A lot of people way smarter than average computer users thought up the Mac's UI both pre and post OS X.
Menus are for commands, verbs or actions. Icons are objects, nouns, things you manipulate. Mixing the two doesn't work too well unless you know, somehow, what is what. The whole point is that you shouldn't *need* to know what special function something has depending on where it is (in a particular menu or icon or label).
Yes you may know the exact names of your apps, but the overwhelming majority of computer users can barely read and write in their native language let alone understand that a blue Apple icon menu is part of the OS.
The OS is not a "program" - it is essentially the computer. The software you run is distinct from the OS. Microsoft word doesn't start up the computer, Mac OS X does (actually Open Firmware does which then bootstraps OS X).
So thinking that one particular menu next to application menus is the entire "OS" is fundamentally flawed. That particular menu is merely actions to do something with the computer (OS) itself, while the other menus are actions specific to the program that is active. That is being consistent within the context of the menubar, which is not the entire OS.
I currently have 49 items in my /Applications folder. That menu would be taller than the screen at my current resolution. Menus are not supposed to scroll, that's bad UI design. And what about sub-folders like Utilities or in my case Server - which contain rarely used by rather important apps I need to access? Not everyone will even have a Server sub-folder. Many people won't need Utilities items either.
I keep my most-often used apps in the Dock which can be quickly accessed via mouse from any point on the screen by flicking downward (the screen has infinite height/width and it "catches" the mouse if you move it fast and far enough, you can't miss the edge of the screen).
The fact is that human brain can differentiate color, size and shape much faster than by reading text. So icons of a reasonable size, with distinct colors and/or imagery can be scanned and identified faster than reading many lines of similar text in many cases.
I can glance and quickly locate an app by Color or position. I don't even need to know where they are on disk or what the app's names are, just remember their position which doesn't change (much, only if an app is running that was not already part of the Dock).
If I had a list of all apps available like in the Start menu of Windows I have to read and read and scroll and mouse until I get to what I want. Apple designs their OS to be usable by the vast majority of users and then offers per-user customization to tweak things as they need within certain limits.
If you need more customization than Mac OS X offers then either use Linux, which lets you change everything and nothing is consistent, or suck it up and use Windows which works like was originally described.
Menus are for commands, verbs or actions. Icons are objects, nouns, things you manipulate. Mixing the two doesn't work too well unless you know, somehow, what is what. The whole point is that you shouldn't *need* to know what special function something has depending on where it is (in a particular menu or icon or label).
Yes you may know the exact names of your apps, but the overwhelming majority of computer users can barely read and write in their native language let alone understand that a blue Apple icon menu is part of the OS.
The OS is not a "program" - it is essentially the computer. The software you run is distinct from the OS. Microsoft word doesn't start up the computer, Mac OS X does (actually Open Firmware does which then bootstraps OS X).
So thinking that one particular menu next to application menus is the entire "OS" is fundamentally flawed. That particular menu is merely actions to do something with the computer (OS) itself, while the other menus are actions specific to the program that is active. That is being consistent within the context of the menubar, which is not the entire OS.
I currently have 49 items in my /Applications folder. That menu would be taller than the screen at my current resolution. Menus are not supposed to scroll, that's bad UI design. And what about sub-folders like Utilities or in my case Server - which contain rarely used by rather important apps I need to access? Not everyone will even have a Server sub-folder. Many people won't need Utilities items either.
I keep my most-often used apps in the Dock which can be quickly accessed via mouse from any point on the screen by flicking downward (the screen has infinite height/width and it "catches" the mouse if you move it fast and far enough, you can't miss the edge of the screen).
The fact is that human brain can differentiate color, size and shape much faster than by reading text. So icons of a reasonable size, with distinct colors and/or imagery can be scanned and identified faster than reading many lines of similar text in many cases.
I can glance and quickly locate an app by Color or position. I don't even need to know where they are on disk or what the app's names are, just remember their position which doesn't change (much, only if an app is running that was not already part of the Dock).
If I had a list of all apps available like in the Start menu of Windows I have to read and read and scroll and mouse until I get to what I want. Apple designs their OS to be usable by the vast majority of users and then offers per-user customization to tweak things as they need within certain limits.
If you need more customization than Mac OS X offers then either use Linux, which lets you change everything and nothing is consistent, or suck it up and use Windows which works like was originally described.
