What is Lion's weakest new feature?

[gentlefury]

just because it's new doesn't mean it's more advanced or somehow better. The old implementation of Spaces was more versatile and feature rich than the current laughable virtual desktops. I do enjoy mission control, but it could use some more options and consistency, for example for some reason when I made new desktops in Lion it arranged them 1,3,4,2. Why it did that I cannot determine. The way to assign applications to desktops has been neutered, but you can now set different backgrounds for each space (although you can't name them!).

I do enjoy Lion, especially the animations --something I never thought I would care about, but there are many features that have been lost that I really miss. The removal of Spaces really made me hesitate on updating.

btw,

you can't get to your user library without the terminal or the Go to folder option. There's no reason to blindly and annoyingly defend Apple's decisions. It's much more enjoyable to have a civil and information backed discussion rather than, y'know, go on the way you have.

Open finder..press shift+cmd+g type /library

Done.

How hard is that??

I personally found Spaces to be completely useless and find myself using Mission Control on a daily basis. Your personal experience has been crippled...mine has been a LOT more open and useable!

 

[admanimal]

my personal weakest 'feature' is that apple realized the market of computer illiterate people is larger then the power user market and is gearing their product towards that new area. it was visible with fcpx and now with lion, they are taking the power out of power-user and making an o.s. suitable for the masses. very smart in a business and $$ perspective but it is annoying the heck out of me, i want my library files visible , spaces, expose, save as, scroll bars, fresh restarts ..... not this grama friendly iOS+

It is a myth that real power users don't prefer a simplified and streamlined experience as much if not more than anyone else. Usually it's the techie wanna-bes who complain about things becoming too simple.

(This doesn't necessarily apply to FCPX, which sounds like they took out some legitimate features that people need).

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Open finder..press shift+cmd+g type /library

Done.

Wrong. type

/Users/username/Libary/

or

~/Library/

How hard is that??

Apparently difficult for you.

I personally found Spaces to be completely useless and find myself using Mission Control on a daily basis. Your personal experience has been crippled...mine has been a LOT more open and useable!

Great. Your personal preference is not reflected by all Mac users. I never said my experience has been crippled. I got around OS X fine and dandy well before Leopard introduced Spaces, I was fine before I downloaded a virtual desktop application in Tiger, hell I was fine before the Dock. I'm just saying that it's a feature I miss, and if someone can code a proper replacement I'd love to give it a shot, but I don't rely on Spaces to get work done. --In fact I enjoy Mission Control just how it is, I just think there are some blatantly obvious enhancements that could be made to the new window manager.

It is a myth that real power users don't prefer a simplified and streamlined experience as much if not more than anyone else. Usually it's the techie wanna-bes who complain about things becoming too simple.

Agreed a real power user streamlines a workflow to get projects done as efficiently as possible, which often means taking the easy way.

(This doesn't necessarily apply to FCPX, which sounds like they took out some legitimate features that people need).

Apple tore down a professional grade product to build something to appeal to a greater customer base. Business-wise it was a genius decision, to their user base it was a slap in the face.

 

[gentlefury]

Wrong. type

/Users/username/Libary/

or

~/Library/

Apparently difficult for you.


Great. Your personal preference is not reflected by all Mac users. I never said my experience has been crippled. I got around OS X fine and dandy well before Leopard introduced Spaces, I was fine before I downloaded a virtual desktop application in Tiger, hell I was fine before the Dock. I'm just saying that it's a feature I miss, and if someone can code a proper replacement I'd love to give it a shot, but I don't rely on Spaces to get work done. --In fact I enjoy Mission Control just how it is, I just think there are some blatantly obvious enhancements that could be made to the new window manager.

Hey smartass....how about you give what I said a shot......type /library and see what happens. You are wrong.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Hey smartass....how about you give what I said a shot......type /library and see what happens. You are wrong.

You are wrong. That takes you to your root directory Library folder. That folder is not hidden. The hidden folder is the Library directory in your user directory.


Silly goose, give my advice a shot and check the file path while you're at it (command+click the folder in the folder icon at the top of the finder window).

 

[handel30]

Out of all the new features that Apple boasts about Lion, personally, I think that Launchpad is the weakest and most useless feature in Lion...One has to ask themselves, "Why go into this interface when I can simply bring my cursor down to the Dock and launch the same apps from there?"

I like launchpad precisely because I don't like to clutter my dock with apps. Launchpad gives me a quick way to access all my apps without having to put them on the dock.

i want my library files visible , spaces, expose, save as, scroll bars, fresh restarts

You can enable expose on Lion. I don't miss "save as" at all; good riddance. I love the fact that it automatically saves. Great idea to get rid of the scroll bars. They appear when you scroll, so what's all the fuss? I liked Snow Leopard, but Lion is even better.

I dislike how most of the new features are entirely geared towards laptops rather than desktops. Fullscreen mode is stupid

Of course, being someone who works exclusively on a laptop, I'm doing cartwheels here; that's how happy I am with Lion. Full screen makes my 13" inch screen look a whole lot bigger (also uncluttered).

 

[gentlefury]

I use it on a MacBook Air, a Mac Pro and a Mac Mini...the Air goes with me everywhere, the Pro is my workhorse and the Mini is in the living room on the TV...they are all used in different ways and I think Lion works wonderfully on all of them!

 

[munkery]

Open finder..press shift+cmd+g type /library

Wrong

This works:

Open finder

Shift + cmd + g

Library

 

[handel30]

Colour Scheme

Many of the other new features can be ignored/turned off, would like the same option to get rid of the grey

You know, I find that the new user interface's color scheme, while not as bright and cheerful as Snow Leopard, simply recedes and lets me focus exclusively on the content inside the pane. That's a good move on apple's part. If I were to go back to SL, I think I would find the interface unbearably distracting. However, instead of gray, it would be nice to be able to choose some other color -- sky blue, for instance. I don't particularly like the monochromatic gray trend that apple has taken, especially after retiring the white macbook. I guess blueberry and tangerine is too juvenile.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

This works:

Open finder

Shift + cmd + g

Library

No that does not.

 

[munkery]

No that does not.

You have to Open Finder prior to pressing shift + cmd + g ....

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

You have to Open Finder prior to pressing shift + cmd + g ....

That's very strange. I wonder why there is inconsistent behavior between when there is no window open and when there is a window open. By the way "Open Finder" is not very descriptive, especially since by default the Finder is always open (although I turn mine off and use Path Finder). "Open a Finder window" would be more appropriate as that's what led to my initial confusion in your previous post.

Thanks for the tip though!

I use it on a MacBook Air, a Mac Pro and a Mac Mini...the Air goes with me everywhere, the Pro is my workhorse and the Mini is in the living room on the TV...they are all used in different ways and I think Lion works wonderfully on all of them!

This has nothing to do with the thread. Perhaps you meant to post this elsewhere?

 

[munkery]

That's very strange. I wonder why there is inconsistent behavior between when there is no window open and when there is a window open. By the way "Open Finder" is not very descriptive, especially since by default the Finder is always open (although I turn mine off and use Path Finder). "Open a Finder window" would be more appropriate as that's what led to my initial confusion in your previous post.

Agreed it is strange.

Maybe hidden files can only be found via a search with a Finder window open.

Wouldn't the default state be described as running but not open?

 

[baryon]

That's very strange. I wonder why there is inconsistent behavior between when there is no window open and when there is a window open. By the way "Open Finder" is not very descriptive, especially since by default the Finder is always open (although I turn mine off and use Path Finder). "Open a Finder window" would be more appropriate as that's what led to my initial confusion in your previous post.

Thanks for the tip though!


This has nothing to do with the thread. Perhaps you meant to post this elsewhere?

Click the "Go" menu, press Alt and "Library" will appear! But I just unhid the library with the chflags terminal command.

 

[munkery]

Click the "Go" menu, press Alt and "Library" will appear! But I just unhid the library with the chflags terminal command.

Thanks! Good tip.

 

[nec207]

You know, I find that the new user interface's color scheme, while not as bright and cheerful as Snow Leopard, simply recedes and lets me focus exclusively on the content inside the pane. That's a good move on apple's part. If I were to go back to SL, I think I would find the interface unbearably distracting. However, instead of gray, it would be nice to be able to choose some other color -- sky blue, for instance. I don't particularly like the monochromatic gray trend that apple has taken, especially after retiring the white macbook. I guess blueberry and tangerine is too juvenile.

No when apple makes products it is colorful and for the hip crowd and this OS color scheme is so bad it makes Snow leopard shine.

I like new stuff Lion have alot but the one thing I hate is changing the UI .I love snow leopard UI and thought by now Lion will have option where people can change the color , shading ,icons , thems so on.

This like going back in time how crude OS look .

Why did apple do this.



New Finder Lion
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rambling-soul/5990710925/sizes/l/in/photostream/


Looks like older OS so plain looking.


-------

Finder in Snow leopard.
http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/screenshoton20090212at1048ampng749b9.png

Look how neat it looks and more colorful and easier to see.

 

[gentlefury]

That's very strange. I wonder why there is inconsistent behavior between when there is no window open and when there is a window open. By the way "Open Finder" is not very descriptive, especially since by default the Finder is always open (although I turn mine off and use Path Finder). "Open a Finder window" would be more appropriate as that's what led to my initial confusion in your previous post.

Thanks for the tip though!


This has nothing to do with the thread. Perhaps you meant to post this elsewhere?

actually it was a reply to the comment directly above it saying lion is made for a laptop.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Click the "Go" menu, press Alt and "Library" will appear!

Spectacular tip!

But I just unhid the library with the chflags terminal command.

It's interesting, but not surprising that Apple has hidden the Library with chflags rather than their traditional period before the name of a folder. It's not surprising because adding a period to the name would change it and would break compatibility with countless applications. At the same time it's strange that they would start using chflags now, considering they've been a part of UNIX and I assume OS X for quite some time now.

 

[nec207]

Spectacular tip!



It's interesting, but not surprising that Apple has hidden the Library with chflags rather than their traditional period before the name of a folder. It's not surprising because adding a period to the name would change it and would break compatibility with countless applications. At the same time it's strange that they would start using chflags now, considering they've been a part of UNIX and I assume OS X for quite some time now.

What is chflags ?

It strange why they do not have a menu at top or some where that one can click to show all system files like how one can in windows

 

[admanimal]

What is chflags ?

It strange why they do not have a menu at top or some where that one can click to show all system files like how one can in windows

Why is it strange for them not to have a prominent menu item for things that 99% of users never need to see? It's like complaining that Toyota doesn't include an easy way for me to remove the engine from my car.

 

[munkery]

It strange why they do not have a menu at top or some where that one can click to show all system files like how one can in windows

With Finder active, click "Go" in the menubar and then select "Computer."

Start navigating through the file system starting from the Finder window that appears.

Invisible files will not be shown in the Finder window without using a shell script or a utility to show the files.

BTW, Windows has invisible files as well that also require special steps to make visible.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

What is chflags ?

A file attribute, basically a fork in the file system that tells the user/applications/other parts of the OS about the file or directory.

It strange why they do not have a menu at top or some where that one can click to show all system files like how one can in windows

Apple and Microsoft have different opinions on how to approach the user. Apple believe that they know best and don't need to give the user many system level options in the GUI. I think this is because anyone who would want to muck around with those parts of the OS would be resourceful enough to figure out how to alter the OS without a graphical option, usually by using the command line. Microsoft will more often give users GUI options, especially when making changes in updated versions of their OS.

if you want to see hidden files in the Finder type the following code in Terminal.app.

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

after that you'll have to either log out or restart the Finder with the command:

killall Finder

to undo the command retype it and replace TRUE with FALSE and kill the Finder again.

Why is it strange for them not to have a prominent menu item for things that 99% of users never need to see? It's like complaining that Toyota doesn't include an easy way for me to remove the engine from my car.

No need to be so argumentative especially when you're not helping anyone.

 

[nec207]

With Finder active, click "Go" in the menubar and then select "Computer."

Start navigating through the file system starting from the Finder window that appears.

Invisible files will not be shown in the Finder window without using a shell script or a utility to show the files.

BTW, Windows has invisible files as well that also require special steps to make visible.

By default system files are hidden in windows but can easy be turn on.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

By default system files are hidden in windows but can easy be turn on.

I can tell English is not your first language as the last sentence in the person you quoted's post says exactly what you reiterated.

 

[munkery]

By default system files are hidden in windows but can easy be turn on.

Are the system files hidden? I always found it easy to navigate to the system files in Windows.

What is a little bit of work is viewing the hidden user-level files in Windows.

I believe there is a setting that is accessible via the GUI in Windows to make these files visible.

Apple has done the same in Lion by making the user library folder invisible as well as providing methods in the GUI to access the folder.