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What do you like and dislike about Mac OS X?
- Thread starter Doctor Q
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The point is that if they add one, there's no barrier to add another. They could make full screen a keyboard shortcut and I'd be fine with it. I think it's an issue on Safari 4. First, there's less clickable area for window dragging, and you can no longer see the full title's for pages when you have enough tabs open.
I'm not saying that no one complains about it. I'm saying that just because switchers request it doesn't mean Apple should cave to the request. What about the switchers who don't care? Mac OS X hints is a large site, but by no means is it visited by every Apple user.
As for caps lock, I see the need—although I disagree with PHP/C/C++/what have you constants. Constants are usually like 10 or less characters. But like I said, my hands are large and I have no problem holding shift for 10 characters. If we were talking paragraphs, or entire languages, I might be on board. Still, I wouldn't mind a small Caps lock delay but I understand the reason you hate it. I still don't know why you use it so often, but if you do I understand how it would be annoying. I also don't like Apple adding in such changes without a way out or at least mentioning it, especially ones with a long standing tradition. I didn't like them removing the Apple icon from the keyboard either. I also thought it was horrible for usability.
I can't change caps lock because I use it a bit in After Effects when I'm working on big scenes or projects and don't need to wait on it to render a frame while I'm trying to change things. I am also not aware of a key remapper for OS X. I'm sure it exists, but I don't like to install programs like that. I don't like things messing that deep with my system.
Also, it was never my intent to apologize for Apple about your caps lock key. I was stating why I rarely use it, and was trying to figure out why it was so important to you.
Exactly, it's inconsistent. I never use the button because of it. However, I don't think it's fair to remove that functionality for thousands, perhaps millions, of users that do use it. If they made it option clickable for full screen that would be fine with me. If they added a pref for it, even better. It'd be better still if a user could also enable the option+click version and select which one is default. Adding an extra button isn't cool.
I don't need Safari to be 1920px wide, but I wouldn't have minded it to be 1280px on my PowerBook. To be fair, Safari at least now resizes images to fit unless you click to zoom to 1:1. I was annoyed when they added that without a pref, but now, not so much.
Those are all good suggestions. I think it would be really cool and user-friendly to allow a rocker button, even for the keyboards that do have it. I never got used to forward delete because I've mostly owned laptops. The key is in an inconvenient place on full-size keyboards. I'd use it if delete rocked—it would rock! Good suggestion. Send it to Apple!
A lot to talk
That's really a long discussion, will ever end? Don't think so.
Course I didn't read all above and decide to back to title of thread and give my opinion:
What I like: it works! With all problems, nights fixing bugs, but at last, it works. Linux is still a dream and Windows a nightmare.
What I dislike: it makes a Core 2 Duo runs like a G4, a G4 like a G3, and a G3 like a Performa... It's a price to pay? I don't have to like it, and it's a real challange for OSX developers. I cannot think that a developer like to do it, but the market always wanna a newer system ASAP with a lot of new feautures - optimization is a dream. Maybe this line will be broked by Snow, hope so!
That's really a long discussion, will ever end? Don't think so.
Course I didn't read all above and decide to back to title of thread and give my opinion:
What I like: it works! With all problems, nights fixing bugs, but at last, it works. Linux is still a dream and Windows a nightmare.
What I dislike: it makes a Core 2 Duo runs like a G4, a G4 like a G3, and a G3 like a Performa... It's a price to pay? I don't have to like it, and it's a real challange for OSX developers. I cannot think that a developer like to do it, but the market always wanna a newer system ASAP with a lot of new feautures - optimization is a dream. Maybe this line will be broked by Snow, hope so!
There is a blog that is just about critiquing OS X's design. It's called machaters.com, dont let the name fool you.. it's trying hard not to be a flame blog...
Or how about just an option to set it in System Preferences? It would be a more useful option than the one they allow for where to place scroll arrows. Whatever the solution, it's just odd that they don't allow it.
Switchers who don't care? Good for them. But I've demonstrated why full screen is useful and Apple's way is not always efficient. It's a legit complaint and one of my dislikes about OS X. Apple can do what they want, but I think it sucks that there's no full screen.
It is a big deal when you're used to the key reacting instantly and expect it. Imagine if one of your keys for a letter was slower responding than all the other ones. If you hunt and peck to type it probably wouldn't bother you. If you touch type at a decent pace it would annoy the hell out of you.
It has nothing to do with large or small hands. Holding down shift while typing would not be as efficient as caps lock for typing 5 characters, much less 10 or more.
It's irrelevant why I use caps lock. You might think holding down shift and typing 10 characters is efficient but you have to admit that others might not feel the same way. I've given plenty of examples of caps use in various professions.
But if you must know, I design product for a living. Mechanical engineering drawings require caps per ANSI standards. The notes on drawings can be many paragraphs long. Specs and procedures often have acronyms all over them and are capitalized. I've become accustomed to using caps lock over the years as I've found it is more efficient than holding down shift for anything other than a few characters.
Isn't there another key or menu pick that does the same thing? ESC?
System Preferences lets you remap the caps lock key to be off, option, command, etc. It's built-in on OS X <---I use caps lock to type that by the way, much faster than holding down shift to type it for me. Shift+ O S X is awkward to type. Anyway, it's dumb that OS X allows you to remap the caps lock but not remove the timed delay.
Hence why I never asked to have it removed.
You would if you had a 1920 image, had a 1920 monitor and wanted to see the image full size.
Firefox and Internet Explorer has been doing that for ages. It stil doesn't help if I want to see an image as big as my monitor allows.
If I am reading that right I kind of have to agree, I still think my G5 was faster than this C2D but I knew that would happen since leopard is meant to support 2 completely different systems. Snow Leopard will help a lot I think.
I agree that it could be useful for some users—mostly laptop users. I also agree that it could be a pref. I wouldn't mind that at all. I was just saying that additional buttons and changing the behavior is not the answer.
I know you weren't requesting the change. It just seemed like a trap to get me to accept that a change would be annoying so that you could use it later down the line as you tried. Instead I used it against you on the issue we were talking about—changing button behavior not caps lock.
I disagree because I have no problem typing while holding shift with my pinky. I rarely use my pinky to hit keys. I use my other fingers way more because I move my hands all across the keyboard. I'm a weird touch typist. So maybe this issue doesn't apply to me. I'm probably not the norm.
I forgot that you can change it to another modifier key. As for AE, it's a weird thing. There's no menu item for it as far as I would know. It's system wide too if I recall correctly. It won't show rendered frames while caps lock is on. But if you go to type something in another window and remove caps lock, I think it shows rendered frames.
Useless to me:
Spaces
Cover Flow
Expose'
Stacks
Dislike:
How bloated OSX has become
Loss of Control Panels
Loss of Control Strip
Loss of Sherlock
Like:
Everything else.
Spaces
Cover Flow
Expose'
Stacks
Dislike:
How bloated OSX has become
Loss of Control Panels
Loss of Control Strip
Loss of Sherlock
Like:
Everything else.
The only thing I can think of is the "left over"/"new" PPC/Intel code, I will be glad to see that issue gone in Snow Leopard. Hrududu, if you mean something else elaborate because that is a broad statement and could just be features you don't like.
More customisability is what I want. There are tonnes of hidden settings, which most people will know how to get to here (OnyX, TinkerTool etc.), many that are really useful, so why don't they enable them? Or have an 'Advanced...' button in the Dock preference pane, for example? I fear that in Snow Leopard they will do away with these extra features as part of the slimming process.
At least have a normal option to switch to a 2D Dock so you don't need 3rd-party apps and Terminal commands. I normally love the 3D Dock, even though it doesn't obey the laws of physics, but sometimes it just looks hideous, especially against bright desktop backgrounds.
I know Apple's philosophy is centred around simplicity, but sometimes I think they go too far. Many Mac users are 'power users' or pros so I think there should be more options for customising the OS. A little bit of colour would be nice! The only thing that I like about Vista/7 is the ability to change the interface colour to any shade in the entire spectrum.
Other than that, I think there's not much to hate about OS X. It really is fantastic. I really learnt to appreciate it more when both of my PCs got flooded with viruses (first time ever, actually) and my trusty MacBook Pro was working fine.
At least have a normal option to switch to a 2D Dock so you don't need 3rd-party apps and Terminal commands. I normally love the 3D Dock, even though it doesn't obey the laws of physics, but sometimes it just looks hideous, especially against bright desktop backgrounds.
I know Apple's philosophy is centred around simplicity, but sometimes I think they go too far. Many Mac users are 'power users' or pros so I think there should be more options for customising the OS. A little bit of colour would be nice! The only thing that I like about Vista/7 is the ability to change the interface colour to any shade in the entire spectrum.
Other than that, I think there's not much to hate about OS X. It really is fantastic. I really learnt to appreciate it more when both of my PCs got flooded with viruses (first time ever, actually) and my trusty MacBook Pro was working fine.
aaahhh true that would make sense. gotta love XSlimmer in that respect, although that program cant change the core OS, spewing
pros: love the computer not crashing on me, more user friendly, ect. ect....
cons:none that I can think of off the top of my head.
cons:none that I can think of off the top of my head.
I truly hope that Snow Leopard will finally have proper resolution scaling because with a 30" screen I feel the fonts are just a bit too small. On Windows I can just turn on DPI scaling and that takes care of the problem.
Another much smaller annoyance is that whenever I take my HDTV out of standby OSX just wants to fade both my screens to blue and redetect them.
Another much smaller annoyance is that whenever I take my HDTV out of standby OSX just wants to fade both my screens to blue and redetect them.
Osx
"Every operating system has advantages and disadvantages. Mac OS X is no exception. What features of Mac OS X do you find especially useful or well designed? What features of Mac OS X annoy and frustrate you?"
A little background so you know where I am coming from: I am a long time (10 years) Linux user, Gnome desktop to be exact, and also a long time Windows user, but for gaming only. I have never used OSX until I bought a used G4 with Tiger on it a few weeks ago. I have always been facinated by Apples so decided this was a cheap way to take the plunge until I could afford a Mini or iMac.
Good things first:
1) Beautiful desktop - aesthetics, fonts, "shiny", very polished, professional.
2) Don't have to think, just use
3) Just works
4) Application install and integration with the desktop
Not so bad things:
1) Window management drove me nuts until I got used to it. I would be very unproductive on this desktop if I had to do real work on it, at this time. When I have a large number of windows open, I still have difficulty winding through all of them because some I have minimized, some "hidden", some clicked the little red "x" thing. I am getting better at it, but I miss my virtual desktops on Linux, and a "taskbar' that shows windows, not apps, windows. Leopard's "Spaces" may change this for me.
2) Cannot change look and feel of the desktop except by changing wallpaper or buying a commercial application. I like the default look of Tiger, and Leopard, but miss the ability to change things, namely icons. Not a deal breaker, but mildly annoying
That's about it. The thing that was hardest for me to get used to was window management and some key strokes (home, end), but I am making progress. I am a keyboard guy and I NEED a key combination to do everything, but try to balance this with the mouse as best as I can. As a "former" PC guy, this post can be taken a couple of ways I guess: my learning experience with OSX and my likes/dislikes.
I can tell you this: I am sold. I still love my Linux box because it can do anything and be anything I want it to do/be, really, really fast, but the problem is after 10 years, I want something that I can always count on and that just works with a minimum of fuss. OSX gives me that. Maybe I am getting lazy in my old age...
"Every operating system has advantages and disadvantages. Mac OS X is no exception. What features of Mac OS X do you find especially useful or well designed? What features of Mac OS X annoy and frustrate you?"
A little background so you know where I am coming from: I am a long time (10 years) Linux user, Gnome desktop to be exact, and also a long time Windows user, but for gaming only. I have never used OSX until I bought a used G4 with Tiger on it a few weeks ago. I have always been facinated by Apples so decided this was a cheap way to take the plunge until I could afford a Mini or iMac.
Good things first:
1) Beautiful desktop - aesthetics, fonts, "shiny", very polished, professional.
2) Don't have to think, just use
3) Just works
4) Application install and integration with the desktop
Not so bad things:
1) Window management drove me nuts until I got used to it. I would be very unproductive on this desktop if I had to do real work on it, at this time. When I have a large number of windows open, I still have difficulty winding through all of them because some I have minimized, some "hidden", some clicked the little red "x" thing. I am getting better at it, but I miss my virtual desktops on Linux, and a "taskbar' that shows windows, not apps, windows. Leopard's "Spaces" may change this for me.
2) Cannot change look and feel of the desktop except by changing wallpaper or buying a commercial application. I like the default look of Tiger, and Leopard, but miss the ability to change things, namely icons. Not a deal breaker, but mildly annoying
That's about it. The thing that was hardest for me to get used to was window management and some key strokes (home, end), but I am making progress. I am a keyboard guy and I NEED a key combination to do everything, but try to balance this with the mouse as best as I can. As a "former" PC guy, this post can be taken a couple of ways I guess: my learning experience with OSX and my likes/dislikes.
I can tell you this: I am sold. I still love my Linux box because it can do anything and be anything I want it to do/be, really, really fast, but the problem is after 10 years, I want something that I can always count on and that just works with a minimum of fuss. OSX gives me that. Maybe I am getting lazy in my old age...
Things I really like:
* It's a unix OS and comes with all the typical command line tools that one would expect.
Things that bug me:
* The green button doesn't do what I think it should (make the window always fill up the entire screen).
* Can't resize a window from any edge/corner
* I needed to use a hack of sorts to change the default colors in Terminal. Specifically what I mean is that default blue color, when doing a directory listing on a black background, is horribly unreadable.
* I can't figure out how to change Terminal tabs by doing Command-N, where N is a number representing a tab. Hopefully, there's a way to do this. If not, there should be and it shouldn't require a hack.
There are lots of other things that bug me, but are not Apple's fault. They are the things that come with the territory of choosing a computer platform that is not Windows (websites that require IE, etc). Still though, the pros greatly outweigh the cons for me.
* It's a unix OS and comes with all the typical command line tools that one would expect.
Things that bug me:
* The green button doesn't do what I think it should (make the window always fill up the entire screen).
* Can't resize a window from any edge/corner
* I needed to use a hack of sorts to change the default colors in Terminal. Specifically what I mean is that default blue color, when doing a directory listing on a black background, is horribly unreadable.
* I can't figure out how to change Terminal tabs by doing Command-N, where N is a number representing a tab. Hopefully, there's a way to do this. If not, there should be and it shouldn't require a hack.
There are lots of other things that bug me, but are not Apple's fault. They are the things that come with the territory of choosing a computer platform that is not Windows (websites that require IE, etc). Still though, the pros greatly outweigh the cons for me.
You can set the default background color with Terminal -> Preferences -> ("default" choice on the left) -> Window -> Background. I like cyan.
You can set the default text color with Terminal -> Preferences -> ("default" choice on the left) -> Text. I like basic black.
While I like most everything, my biggest gripe/disappointment at the moment is that putting the machine to sleep (either manually or automatically) kills any Time Machine backup that is in progress, producing an error and taking a long time to recover. It should be such a simple thing for the os to check for this situation and delay sleep until after the backup is complete.
If you set Energy Saver to sleep the Mac after a period of inactivity, it doesn't cancel the Time Machine backup process.
Yes it does on 3 iMacs that I have (2 home and 1 office), all running 10.5.6 and the latest updates. Try it and see.
That's not what I meant. I know how to change all the basic settings, like the background and font. I mean changing the default ANSI colors that Terminal uses. For example, open up a terminal widow using the "Pro" settings (or anything with a black background). Then do an "ls -G". I don't like that dark blue color. When terminal decides to display a color it thinks is "dark blue", I wanted to change it to display something a little more readable. I finally found a plug-in that let me do that. I wish I didn't have to use a hack of sorts to do that.
http://blog.infinitered.com/entries/show/6
Yes, I will make a point of checking this. If a backup is in progress when I'm done with the Mac, I usually just walk away and let it do its thing. If the backup is being cancelled perhaps a work-around is setting the inactivity sleep to something like 15 minutes or more.
If a backup is in progress and I notice it I will wait or walk away until it is done; the problem is when I set it to sleep without noticing the little wheel turning in the menu bar. And no matter what you set the sleep timeout counter to, a Time Machine backup could be in progress at that time and it will kill the backup as it goes to sleep, so this is not a solution either.