What is Digg?380 Comments
- GregFD3S, on 08/12/2008, -24/+124Most people that hate Mac:
a) Have never used a Mac
b) Are too used to using Windows
As a web developer, I use OS X, Ubuntu, Vista and XP. OS X is by far the easiest to use, the fastest, most stable and the most productive.
/my 2 pesos - tacojohn, on 08/12/2008, -13/+103Map Exposé "All Windows" to your center mouse button and you will never return to windows...ever.
- ahawks, on 08/12/2008, -18/+87Alright, I do own a mac, and I love it, but these irk me quite a bit. Let's review:
1. Consistency - UI standards
(no comment on this yet)
2. Intuitivity - "Installing and uninstalling applications is simply drag-and-drop."
... except when it's inconsistent (see #1) when some applications require an installer. Garage Band for example dumps several gigs of data in your Library folder.
3. Effective and appropriate metaphors
Such as "green, yellow, red" for maximize, minimize, and close. Because stop-light colors make so much sense in this context?
4. Informative error reporting on-demand
Sad-face mac. (for the most part, they're right, Apple is good about this)
5. Hiding the technical details
See #4. Sometimes some technical info is helpful in fixing things.
6. Fitts’ Law (minimize mouse travel)
Why can't we have a resize handle on all 4 borders & corners of windows? Please?
7. User input feedback
Basically no ok/cancel/apply buttons. Good in some ways, sucky in others (what if I decided I actually didn't want to make those changes?)
8. User support and navigation
Spotlight rocks. I have nothing bad to say about this.
9. Workflow
Again, I like this. you can divide your work into Spaces, and still see all relevant windows in that context because nothing is maximized.
10. Even kernel panic looks nice!
This is just a stupid fluff entry throwin in to make a nice "Top 10" list. - rlanglois, on 08/12/2008, -4/+60Here come the ducks!
/goose - falafelkiosken, on 08/12/2008, -2/+54Finder tabs… how?
- BrendanSheehan, on 08/12/2008, -12/+54Here comes the Apple bashing!
/ducks - ileftfark, on 08/12/2008, -2/+42PROTIP: You do not gain credibility by mentioning you're a "Power User" at the beginning of your article.
- wuvamber, on 08/12/2008, -4/+40Didn't know intuitivity was a word!
- spicycauldron, on 08/12/2008, -15/+51Great article that doesn't harp about Macs just being better, but explains simply how Microsoft could learn not only from its mistakes with Vista, but from where the Mac gets it right. I switched, a year ago, to Mac and won't ever go back. The reasons outlined in this article all strike a chord with me.
- RedS0x, on 08/12/2008, -1/+34Yes, welcome to digg.
- DiggerL, on 08/12/2008, -4/+32mock-up
- colincornaby, on 08/12/2008, -4/+32Don't forget drag and drop. Yes, Windows has drag and drop too... but on the Mac nearly everything is drag and dropable onto everything else.
- Kerath, on 08/12/2008, -7/+35I have used both Windows and OSX extensively (I'm typing this on an MBP) and I disagree with several items on this list.
(2) I don't think the application installation procedure is intuitive, especially for newcomers. When I first started using OSX, I didn't know how it worked, and it wasn't clear. My girlfriend was running everything from the DMGs instead of installing them. I also don't see how the Windows installation model is unintuitive--you run the installer, it gets installed.
(4) I don't like the unused icons balloon on XP, but I do like being notified when, for example, a new peripheral is ready to use. On OSX you have to watch the icons to know.
(5) This is just complete *****. XP defragments itself when idle by default, and even if you want to do it "manually" it's not like you have to sort the file chunks among the clusters yourself. You basically click "defragment" and then go eat dinner. However, it is time for windows to alleviated the need for defragmenting by switch to a better FS.
(6) More *****. Nearly every professional windows app has a similar menu bar across the top of the screen, and binding it to the window is more intuitive, not less.
(9) Since when does window "force you to focus on a single window"?
(10) is just filler, and poor filler at that. "On the rare occasions when Mac crashes, it still does so in a respectable manner. Usability-wise it’s not perfect, since it doesn’t let the user know what went wrong and only asks the user to reboot the system. Still, beautiful and elegant." Great, so it's elegant and completely pointless? Why not just skip it and reboot automatically with a messagebox explaining that the system has recovered from a serious error? - inactive, on 08/12/2008, -3/+27Here comes the goose!
/cooked - Apocalyptic0n3, on 08/12/2008, -3/+25I'll stick to middle clicking to close tabs and open links in new tabs in Firefox, thank you.
- consonance, on 08/13/2008, -1/+22How did I get here I am not good with Internets.
- charlesray, on 08/12/2008, -7/+27Cover Flow is the worst thing I've ever used. It's so horrible for navigating anything that I struggle to find words to accurately describe it's awfulness.
- drlha, on 08/12/2008, -0/+19Not sure why you're getting dugg down, it should be "intuitiveness".
- nickbr00tality, on 08/12/2008, -14/+32I recently just switched to Leopard from Vista and XP. I like OS X way better.
- Apocalyptic0n3, on 08/12/2008, -1/+18It says right under the image that it's a mockup. =/
- turquoisefish, on 08/12/2008, -2/+19I have it set for the bottom left corner on my MacBook and am forever moving my mouse to the bottom left corner of my work PC expecting the same to happen.
- digiguy, on 08/12/2008, -5/+22I work in an I.T. department and I have to use mainframes (VSE), Windows, Macs, and Sun. Unless, you are a complete moron, what is the big problem using both Mac and PCs. There are girls in my job, who came from Mexico that can operate 2 different O.S. better than some people today. Most of them like Windows, but I love Macs better
- drlha, on 08/12/2008, -1/+17It's not a matter of opinion, intuitivity is not a word.
- mrgermy, on 08/12/2008, -4/+20Man I love that feature. . . . Saves so much time.
- inactive, on 08/28/2008, -2/+18Here comes the c-c-combo!
/breaker - Soave, on 08/12/2008, -3/+18"9. Workflow
Mac doesn’t force you to focus on a single window, but keeps them all visible in the background ensuring a more efficient workflow. However this might be a thing of taste and getting used to."
How does Windows not do this? As long as you don't have your windows maximized, isn't this normal...? - tama00, on 08/12/2008, -9/+24I plug a usb mouse into a mac and wait three seconds and it works, which is the same for Linux.
Now i plug a usb mouse into a windows XP box:
POP "new hardware device found"
POP "i think its a human interface device"
POP "yes its a mouse!"
POP "installing mouse"
POP "you mouse is now ready to use"
then 30 seconds later after clicking the close bubble six times your mouse works.
Thats a real announce for me on Windows. Why doesnt windows just sound the 'everything is ok' alarm when everything is ok, it would be pretty much the same thing. - Soave, on 08/12/2008, -1/+16How is the top of the screen closer to where a user is working in an application? It seems like the furthest possible spot.
- BrendanSheehan, on 08/12/2008, -1/+16Here comes ma lunch!
/yum - Coolspot420, on 08/13/2008, -3/+18Cool story bro
- inactive, on 08/13/2008, -8/+23"Great article"? This is absolute *****. It's the same, unsupported, superficial, fawning and WRONG claims that are made in every hack "article" on the topic. Let's take a look at a few examples:
"consistency dramatically improves learnability and usability of interacting with the system."
Oh really, then why has Apple forgotten the purpose of GREYING THINGS OUT? Sometimes disabled functions are greyed out, but other times they disappear entirely from menus and UIs. One great example is iTunes: If your iPod is not plugged in, all iPod options disappear entirely from the UI, including the one that says, 'Sync iPod automatically when connected."
Another major usability problem is forcing all apps to share one menu, which remains stuck at the top of the screen. Depending on which child window you click on, the menu's contents may change invisibly (since the main headings are often the same or very similar) and you may in fact be manipulating one app's commands while looking at the UI of another. Not to mention the pointlessness of making people roll all the way up to the top of the screen continually. And NO, it does not save screen space; if anything, it wastes it.
Another major usability and consistency problem is Apple's failure to understand what the View menu is for, versus the Window menu. The View menu is supposed to control what the application is showing to the user and how. The Window menu is for managing multiple open document windows and the physical position of the main frame. Yet Apple continually puts things like "audio meters" under the Window menu. How is the user supposed to guess that the programmer implemented audio meters as a window and not just a pane or widget? But wait: Most times, the things under the Window menu AREN'T windows. It's a mess.
And finally, WHY IN HELL CAN'T WE RESIZE WINDOWS FROM THEIR EDGES?
"2. Intuitivity: Installing and uninstalling applications is simply drag-and-drop."
ABSOLUTE *****. This lie is so tiresome. Mac apps litter the machine with frameworks, configuration files, "receipts", copyguarding utilities, whatever, just like Windows apps do. But worse, the OS X inexplicably has NO UNINSTALLER. WTF are the receipts for, then? Why keep a record of installed files and then fail to use them to provide an uninstaller?
"3. Effective and appropriate metaphors: Mac effectively uses the power of unambiguous metaphors."
Oh really? What's that "gear" thing in the toolbar then? Or that same gear thing in the status bar of another app? What do multicolored gumdrops mean? WTF is that ski-jump thing in the hotkey list of menu commands? Or that other one?
"6. Fitts’ Law: Essentially, the famous Fitts’ Law says that users are more productive with the mouse when they have less distance to travel and a larger target to click on to do their tasks. Mac’s design engineers have incorporated this rule in their design: almost all application menus are attached to the top of the screen, rather than to the applications’ windows."
WTF? This statement disproves ITSELF. "Less distance to travel" would NOT be rolling all the goddamned way up to the top of the screen, every time, especially on today's big-ass monitors. Do you realize how far away the menu is on a 30" monitor? It's a good six swipes of the mouse across the pad, and then have fun making the trip back down to the rest of the app's UI.
Apple violates this concept even further by having dialogs roll down from the TOP of the app window, when most of the time you triggered it from the lower-right corner of the window. In Western societies, humans operate from the upper-left to the lower-right corner of a work area, and that's how application UIs are designed. So why does Apple glue every dialog to the top?
"8. User support and navigation: Remember Clippy? Mac has its own (OS wide) version as well, called Spotlight. The only difference is that it’s actually a lot more helpful and versatile."
WTF? Clippy? First, that was part of Office, and did not have the same purpose at all. Second, Spotlight fails in its primary purpose: showing you WHERE STUFF IS. Why? Because it returns big lists of results but fails to show you WHERE they are. You have to click on every one, one at a time, to see where it is. Unbelievable.
"9. Workflow Mac doesn’t force you to focus on a single window"
Again, WHAT? What OS "forces" you to focus on a single window? And window management is largely an application's choice, although the Mac OS's single menu bar encourages a proliferation of floating windows, which is what this guy seems to be touting. Why in hell would I want to see all the other apps' windows and the crap on my desktop THROUGH the UI of the app I'm trying to use? Do artists typically paint on a clear canvas? Are books printed on transparent paper?
Floating windows are a failed fad that even Apple's apps have started to abandon. If you love spending most of your time corraling a ***** of windows (and of course, on the Mac you can't resize them from their edges to make your job easier), then you obviously don't have anything you want to accomplish on your computer. - KillPenguin, on 08/12/2008, -3/+16This guy says that a 3D view when switching windows is useless but cover flow is amazing? What the hell is he talking about?
- inactive, on 08/12/2008, -3/+15I service macs and train users on OS X all day and come home to a PC. I don't hate macs they just don't meet my needs. I also believe its a myth that so called 'mac haters' have never used a mac and that all PC users would convert if exposed to one for more than a day.
Use what works for you. - synergye, on 08/12/2008, -0/+12Here comes the yum!
/desert - soopafly, on 08/12/2008, -0/+12I was really hoping for Finder tabs in Leopard... sigh.. maybe next time :-(
- KillPenguin, on 08/12/2008, -2/+13How does windows force you to focus on one window any more than OSX does?
- tobsterius, on 08/12/2008, -2/+13that looks like PathFinder to me...
- mrgermy, on 08/12/2008, -17/+28Well, finally a rather unbiased article related to Apple. Refreshing IMHO.
- inactive, on 08/12/2008, -2/+13To piggy back / retort a few of these points...
1. Leopard has been the only version of OSX to truly introduce a consistent UI... In previous versions of OSX the average user could expect to see UI elements from each .(dot) iteration of the OSX family...
2. While I'm not a real developer (and i'd love to hear why this is)... The only applications I've ever had to run an installer for are those that require Root privileges to change things.
3. I think we all could agree that the "+" sign should MAXIMIZE as window.
4. And yet still - Finder wont tell you when a "shared" resource is no longer available... still shows up in the sidebar (leopard)
5. Thats what CONSOLE is for.
6. no comment
7. Thats the magic of it... simply uncheck the option you selected and presto-chango... you're back. Seamless.
8. Considering most of QuickSilver functionality is in Leopard - it does make Spotlight a lot better - but plugin support is still - eh - at best.
9. In OSX delete has 2 functions... Remove from behind the cursor and remove from in front of cursor... Pushing the "delete" key defaults to Backspace... which is fine... but you know how many times I've had to show people that "function-delete" was remove in front of cursor? A little text on the delete key wouldn't hurt. (its HUGE after all)
10. For the average user - a kernel panic is not important... they wouldn't understand it either way... But for those who are interested... Logs+Console=WTF just happened? - sockpuppets, on 08/12/2008, -3/+14Applesauce?
- inactive, on 08/12/2008, -2/+12I just want to say, I am a power user, and I couldn't agree with you more!
- AzureRise, on 08/12/2008, -1/+11Here comes the desert!
/sauce - ThinkFr33ly, on 08/12/2008, -7/+17Ah, what a gushing and useless blog entry.
Ya know, if you ignore the problems with something, they'll never be fixed.
Please see: http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/10/27/mac-os-x-leopa ...
Or: http://www.aquataskforce.com/ - wedges, on 08/12/2008, -1/+11button 3 on your mouse wheel button... that way you can open tabs from any link and quickly close tabs without having to click the X
- inactive, on 08/12/2008, -3/+12Because the Application becomes like an object that you can move around, use, and put in the trash if you get sick of it. You can put it wherever you want it to go.
It is not some abstract package that modifies your system in various ways and then puts an icon in your Start Menu, which you then remove by finding the uninstaller to undo those changes. - rizenality, on 08/12/2008, -0/+9I was a hardcore windows user and worked as a tech. I bought a mac and use it for most of my personal use because I was on a windows box all day. I love both.
I don;t think either is better, just different.
2 pesos is less than a penny. doesn;t really work. - wush, on 08/12/2008, -5/+15I like the fact that there's a distinction between the application itself and its window(s). Just because you close down all of an application's windows, it doesn't mean that the application has to quit, and it can continue to run in the background.
- drlha, on 08/12/2008, -3/+12Because my brain almost exploded trying to figure out what your point was.
- WiseWeasel, on 08/12/2008, -5/+14What if you hate watching baseball because it's so freaking boring? Watching baseball sober is like fishing sober.
- MacParrot, on 08/13/2008, -0/+9It's all part of Apple's "strategery"
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