Things you HATE about Macs...

[janstett]

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.

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.

As opposed to OSX, where you have distracting holes with your desktop background and icons showing through. Rather like reading a newspaper with holes in it.

As you can guess, I'm not a fan of the OSX implementation. When I maximize an app, I want it to be the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on and I don't want to see other apps or my desktop.

 

[TBi]

As opposed to OSX, where you have distracting holes with your desktop background and icons showing through. Rather like reading a newspaper with holes in it.

As you can guess, I'm not a fan of the OSX implementation. When I maximize an app, I want it to be the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on and I don't want to see other apps or my desktop.

More like reading a newspaper with distracting advertisments... oh wait...

Maybe i'm fortunate in that the background doesn't distract me. Much like the area behind my physical screen doesn't distract me. I wonder, does the logo on your monitor distract you too?

 

[iBookG4user]

As opposed to OSX, where you have distracting holes with your desktop background and icons showing through. Rather like reading a newspaper with holes in it.

As you can guess, I'm not a fan of the OSX implementation. When I maximize an app, I want it to be the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on and I don't want to see other apps or my desktop.

You must have one distracting background then. The eye only keeps an area of about 1-2mm in sharp focus and the rest is very low resolution unless you focus on it. Thus you shouldn't be bothered by seeing your background after the first couple days. With everything not full screened you can have access to several apps without even having to use exposé which is an advantage in my book. Full screening everything is really counter productive. And the poster above had a good point, does the monitor logo bother you or everything behind your monitor? I'd assume not because you've gotten used to having them there.

 

[krye]

When I unplug a USB device without ejecting, it gives me that awful message about it might have corrupted my files. Also it takes forever and a day to mount a CD/DVD on the desktop.

 

[yellow]

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.

More than once I've ended up with a CD that has stub aliases rather than the full file. I haven't the faintest idea why, other than "you're doing it wrong".

 

[macgruder]

As you can guess, I'm not a fan of the OSX implementation. When I maximize an app, I want it to be the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on and I don't want to see other apps or my desktop.

Command-option-H
or
Use Quicksilver + Applescript to create a full maximize window. I for one am glad calculator doesn't fill a 30" screen

 

[HLdan]

Command-option-H
or
Use Quicksilver + Applescript to create a full maximize window. I for one am glad calculator doesn't fill a 30" screen

Or he could just resize the window maybe? You're way is too complicated.

 

[macgruder]

Or he could just resize the window maybe? You're way is too complicated.

Perhaps, but it's nice to be able to push
F8 to have full screen,
F7 to have two windows fill screen side by side and
F6 for them to be top/bottom
(and trigger-45 is great for rating the playing song in iTunes as 4.5).

The joy of quicksilver and OS X scalability.

 

[Alexandre 24]

Zoom

As a developer, I think that the annoying thing is that by default, the "Zoom" menu item does not have a keyboard shortcut, such as ⌥⌘Z or something of the kind. Otherwise, Address Book 10.5 does not allow phone call (with luck it'll come back)
Love to !

 

[rhett7660]

It has been mentioned before. You hear about Mac being a multimedia machine, yet the programs that come with it can't read or view some basic codecs. I have to download a third party program to play them/view them before I bring them into my editing program. AVI comes to mind. I wish they would get this up to speed with their native apps.

However I am impressed that preview will preview my cr2/psd etc files without opening up another program to view them.

 

[yellow]

It has been mentioned before. You hear about Mac being a multimedia machine, yet the programs that come with it can't read or view some basic codecs.

Well, technically speaking, Windows has this issue as well. But I hear you. There's quite a few hoops to jump through to get stuff to play on both sides. And for the uninitiated (e.g., new to the platform), this can be a real headache.

 

[TBi]

AVI comes to mind. I wish they would get this up to speed with their native apps.

AVI is a container format. It can contain a video in any of a whole host of encoding formats. You can't blame apple or microsoft for not supporting every type of encoding format.

 

[rhett7660]

You are correct..

Just seems weird that you hear about the Mac being a power house of a video machine yet it has a tough time reading some codecs. That is all.....



Fixed tuff..lol and wierd to weird... I really need to stop typing after having very little sleep.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

You are correct..

Just seems wierd that you hear about the Mac being a power house of a video machine yet it has a tuff time reading some codecs. That is all.....

You spelled 'tough' wrong. Haha

The one thing I find nice about Mac OS X, and I'm not saying you don't have a point --you do, I love how easy it is to install, and unistall, those codecs. Where in windows you have to search around and there are 4234 different packages that all claim to do the same thing, and you're unsure of which ones may be viruses.... ugh

 

[rhett7660]

Tuff..

Ha... and that is so true........ Good point.

 

[macrem]

As opposed to OSX, where you have distracting holes with your desktop background and icons showing through. Rather like reading a newspaper with holes in it.

As you can guess, I'm not a fan of the OSX implementation. When I maximize an app, I want it to be the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on and I don't want to see other apps or my desktop.

Do you also wear goggles duct taped to cardboard duct taped around your monitor to hide distractions in the room?

 

[DaveF]

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.

You should show them the zoom feature so they can see two pages side by side. Then you can comment on how useful maximize is.

In OS X, I find the iLife programs need to be full screen (on my 15" MBP) -- a maximize button would be useful. Keynote and Numbers also would benefit from maximize.

Other apps, like Firefox and Pages, I wouldn't use maximized.

Sure, I can move and resize. But a one-button maximize feature is obviously useful and would definitely benefit me and others. Now, if the Green button worked sensibly, this would be moot -- it would maximize when that was optimal. But it's a deranged mess, so I continue to wish for maximize for some programs.

 

[macrem]

iLife: using GarageBand as an example. On my machine, zoom uses up the entire screen, except of course it won't overap with the menubar nor the Dock, which both are good things.

Numbers: on my machine, zoom uses up the entire screen, except of course it won't overap with the menubar nor the Dock, which both are good things.

Other apps like Mail behave similarly.

Keynote: if you "zoom in" (View > Zoom) on a template for example, it should become big enough so that zoom will use up the entire screen, except of course it won't overap with the menubar nor the Dock, which both are good things. If the template is smaller than the screen, it won't create useless 'grey areas' around the template just to artificially make the window bigger.

"Other apps, like Firefox and Pages, I wouldn't use maximized.": its good you appreciate zoom for some things!

"Sure, I can move and resize. But a one-button maximize feature is obviously useful and would definitely benefit me and others.": How exactly? All I hear for reasons why are "I am used to it, I want it". Other than that, I have yet to read a logic user case for adding Maximize.

 

[macgruder]

You are correct..

Just seems wierd that you hear about the Mac being a power house of a video machine yet it has a tough time reading some codecs. That is all.....



Fixed tuff..lol

Now you just need to fix 'wierd'. Or is that weird in a wired context

 

[DaveF]

iLife: using GarageBand as an example. On my machine, zoom uses up the entire screen, except of course it won't overap with the menubar nor the Dock, which both are good things.

Numbers: on my machine, zoom uses up the entire screen, except of course it won't overap with the menubar nor the Dock, which both are good things.

Other apps like Mail behave similarly.

Keynote: if you "zoom in" (View > Zoom) on a template for example, it should become big enough so that zoom will use up the entire screen, except of course it won't overap with the menubar nor the Dock, which both are good things. If the template is smaller than the screen, it won't create useless 'grey areas' around the template just to artificially make the window bigger.

"Other apps, like Firefox and Pages, I wouldn't use maximized.": its good you appreciate zoom for some things!

"Sure, I can move and resize. But a one-button maximize feature is obviously useful and would definitely benefit me and others.": How exactly? All I hear for reasons why are "I am used to it, I want it". Other than that, I have yet to read a logic user case for adding Maximize.

Working in a spreadsheet I want to see as many cells as possible, as most spreadsheets are larger than the screen. A "maximize" button is simpler and more effective than manual drag and resize.

Maybe you're asking why a new button instead of the green button? Because the green button is incoherent across all of OS X and applications, so I gave up on it rather than attempting memorize its application specific behaviors. A "maximize" feature does just one thing, predictably and so is obviously more useful to those who would like "maximize".

 

[DaveF]

My complaint with the "Green" button is best given by a question:

What does the green button do in an application?

This question is unanswerable. For all applications, the red button closes the window and yellow miniaturizes the window. In Windows, maximize -- good or bad -- always toggles between current state and maximized state.

But the behavior of green cannot be predicted at all, much less described simply. Its behavior can only be determined empirically, for each individual application. That this is wholly contrary to Apple's modus operandi seems painfully obvious -- what other universal OS feature is unpredictable, indescribable, and generally undocumented? How has this not been recognized and fixed?

 

[macgruder]

Working in a spreadsheet I want to see as many cells as possible, as most spreadsheets are larger than the screen. A "maximize" button is simpler and more effective than manual drag and resize.

Maybe you're asking why a new button instead of the green button? Because the green button is incoherent across all of OS X and applications, so I gave up on it rather than attempting memorize its application specific behaviors. A "maximize" feature does just one thing, predictably and so is obviously more useful to those who would like "maximize".

But making such a visible green button that works against the system paradigm is bad policy. Also users such as yourself have the alternative. Use Applescript plus Quicksilver or ask Microsoft to make such a button for Excel.

The green button toggles between user state & maximum required.

 

[DaveF]

But making such a visible green button that works against the system paradigm is bad policy. Also users such as yourself have the alternative. Use Applescript plus Quicksilver or ask Microsoft to make such a button for Excel.

The green button toggles between user state & maximum required.

So add a new feature to the Window menu for "Maximize", with no keyboard shortcut. It will be available to all windows, all programs. It won't step on any shortcut toes and not disrupt existing interface design. I can then define my own shortcut if I want.

I don't know about "Applescript plus Quicksilver" for maximize. Nor can I really petition each and every vendor for a maximize feature. It's not just Excel, that was just an example as you asked.

This isn't a huge issue. But OS X has a gap regarding optimally sizing windows per user preference. Pity this doesn't look to be addressed.

 

[Tom B.]

One little thing that kind of annoys me is that it seems impossible to get Finder to automatically 'calculate all sizes' without having to tell it to in the 'view options' menu all the time.

Also, if I tell Software Update to run on startup, it always does it about a second before my MacBook connects to my Wi-Fi, so I have to quit it, and relaunch it.

 

[rhett7660]

I really wish the Mac O's would automatically spell check forum post from withing firefox after a long day with little sleep!!!

LOL