I thought that OS X was over rated...

[Rodimus Prime]

I find the Taskbar backwards and useless. Then again, that's because I use Exposé like a religious zealot, so the taskbar seems to be a totally clunky way of keeping track of windows. I hardly use the Dock to switch apps, just launch them, or bring them back if I've hidden them. Between hiding and Exposé, I never minimize anything. Just a better system in my book.

As for the menu bar, it's just one of those "it's just different and will probably never be changed" things. I guess on a second monitor it might be annoying, then again I've never had two monitors. If I did, I'd probably use the second one for things that I wanted to have handy for checking/launching, like Adium and Colloquy. I hardly ever use menus in those apps, so it wouldn't be a big deal. Another thing is that the Mac has taught me to use a lot more keyboard shortcuts than I ever did in Windows, which has made me more productive.

Yeah, basically I just love OS X. Using Windows is a chore now.

It is all a matter of personal choice. To me I grew up from windows 95 and used though XP and I still use XP quite a bit of the time that is what my desktop is and until apple release OSX for any computer my desktop will always be a PC, that or until apple makes something that goes between the iMac and the Mac Pro that has the upgradebility of a PC/Mac Pro Tower but that is another debate. I love my Mac Book but in the end it is still a laptop and with the limitation there of. So for much of my heavy ended work I fall back to my PC.

To me the task bar I find very useful because at a glance I can tell what every window I have open and can easily jump in between them. Expose is sweet and something I wish I had on my desktop but it is still not a replacement to the task bar to me. As for the menu thing at the top, I do not see apple changing it but it is something I have always though was stupid and never understood why it could not be on the windows and this is dating back to when I first ever used a Mac OS which I want to say was 17 or so years ago when I was less than 10 which was before I ever even used windows 3.1. The reason I say that is to show that it that opinion was never tainted by using windows, it was a logic of a 6-8 year old that though that and it never has change. It the most annoying with 2 monitors because I do use them with things that I need the menu functions for. It just bother some pulling down a menu and not being able to see the application I am using at the same time.

But the things I listed above are just personal choices. For the large part I find the UI about the same in which one is easier to use. They both have there good and bad. Could be the task bar is tainted from using a PC for so long and only getting a mac after the Mac book came out but I really do not see my opinion changing on those things I would love to see added into OSX. To give you an idea on just my task bar I attach a screen shot of my primary monitor. Please note this is me only. I personally think there is no right or wrong way on how some one sets up there computer.

The theme I am running on XP is one of the hidden XP themes. also note I just happen to have a lot of windows open when I took the screen shot. I was working on some school stuff at the time and that just happens to have a lot of stuff related to it so do take that into account before some one complains about it. But as odd as it sounds it not surprising for me to have that meaning active windows if not more because of what I tend to be referring for different things.

 

[Hobofuzz]

I use the button on my mouse Windows uses as the "back" button for "View All Windows" in Mac OS X, and whenever I'm using Windows, I keep pressing it and wondering why I'm not seeing all my windows and why firefox just went back a page.

And to think.... I used to do just find with windows without expose. Good ole Alt+Tab just doesn't cut it anymore.

 

[xUKHCx]

Does anyone else find themselves getting "Windoze rage" when they have to use a PC? Little things really get to me when I'm using Word for Windows- it literally makes me angry 😀

I do get Windows Rage, the main thing that gets me is the Restart Later after yet another software update. It pops up every 5 minutes asking if i want to restart now or restart later. If i select restart later i will restart it later don't keep on asking.

I also hate the Balloons that pop up after it does anything. If you turn off your firewall a balloon pops us saying "your computer might be at risk your firewall is off" yeah i just pressed that button. You plugged in a USB drive, yup i know, you can now unplug your USB drive. I really hate having to use windows and the sad fact is i have to at University, all the test equipment is hooked up to stupid 98SE, 2000, XP boxes. god i hate them.

 

[Project]

I think Vista took a step backwards with the Task bar. The white text on black is pretty hard to read at a glance, as is the application icon which is pretty small. Usability was definitely thrown on the back foot in this respect. The Docks icons are pretty much instantly recognisable, and with a right click of the icon I can get the same pop up menu of all the respective windows belonging to that App as I cna on Windows. Plus the Dock is much more flexible in that the icons can have badges, or be animated to indicate status. You can also move the icons to whatever order you want. Something you cant do with the taskbar (without some hack).

Lets not forget that the dock tidily deals with application launching, window management, system status etc. The taskbar is IMO a complete mess as it tries to fit all three separate paradigms into the thing. Once you have so many windows open it becomes utterly useless as you cant see the text of the document, the icons are still tiny and you end up resorting to expanding the taskbar to a second line, thus losing all benefits of Fitts law for the second tier of windows.

Then there is Expose, Hide, Hide Others, Option-clicking windows (aka single window mode) etc. I find window management on OSX to be far far superior to Windows.

 

[D3LM3L]

I used Jaguar today on a 733MHz PowerMac G4... let's just say I almost smashed the keyboard because I kept pressing F9 F10 and F11, and just the funk sound coming back at me. I was trying to manage iMovie, TextEdit, Safari, and files on the Desktop, and couldn't believe how impossible it was without decent cmd + tab and Exposé. If you guys didn't know (just like I didn't up to today), in Jaguar the cmd + tab just highlighted apps in the Dock and that's it- no actual pop-up in the middle of the screen.

I have that same phenomena as the topic starter. I use OS X for a while, and wonder why I hated Windows so much for some peculiar reason- after about 5-10 minutes in Boot Camp, I'm already missing OS X. I used every version of Windows since 3.1 up to XP until I switched to OS X and just can't go back anymore.

 

[maxrobertson]

You hit the nail on the head of why it's just so hard to switch people, and to keep them switched until about a month just using a Mac. After that, they never want to go back.

 

[SMM]

I totaly agree,

it's the small things that makes me happy from this little simple perfect machine using OSX.

I like it a lot and i am recent switcher from windows.

If only office 2007 could come out for MAC OS as well...

cheers..

Did you see the price-tag for Office 2007 Pro? Hold on to your seat...$715.00! With the Pro Vista Upgrade coming in at over $400.00, that makes those two cost more than the new computers. But, that is not all:

Trend Micro...........................$50.00
MS Project 2007 Professional...$785.99
MS Visio Professional.............$442.99

and so on...........

This is what we get for years of chauvinistic loyalty to Redmond. Many of you long-time Apple folk can laugh at me now. I deserve it. I supported MS every step and for many years. I plugged my ears to the complaints being made by Ashton-Tate, Lotus Development, SCO, Larry Ellison (although he really just wants Bill's throne), the Unix consortium, the Linux consortium, etc. Yes, I will confess my sins here before you all. I was one of the mindless droids who thought standardization was worth a little monopoly. Afterall, MS's offerings had always been reasonably priced.

Now the honeymoon is long since passed. The predator's fangs are bared. One can feel the pain of the wound last left in your ass, knowing more is to come.

Hmmm....I am definitely moving off-subject, sorry. It is better to hope that iWork 7 can free us of the bondage of Office. That is my opinion at least.

 

[Boxer]

I was just telling my fiance' about this topic. I love OSX so much, its kind of scary. I was a life time windows user and have many windows boxes. I never really had any major beefs with it until I used Mac OSX. Its just so smooth, and user friendly! I love how it kind of makes working or doing work fun. Sometimes when I am bored I just play around with my MBP and try to find new shortcuts or new things I never knew about OSX. I really like it. The main difference that I have noticed is that in Windows the operating system crashes. In OSX the applications crash. I have never had OSX crash on me. Anyway just my .02

 

[SkyBell]

I use Windows a lot. I dont think there is anything wrong with it (besides vulnerability) I just like Mac better.

I have 13 PC's, and 3 Windows Laptops. I like Macs more, but for me, Windows is essetnial.

 

[clevin]

totally depend how high u rate it at first place, and depends what u need it for

for game, OSX rate 3, windows rate 10
for normal day-2-day work, entertainment things, OSX rate 8, windows rate 7.
for other specific functions, OSX rate 6, windows rate 8.

all, are for me, im sure everybody rate it differently based on their usage.

 

[NinjaMonkey]

Sadly I have to use Windows at work daily. We don't have many issues the machines but they are pretty locked down so that may explain stability. The thing I hate is that I miss features from OS X. I wish I could use Spotlight to find documents or use Expose when I have a lot of windows open or open dashboard to quikly use the calculator or be able to spell check anything by just highlighting the word.

Its things like that that make me never want to use Windows again. I've had my share of problems when I was running XP at home, but it is the little things that OS X does that make me love it. Sure Vista may solve some of the problems but I also know at the same time Apple continues to update OS X frequently, adding things that will take MS seemingly forever to add to Windows.

 

[nbs2]

BTW... I was debating on buying a windows laptop for college next year due to finances, but now there is no way in hell that's gonna happen. I don't care. I'll use pen and paper until I haev the money saved up lol.

Just remember - look refurb or even locally used. You'll save a good bit of money doing that. Won't be as cheap as the $199 Dell (or whatever they charge), but it will be a solid way to get your fix sooner.

 

[hopejr]

That and the lack of anything that is like tweak UI from windows that allows a huge amount of little things that can be adjusted to ones personal choices.

There are plenty of tools like that. Onyx is an example (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html - there are other cool things there too). Just search on the net for things like this.

If only I could put the Dock on the top of the screen to come out from behind the Finder bar.🙄

Very easy to do. Using Onyx you can. Or if you are adventurous, edit ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist, and change the orientation setting to "top". Then log and and it's done.

 

[killmoms]

TinkerTool is another useful system/UI tweaker. 😎

To me the task bar I find very useful because at a glance I can tell what every window I have open and can easily jump in between them. Expose is sweet and something I wish I had on my desktop but it is still not a replacement to the task bar to me. As for the menu thing at the top, I do not see apple changing it but it is something I have always though was stupid and never understood why it could not be on the windows and this is dating back to when I first ever used a Mac OS which I want to say was 17 or so years ago when I was less than 10 which was before I ever even used windows 3.1. The reason I say that is to show that it that opinion was never tainted by using windows, it was a logic of a 6-8 year old that though that and it never has change. It the most annoying with 2 monitors because I do use them with things that I need the menu functions for. It just bother some pulling down a menu and not being able to see the application I am using at the same time.

Okay, first off, I used Windows since 3.1 as well and DOS before that, so I'm a very recent Mac convert (just over 3 years now). And even I understand the principle behind having the menu bar at the top of the screen: Fitts' Law. A target that extends off the top of the screen has infinite height, since your mouse pointer can't move beyond it. It's easier to flick my mouse up to the top of the screen and then just go back or forth to adjust and hit the menu I want than to accurately position it over a moving target. Plus, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by pulling down a menu and not seeing the application you're using; the application's name is right there in the menu bar and always visible.

See, to me, that screenshot shows the EXACT problem with the Taskbar: lots of truncated, little textual descriptions with a tiny icon, none of which are particularly helpful in organizing my windows. Plus, EVERYTHING shows up there. Let's take your example of working on schoolwork. Maybe I'm writing a paper, so I have a browser with several tabs, Word, maybe another app open, maybe two browser windows related to that task, plus a couple AIM sessions with my friends, iTunes in the background, BitRocket, and QuickTime has a lecture open. That'd be a lot of stuff to see all at once. First thing I'd do is hide BitRocket, iTunes, and probably QuickTime unless I needed it. That takes two large windows that I don't need to interact with much out of the picture.

Now, Exposé gives me an INSTANT graphical summary of all the windows I have open, and with only three "big" windows (the browsers and Word), I can easily see which windows are which and choose the exact one I want. Between that and Cmd+Tab for switching between apps quickly based on a big ol' icon in the middle of the screen, and I'm set. Plus if I need to grab something off the desktop or drill down to a file on my hard drive, I can shoof things off with Exposé, pull up what I need, and bring them all back, with two flicks of my wrist (hot corners rule!).

You're right, it is personal preference, but I think those are some clear reasons why, at least for visual thinkers, OS X offers a better window management system.

 

[mojohanna]

I like my Mac, but some things I wish it had like windows. For example, I hate having to push F9 or Command+Tab to go through my open windows. If i have multiple Safari, Word, etc.... then the Command+Tab thing is useless. I want an easy way to browse through windows. That is my only complaint about the Mac, but it kinda gets on my nerves every time I go to browse my windows.

Use the cmd "~" button. You can flip throug any open window with that. cmd tab flips thru open programs.

It is just a little bit of a learning curve if you have used alt tab on windows but works just as well. Just don't get confused and hit cmd Q like i always do. Shutting down a program in the middle of trying to do something is always a PITA.

 

[SkyBell]

It is all a matter of personal choice. To me I grew up from windows 95 and used though XP and I still use XP quite a bit of the time that is what my desktop is and until apple release OSX for any computer my desktop will always be a PC, that or until apple makes something that goes between the iMac and the Mac Pro that has the upgradebility of a PC/Mac Pro Tower but that is another debate. I love my Mac Book but in the end it is still a laptop and with the limitation there of. So for much of my heavy ended work I fall back to my PC.

To me the task bar I find very useful because at a glance I can tell what every window I have open and can easily jump in between them. Expose is sweet and something I wish I had on my desktop but it is still not a replacement to the task bar to me. As for the menu thing at the top, I do not see apple changing it but it is something I have always though was stupid and never understood why it could not be on the windows and this is dating back to when I first ever used a Mac OS which I want to say was 17 or so years ago when I was less than 10 which was before I ever even used windows 3.1. The reason I say that is to show that it that opinion was never tainted by using windows, it was a logic of a 6-8 year old that though that and it never has change. It the most annoying with 2 monitors because I do use them with things that I need the menu functions for. It just bother some pulling down a menu and not being able to see the application I am using at the same time.

But the things I listed above are just personal choices. For the large part I find the UI about the same in which one is easier to use. They both have there good and bad. Could be the task bar is tainted from using a PC for so long and only getting a mac after the Mac book came out but I really do not see my opinion changing on those things I would love to see added into OSX. To give you an idea on just my task bar I attach a screen shot of my primary monitor. Please note this is me only. I personally think there is no right or wrong way on how some one sets up there computer.

The theme I am running on XP is one of the hidden XP themes. also note I just happen to have a lot of windows open when I took the screen shot. I was working on some school stuff at the time and that just happens to have a lot of stuff related to it so do take that into account before some one complains about it. But as odd as it sounds it not surprising for me to have that meaning active windows if not more because of what I tend to be referring for different things.

Why are you using IE when you clearly have Firefox installed?

 

[OldSkoolNJ]

After reading some of this, I am now wondering if I'm just telling myself that Macs are so much better. I like how they never give problems, but I can't really say much for the rest of it. 😕 I too miss the taskbar, but I think Macs are more configurable than PCs. If only I could put the Dock on the top of the screen to come out from behind the Finder bar.🙄

Go find "Tinker Tools" for OSX. It allows you to put the Dock on the top of the screen. Then just turn on "Hide" and you got it.

Kevin

 

[UserofMacOSX]

Thank you. Where might I find this? Is it on the computer or online somewhere?

 

[Rodimus Prime]

You're right, it is personal preference, but I think those are some clear reasons why, at least for visual thinkers, OS X offers a better window management system.

Well that is the difference between a lot of people I am not as much of a visual thinker. I am a numbers kind of guy and yeah I know I had some extra windows because I didnt bother closing them but how everything on my computer is set up they are group in a way that I like them and easy access. The school work I was talking about was spread across 3 or 4 programs so the task bar help there. But like you said it personal preference and I can easily see how visual thinkers would like OSX system better. People who think more like me are more key to liking the task bar.

Why are you using IE when you clearly have Firefox installed?

It is just for mac rumors because something is glitch in my firefox that cause issues with the post icons, or alt vars from loading. SO i can not tell what post are new and what ones are old. I have not been able figure out how to fix it. I have a pretty good idea it has something to do with the ad block etention but no mater what I tried it just never seem to work so I just gave up. Only nice thing about it is since mac rumors is really the only IE thing I run I just set it to my home page. So I a short cut that takes me right here on the desktop. Firefox handles almost everything else. Honestly I would much rather be using firefox if it worked.

But IE7 is not all bad. It at least has tabs. just it is no where near as nice as firefox.

 

[jessep28]

I came over from the Windows world in Sept. Expose kind of annoys me in that its not uncommon to have Firefox's download window or program window open and hidden (neglected to close) only to discover it a while later. Windows taskbar allows me to find and close the annoying windows that were rendered useless a while ago.

Also, if I am frequently going between Excel spreadsheets F9 is cumbersome in my opinion. However, the Command + ~ is a helpful tool I will try later.

 

[MonkeyClaw]

I really noticed how much I love my Mac and how used to it I am when I had to start using a Dell with XP on it for a Comp Sci lab. I constantly was hitting center click for expose and trying to use my hotcorners to go to the desktop and really was wondering how many email I had. I dunno, its just that everything works the way it should on a Mac, it just makes sense.

 

[iBookG4user]

After using Mac OS X since 2005 I now think that windows is an even bigger PITA than it was when it was the only thing I could run. With windows I'm seeing "program not responding" WAY too many times and I have to click on end task at least 5 different times before it actually ends. I also have a habit of pressing fn + F9 on windows laptops and when it doesn't work I think it's really annoying. Another thing about windows is it's really slow, windows vista on my MBP was REALLY slow compared to how fast Mac OS X was.

Another thing I find annoying is that the taskbar is on the bottom and the close, minimize and maximize are not on the left side of the window. One thing that would be great is if the menus for each program in windows were in the taskbar like it is in Mac OS X, those extra pixels are useful and with windows they are wasted.

And what I find really annoying is that it's much harder to organize things on a windows based PC, things like the applications folder, documents folder and folders like that make organization a lot easier. Also it's a lot easier to find files on Mac OS X because of spotlight and I personally like spotlight a lot better than windows vista search, because spotlight is a lot easier to get to and saves you more time.

 

[dmw007]

One word:

Expose (im on windows, and another peeve is not being able to do the accented "e" without knowing some BS 4 digits on the numpad)

I know, this is another feature of Mac OS X that I can not function properly without. Even when I sit down and use a Windows PC, I find myself hitting the "F9" key and wondering why nothing happens. 😀 😎

This is what we get for years of chauvinistic loyalty to Redmond. Many of you long-time Apple folk can laugh at me now. I deserve it. I supported MS every step and for many years. I plugged my ears to the complaints being made by Ashton-Tate, Lotus Development, SCO, Larry Ellison (although he really just wants Bill's throne), the Unix consortium, the Linux consortium, etc. Yes, I will confess my sins here before you all. I was one of the mindless droids who thought standardization was worth a little monopoly. Afterall, MS's offerings had always been reasonably priced.

Now the honeymoon is long since passed. The predator's fangs are bared. One can feel the pain of the wound last left in your ass, knowing more is to come.

Hmmm....I am definitely moving off-subject, sorry. It is better to hope that iWork 7 can free us of the bondage of Office. That is my opinion at least.

Glad to see that your eyes have been fully opened SMM. 😀 🙂

 

[Yoda47]

I think each OS has it's strong and weak points.

That said, OS X has done a really good job at making the interface simple but still offering a lot of functionality. Windows has gone down the road (and continues more in that direction with every version) of just making things simple by removing functionality (and they still manage to complicate that). Then there's Linux that you can literally do anything you want... but it's very complicated.

 

[ptjh]

I've always used windows and OSX looks tidier. I might find that hot window thing annoying though. I don't know if I could stand the hassle of waiting to see if software was eventually going to be brought over to my OS like you guys. That 4OD/ BBC thing sucks