What's still missing in Mac OS X?

[maflynn]

I'll echo what others have already posted since I'm a little late coming to this thread

A modern filesystem like ZFS though we know hell will freeze over before osx will see ZFS

A better file/folder interactions including cutting/pasting, merging and evev comparing

A tree/hierarchical view of folders. This is one area where windows wins hands down, it's so much easier to manage files/folders in windows

 

[uuaschbaer]

Resolution independence.

 

[mysterytramp]

Threads like this remind me of the old John Dvorak column in MacUser from when John Sculley promoted Jean-Louis Gassee, who then insisted that the next generation of Macintosh computers would be driven entirely by voice recognition. (late-ish 1980s if I remember correctly.)

Column appeared in the magazine's April edition.

Lots of good ideas here, though I'm not sure mimicking Windows is the way to go with file management. If you have to move 1,000 files for a web site, Windows may offer better tools. If you need to move one or two files between two folders on a network, Windows is not much better than Mac, at least in my experience.

Pre-SL I had a contextual menu for moving files, with a user-created list of folders where the files ended up. When you're moving files around, there's probably just a few folders that are important. Something like that, built-in, might resolve a lot of people's issues with the Finder.

It would be great if Apple offered a split-pane window, a la Norton Commander, where you can have two directories up in a single window so you can manipulate files that way.

I do wish Apple would mimic the way Windows treats a zip file like a folder.

I don't like how windows can get "behind" the Dock, which means I'm often coming close to launching an app when all I want is to resize a window.

mt

 

[cjmillsnun]

Apart from a modern file system to replace HFS+ (now 11 years old and a development of the HFS from 1985), and adding the missing features/plugins on QuickTime X that were on QT7, absolutely nothing in terms of features for 10.7

Mac OS X is a mature stable OS, and is something that just requires polishing to make it more stable.

I don't want customisability of every single aspect of every window. Aqua and Graphite look clean and efficient.

Apple should now concentrate on its iApps and its Pro apps and rewrite them to take full advantage of the features in Snow Leopard.

Once the the above are done, then for 10.8 I'm sure Steve and Bertrand will come up with the next killer feature...

 

[maflynn]

Lots of good ideas here, though I'm not sure mimicking Windows is the way to go with file management. If you have to move 1,000 files for a web site, Windows may offer better tools. If you need to move one or two files between two folders on a network, Windows is not much better than Mac, at least in my experience.

I respectfully disagree. I think navigating around a large hard drive is easier when you have a tree view of the folders available to you. With that said, OSX's search feature is lightyears ahead of windows, at least on windows xp and windows server 2003 which are the versions I use.

It really doesn't matter if I'm dealing with one file or one hundred, I can move/copy them around much easier and with less effort on windows then I can on OSX. Its not like OSX is horrendous, but rather windows makes it a lot easier. I'm playing with pathfinder to see if that offers any improvement. I like adobe bridge but that just seems to provide a few functions over finder, at least with file manipulation

 

[jbrenn]

blu-ray

 

[Goettel]

1-Cut and paste in finder
2-make the green button actually maximise the app not do something random and different in every app.
3- New UI, the aqua scroll bars and buttons are getting old. Something fresher à la iTunes would be not bad.

 

[matthewHUB]

Native PDF merge/split etc. A lot of things you still need Adobe Acrobat for.

 

[Transporteur]

Native PDF merge/split etc. A lot of things you still need Adobe Acrobat for.

At least merge is possible with Preview since 10.5.

I haven't split a PDF file yet but it may be possible too.

 

[deorg]

In windows I could find easly the ip, pri dns sec dns, gateway, etc...
I dont know where is information is on my mac, besides the ip adress...

that sucks sometimes for me...

 

[bobr1952]

Does everything I need it to do. Than again, so does windows. OSX just lets me do it quicker, it looks nicer, and I dont have to worry about viruses, or my computer not working, and I dont have to do a clean install twice a year.

After using OS-X for almost 2 years now, I have to agree with that. I could do anything I wanted with Windows XP just as I can with OS-X--just now with less problems ESPECIALLY the virus issues--or lack thereof with OS-X--and of course the building blocks of OS-X--Linux--which I view as a plus.

 

[dukebound85]

It can be done (for years) if you got OS X server.

so could backing up before time machine lol

need to mae it consumer friendly as more and more people have multiple computers

 

[bobr1952]

In windows I could find easly the ip, pri dns sec dns, gateway, etc...
I dont know where is information is on my mac, besides the ip adress...

that sucks sometimes for me...

Isn't all of that under Network in System Preferences? Or did I miss something in your post?

 

[Transporteur]

Isn't all of that under Network in System Preferences? Or did I miss something in your post?

Yes it is and one can't place it anywhere more obvious.

 

[deorg]

Yes it is and one can't place it anywhere more obvious.

yes you are both right but but only very basic info, I never find easly my second dns, my gateway, mac adress etc... in xp you just right click your conection and a window with all the info pops up...

 

[celticpride678]

blu-ray

I don't think that that is Mac OS X related. Rather, hardware.

 

[spinnerlys]

After using OS-X for almost 2 years now, I have to agree with that. I could do anything I wanted with Windows XP just as I can with OS-X--just now with less problems ESPECIALLY the virus issues--or lack thereof with OS-X--and of course the building blocks of OS-X--Linux--which I view as a plus.

Unix, not Linux.

In windows I could find easly the ip, pri dns sec dns, gateway, etc...
I dont know where is information is on my mac, besides the ip adress...

that sucks sometimes for me...

System Profiler > Network

 

[kasakka]

• Resolution independance
• Better handling of multiple monitors (top bar on both monitors, possible based on what app is on which monitor)
• Better window management - Win7 style easy resize and setting the app to either side)
• Folder merge
• Better mouse acceleration curve
• They should just buy Path Finder and replace Finder with it
• Indicator for currently selected app on the Dock
• Indicator for number of windows an app has open in the Dock
• UI and feature overhaul for Safari

 

[J the Ninja]

Big ones:

-The aforementioned package repository/app store. Seriously, if you have used apt-get and have an iPhone/iPod Touch, it's probably stuck you as odd that this isn't already there. Especially when you go to downloads.apple.com, and note that the Apple Menu has an option called "Mac OS X Software" that takes you there. That option should fire up the graphical package manager, not take you to some page on Apple's site.

-ZFS, or something similar.

-Resolution independence

-64 bit Kernel should be the default with K32 as an option, not the other way around.


Little things:

-Cut and paste in the Finder

-Tabbed Finder (if you don't want to use it, you don't have to. Oh, and they should be spring loaded.)

-Tabs-on-top in Safari, Terminal, and Finder

-QuickLook in Stacks (you can already highlight with the arrow keys in Fan and Grid views, and the spacebar does nothing. It should QuickLook the highlighted file)

-Somebody else said an active application marker in the Dock. I like that idea. Maybe something simple, like a brighter or different color indicator dot.

-Whoever suggested closing windows in Expose like you can close widgets, I like that idea too

-Kill the white border on the 2D Dock, Grid view, and Dock menus, or at least make it thinner.

-Make the 2D Dock the default, even on the bottom. Maybe keep the shelf effect, but the mirror-look is just tacky, and the indicators are hard to see.

-Add the "frosted" effect to the 2D Dock and fix the opacity/brightness, so it matches the Dock Menus and Stack Grids.

-Switch the Keychain to AES-256, for that last layer of security and e-peen.

 

[Transporteur]

Unfortunately they canceled further development of zfs.

Besides that I would like to have separate independent docks for each screen.

 

[G5Unit]

A proper Add/Remove Programs function. You know, one that deletes ALL files associated with an application(such as library and .plist stuff). The one on Windows doesn't work very well, but at least they have one. And AppZap and such programs are nice, but why not have it included in Mac OS X?

 

[HLdan]

A proper Add/Remove Programs function. You know, one that deletes ALL files associated with an application(such as library and .plist stuff). The one on Windows doesn't work very well, but at least they have one. And AppZap and such programs are nice, but why not have it included in Mac OS X?

The drag n drop to the trash removes nearly all the product, save for preference files that don't affect or clog up the system like it does in the Windows Registry. I agree on having Appzapper built in, but please, don't give Windows ANY credit on how it removes items, because it actually makes things worse.

 

[J the Ninja]

The drag n drop to the trash removes nearly all the product, save for preference files that don't affect or clog up the system like it does in the Windows Registry. I agree on having Appzapper built in, but please, don't give Windows ANY credit on how it removes items, because it actually makes things worse.

Assuming it never put anything in the Application Support folders, and wasn't installed from a package.

 

[Jon-Luke]

Some of the comments about the way the finder works makes me believe that some users are just not utilizing their macs properly...

1: There is no reason why you cannot have the split screen view (a la Norton Commander) just open two finder windows and run them side by side. Or three or four etc... if you want (More flexible huh?)

2: The columns view is pretty much the same as tree!

3: The toolbar is customizable to add various buttons that make certain tasks easier - apple's philosophy of minimalism works well in the finder I think, you just need to know your short cuts and when in doubt right click there are a host of options available; if you don't like to drag and drop you don't have to.

In general I find that working the Mac OS is far more intuitive and far quicker than Windows. While I agree that it would be nice to have more options to customize what would the cost be? a more bulky program with more things that can go wrong? I'll stick with what works.

But I do agree that Apple needs to have a proper App uninstaller and possibly a proper cleaning tool like OnyX

 

[deboni]

Easy and automatic syncing among volumes on (at least) a local network.

Tom