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What's still missing in Mac OS X?

spillproof said:
Since you asked:
movingfiles.jpg


The biggest thing I miss from Windows. The easability to move an copy files to a new location without having to have both folders open and drag and drop.
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maflynn said:
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.
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And I'll respectfully disagree with you, too. Our folder structure at work (Windows) is relatively flat, that is, the main network shares have about 30/40 folders in them. It's easy to get lost as you scroll down because the name of the folder one level up isn't on screen any more. A division at work has a more vertical alignment as well, and it's easy to get lost again because the upper level folders have scrolled off the pane to the left.

As a result, I don't have a high opinion of the "tree" view except in certain circumstances. We might be better off with a happy medium, but our IT department (which can be clueless about the work we do) set up our folders way back when, various managers came in and made it worse. I'd love to think that we're unusual, but my fear is we're probably not.

There's got to be a better way, and on the days when I'm moving the most files I miss the Finder the most.

mt
 
WindowsMobile support in iSync. Not everybody wants or likes the iPhone, and iSync supports just about every phone as long as it does not use WM. What gives? I'd like to be able to sync my phone out of the box, instead of having to spend $40 for a 3rd party app to do something as benign as syncing my contacts.
 
  • Fix the mouse acceleration curve issue
  • Intelligent window placement when using multiple monitors - Get Info being an example. I have a Finder window open on my external monitor, do Get Info on a file/folder, the Get Info window always opens on the MBP screen.
  • The option to duplicate the menu and Dock on both/all monitors - it'a pain to be working on the external monitor and having to keep moving to the MBP screen to use the mennu and Dock.
 
maflynn said:
I respectfully disagree ...
Click to expand...

Rather than disagree, maybe what this means is that OS X (and Windows for that matter) needs a way for a user to design how his network looks. The user would have a window, which could handle a tree view or a commander view (or a plain old Finder icon/column/list view) of the directories that the user thinks is important. Sort of like a series of virtual aliases created by the user as opposed to a directory architecture created by an IT department.

Maybe this already exists? ...

mt
 
make the hidden terminal commands for UI changes part of system prefs

For example making the 2d dock on the bottom is pretty simple with a terminal command but I can't understand why there isn't simply one more little option in the dock system prefs that lets you choose this. I mean these aren't hacks. They are built into the OS but apple makes you feel like you have to be a super geek to do anything extra on their computers?

just an idea
 
Just a tip for posters that mention Finder. I tried Path Finder a few days ago and absolutely love it. It gives all the stuff I'm missing from windows and then some. Cut/paste, tabs, more views (split view for example), adds folder links to entire hierarchy at the window top so you can easilly see where you are and navigate back, quicklinks to folders and whatnot. Well worth a few bucks.

I just wish apple would include all these things in Finder :-(.

Other than that, ZFS (not gonna happen sadly, hoping for equivalent), resolution independance, new gfx / theme support (not too fond of the standard theme), and just some extended options for systems prefs. I like to be able to set EVERYTHING the way I want it :)
 
I think my biggest issue is with the Finder, and as a few others have said, Apple really needs to just buy PathFinder and use it instead.

I also wish (I dunno if there might be already...) there was a nice TweakUI-type program for Mac, so you don't always have to enter these arcane commands in the terminal just to change something about the OS (Don't get me wrong, I *love* having access to the Terminal and UNIX underbelly, but not for something as simple as changing a setting.)

And for those looking for an App Store on the Mac, check out Bodega - I found this a few weeks ago. Lets you update any existing apps that it has in its database (currently over 700), and lets you discover all kinds of apps that you may not already have.
 
A better finder
Cut/paste
Integrated growl like functionality
Resolution independence
Opening folders with enter
Games..
 
GoKyu said:
I think my biggest issue is with the Finder, and as a few others have said, Apple really needs to just buy PathFinder and use it instead.

I also wish (I dunno if there might be already...) there was a nice TweakUI-type program for Mac, so you don't always have to enter these arcane commands in the terminal just to change something about the OS (Don't get me wrong, I *love* having access to the Terminal and UNIX underbelly, but not for something as simple as changing a setting.)

And for those looking for an App Store on the Mac, check out Bodega - I found this a few weeks ago. Lets you update any existing apps that it has in its database (currently over 700), and lets you discover all kinds of apps that you may not already have.
Click to expand...
PathFinder is quite versatile but I prefer the simplicity of Finder. People who want PathFinder can get it. I have not had to change anything with Terminal but there are third party GUI options out there for that too. The point is many of us are happy to have such an intuitive GUI without extra clutter. If you really want it, it's out there but many users don't want it.
 
Most of these are simple customization complaints.
-Spotlight should search a .xml file in library folder and actually get a result. Even though I've grown use to Spotlight's search functions being a bit "hidden" it would be nice to have features like "size" and "type" and all those simpler search functionalities up front, maybe on the blue drop down. Having to open a separate window is kinda bogus in my opinion.
-More functionality in Stacks, such as organization tabs, ability to make new folders, and ctrl-click. It would be nice, and I'm sure many of you will disagree, to have complete finder functionality in Stacks.
-More easily customize the right side of the menu bar (just movement of objects such as spotlight, or third party. I know that things can be moved with command click, but the functionality seems very barren for third party additions).
-Added gesture support for 3 and 4 finger clicks/taps. Moreover, complete customization of all multitouch features (i.e. switching between spaces by using four-finger swipe). Multiclutch is a good addition, but it is also lacking.
-Expose for tabs in safari, or other browsers. There's a third party program that costs, but this seems to be a very interesting idea, and would probably get me to use expose for once.
-Resolution independence totally!
-Free os 9 would be nice, though it really has nothing to do with Max OS X, I miss it.
 
mysterytramp said:
And I'll respectfully disagree with you, too. Our folder structure at work (Windows) is relatively flat, that is, the main network shares have about 30/40 folders in them. It's easy to get lost as you scroll down because the name of the folder one level up isn't on screen any more. A division at work has a more vertical alignment as well, and it's easy to get lost again because the upper level folders have scrolled off the pane to the left.

As a result, I don't have a high opinion of the "tree" view except in certain circumstances. We might be better off with a happy medium, but our IT department (which can be clueless about the work we do) set up our folders way back when, various managers came in and made it worse. I'd love to think that we're unusual, but my fear is we're probably not.

There's got to be a better way, and on the days when I'm moving the most files I miss the Finder the most.

mt
Click to expand...

if you have the address bar enabled in explorer, you'll see the full path for the folder/directory in question.

you can enable this in the finder title bar (using a term command), but you can't cut and paste it like the address bar in explorer.

my (minor) wants:

the option to have directories and files sorted separately
folder merge
media metadata view/edit in finder (like explorer shows id3 tags)
 
The ability to install all applications by just dragging the icon into the applications folder, even the big ones. Just out of curiosity why is it that some apps install this way and some you have to go through the whole installation process like windows?
 
bigjnyc said:
The ability to install all applications by just dragging the icon into the applications folder, even the big ones. Just out of curiosity why is it that some apps install this way and some you have to go through the whole installation process like windows?
Click to expand...

Not all programs are simple like that and cannot be built and operated under a single package mentality. Not even Apple can accomplish that for most of it’s programs.
 
bigjnyc said:
The ability to install all applications by just dragging the icon into the applications folder, even the big ones. Just out of curiosity why is it that some apps install this way and some you have to go through the whole installation process like windows?
Click to expand...

pdjudd said:
Not all programs are simple like that and cannot be built and operated under a single package mentality. Not even Apple can accomplish that for most of it’s programs.
Click to expand...


exactly... some programs install kernel extensions or startup items.
 
spillproof said:
Since you asked:
movingfiles.jpg


The biggest thing I miss from Windows. The easability to move an copy files to a new location without having to have both folders open and drag and drop.
Click to expand...

You can easily create a Service in Automator that will do that.
 
Idgit said:
You can easily create a Service in Automator that will do that.
Click to expand...

oh you should seriously try out Quicksilver.

Mark the files - ctrl/space to open QS - ctrl/G to put your selection there - tab - type the letter m (move) - tab - choose folder from a drop down list or write the folder name - enter

it sounds complicated in text but it's so much quicker than anything else (search youtube for quicksilver tutorials for someone to show you this). This is also one of the things I miss most when working on the Vistacomp at work.

// DL
 
rwilliams said:
Honestly, a few more games would be nice. Solitaire, Hearts, Spades...any of those would be nice.
Click to expand...

MacSolitaire is free and is very similar to the Windows Solitaire, though it seems a bit easier to me for some reason... I almost always lose at the Windows one and I win about half the time on this one... hmm...

Here's the link.
 
I think the ability to turn off the monitor - sleep monitor - I use corners for now, but if there is slight movement in the mouse, the computer wakes me up in the night! I left my phone next to my iMac last night, It was on silent, buzzes when i got a text (stupid idiot mates texting at 3am!) and the mouse senses the vibrations - thus wakes up the dam computer, I cant turn it back off without entering a long password with caps just to put it back to DISPLAY sleep as my computer is always rendering/downloading ect..
 
Winni said:
OS X should officially support non-Apple computer hardware. That's all that I want for now.
Click to expand...

That won't happen as long as Steve Jobs is alive and probably not after he is dead either.

One of the reasons the Mac experience is as good as it is is because Apple knows exactly what hardware their software is running on.

S-
 
Winni said:
OS X should officially support non-Apple computer hardware. That's all that I want for now.
Click to expand...

No way. I couldn't disagree more. I bought a Mac because OS X is perfect with the hardware of my Mac, therefore making it a hell of a lot more stable. And because it is pretty much a Unix OS, which is known to be stable. I wouldn't have bought it if OS X was made ready for any hardware, I'd have just stuck with Ubuntu, for it is free.
 
An assembler that is vaguely recent.
A tiling window manager.
Move more code into userspace.
A framebuffer.
Port of FreeBSD's jails.
Procfs.
Proper handling of out of memory errors. The current system of allocate more swap or asplode is absurd.
A Disk Utility that can restore the PMBR of the GPT so that the average user doesn't have to reinstall their system if something that is essentially useless and exists to prevent important things from being overwritten gets overwritten.
Package manager. (a ports system would be nice)
Better filesystem support.
More efficient Time Machine.
WiFi drivers with support for packet injection.
No spinning up of every drive whenever a file browser is used...Or at least allow them to spin up in the background. Waiting for an external drive to spin up every time is painful.
Xorg style copying and pasting.
A redesign of the appdirs to use a standard Unix filesystem hierarchy with symlinks to the files in the global hierarchy. (similar to GoboLinux)
EFI that doesn't assume that everything besides OS X is Windoze.

thederby said:
exactly... some programs install kernel extensions or startup items.
Click to expand...
There's no reason that kexts, launchagents, and launchdaemons can't be in the appdirs.
 
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