Things you HATE about Macs...

[joefinan]

Persnally, since I've had my iPhone and new MBP, I like Macs a lot more...

 

[Jelite]

How about one click of the green button to optimize the window, a double click to maximize and a third to go back to the original size, everyone's a winner!

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

How about one click of the green button to optimize the window, a double click to maximize and a third to go back to the original size, everyone's a winner!

I think option click would make more sense, since it would be awkward if there were delays before it did anything.

better yet, get rid of the minimize and zoom buttons. They have very little use.

 

[macrem]

QT (free version): there has been a very simple AppleScript hack for years to enable full screen mode, before it was added as a free feature.

zoom: is superior to maximize. It intelligently makes your window as big as it needs to be, but not bigger, if the app is coded properly. Why add useless white space around an image that hides other things for the sake of filling the screen? There is a reason newspapers, magazines have columns. Its because there is an optimal number of words per line for readability's sake. Its not easy for your eyes to find the next line if you need to scan back across a wide page. Have you ever seen someone take a 9.5-11 or A4 paper, turn it 90 degrees and use the entire length of the page per line to write in normal sized text for reading? Hopefully not. With today's wide screens zoom is even more useful. On my screen, if I maximize this forum page, I see ~35 words per line. That is way too many! Maximizing all windows is not a good idea. If you don't like the fact that Apple does not provide inferior options for the sake of having more options, you're using the wrong OS.

 

[richard.mac]

after using Leopard for a while im starting to find little inconsistencies that i hate it in the user interface.

single files placed in the dock do not have Quick Look icon previews while the same file in a stack does. for example here is a pdf file and the same pdf file is in the stack beside it.

the aqua elements still apparent from the original Mac OS X interface such as the aqua scrollbars, checkboxes, buttons etc are still in Leopard when it is clear that Apple is moving towards the 'metal' look in the toolbar buttons and other buttons such as the Spotlight and Safari search buttons and the big Time Machine switch. how bout we choose one or the other guys? i love the unified theme in Leopard but how about we have unified elements to? dont even get me started about iTunes and now iPhoto '08! also sometimes an open/save/export/import box will be a blind, just shoots down with now blind effect or is just a window... whats up with that? to explain all of this here is a couple of screenies.

all these little inconsistencies all add up. i dont care if the elements are metal or aqua but a consistent user interface would look a lot better and be a lot user friendly. maybe i just have OCD?

 

[joeshell383]

zoom: is superior to maximize. It intelligently makes your window as big as it needs to be, but not bigger, if the app is coded properly. Why add useless white space around an image that hides other things for the sake of filling the screen? There is a reason newspapers, magazines have columns. Its because there is an optimal number of words per line for readability's sake. Its not easy for your eyes to find the next line if you need to scan back across a wide page. Have you ever seen someone take a 9.5-11 or A4 paper, turn it 90 degrees and use the entire length of the page per line to write in normal sized text for reading? Hopefully not. With today's wide screens zoom is even more useful. On my screen, if I maximize this forum page, I see ~35 words per line. That is way too many! Maximizing all windows is not a good idea. If you don't like the fact that Apple does not provide inferior options for the sake of having more options, you're using the wrong OS.

Again, who are you to say? Some people want it maximized! Windows, the choice of 90+% of computer users has maximize, why can't OS X. If it keeps coming up over and over and over, than obviously it is not a niche feature and needs to be added. Look how long it took Steve to add a second mouse button on an Apple branded mouse (and it's not even a button at that, just secondary click functionality). It was something that obviously needed to be added, but Apple was stubborn about it until Steve realized Windows switchers were put off by it. They need to wake up and do the same thing with maximize. It doesn't hurt at all, nor go against the "Mac way of doing things" to add some sort of maximize function.

MS and Apple have both stolen features from each other over the years.

Maximize is like minimize (the yellow button), contextual menus, menus that stay open when clicked (i.e. you don't have to hold down for the menu to stay open), a built-in software updating mechanism, automatic error reporting, fast-user switching, and all the other features Apple has adopted from Windows; Apple needs to "borrow" it from Windows.

 

[TBi]

Windows, the choice of 90+% of computer users has maximize

That's blatantly wrong. That's like saying left hand drive is the choice of 99% of americans because their cars are left hand drive. When in truth they probably don't care either way but it's more expensive to get right hand drive cars. (Reverse for UK/Ireland/Aussie land/NZ/Japan...)

Windows might be used by a lot more users than OSX but it isn't by choice which has been said many a time by an OSX user forced to use windows in his workplace.

Personally i prefer the way OSX does it. If you actually tried to understand why OSX does it this way rather than complaining you might actually see that it is a better way too.

Think of a video window. Why would you want to watch a video maximised? Isn't it better than it can be sized to fit the video (no stretching)? If you want to watch a video full screen then you use full screen, not maximised.

I see people using programs like word full screen with two massive empty gray areas on the left and right side of the document. It's such a waste of usable space.

 

[richard.mac]

Again, who are you to say? Some people want it maximized! Windows, the choice of 90+% of computer users has maximize, why can't OS X. If it keeps coming up over and over and over, than obviously it is not a niche feature and needs to be added. Look how long it took Steve to add a second mouse button on an Apple branded mouse (and it's not even a button at that, just secondary click functionality). It was something that obviously needed to be added, but Apple was stubborn about it until Steve realized Windows switchers were put off by it. They need to wake up and do the same thing with maximize. It doesn't hurt at all, nor go against the "Mac way of doing things" to add some sort of maximize function.

MS and Apple have both stolen features from each other over the years.

Maximize is like minimize (the yellow button), contextual menus, menus that stay open when clicked (i.e. you don't have to hold down for the menu to stay open), a built-in software updating mechanism, automatic error reporting, fast-user switching, and all the other features Apple has adopted from Windows; Apple needs to "borrow" it from Windows.

i agree that Apple should look at putting in a maximise feature (not a button) for windows as some people just like having a window take up their whole screen, as you say. these are usually users with <17" screens that want a whole internet browser or word processor to take up their whole screen.

but computer screens are getting bigger and bigger, soon 1680 x 1050 or even 1920 x 1200 will be the norm resolution and maximising windows is a waste of space and just doesnt look good. except of course for full screen videos and pro apps such as Final Cut Studio which take up the whole screen anyway with lots of small windows -> making use of space.

i personally dont use maximise in Windows anymore as i have a 23" screen and it just looks stupid and allows me to work more intuitively.

… I see people using programs like word full screen with two massive empty gray areas on the left and right side of the document. It's such a waste of usable space.

agreed… Dictionary, Finder window, pdf

 

[DaveF]

You'll see the green traffic light works nearly perfectly in Safari. By default, it's set up to toggle between a user-defined setting (default) and an "auto-fit" option so that the window gets just wide enough that you don't need the horizontal scroll bar.

I think the main problem is the "auto-fit" is something that has to be defined by the developer, there is no OS standard. Thus, many developers just have it go to full-screen, while others actually use a more accurate setting, causing the seemingly inconsistent behavior.

I don't use Safari -- I prefer Firefox -- but I agree that some apps implement the Green button in what seems to be a model method: Finder and Keynote come to mind. The problem, as I suggest, is that the implementation varies dramatically from application to application. In Finder, it's "optimize", in Numbers it's "maximize", and in "Calculator" it's "interface change".

The opposite could be said of many maximize-lovers: "I do things that way, so every one else should too."

I want to agree, but I don't. Not universally, but I at least see some "maximizers" saying that they can see how people could like an "optimize" button, except actual implementation is broken, so just give us a consistent and useful "maximize" button instead. And in contrast the "optimizers" seem to propose a completely irrational viewpoint: "optimize" is consistent and works, and "maximize" has absolutely no value.

Maybe we need a fourth traffic light, a mauve button for maximize?

 

[javelinRev42]

Just a niggle ... not a hate

I am in the "for every niggle, there are ten things I love" camp. This is just a throw back to my window's days, but I like having all the folders listed at the top of the list in finder rather than sorted alphabetically in with the files. I grew up using PCs and likely just became accustomed to this hierarchy.

Don't read the following if you are only looking for niggles (it is above)

10 Loves (in no particular order):
- my three macs connect without fail to our home network
- my wife's XP PC constantly struggles to connect (I love this because she disses my macs)
- rarely have to do maintenance
- love that my wife is always checking for malware, updating Norton, recovering from crashes (I don't hate my wife by the way)
- love that people come to me to burn their home DVDs when my wife is the designer (no, I don't have an inferiority complex)
- firewire
- size of our mini
- keynote
- Final Cut Express HD - video edit, soundtrack, and livetype for dirt cheap
- stability

 

[richard.mac]

I am in the "for every niggle, there are ten things I love" camp. This is just a throw back to my window's days, but I like having all the folders listed at the top of the list in finder rather than sorted alphabetically in with the files. I grew up using PCs and likely just became accustomed to this hierarchy. …

theres a trick to do this in a thread somewhere in the forum that edits a Finder file to make folders be named "~Folder" to make them appear at the top of list view when sorted by name. unfortunately i dont know where and i forgot the name of the thread. have a search around here and Google.

 

[joeshell383]

I see people using programs like word full screen with two massive empty gray areas on the left and right side of the document. It's such a waste of usable space.

So what? If they want it set up that way then fine, Apple should give it to them. What else would be in the space? Desktop background?

This is a thread about why we dislike Mac OS. Green button is a dislike. Plain and simple.

Like I said earlier, we have tried to get used to the green button and we don't like the way it works so we never use it. Apple needs to put in a way so it can be used (ctrl/alt-click?) as maximize.

 

[stephapple]

How about one click of the green button to optimize the window, a double click to maximize and a third to go back to the original size, everyone's a winner!

Or why not a double click of the Finder title bar like in Windows? If you double click the Blue title bar in windows it will maximize the window and if you double click it again it will minimize the window back to the size that you had it set to.

 

[macgruder]

osx - why do some programs close when i close them (like photobooth) but when i close preview or quicktime the little light in the dock stays on.

You don't close an App on the Mac, you quit it. Buttons on windows affect the window not the application (there is no application window on OS X - application level control occurs in the app menu & associated key commands). So clicking the red button closes the window. Get into this habit:

Want to quit: command-Q (File > Quit)
Want to close window: command-W (Red button)
The above always works.

Some simple apps will additionally close if having no windows open serves no purpose - like calculator. Basing your habits around what some apps do is not the best way to work though.

You can often spot advanced users by how they quit. If you command-Q calculator and system prefs you are probably a power user Use of command-H when stuff is in the way rather than the orange button is another clue. i.e working on the app level

 

[joefinan]

More Finder inconsistencies

Drag a file into a different folder and it copies it. Drag a file into a burn folder and it makes an alias.

What's the point?? It certainly makes you waste a few CDs and makes you think you can fit a lot more files on your CD than you actually can.

 

[yellow]

Drag a file into a different folder and it copies it. Drag a file into a burn folder and it makes an alias.

I agree here.

The functionality was not like that before Tiger (or before a particular update in Tiger?). I don't know what the reasoning behind this was, but it was not a good one, IMO. A CD image should be treated the same as any other mounted disk (or image), drag = copy.

 

[Verdanice]

I'm sure these have been mentioned, but they annoy me to no end - and there is absolutely no clear reason why Apple wouldn't make the changes.

• Why can't I rezize a window from four corners? Why? There doesn't need to be an indicator on each corner of a window, just the tooltip on mouseover. Rather than simply making a window on the left of my screen wider using the right corners, I have to first move it and then resize. It does not make sense. Furthermore, on Windows Apple went to the extra trouble to forcefully disable four corner resizing on Safari. It's as though it's a feature in their eyes rather than a pain in the arse. iTunes for Windows is 4 corner resizable like a normal ergonomic application.
• Why in the hell can't I use the arrow keys (or any other keys for that matter) to navigate command prompts yet? I don't get it, form navigation is pretty beautiful much of the time in Safari, but as soon as a 'Yes' or 'No' is required, you've gotta reach for the mouse.
• OS X gets unbelievably confused with anything to do with sleeping with my Macbook Pr. It's not the hardware, it's OS X freaking out when I interrupt its memory activity when going into 'safe sleep' (a nice feature, faulty or not). Additionally, when I close up the MBP in the morning to go about my day, I better remember to unplug my USB hub before closing it into sleep - if that hub is unplugged after the lid is closed, it's another fit for dear OS X. Same goes for disconnecting the (useless) bluetooth Mighty Mouse.
• Seriously, Apple, I liked my background-free dock in Tiger. Floating icons - make them happen, please.
• Firefox for Mac is indescribably painful to use, especially when you exceed.. two tabs. I love Firefox as much as life itself, but sometimes having a lightweight Macbook Pro seems like a bad idea when Firefox is locking the entire system up.
• Trash can in left-side menu, please.

 

[McGiord]

I agree here.

The functionality was not like that before Tiger (or before a particular update in Tiger?). I don't know what the reasoning behind this was, but it was not a good one, IMO. A CD image should be treated the same as any other mounted disk (or image), drag = copy.

This is the reasoning: in Leopard when put a file inside a New Burn Folder it put an alias is to make it more efficient, so the systems doesn't copy the file twice, from original location to the burn folder and then to the CD or DVD, it's more efficient because it only copies the file when it's needed = when you burn the folder.

 

[adamfishercox]

Drag a file into a different folder and it copies it. Drag a file into a burn folder and it makes an alias.

What's the point?? It certainly makes you waste a few CDs and makes you think you can fit a lot more files on your CD than you actually can.

Windows does this too. It's more efficient than it taking the time to copy the file to a folder that will disappear as soon as the disc is burnt.

 

[DaveF]

I'm sure these have been mentioned, but they annoy me to no end - and there is absolutely no clear reason why Apple wouldn't make the changes.

[*]Why in the hell can't I use the arrow keys (or any other keys for that matter) to navigate command prompts yet? I don't get it, form navigation is pretty beautiful much of the time in Safari, but as soon as a 'Yes' or 'No' is required, you've gotta reach for the mouse.

Enable the accessability features (In Preferences), and you can then tab around dialogs and select buttons with the Space bar. It's nearly identical Windows keyboard interface. Search back through this thread for direct instructions -- someone explained it to me when I had the same complaint.

[*]Firefox for Mac is indescribably painful to use, especially when you exceed.. two tabs. I love Firefox as much as life itself, but sometimes having a lightweight Macbook Pro seems like a bad idea when Firefox is locking the entire system up.

What websites cause you problems? I've used Firefox 2 for the past 9 months in 10.4 and 10.5 with very few problems. Nothing like what you're describing. And I typically have 3-10 tabs with sites like this one open.

Regardless, Firefox 3 is coming soon and sounds like it will fix many performance issues.

 

[decksnap]

I agree here.

The functionality was not like that before Tiger (or before a particular update in Tiger?). I don't know what the reasoning behind this was, but it was not a good one, IMO. A CD image should be treated the same as any other mounted disk (or image), drag = copy.

Why would you want to have to watch it copy to a blank CD before burning it? It's not like a flash drive where you can just eject it. You still have to burn the thing. This feature makes things much faster.

 

[dan7592]

one thing that annoys me is that damn screen flickering on my macbook, and another thing is that you cannot choose when you want time machine to make backups.

 

[HLdan]

one thing that annoys me is that damn screen flickering on my macbook, and another thing is that you cannot choose when you want time machine to make backups.

Screen flickering? That doesn't sound like a "Mac Feature" that sounds like your Macbook's having problems.

 

[eXan]

Screen flickering? That doesn't sound like a "Mac Feature" that sounds like your Macbook's having problems.

Yea I was thinking that too lol

 

[r.j.s]

one thing that annoys me is that damn screen flickering on my macbook, and another thing is that you cannot choose when you want time machine to make backups.

Take it to the store, your inverter is going bad. Funny thing is, for me at least, I consider that normal. It has happened on every notebook I've owned.