Will someone hack the old expose and bring it to Lion?

[baryon]

With mission control you can view all applications and all screens at once.

Not really - the small thumbnails at the top are hardly big enough for me to tell what's in it, and it's difficult to tell which of the thumbnails is the one I'm currently on. Spaces allowed you to see all desktops in the same size, with the other desktops surrounding it in a relative way. In Mission Control, the active desktop is always in the middle of the screen, regardless of which one it is, making it difficult to know which one it is, and the other desktops appear at the top of the screen, discriminating between the active desktop and the others. In Spaces you could, in 2 steps (activate Spaces then activate Exposé) see ALL your windows in the same size. There is no way to do that in Mission Control: the apps on non-current desktops are not exposé-d and they are much too small to see anyway.

 

[dukebound85]

Then why do so many of us say they are upgrading back to snow leopard. There must be some reason for this lion exodus

It happens after every new OS release, so it is not unique to SL

 

[Steve's Barber]

What aspect does Expose do better then missions control and why?

Youtube is full of old Expose examples from snow leopard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Pi9fSpn-U

(Find a "Spaces" example to see how the top portion of your mission control app used to work).

In Lion, Apple merged the 2 utilities leaving a cluttered mess on both counts. In the past, some people never used Spaces but did use Expose (And the inverse is true as well). Now you have no choice and depending on which one you use there is wasted screen real estate the other one could use. Especially on 13" MacBooks.

I won't even get into how badly Apple screwed up the layout options of both Expose' and Spaces. It's like some OSX coder with too much time on his hand just ran amuck and sold the idea to a busy exec who was late for his tee time.

And I perfectly understand new mac users confusion. You can never miss what you never had.

 

[Hyper-X]

No hints? What is 10.7.2?

Dev release is out for 10.7.2, mostly a tune up for iCloud features but still nothing in terms of major bug fixes. There may be small undocumented fixes included to address minor issues but the big ones still go unaddressed.

Were this windows it would impact 9 out of 10 machine users. But as OSX users we're a tiny slice of the pie. Makes perfect sense to me. (I don't like it but it makes perfect fiscal sense).

What I was getting at was Mac users would instantly ridicule Windows 7 users for having to put up with something like that. However an issue affecting Windows 7 will likely affect Mac users as well, as at least 3 out of 4 Mac users also run Windows via Bootcamp or VM.

Let's hope.

Apple announced this months ago, the very last major update to SL will include iCloud availability.

The problem with your thinking and analogy is you assume Apple actually seeks out user feedback. They don't. Not even from beta testers it seems.

I never assumed such, I've known of this back before OS X Jaguar.

Plus, you're treating OSX like it warrants some kind of grandiose attention when Apple's stock price over the years tells them to continue the way they have been. There's been no catalyst to change since the 90's.

You can chalk that up to Apple for making the claim that OS X is the best and most advanced operating system in the world, it's not. IMO if a company is going to make such a claim about their OS, then they need to start supporting it like it is.

Stock prices have absolutely nothing to do with how they manage and support OS X (Lion). Apple's success didn't come from selling OS X which, unlike Windows, is proprietary to Apple's hardware, it came mostly from their hand in mobile devices, starting with the iPod, then iPhone, then iPad.

Our best hope now is that Tim Cook gets really pissed off when his mac beach balls as he's reviewing his Annual Board Presentation.

We have a saying in business about putting out fires. A fire constitutes a major problem as it has the huge potential to spread if left unattended.

There's never been such negative feedback about OS X since the introduction of Snow Leopard. To repeat that mistake with Lion means the company didn't learn from their mistakes. Mac customers spent more buying their Macs (thus OS X) than with their mobile devices, they deserve equal attention towards their issues.

 

[LxHunter]

How do you get this thing to activate using just the trackpad? There's also a caveat in using it… you often have to cycle through all the windows at least once before they register.



Even though I agree with most of your points it's all moot and quite pointless to piss and moan about it. You either learn to adapt to whatever Apple dictates or stay in the legacy bubble. This is nothing new.

Personally, if iCloud works with SL I might consider going back until 10.8. But I suspect the next iteration of OSX to be even more iOS specific than it is now.

Witch works fine for me with one key click - like the SL Expose. You should try using it before you critique it.

I expect more iOS like to come also - which is why I am considering a return to Windows after loosing productivity in Lion

 

[Dale Sorel]

Witch works fine for me with one key click - like the SL Expose. You should try using it before you critique it.

I thought Witch was just a way to bring individual windows forward with an Option-Tab keystroke. How do you make it emulate SL Exposé?

 

[LxHunter]

I thought Witch was just a way to bring individual windows forward with an Option-Tab keystroke. How do you make it emulate SL Exposé?

Best you download the Witch free trial and see if you like it.
Option-Tab (or whatever you configure) opens a window showing all my running apps and all their windows - even minimized windows - in a simple table view.
Nice for me - uncluttered - and easy to switch between apps/windows.
Also can do many more things I haven't started using yet.

 

[klaxamazoo]

I would by $30-40 easy for a good Expose replacement in Lion.

 

[Steve's Barber]

Witch works fine for me with one key click - like the SL Expose.

I don't want to use keys. I asked, how do you use it with a gesture. (Like Expose in Lion and Expose in SL)

You should try using it before you critique it

.

I've been using it for over a year now.

Whatever... the developer emailed me implying that version 4 of Witch will address the deficiencies in Lion's Expose'. Not sure what this means though.

 

[Dale Sorel]

Best you download the Witch free trial and see if you like it.
Option-Tab (or whatever you configure) opens a window showing all my running apps and all their windows - even minimized windows - in a simple table view.
Nice for me - uncluttered - and easy to switch between apps/windows.
Also can do many more things I haven't started using yet.

I've been running Witch for a couple of weeks now and yes, it does all the things you describe here. But I still don't see how you can use it to get a one-click SL Exposé.

 

[patrick1234]

i will the old expose back!!!!

 

[PhilConners]

Again it seems a bit odd to have such a problem with a purely graphical element to mission control. The wallpaper shrinks, not the screen.

ALL the content on the screen shrinks.(so essentially the screen might as well shrink) In spaces you could align desktops in a square grid (2x2, 3x3...) and each desktop got an equal amount of screen space making them easier to identify and see content. In mission control other desktops are scaled down to a strip of thumbnails. And its a waste of time swiping through them, especially since they do not wrap like spaces did. Also, Mission control does not show minimized windows. It's more difficult to drag a window from one app to another desktop and the list goes on...

Mission Control gives you this: http://i53.tinypic.com/rhqxax.jpg
Expose & Spaces gives you this: http://i55.tinypic.com/rk3g5k.png

Only a fool (lion M.C. developer?) could deny the fact that mission control wastes screen space on backgrounds and shrinks content. The app window thumbnails in SL are bigger than the desktop thumbnails in Lion and it's not stacking them.

On another note: My project of turning app expose into real expose is going poorly I have been messing looking around in
System/Library/Frameworks/ and can't find the inner workings of expose. Anyone have any experience/knowledge on where its code is?

 

[wikus]

ALL the content on the screen shrinks.(so essentially the screen might as well shrink) In spaces you could align desktops in a square grid (2x2, 3x3...) and each desktop got an equal amount of screen space making them easier to identify and see content. In mission control other desktops are scaled down to a strip of thumbnails. And its a waste of time swiping through them, especially since they do not wrap like spaces did. Also, Mission control does not show minimized windows. It's more difficult to drag a window from one app to another desktop and the list goes on...

Mission Control gives you this: http://i53.tinypic.com/rhqxax.jpg
Expose & Spaces gives you this: http://i55.tinypic.com/rk3g5k.png

Only a fool (lion M.C. developer?) could deny the fact that mission control wastes screen space on backgrounds and shrinks content. The app window thumbnails in SL are bigger than the desktop thumbnails in Lion and it's not stacking them.

On another note: My project of turning app expose into real expose is going poorly I have been messing looking around in
System/Library/Frameworks/ and can't find the inner workings of expose. Anyone have any experience/knowledge on where its code is?

Thank you.

I'm glad to see more support to bring back the old expose we all found to be useful. I hope apple at the very least changes Mission Control in System Preferences to give us OPTIONS.

 

[farmermac]

I've been back on SL for quite a while on 3 machines because of the finder and expose screwups. I don't even want to think about 2-3 years down the line when these macs will need (or not.) to be replaced. Hopefully apple will have fixed this mess.

 

[macfan431]

Solution

Old expose is still alive actually !!!

A bit different but here's how to have a bird's eye view of all your open windows of a Specific application (!)


first , go to "system preferences".
then to mission control, and hit the hot corner button.
Then select a hot corner and place the "application window" from the list.
Close sys' prefernces.


Now you have to ways of using this:

1. From mission control, select the app you want to explore by clicking it.
it will zoom to it. now use the hot corner you've just setup, and...


Voila !!!! all windows are spread like a deck of cards with no hiding behind each other !!

2. Just select the app you're on, and hit the corner you've set up with the cursor. same result: good all expose, bird's eye view.


isn't that insanely great ?

 

[patrick1234]

yeah macfan431, and we all here are stupid

 

[PeterHolbrook]

isn't that insanely great ?

Why am I not impressed? Do you think there were many people who DIDN'T know that? It's the same as scrolling down with three fingers on the trackpad. I have no real problem with Mission Control, but what you propose is NO solution.

 

[macfan431]

yeah..... like ....... no need to be rude !!!!

 

[xgman]

I'm kind of surprised that a 3rd party hasn't come up with this yet. Almost seems like Apple went out of it's way to prevent it.

 

[kwig]

This obviously isn't the fix for this thread, but it does address this issue:

3) The Finder's sidebar icons. You know, the shortcuts to the desktop, documents, home folder, music, music, etc. Which ignorant graphic designer decided it would be most functional and practical to use when ALL the icons look identical with another grey colour that washes out with the grey look of the Finder? This needs fixing. I had a hard time navigating through the shortcuts. They are now officially useless as they cause more difficulty to use than anything.

http://lifehacker.com/5838882/replace-lions-monochromatic-finder-icons-with-old+school-colorful-ones

 

[Wilsoros]

I love MANY fixes in Lion, I hate the lack of options and customization. They are REALLY glaring. I loved my mac because I could feel immersed in the experience of using my machine, but the loss of expose (WHY NO OPTION!) is very bad, I am a spatial person, I found that thinking of the desktops as left right, top, bottom to be very helpful as did I enjoy the moving of items between desktops when zoomed out, now it is very clunky and all my "option" choices appear greyed out ... very acidic taste in my mouth.

 

[Wilsoros]

macfan what we miss is the ability to see all our desktops as you show your multiscreen shots, and to be able to move open app windows between desktops via this method.

Thanks for trying to help!

Old expose is still alive actually !!!

A bit different but here's how to have a bird's eye view of all your open windows of a Specific application (!)


first , go to "system preferences".
then to mission control, and hit the hot corner button.
Then select a hot corner and place the "application window" from the list.
Close sys' prefernces.


Now you have to ways of using this:

1. From mission control, select the app you want to explore by clicking it.
it will zoom to it. now use the hot corner you've just setup, and...


Voila !!!! all windows are spread like a deck of cards with no hiding behind each other !!

2. Just select the app you're on, and hit the corner you've set up with the cursor. same result: good all expose, bird's eye view.


isn't that insanely great ?

 

[Phechs]

has anyone found any solutions yet? any 3rd party apps like Change Space from pennysmalls, but for expose
http://pennysmalls.com/change-space-grows-up

 

[InuNacho]

App Expose [F10] will align all the windows of the app in focus just like the old Expose did. From that view you can easily Cmd-Tab to switch between apps without leaving Expose.

I didn't know Lion came with a window hiding game that involves hitting multiple keys to perform old simple tasks.

 

[haravikk]

I think that Mission Control is aimed as a kind of hybrid of Spaces and Exposé, and so it probably works best if you work with that in mind. For example, by using Spaces, you can run applications without ever having to minimise anything.

The only real problem is that if an application has a lot of open windows, then you can't see the ones at the back, but you can easily click any one, then hit F10 or whatever you've assigned Applications Exposé to and that gives you a much better view overall anyway. The "stacks" only really appear if you have several large windows open anyway, so with less cluttered layouts across spaces you can switch quickly.

Also, to those complaining about the ordering of Spaces, I think you can choose that, the default is to reorder them by which was last active (so it's easier to switch between frequently used apps).

I personally still don't use Spaces much, I find I can work very well with a well-ordered Dock for switching applications, and F10 to find windows, sometimes using F9 to switch active applications.

I think the new "stacking" of app windows could be improved though if there were a way to flick through them, maybe with the arrow keys, or if hitting F10 while hovered over a window in all windows exposé would switch to the F10 view.