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Mac OS X 10.5 features you can't live without?

I

iCeFuSiOn

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 18, 2007
511
0
So, I've done some research and I've noticed that there are several enhancements in Mac OS X 10.5 that make it an absolute dream to work with compared to previous versions. I want to know what features or enhancements you've noticed in 10.5 that you can't live without.

Here's my list:

  1. "Arrange by" and "Clean up" available from Context Menu and Action button in the Finder.
  2. Fine-tuned volume control using Option-Shift and then pressing the appropriate volume key on your keyboard.
  3. The ability to have more than one folder selected for custom backgrounds (especially useful when your backgrounds are sorted, eg: Abstract, Nature, Vector, etc).
  4. Easier Windows network share browsing in the Finder.
  5. AirPort menu responds almost instantly whereas in Tiger it seemed to lag a bit.
  6. Cleaner user interface overall.
  7. Quick Look saves me lots of time.
 
1. Time machine
2. Spaces
3. Icon previews/Quick Look
4. Keyboard shortcut for View > Arrange By
5. New Finder
6. Overall look (using other Tiger machines is painful)
7. Screen Sharing through Finder
 
Spaces & Stacks are the headliners for me - both of which I use dozens of times per day.

It has to be said, though, that Leopard has been a very positive experience for me generally.
 
Forgot to mention this one:

  1. Finder doesn't hang up when accessing CD drives or slow network shares
 
I can live without anything but clothes, shelter, food and safe drinking water.

Just kidding! hehehe

Well I'd have to say Spaces and Quick Look. Apart from those I don't really see anything special in 10.5.
 
1. Quick look is a huge timesaver.
2. Time machine is nice to have, even if I've only used to recover one less-than-critical file.
3. Screen-sharing in iChat (at least I think it will be really useful if I can ever manage to configure my router to allow it)
4. Stacks are nice, but not in the "can't live without it" category
 
  • Quicklook
  • Borderless QT windows
  • Background apps without holding CMD
  • Download stack
  • Mail progress bar
  • Quick Pages start-up
  • Wikipedia in Dictionary
  • Cleaned up Network Preference pane
  • Help menu search
 
Definitely Quick Look and Stacks. The Cover Flow view in the Finder is a great bit of eyecandy too, especially with the Applications folder.
 
Quicklook and coverflow are REALLY nice. My big gripe with OS X was that "Preview" didn't function the same as in Windows, where you could advance through photos in a directory and display each one very easily. Coverflow does this quite well, and in fact does the job better than in Vista (where the new version there is actually less functional than in XP).

I LOVE the tabbed terminal windows in the new terminal.app. I have to ssh and sftp into a lot of *nix servers through the day, and having things neatly arranged in tabs is much easier for me than having to juggle a dozen individual windows (though of course, PuTTY on a PC is even worse).

Lastly, I really like Stacks. I think I keep hearing people complain about it, but it's really made life on a Mac easier for me.

Could I live without these features? Yeah, I could. But going back to tiger now feels kinda awkward.
 
Didn't know about Option + Shift + Volume, that's cool!

My list:

Scrolling non-active windows
Time Machine
Quick Look
Sharing so easy
Finder Sidebar
Stacks
Guest account

To rattle off the top of my head the now.
 
The things that have really improved my daily computer life are:

  • Quick Look: A really great feature. I use it all the time
  • Spaces: Very convenient. I have created 6 Spaces to manage all my open apps
  • Stacks: Especially the Downloads Stack I use everyday
  • Time Machine: It has saved my files a couple of times. I didn't expect it to be so valuable.
  • Finder: It's better than on Tiger but still far from perfect
 
I'd have to go with Quick Look and Spaces. I like the Finder from Tiger better than the one in Leopard, however. You could set it to a specific size, and it would open that way with every new window. Cover Flow in the Finder seems like it could be great, but the previews load way too slow to be usable.
 
Kilamite said:
Didn't know about Option + Shift + Volume, that's cool!
Click to expand...

Ditto!

That's awesome!


For me: (Although they're pretty much what everyone else has said)

- Spaces. Spaces. Spaces. I wouldn't be able to go back to Tiger without them... not that I want to or will do!!!
- The look of Leopard - I love the dock, the UI and the menu bar... it all.
- the slight core animation there is in apps. There'll be a LOT more soon, though...
-Dashcode

Stacks is a nice one but I managed fine without it. It's nice but not essential.

However, I was just comparing to Tiger... Windows, on the other hand, well... that's a different story (*Tries to squeeze a bog-standard PC mouse at school to activate expose and feels like a pillac*)
 
Quicklook and the fact that it doesn't crash when a Network share is disconnected spontaneously.
 
Quicklook!

(Though "can't live without" is stronger than I'd put it. More like a feature I "would hate to compute without.")

Edit:

Oh yeah, and the vastly improved Print window!
and not locking up when a network volume is disconnected!
and... lots more!
 
Although I could live without them, my computer time is much enhanced by:

Quicklook
Finder not hanging when a network share is no longer available

I use spaces and stacks somewhat, but a more stable finder and quicklook have been very productive
 
I really like spaces and Stacks no mess allowed on my desktop I have always been like that I had a hard time with that in windows and now there is usually only one thing on there my Hard Drive I also like the the new UI really nice and for god sakes consitency if it were only more stable and had less bugs I would really love it. It would be the best i have ever used but that has yet to come true Time machine is excellent as well I forgot about that one and I'm using it right now see that's how good it is.
 
1. Time Machine! This has saved me a lot of grief.
2. Spaces, Stacks, Quicklook, the GUI, all nice.


Sky Blue said:
4. Keyboard shortcut for View > Arrange By
Click to expand...

Sorry but what is it? I tried Googling but didn't come up with anything. Thanks! :)

Techguy172 said:
I really like spaces and Stacks no mess allowed on my desktop I have always been like that I had a hard time with that in windows and now there is usually only one thing on there my Hard Drive I also like the the new UI really nice and for god sakes consitency if it were only more stable and had less bugs I would really love it. It would be the best i have ever used but that has yet to come true Time machine is excellent as well I forgot about that one and I'm using it right now see that's how good it is.
Click to expand...

Um. I had less on my desktop in Windows than I do in Leopard. I now keep my drives on the desktop where in windows it was completely empty so as not to soil my background image. Instead of the quicklaunch bar I had it set to "desktop" so that all the icons it though were on the desktop came up in my startbar. Not saying I don't like Stacks (I do) just that you shouldn't blame the messy desktop on Windows. ;)
 
DukeofAnkh said:
Sorry but what is it? I tried Googling but didn't come up with anything. Thanks! :)
Click to expand...
Just go to the Finder and in the menu bar click on View > Arrange by and it will show you the list of view items along with their respective keyboard shortcuts.
 
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