Out of the box? What applications are used "out of the box"? They're all probably in the dock. Otherwise, making the trip to the applications folder to drag the application into the dock is simple enough. Or going to the applications folder each time.
For the average user, out of the box, there is no need for the start menu.
I'm using Windows right now. I don't even use the start menu. Initially I put everything in a quick launch bar, but it didn't work properly, so I wound up installing Star Dock. I use that just like a "quick launch" bar.
When I'm using someone else's PC, it's irritating as hell to use the Start menu. It's just too many clicks.
Also, in OS X, you: click "Finder", click "Applications", find your app, and double click it (3 clicks, not counting the double click)
In Windows XP, by default: Click "Start", click "All Programs", click the folder your app is in (usually they are in folders for some reason), click the app. (4 clicks)
Not to mention, making each app "just another file" in the Applications folder is probably easier to use than introducing the "Start" menu which is an added layer of complexity.
I would say OS X is better at launching apps "out of the box."
True, but consider if instead of going to the Apps folder, you drag it to the dock... From there on out, it's always 1 click away. Similarly, one could use the Quicklaunch Toolbar, but like you said, it bugs out too often. Plus it's confusing as hell sitting right next to the system tray. Too many damn icons packed into such a small spot.
-Clive