Well, sometimes, you just want a nice clear display with what your attention is focused on in the middle. On photo-heavy sites, often photos will be larger than the standard column with of the site, and it's a hassle to constantly have to resize your window. It's easier to just maximize it and have room. Anyway, when you're reading a site, what possible use would it be to have the corners of a pile of other programs jutting out from underneath?
My thoughts exactly.
My overwhelming impression of other people's Macs is that they are very cluttered as you have all these open windows overlapping each other, or you can see through programme to the desktop and programmes below, which the new version of PS [optionally] does away with, thank God. Messy. I prefer everything open full screen or full desktop, which is very fiddly to do on a Mac compared to a PC. Doubly difficult with multiple monitors.
A client I work with spends half his time dragging windows on and off screen with junk and shortcuts scattered all over desktop - oh and he's a Mac user. I cannot bear to watch him work as it's so painful.
As for transparency of Application structure which both Apple + MS are guilty of foisting on us
- a good example of just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should do it. At least it was easy to turn off in Windows.
Anyway, if you need that, you at least have the option with the 'user' window size, as we have in osx. But in windows, you have everything open listed in the taskbar for instant access anyway, without requiring shuffling through open windows to find what you're looking for.
I use everything full screen on a Mac and have no trouble finding the Window I want as I simply Cmd+Tab to whichever app I want or Cmmd+` to cycle through Finder Windows, copied from the simpler/easier Alt+Tab on a PC. Though Expose is also very useful as is as you mention, the Taskbar in Windows.
If Safari would ever completely implement tabbed browsing, we wouldn't have every hyperlink opening a new page in a big pile on the desktop.
Like Opera has done for many, many years now? Opera is where FF nicks all their
'innovations' from BTW. Using other 'modern' browsers after Opera is like moving from OSX back to to OS7
Agreed. Cluttered desktops full of a bunch of disorganized stuff buried back in C:windows/documents and settings/profile/desktop/etc... is bad form, yet de rigeur.
So 90% of all computer users are disorganised and untidy? No lazy stereotyping there!
Besides as the desktop is errr... on the desktop, it's not buried but on full show.
Besides the obscure location you quote, doesn't even exist. It's actually
C:\Documents and Settings\NAME\Desktop
and on the Mac it's
MacHD/Users/NAME/Desktop
So no real difference. But hey why let facts get in the way of misinformation?
But I think the real reason windows users do a lot of this stuff is that they never really give any of it much thought. They buy a box with a stock win setup on it, and don't think, but just start doing, and before you know it, they've got a totally dysfunctional mess, which they don't even realize they made themselves, which they then complain about to their frustrated IT mgr.
Just like most Mac users who also do not know what they are doing or give the workings much thought. I'd say Mac users tend to know even less about tweaking, as the Mac marketing is all about ease of use and not having to think, which will obviously tend to attract those who don't like to think.
I've had to sort out Mac users computers for them as they've made a complete mess of everything, just like an equally ignorant Windows user. I'd say only Linux users will generally be computer savvy and that's because you have to be ito use it in first place.
As for the 'stock Win set up' comment. Well apart from the fact it's less stock and more varied than the standard Mac setup, Windows users can and do customise their interface a lot more that Mac users can or seem willing to do so. Besides most computer users have zero interest in computers inner workings and then why should they? Do you also mock drivers who do not fiddle with their stock engine management setings?
The scattered interface is my only beef with OSX. And it's pretty minor, compared to everything thats backward about windows...
I find both systems backward and clumsy in places, just in different places. My pet hate - Finder
Complete garbage, Apple sometimes confuse simplistic with simple. Finder is the worst thing about any OS. I use a File Manager on my PC over the network to deal with File Management on the Mac as it's so much easier and waaaaaay faster in use.
It would be so nice to take the best of both systems and customize it to make one very good OS. I use both and I always think it the worst of al worlds as you are always thinking, 'damn I wish the PC/Mac did this like the Mac/PC did'.
You will also get less shortcuts/aliases on a Mac desktop simply as it is much fiddlier to do shortcuts compared to on a PC. Also shortcuts can be very useful time saving devices. Hence the term, shortcut.
