What do YOU want from MacOS X 10.5 "Leopard" ?

[Max on Macs]

Hi guys,

Just wondering what everyone here wants from Leopard? I've made a list of things that I really think should be part of Leopard, but I'm sure Apple will have some much more exciting things up their sleeve, they always do

The entire system needs a GUI redesign to follow the new design of iLife. The new more professional looking design with less curves, more square and minimalistic. That would look simply amazing if the whole system could adopt it.

Safari needs to have better support for tabbed browsing and quick search. I don't want to have to use loads of add in programs to get my tabs to be worth using (to open all new windows in a new tab, to only close one tab when you close the window, not to let more than one window be open, etc.) and for quick search we need to be able to modify the search options without having to have an add in program too.

iChat needs to support MSN (including video). Since Microsoft doesn't seem to have any intentions of bringing webcam support to iChat, and MSN Messenger is generally a nasty app on Mac (though nothing like as bad as the Windows version) Apple really needs to take care of things for themselves and if it's at all possible make it so .Mac, AIM, Google talk and MSN contacts can talk to each other (or rather, so .Mac can talk to all of those).

Improve stability of Intel systems. I love the speed of my Intel systems, but this is Apple's first (officially released) version of MacOS for Intel and I can't help noticing it isn't quite as reliable as the old PowerPC systems were, although it's getting better with each update.

In Universal Access Zoom they need to offer a feature which allows the keyboard cursor to always stay centred on the screen like they offer it for the mouse pointer because at the moment it doesnt move the zoom window until you get to the edge of the screen and for some people this is difficult to follow when it moves suddenly to the middle again. They also need to fic the bug whereby if you're using the mouse pointer bt there is a keyboard cursor present it will keep jumping back to the keyboard even if you're not typing.

Improve Finder to integrate it wih the iLife suite so that you can do things from Finder. This is particularly important with photos. Finder can also be pretty slow compared to Windows Explorer, particularly where network drives are concerned.

Redesign the dock so that when you move your mouse pointer along it it will scroll along it so that when you add a lot of items at a low resolution the dock doesn't get really tiny.

That's all I really want. Any other cool new features would be appreciated though. What do all you guys think?

 

[mad jew]

Improve Finder to integrate it wih the iLife suite so that you can do things from Finder. This is particularly important with photos. Finder can also be pretty slow compared to Windows Explorer, particularly where network drives are concerned.

That's where the work has to be done IMO. Finder is such a major part of the OS, it needs to be improved stability-wise. Can I add that Apple's own iDisk should not freeze Finder for as long as it does.

 

[Nermal]

Only a couple of things:

1. Make International Preferences work again, ie. Let me customise number formatting. I'm sick of having to edit .GlobalPreferences.plist or whatever it's called.

2. Don't let websites "jump" to the front in Safari. I often open multiple pages in tabs, and some pages have some sort of "move me to the front" code (possibly a JavaScript self.focus) which makes that tab activate.

3. Integrate the new (in 10.4.6) nondestructive partitioner into Disk Utility, so you don't need to use the command line (or Boot Camp) to partition your drive.

I'm sure I'll get more ideas as time goes on

 

[khisayruou]

I only want one thing, a functional, fully blown out, front row with dvr capabilities that will put windows media center to shame.

 

[Chaszmyr]

I want it to automatically filter unoriginal threads

 

[gekko513]

I'd like them to give the kernel and subsystems an overhaul to speed up the things you others have mentioned with Finder, networking and iDisk, but also to speed up system calls in general to make OS X a better performer as a server as well as for some types of user applications.

It would also be nice if they cool improve or change the graphics drivers so that OpenGL stuff reaches the same performance as on Windows.

I'm not sure how much improvement is possible while keeping the current OS architecture and windowing system flexibility, but if anything can be done within the given framework I hope they use lots of resources to make it the best performing OS possible.

 

[DevilsRejection]

Now I can't comment too much since I've been playing with Tiger for a week, but the way OS X handles Windows is driving me insane. It's nothing like XP, and I don't know if that's a bad or a good thing but right now it's the most difficult part of my transition.

That and I think it's total 110% ******** that I need to buy a Quicktime Pro Lisence to full screen a video playing in Quicktime. That my friends is what I call extortion.

 

[Chundles]

Now I can't comment too much since I've been playing with Tiger for a week, but the way OS X handles Windows is driving me insane. It's nothing like XP, and I don't know if that's a bad or a good thing but right now it's the most difficult part of my transition.

That and I think it's total 110% ******** that I need to buy a Quicktime Pro Lisence to full screen a video playing in Quicktime. That my friends is what I call extortion.

What do you see wrong with the way Tiger handles windows? Or do you mean Windows?

I love the way that no window is forced to waste space by going full screen - it makes copying things between apps and windows a breeze. Exposé is one of my favourite features too, it makes my 12" screen a whole lot more useful.

If you mean Windows, then yes, I hate the way OSX networks with other computers, with Windows computers you have to locate and mount shared folders - I want to be able to browse those shared folders through the finder as though they were on my machine. With other Macs you have to put everything you want to share into the Public folder, duplicating it in the process if you don't want to change the original's location - I want to be able to share individual folders.

I think Windows does networking infinitely better than OSX, everything else however there's no comparison.

 

[shadowmoses]

Now I can't comment too much since I've been playing with Tiger for a week, but the way OS X handles Windows is driving me insane. It's nothing like XP, and I don't know if that's a bad or a good thing but right now it's the most difficult part of my transition.

That and I think it's total 110% ******** that I need to buy a Quicktime Pro Lisence to full screen a video playing in Quicktime. That my friends is what I call extortion.

Dont know what bothers you about the windows, its probably justt that you are so used to windows you are finding it difficult...

As for Quicktime maybe its extortion but take into account how much Apple charge for there OS comapred to windows....and if you dont want to pay just use VLC instead.....

ShadoW

 

[odedia]

Well, if they'll include this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/202207/

I'd be happy.

 

[odedia]

Oh yeah, and one more thing: Enough of this "The whole world speaks English" approach. I speak Hebrew, Which is a right-to-left language, and Mac OS X sucks big time in anything right-to-left related. It's too hard to switch writing directions (if the option even exists, it does not in most apps). And it's impossible to have any right-to-left work in either Pages, Keynote, Microsoft Office, you name it. iWork's templates are all from left to right, the text "jumps" to the left when trying to type hebrew text (or Arabic, greek, and hindi for that matter...). It's absurd. Besides, there's not even full system support for Hebrew/Arabic/Greek/Hindi (meaning Help, system menus etc.). That's a population of about 2 billion people that will not use Mac OS X simply because they don't know English.

Oded S.

 

[reglarecneps]

I just want the network things that others have said, but the photo printing on OSX is rediculously slow, sometimes pausing for 2-3 minutes before anythings comes out of my network printer. My Windows machine produces pics instantly, and prints a page in about 1.5 min, when OSX takes 5-6min.

That might only apply to network printers though.

 

[Balli]

What I've always wanted is:

1. Human sounding computer voices.
2. Extremely fast boot up times.
3. Resolution Independent Interface.
4. Higher resolution iTunes vizualizer.
5. The ability to change folder colours, or even the ability to draw your own icons on the side of them.
6. The ability to lock folders.

 

[Nermal]

I just want the network things that others have said, but the photo printing on OSX is rediculously slow, sometimes pausing for 2-3 minutes before anythings comes out of my network printer. My Windows machine produces pics instantly, and prints a page in about 1.5 min, when OSX takes 5-6min.

That might only apply to network printers though.

I don't know what your configuration is like, but I have a standard USB printer plugged into an AirPort Extreme, and printing starts after about 1 second. Therefore there's nothing wrong with sending print jobs over the network.

Are you using a proper network printer? I've never used one so I don't know any tips and tricks, but presumably you need a driver in order to print. Are you using an Apple-supplied driver, or one from the printer manufacturer? I've found with my Epson printer, when directly plugged into USB, that Epson's driver is significantly faster than the Gimp-Print driver provided by Apple.

I apologise for this post, it's a bit difficult to understand. In my defence, it's 12:15 AM

 

[VanNess]

I'm generally a big fan of the Dock, but one thing I've never liked about it is it's behavior when clicking the Dock icon of the foreground, active application (or any active app, for that matter).

For example, I have Safari in my Dock. When I click it's icon, it blinks (user feedback that it's been clicked), bounces as it launches and places a little black triangle underneath it's icon to show it's running. So far, so good. Now, with Safari running in the foreground like it is right now, if I click it's icon again it blinks...and nothing happens.

That "second click" is what bugs me. It provides the same user feedback (blinking) as when it launches an app, so the user has the expectation that it should be doing something, but it does nothing. It would be nice if it followed the same method as the Windows taskbar, where clicking a second time minimizes the app. In the Dock, that second click could hide the app (with some sort of unique animation - user feedback - that indicates the app is now hidden) or, at least have the second click on an active app's icon immediately produce the contextual menu (which includes hide) instead of having the user click and hold, or right click, or control click.

As it is now, I would imagine first-time Windows switchers especially get thrown by that second click behavior, but the idea isn't copying Windows for the sake of copying Windows. Having the Dock do nothing at all on the second click is bad, but even worse is that it still provides the usual Dock UI signal (icon blink) that something is going to happen.

So if the general UI is getting any sort of overhaul in Leopard, I hope it doesn't stop short of the Dock.

 

[dr_lha]

A single unified theme across all Apps.

I'm sick of every app having a new UI look. Brushed metal, the "old Aqua", "Unified", iTunes 5 and now the iLife '06 look (which isn't even unified across iLife apps). Please pick one Apple!

Yes, I've heard of UNO, no I don't want to have to run some hack to get Mac OS X looking sensible.

 

[Max on Macs]

You'll notice that that's not a conditional blink thouh. That's just the dock being told to do something on click. If you hold your click down it days dark for as long as you click, it's just saying it's been clicked. And it always brings that app to the forground when clicked. If already in the foreground it still does its job You might have a point though, maybe it should be a conditional on click.

 

[imacintel]

What I've always wanted is:

1. Human sounding computer voices.
2. Extremely fast boot up times.
3. Resolution Independent Interface.
4. Higher resolution iTunes vizualizer.
5. The ability to change folder colours, or even the ability to draw your own icons on the side of them.
6. The ability to lock folders.

1. There is about 20 of them, lots of them sound human like.

2. Get an intel mac, please.

3. Already there.

4. I aggree with that one.

5.YOU CAN, but not the second one. That would be neat.

6. You can.

Alot of those things are already there or you can do . You probably just didnt try.

 

[monke]

The ability to have dashboard widgets on your desktop, like Konfabulator, but without it.

I'll also second the iChat and MSN Messenger thought.

 

[savar]

I want it to automatically filter unoriginal threads

Wow, when I saw this on the front page I was thinking the exact same thing in my head.

Anyway, I think a must have feature is iLife integration in the open/save dialog boxes. For instance, if you want to upload a photo to a website and it gives you an open file modal dialog, there should be an iPhoto button you can click on which shows you your albums and lets you browse through them (and scale down the resolution if you want). Its frustrating to have to dig down into the iphoto directory and navigate through arcane directories to find the photo you need. Not to mention that a lot of users won't be able to figure out how to do it -- my mom certainly has had this problem repeatedly.

 

[dr_lha]

1. There is about 20 of them, lots of them sound human like.

Hardly. About 13 years ago I went to the computer museum in Boston and they had a demonstration of the "next-gen" in speech synthesis, and that sounded much more natural than what Mac OS X has today, which sounds closer to my Currah Microspeech that I bought in 1987.

Unless your dad is Stephen Hawking, there's no possible way you could think those voices sound human.

I agree with the OP, decent speech synthesis would be very nice, and then I might actually use it.

 

[Balli]

1. There is about 20 of them, lots of them sound human like.

2. Get an intel mac, please.

3. Already there.

4. I aggree with that one.

5.YOU CAN, but not the second one. That would be neat.

6. You can.

Alot of those things are already there or you can do . You probably just didnt try.

1. If you think that ANY of the current voices sound human, then I think you should see a speech therapist!

2. Even the Intel Macs don't have the boot up times I am referring to. EXTREMELY fast for me means up to 10 seconds max...

5. You CAN'T (not without 3rd party software). The most you can do is highlight the folder names in different colours.

6. PLEASE enlighten me... show me how to lock a folder with a password so that no one has access to it without the correct one. (And I am not talking about Disk Images).

 

[Voidness]

Oh yeah, and one more thing: Enough of this "The whole world speaks English" approach. I speak Hebrew, Which is a right-to-left language, and Mac OS X sucks big time in anything right-to-left related. It's too hard to switch writing directions (if the option even exists, it does not in most apps). And it's impossible to have any right-to-left work in either Pages, Keynote, Microsoft Office, you name it. iWork's templates are all from left to right, the text "jumps" to the left when trying to type hebrew text (or Arabic, greek, and hindi for that matter...). It's absurd. Besides, there's not even full system support for Hebrew/Arabic/Greek/Hindi (meaning Help, system menus etc.). That's a population of about 2 billion people that will not use Mac OS X simply because they don't know English.

Oded S.

Actually, Mac OS X has a system-wide support for right-to-left languages. Just control-click on any textbox and you'll see the option for text direction. Many applications that use the standarad input framworks that Apple provides for developers have native text direction support, such as TextEdit and Adium. However, this doesn't apply to the applications you've just mentioned. iLife, iWork, and Microsoft Office all don't have support for text direction. It's up to the developers of those apps to add support for text direction.

As for the system menu localization, that could be a valid issue. But I've actually seen Mac OS X 10.2 with Arabic menus when I visited Dubai a few years ago.

 

[Vaphoron]

Finder is such a major part of the OS, it needs to be improved stability-wise. Can I add that Apple's own iDisk should not freeze Finder for as long as it does.

Exactly. I used to have an external hard drive (now destroyed ) that would like to freeze up and stop working and it would freeze the entire computer until I powered down the hard drive. It drove me crazy and I really hope they can do something to prevent something like a hard drive or the iDisk from completely killing your ability to work on something else.

 

[celebrian23]

I hate the voices. None of them sound human at all. You're spending too much time with your computer if you think they sound human lol