What We Want to See in Leopard

[GodBless]

I would like to see more systemwide keyboard shortcuts for various purposes such as:

- Changing an iTunes Track
- Stopping/Starting an iTunes Track
- Internet Searches (Such as Google, Google Images and Acronym Finder)
- Systemwide Dictionary Search

As a side note, the instant system dictionary option of "find a word that you want defined and hit command+control+d while hovering over the word you want defined" doesn't work in all circumstances. I would like it to work everywhere there is text. (Some places this doesn't work now are on Microsoft Word documents, in some PDF files, in Finder and in application preference windows (this in the menu that comes up in a program after pressing command+,) and on file menus and on contextual menus.)

I am hopeful for this in Leopard.

 

[Marble]

I'd like to see Spotlight become more integrated with the Finder so that regular Finder functions such as Move to Trash become available from the "More Info" Spotlight box (like they used to have in the regular search).

 

[Evangelion]

You do know that this would bring to OSX driver problems. I.E. I couldn't even begin to count how many problem were caused by needing driver updates in Windows. And Linux isn't as compatible with as many hardware as Windows.

Depends what you mean. Out of the box, Linux mops the floor with Windows when it comes to hardware-support. It really does. Windows needs drivers from other sources so they could compete with Linux.

I remember installing W2K on a SATA-HD. I needed driver-floppy from the manufacturer in order to do the installation. Linux had no such problems, it just worked.

After I have installed Windows, I have to spend something like 2 hours installind drivers on the thing. With Linux, all the drivers are already installed, and I can start working right away. Hell, I even have 3D-acceleration up & running right after installation, with Windows I'm stuch at 640x480 with 8bit colors, because Windows doesn't have the required drivers.

 

[Evangelion]

Here's my €0.02 as to what Leopard should contain:

- Get rid of the nagware. If I spend lots of money on an OS/computer, it should NOT ask me for even more money in order to upgrade to better Quicktime!

- Virtual desktops. Just do it.

- Really network-enabled desktops. With Linux, I can use my home-computer from my computer at work. It works beautifully even over ADSL-line. It even works over dialup! Take a look at this. or this. This is a real killer-feature.

- Dock might be good for eye-candy, but using it sucks.

That's for starters.

 

[Chundles]

Firstly, I'd like a look at what they're thinking of doing, yeah it's over a year away but hey, I'd just like a peak.

I'd like smart folders to have the same search capabilities as spotlight, at the moment I can search for an email address in Spotlight and it will bring up all the messages from that address, I can't do that with smart folders outside Mail, it's a minor annoyance but it needs to be done if they're serious about full spotlight integration.

Some serious speed upgrades akin to the 10.2 to 10.3 speed up. I've found Tiger, especially 10.4.3 to be as fast, if not faster and just as stable as 10.3.9 but I'd like to see some real zing introduced into the OS. I'm hoping my 1.2GHz 12" iBook still has the guts to run it, mind you, Tiger is singing nicely on here.

Not too much eye-candy, Tiger's pretty much right, I'm just hoping it doesn't have some huge requirements - my iBook can't do all that Tiger can serve up and to be honest I'm a bit miffed about that, this was the current model iBook when Tiger came out and they knew what the graphics requirements would be well before they released this update so I don't know why they didn't put a better card in ages ago. /rant.

I'd like to see the UI totally resolved into a unified theme, there's what? three or four versions of the UI on Tiger at the moment, I like the plastic theme and all it entails (yeah Mail needs some going over) so I'm guessing it wouldn't be too hard to make all windows look like the Sys Prefs window etc.

Other than that, speed speed speed, it's good but can go faster.

 

[Evangelion]

apple systems have stability and apple cannot afford to lose it. the big threat is not allowing more hardware to use osx, but it is the BAD SOFTWARE that can kill even the best user experience. apple needs to control software, not hardware.

How exactly? Apple would deny some people/companies from developing software for the Mac if their work is not "up to standards"?

 

[Evangelion]

in what way? what's the functionality longhorn will offer that does not exist in tiger? having 3D windows just for 3D's sake is like having a great set of golf clubs and not having learnt how to swing.

tiger has turning widget windows, and i guess that is more 3D functionality than longhorn will offer. tiger also utilizes GPU very efficiently and i strongly believe microsoft cannot top that.

so what is it that microsoft's has more advanced than apple's?

AFAIK, Vista will take better advantage of the GPU than Tiger does. Don't ask me for the details because I forgot what they were and I don't remember the site tha discussed it.

 

[JFreak]

How exactly? Apple would deny some people/companies from developing software for the Mac if their work is not "up to standards"?

if there's not a driver install software in osx that end-user can operate, then installing drivers is like it is today - geeky stuff. in other words, for general public, drivers are not to be installed by yourself but you just get them through periodic osx updates.

it could be up to apple to CHOOSE which drivers it distributes and which it won't. if apple says no to a hardware developer, then such developer will just have to develop a better driver for its hardware if osx support is what they're looking for. that's the point.

of course real pro power users can always do whatever whenever, but in this case it is the skills of general public that define what 3rd parties can and cannot expect -- and if 3rd parties cannot expect that people can install drivers by themselves, then they are effectively forced to co-operate with apple and to live up to apple standards.

(almost the same idea that microsoft has with their driver certificates, but it is still possible for regular joe to install crappy drivers. if only certified drivers were allowed to install, that'd solve a lot of the very worst problems, but having to rely on microsoft to provide drivers would solve even more in this regard -- only to introduce another problem: who would want to rely on microsoft in delivering drivers? i believe apple has a great chance here to really excell, providing the same reliability linux has had and also in time close to as large hardware support catalog microsoft supports today.)

i have no problem with apple allowing osx to install on whatever brand generic pc hardware. after all every piece of hardware requires a driver, and i only have a problem if for some reason apple decides to allow installing crappy 3rd party drivers into osx. today it's all about the software.

 

[broken_keyboard]

I would like to see disk burning redone. The process of burning a disk currently involves an interim folder which is an unnecessary complication.

 

[Evangelion]

if there's not a driver install software in osx that end-user can operate, then installing drivers is like it is today - geeky stuff. in other words, for general public, drivers are not to be installed by yourself but you just get them through periodic osx updates.

I thought you were talking about end-user softwar? As in applications?

 

[hob]

I'd like to see Spotlight become more integrated with the Finder so that regular Finder functions such as Move to Trash become available from the "More Info" Spotlight box (like they used to have in the regular search).

Imagine spotlight on acid - google style.... like so you could use it to search everything, but also do simple commands, such as map: brooklyn, or 2+2=.... (5)

I think that'd be pretty cool

 

[JFreak]

I thought you were talking about end-user software? As in applications?

no. as in software drivers for hardware devices. that's the reason windows is generally speaking very unstable. people buy cheap hardware that have crappy drivers. let's hope osx never sees that problem.

apple has the solution in providing drivers within operating system updates and they better keep it that way. therefore hardware vendors would have to co-operate with apple and write their software drivers to meet apple standards if they want them to be included in an apple-distributed package. in other words, apple can dictate what hardware works with osx.

 

[cloud 9]

if everyone's wishes from this thread will come true then Leopard will be one fugly os!!
something along the lines like this...

I found it good there aren't many options to change the dock and colors of mac os X, because the more options, the more you don't know what to choose

 

[GodBless]

Hey Apple, how about adding little icons (such as scissors for cut and glue for paste) next to the actions in the systemwide contextual menus and the drop down menus? That would add to the visualness of the OS. I've been wanting this for quite a while.

 

[GodBless]

For those of you who are primarily mouse GUI users (which wouldn't include me since I like to use my keyboard) OS X is in need of having a way to click a button to exit out of an application. Perhaps Leopard can have an "X" button next to the Apple menu for easy click access of exiting out of the application that the user is currently using.

Also it would be nice if every application automatically closed when all of the windows in the application are closed.

If Apple implements these features (especially the second one) it would make me very happy.

 

[Diatribe]

For those of you who are primarily mouse GUI users (which wouldn't include me since I like to use my keyboard) OS X is in need of having a way to click a button to exit out of an application. Perhaps Leopard can have an "X" button next to the Apple menu for easy click access of exiting out of the application that the user is currently using.

Also it would be nice if every application automatically closed when all of the windows in the application are closed.

If Apple implements these features (especially the second one) it would make me very happy.

Heeeeell no! As in nooo way.

I love this about OS X that it actually keeps the apps open until I decide to quit. I like having an app open but not its windows. At least that is something that I am not too worried about Apple will ever implement.

 

[JFreak]

I love this about OS X that it actually keeps the apps open until I decide to quit. I like having an app open but not its windows.

in fact, i love it about osx that you can actually quit an app. yes, you heard me. what windows does when you quit the application, it actually only closes the main window of the app, leaving its resources available. the wisdom being that if you then decide to re-launch that app, it will load quicker.

(you can check this yourself. reboot windows, take time how long it takes to open word, then quit word, and take time how long it takes to re-launch. it opens faster the 2nd time.)

so windows apps never fully quit, but osx has this wonderful feature of being able to quit it when you like. and if the user wants to, one can leave the app open like windows always does. in this regard, it is osx that offers more choice to the end user.

 

[Diatribe]

in fact, i love it about osx that you can actually quit an app. yes, you heard me. what windows does when you quit the application, it actually only closes the main window of the app, leaving its resources available. the wisdom being that if you then decide to re-launch that app, it will load quicker.

(you can check this yourself. reboot windows, take time how long it takes to open word, then quit word, and take time how long it takes to re-launch. it opens faster the 2nd time.)

so windows apps never fully quit, but osx has this wonderful feature of being able to quit it when you like. and if the user wants to, one can leave the app open like windows always does. in this regard, it is osx that offers more choice to the end user.

Never knew this, thanks for the info. Yes this makes sense, since if I actually quit the app it means that I want its resources.

 

[BGil]

in fact, i love it about osx that you can actually quit an app. yes, you heard me. what windows does when you quit the application, it actually only closes the main window of the app, leaving its resources available. the wisdom being that if you then decide to re-launch that app, it will load quicker.

(you can check this yourself. reboot windows, take time how long it takes to open word, then quit word, and take time how long it takes to re-launch. it opens faster the 2nd time.)

so windows apps never fully quit, but osx has this wonderful feature of being able to quit it when you like. and if the user wants to, one can leave the app open like windows always does. in this regard, it is osx that offers more choice to the end user.

That's kinda butchering the explanation of pre-fetch don't ya think? OS X does the exact same thing with it's applications even if you quit them.

 

[JFreak]

OS X does the exact same thing with it's applications even if you quit them.

yes and no. osx in fact leaves the data into the memory, but as you very well know unix memory handling marks it inactive; meaning that any app wanting more memory will get to use that inactive portion, but should you want to relaunch the app, you get to reuse the previously used memory portion faster than loading it anew.

it's got nothing to do with pre-fetch or pre-binding or pre-anything. it's called MEMORY MANAGEMENT, which unix can and windows cannot do.

 

[Chundles]

I would like to see disk burning redone. The process of burning a disk currently involves an interim folder which is an unnecessary complication.

And it's slooowww..... It takes just as long to verify the disc as it does to burn it. Yes, yes, I know it's safer and all that BS but seriously, a 24x CD burner should not take 10 minutes to burn a disc when all the burning is complete after 5.

iTunes is much quicker when burning an audio CD or even an mp3 CD cause it doesn't do that verifying step that takes fuggen ages.

 

[GodBless]

Heeeeell no! As in nooo way.

I love this about OS X that it actually keeps the apps open until I decide to quit. I like having an app open but not its windows. At least that is something that I am not too worried about Apple will ever implement.

I don't like the fact that the command+tab menu has too many applications in it when all the windows to some of the applications that are in the menu are not in use. I also don't like the fact that too many resources are taken up when you aren't using those applications. If you have enough resources then the applications that you need to use should open instantly when you need to use them. It wastes too much time to tab through all the applications that you aren't even using.

I don't know about you, but I like speed. Not automatically closing an application by closing all the windows to the application takes away my time and slows down my OS experience.

Apple should at least have a system preference checkbox for this option since some (crazy ) people don't want it.

 

[Marble]

I personally like the MacOS philosophy that an open application does not necessarily mean an open window. I like being able to close the windows of my applications and still have them open, and think that adding an option in SysPref would be bloat. Apple has a very specific design ethos in mind, and adding lots and lots of user-configurable choices to the "experience" is not part of it.

 

[me_94501]

Just fix the Finder and I'd be happy.

 

[Flying Llama]

Just fix the Finder and I'd be happy.

I agree. I really like nautilus on the other hand, but I can't seem to get it working properly on OS X for some reason...

llama