What is Digg?84 Comments
- jmb123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6A year in, I still consider myself a new Mac user. I'm all about number 9. I expected everything Apple to be better. In the end it's just a machine and an OS, with ups and downs like every other machine and OS. But it sure is pretty.
- speedyrev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5My first Mac mistake.... 4 years ago I switched and bought Norton Anti-virus with my first Ti-book. HA!
- KissTheRing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This list comes down to one thing, os x and windows are different, this guy expects his mac to act like windows. For example he lists 'problems' like "Closing an application window, thinking it has quit." This is a great feature, keeping a program in memory in case you wish to use it again. It just takes some getting used to, once you do it's smooth sailing.
- Tullamore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Most of these are problems that you would find people who were trained in Windows would do. If you grew up on Mac OS 6-9 most of these you would not have a problem doing.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+314. Thinking it’ll be easy to get a stuck CD out.
Hold down the mouse button while restarting the computer. Easy! - Gnascher, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@jmb123 ... one of the more intelligent things I've read on digg in a while.
I work on both Macs and PCs ... both have thier strengths and weaknesses. Personally, the Windows environment makes more sense to me and is more comfortable to work in. I can understand why some people prefer the Mac environment ... but for me it's kind of like writing with my left hand. I can do it, but it takes longer and it's kinda messy. - chewbaccapits, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They're to different OSes...so wouldn't someone expect the difference? There are things OSX can improve on and I believe there should be a LEARNING MANUAL or something that comes with the Mac that can help out the noobs on its platform......Writing off OSX just as pretty OS is just a little ignorant....BTW, people seem to think it ok to bring their old habits to any new experience, like me; for example, I thought for my first girlfriend that every woman enjoyed anal sex...Woops* was I wrong....
- cranium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've had my mac for 18 months.
Still waiting for *any* spyware to show up. - cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2#5 has been on every one of these lists that I have seen. First, it is no way a MAC-centric thing. It is IDIOT-centric. Who calls a wallpaper a screensaver? I've never heard anyone say that, not even my parents when we first got Windows 95.
#7 - Not MAC-centric at all. I ALWAYS use detailed list view. Icons suck ass.
#8 - This is why I used my computer for a month without a mouse. Keyboard shortcuts are the schitt.
#10, #18, #26-#29 - These are just dumb. 2 delete keys? I don't know how Apple has come this far and still can't label keys correctly. Maximze should make a window full-screen. That would be the definition of maximum, as big as can be, you know. Yeah, lets delete everything that's already in the destination folder, not that anyone would EVER have to consolidate information....wow. Apple is just bass-ackwards sometimes. - mark1372, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can't even tell you how many times I've tried to explain the whole disk image thing. I'm not surprised people can't grasp it...it's not a system that makes sense on the human behaviour side.
- vatchea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1fisherman's post is excellent.
Basically, OS X has a fluidity that can't be found in XP.
But I'll agree, it comes down to preference of one OS over the other, whatever works with how you work. - samdu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1#5 is not even remotely a Mac-centric issue. Almost all of my users refer to their desktop picture as their "screensaver." And none of them are currently running Macs.
- gherikill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dupe
- vSanity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18. Not using any keyboard shortcuts
How the hell is that a mistake, I know plenty of windows users who don't use keyboard shortcuts. - moracity, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's good to see that most people understand that these issues have nothing to do with the OS X interface. This is the top 30 mistakes made by people who switched from Windows to Mac.
It would have been more beneficial to create a list directed towards switchers in help them acclimate to the OS X environment. Instead, he come off as a whiny dumbass who thinks the world revolves around Windows. - cheesmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+131. Thinking that Mac is Linux with a pretty GUI.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You're comments are misleading, probably because you're Windows-biased.
I agree with kissthering. Both OS's are different, and thank Gawd for that. If OSX worked like Windows, I'd switch to Linux. But thankfully, it doesn't. Basically, because Gates won the war, everyone expects their OS to act like Windows. Why is this? This is backwards thinking. Windows is yesterdays news. Just wait. Vista will be more or less just an OSX copy.
You're comments suggest that Mac users think their OS is 'easier to use' than Windows. Not true. We say that our OS is better. There's a big difference. But it's of course all preference. But never have I thought for one second that Mac OS was 'easier to use' than Windows. We're all experienced users, here. We don't want 'easy', we want 'effective'. - aliasunknown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Most of those uses are the result of people expecting to OS X being the same as windows. For the most part, I prefer those differences.
- birch25, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1don't want to fight, but i feel i should defend my mac a little.
1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.
Gee, no *****. When you destroy an application's last window, why on earth should you find it still running five hours later, consuming resources? This is not user error; this is ***** design.
-----
You know what I think when I close the last window in an app on Windows? I say "where the ***** did my program go?" ***** design, my ass.
11. People trying to find the menus on a window, not realising they’re always at the top of the screen
A *****, ***** design. There is simply no defense for it. A lame one is that, "Oh, well menus on every window waste screen space." Totally wrong. If you want Mac style, then just maximize the window. Voila, your one menu's at the top. Otherwise, even with multiple apps running, their windows can OVERLAP. Only one app has focus at a time, and it is on top. It can totally cover the other apps if you want. The "wasted space" argument is complete bunk.
What makes the one-menu design so ***** is that the contents of that menu change continually, depending on what app window the user happens to click on. And with many Mac apps littering your screen with a ***** of floating windows, it's not always clear which app each one belongs to. Conversely, the menu captions may be exactly the same between apps, but the user may actually be operating the wrong one. For example, let's say you have Word running and you launch Safari. When you're done with Safari you close it with the red gumdrop. Word now fills your screen again, and you decide to open a file. So you go to the File menu. Guess what, that's not the Word File menu, it's the Safari File menu, despite the fact that it doesn't have a single window. THIS DESIGN SUCKS.
-----
So damn hard to know what application you're controlling in that damn menu. It should say right there in big letter what app it is for...oh wait...it does.
12. Trying to resize windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner.
NO *****. The Mac OS is the only GUI available that can't resize its windows from their edges. Seriously, Apple, WTF? Gee, what happens when the window is actually larger than your screen, putting the stupid lower-right triangle out of reach? Hosed.
----
Once again, it's a shame they don't have a green button that optimizes the window resolution for your screen and the task at hand...once again, it's there, and involves fewer steps.
13. Trying to use the CTRL key rather than CMD key for shortcuts.
I don't see a CMD key on any Mac.
----
Every mac keyboard has one...
15. Installing a program every time they want to run it because they think the installer _is_ the program.
Wait a minute, I thought there was no installer, and installing everything was as easy as dragging it somewhere. Right.
-----
I've only had two of my apps require an install...Photoshop and Microsoft Word. One giant program that likes to put files all over your hard drive, and one that is made by your god.
16. Where’s “the internet”? (looking for the Windows Internet Explorer “e” icon)
Yeah, that's pretty stupid.
----
Indeed, but I have seen it happen. Good thing most people use Firefox now.
19. Looking in vain for an uninstaller app, because they don’t realise that uninstalling an application on Mac is as easy as dragging the program icon into the trash.
TOTAL *****. This one is truly irritating. Installing something on your Mac can litter it nearly as effectively as a Windows installer. First, frameworks may have been installed in any one of three Frameworks directories. Second, installing an app also often creates a "receipt" in one of the Library directories, which can screw up subsequent attempts to reinstall the program. And considering that receipts are written, why the hell ISN'T there an uninstaller?
----
I have to agree. Get AppZapper if you want to uninstall the little preference files and receipts (even though these files are usually 10-50kb.
20. Minimising windows all the time rather than using “hide”, leaving the document section of the doc littered with forgotten minimised windows (that are quietly occupying system resources).
WTF is this referring to? It doesn't even make sense: "the document section of the doc?" How is this different from Windows? There should be no "hide" menu item; that is a ***** workaround for the execrable Mac-oriented mania for floating windows. FCP is a great example: a patchwork of what, six windows, glued together but all with their own close/maximize/minimize buttons so there's no damned way to just temporarily get rid of the app. Oh, unless you dig around in some menus and find "hide". Making users dig through a menu to figure out how to minimize an app? LAME.
----
Control-M minimizes 99% of apps. Command-H hides 99.9% of apps.
25. Not understanding that the dock is used to both launch and return to a program …
What problem does this cause, exactly? So they don't notice the little triangle under the icon and they click it again, giving them the desired result: the app is active again. What's the problem?
----
Believe it or not, I have also seen this. Maybe I just live with idiots.
26. Inability to work with multiple documents on-screen at the same time, because they have only ever learned to use Windows’ maximise mode which always makes everything full-screen
Then why are they confused about the menu being at the top of the screen? Contradictory nonsense.
----
Most people do like to maximize all the windows all the time. Windows users don't like to see the desktop...ever.
28. Expecting “home” and “end” keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.
Again, NO *****. What do you do more often: Go to the end of a line, or the end of the entire document? Yes, the end of a line, so of course that's NOT what Apple dedicates a hardware key on the keyboard to. At least Word and perhaps other apps have seen fit to provide an override for this stupidity.
-----
Speaking as a computer user for my entire life, I have never once used the Home and End buttons.
29. Not realising that when you copy a folder over an existing one, OS X -replaces- the destination folder rather than merging the contents, which is what Windows does.
Sigh. No kidding, again. Windows warns you of possible deletions IF there's a conflicting filename and asks you if you want to continue. How the hell are you supposed to merge like-named folders on the Mac? It's anybody's guess.
30. Looking for the “complicated” way of doing everything. For example, trying to go into system preferences and right-clicking on the networking icon in order to find available wireless networks, rather than just clicking on the Airport icon in the menu bar and selecting the relevant wireless network.
Maybe that's because it's better to give people ONE place to go to in order to control system functions instead of having them guess at cryptic icons all over the place. Just look at some of Apple's icons. WTF is that gear thing that's just sitting there in many applications' toolbars? And since when do you RIGHT-click on stuff in the Control Panel? This one doesn't hold water.
-----
Once again, when a friend is using my Mac and asks how to do something, I show them and every time, without fail, they say "That's all?" Also, those little icons in the menu bar become your friends very quickly. - desiv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1>heres my top two mistakes:
>1. anyone who does anything on this list is an idiot
>2. the writer of this article is an idiot
Isn't that the intended audience? :-)
Remember the Internet Help Desk video? A computer for .. Mommies and Daddies. :-)
desiv
(joking.. I own both, well all 3 with linux, well, more than those three.. but you get the idea..) - jmullman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0And here we have a group of non-mac users explaining away their inability to get past the GUIs they've used in the past thinking theirs is the only way.
- Kvetch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is one of the lamest top page stories ever. The list blows.
- firehydra2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok, this list is a ***** piece of *****. Some of these are not mistakes, but habits that the guy who created this list thinks everyone should get used to. Who cares if people don't use hotkeys.
I don't even want to read the rest of this crap. - swindmill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"+digg due to fisherman's post..
and i own a mac and a pc.
posted by Afroman (0)"
You should spend a few hours learning how to use the mac - Afroman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0+digg due to fisherman's post..
and i own a mac and a pc. - vinny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Furthermore, the Mac reinforces the idea that the keyboard doesn't do much. Try selecting a bunch of unneeded files on your desktop and pressing Delete. Nothing happens. Users are taught to drag, drag, drag ***** around everywhere."
If you want to delete files, use CMD-Delete. I don't think you want to make deleting files that easy, it's too easy to accidently hit the delete key, and hard to accidently hit CMD-Delete. There is no more dragging required in OS X than Windows as far as I can tell. There are shortcuts or menu options for almost everything you would use a mouse for. Again, just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. - sporty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0To answer the ranting zealot, partially. Everyone does NOT work like you. People who like the mac interface like it for some of the very things you think are nonsense. You seem /very/ angry at things that fall out of the Apple suggestions that some vendors do, some things you don’t agree with and what not. If you don’t like OSX nor do you use it on a daily basis, you’re prolly less qualified to speak. It really sounds like you don’t. If you do, then you prolly are using OSX for the /wrong reasons/.
1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.
Gee, no *****. When you destroy an application's last window, why on earth should you find it still running five hours later, consuming resources? This is not user error; this is ***** design.
Some applications require no window to be open. Example: adobe photoshop. You have many various types of windows that can be open. When you close your last window, it may not be the same as the next window type you would open.
For instance, if I’m using quicktime to look at video related stuff, I may open 3 quicktime windows at once. Then close them all. Should I unload the app even though I’m about to open another quicktime?
Lastly, note IE does this, and the moz quick launch. It sits in the background waiting for someone to start something, then loads the easier parts in-line.
2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.
Valid, but this is mostly due to the lack of an installer in many cases. Installing software on the Mac is unpredictable. Sometimes there is an installer, others there isn't.
The recommended behavior is to run from where you copy. The fact that people use different installers, windows, unix or mac, is something to yell at your vendor about.
7. Not understanding the usefulness of column view and leaving everything in icon view
OK, if this refers to the ridiculous three-boxes-across Finder view, what is this supposed "usefulness?" The only view worth a rat's ass is the treeview (which of course is the normal Explorer view). Why on earth would you use the stupid column view, which is grossly inefficient because each sublevel is indented all the way out beyond the end of its parent? In the treeview, subdirectories are all indented the same small amount, showing the greatest number of items and their hierarchy in the least space. Duh.
If you ever use multiple directories for things like code, it’s /very/ useful.
10. Renaming desktop icons to random characters because they don’t understand the difference between the enter and the return key on Mac. (Enter puts an icon into rename mode).
WTF is this referring to? I have never seen this happen, nor have I seen both an "enter" and "return" key on a Mac.
The desktop standard keyboards have both.
11. People trying to find the menus on a window, not realising they’re always at the top of the screen
A *****, ***** design. There is simply no defense for it. A lame one is that, "Oh, well menus on every window waste screen space." Totally wrong. If you want Mac style, then just maximize the window. Voila, your one menu's at the top. Otherwise, even with multiple apps running, their windows can OVERLAP. Only one app has focus at a time, and it is on top. It can totally cover the other apps if you want. The "wasted space" argument is complete bunk.
Context sensitive widgets do save space. I remember using the Lotus Smart Suite, which got bought out by ibm. They didn’t have a toolbar, but a small window that changed contents depending on what you were doing. If you were in a paragraph, the table widgets were not there. If you were in a graphic within your doc, the font options would not be there. I prefer not having so many damned menus sitting around.
12. Trying to resize windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner.
NO *****. The Mac OS is the only GUI available that can't resize its windows from their edges. Seriously, Apple, WTF? Gee, what happens when the window is actually larger than your screen, putting the stupid lower-right triangle out of reach? Hosed.
The philosophy is, it’s easier to grab a widget with good size and thickness, than the edge of a window. I do the same on windows since it’s just quicker to get to a triangular icon than a thin widget.
18. Thinking the green “+” button maximises a window to full screen (not realising that Apple’s maximise philosophy is to only make a window as big as it needs to be to comfortably fit the width of content currently being displayed)
This is another design defect. Everyone hates this. When we say maximize, WE MEAN IT, Apple.
Browse to cnet.com on a windows machine and click maximize. If your resolution is high enough, why would I not want it to maximize to the content size than the entire screen?
20. Minimising windows all the time rather than using “hide”, leaving the document section of the doc littered with forgotten minimised windows (that are quietly occupying system resources).
WTF is this referring to? It doesn't even make sense: "the document section of the doc?" How is this different from Windows? There should be no "hide" menu item; that is a ***** workaround for the execrable Mac-oriented mania for floating windows. FCP is a great example: a patchwork of what, six windows, glued together but all with their own close/maximize/minimize buttons so there's no damned way to just temporarily get rid of the app. Oh, unless you dig around in some menus and find "hide". Making users dig through a menu to figure out how to minimize an app? LAME.
When dealing with many of documents in one app, then switching to another, that has many windows, you may not wish to minimize them all to the doc. Hide minimizes into oblivion with the app icon being the link back to it. Depends on the situation.
21. Double-clicking dock icons.
Dumb, but you don't have to double-click Quick Launch icons on Windows either, so this is just ignorant users.
Yeah, but you double click on icons in other places. It’s a little inconsistent.
25. Not understanding that the dock is used to both launch and return to a program …
What problem does this cause, exactly? So they don't notice the little triangle under the icon and they click it again, giving them the desired result: the app is active again. What's the problem?
That people don’t understand that a second icon doesn’t pop up for the running app. I.e. the launch bar thing defaulted at the bottom of the screen.
26. Inability to work with multiple documents on-screen at the same time, because they have only ever learned to use Windows’ maximise mode which always makes everything full-screen
Then why are they confused about the menu being at the top of the screen? Contradictory nonsense.
People make various mistakes, not all 30 at once.
27. Confusing “delete” with “backspace” (because Apple has two keys named “delete” on the keyboard, one of which does forward delete and the other backward delete. Way to go, usability geniuses).
NO *****, AGAIN. And to make matters worse, there's no Delete key at all on Mac laptops.
Desktops do ‘cause they have the keyboard space and it is a convenience to people who type a lot.
28. Expecting “home” and “end” keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.
Again, NO *****. What do you do more often: Go to the end of a line, or the end of the entire document? Yes, the end of a line, so of course that's NOT what Apple dedicates a hardware key on the keyboard to. At least Word and perhaps other apps have seen fit to provide an override for this stupidity.
There’s an easy way to get to the end of a line. Click on it. You have nothing to do the same for the end of a document w/o creating a widget every single time.
30. Looking for the “complicated” way of doing everything. For example, trying to go into system preferences and right-clicking on the networking icon in order to find available wireless networks, rather than just clicking on the Airport icon in the menu bar and selecting the relevant wireless network.
Maybe that's because it's better to give people ONE place to go to in order to control system functions instead of having them guess at cryptic icons all over the place. Just look at some of Apple's icons. WTF is that gear thing that's just sitting there in many applications' toolbars? And since when do you RIGHT-click on stuff in the Control Panel? This one doesn't hold water.
In windows, to change your IP, in the network and dialup icon that lists your interfaces, you need to right click (or left if your buttons are inverted), to bring up a properties menu. You don’t do that on the mac. - sych0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0macs ARE easier than pcs. These errors are made by switchers. If youve never used a computer before, macs are easier to understand imo
- serpicolugnut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0fisherman is a moron. The single menu kicks the application dependent menu's butt. The reason is this : consistency. The Mac is easier to use because it is consistent in it's use of frequently used menu items and keyboard commands (and it's the Apple key, not the clover leaf). In any Mac app that I use, the keyboard and menu commands for copy, cut, paste, print, open, close, save, find, select all, and undo are all the same. Microsoft can't even make them consistent throughout their Office apps (how come I can close a window in Word with ctrl-W, but I can't in Outlook? That is freakin' dumb.
Most of these could be retitled "Top 30 Mistakes made by Windows users who only have experience using a broken interface". The Mac has been forced to adopt some of the broken GUI choices of Windows over the years, but I for one am glad that it is remained steadfast in bypassing the bad GUI choices Windows has made. - leobaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1
Don't you just love how he offers solutions to these mistakes mac users (really windows users) make?
What an asshat. - DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0dupe. this made front page of digg a month ago.
- scribles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wow... this is what is qualifying as tech news nowadays?
let's just put it this way...
windows != OS X and OS X != windows - samdu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@mpeters13
What in the WORLD were trying to copy over your Utilities folder?!?!? That's just a bad idea regardless of the functionality of folder copying in the OS. :) - vinny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"7. Not understanding the usefulness of column view and leaving everything in icon view
OK, if this refers to the ridiculous three-boxes-across Finder view, what is this supposed "usefulness?" The only view worth a rat's ass is the treeview (which of course is the normal Explorer view). Why on earth would you use the stupid column view, which is grossly inefficient because each sublevel is indented all the way out beyond the end of its parent? In the treeview, subdirectories are all indented the same small amount, showing the greatest number of items and their hierarchy in the least space. Duh."
Just because you don't use it or understand it doesn't make it stupid. Column view is my preferred view. You use the tree view to avoid scrolling horizontally, I use the column view to avoid scrolling vertically. Tree view isn't very efficient if you have a lot of items in your sub-folders. The column makes getting to deep subfolders very quick. If you don't like it, don't use it. I think having the option is nice. - ToeCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0no Digg.
Many of these can be classified as ID-10-T users. I agree with many of the comments here.
The placement of the CMD key is better than the placement of CTRL key for key combos.
- There is a HIDE key CMD-H
- If you select a bunch of icons and you want to delete.. CMD-DELETE (it adds a bit of safety)
- Safari and Firefox allows you to save to any folder (check prefs)
- The ability to close app when all windows have closed is left to the developer. For certain apps, I prefer they remain open. (ie: CocoaMySQL)
- Windows methods isn't exactly the pinnacle of UI Design. - abhibeckert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree with some of your stuff, but not all fisherman:
"1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.
Gee, no *****. When you destroy an application's last window, why on earth should you find it still running five hours later, consuming resources? This is not user error; this is ***** design."
Call it ***** design if you want, but I personally find it very handy to be able to have a program open without any windows. It's just something new people have to learn.
"2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.
Valid, but this is mostly due to the lack of an installer in many cases. Installing software on the Mac is unpredictable. Sometimes there is an installer, others there isn't."
It's the developer's responsibility to provide some instructions, not apple's responsibility to make it impossible to run an app from a disk image.
"3. Creating endless untitled folders
Hm, maybe because the Finder doesn't create folders beneath the one you selected before saying "new folder", but erroneously creates them at the root level of the drive (which may be off the screen)?"
WTF are you talking about? When you create a new folder, it creates it in whatever folder is open. If you're in column view it's a bit more complex because there are possibly 20 folders open in the same window, but it's not that complicated to figure out which one is the "open" one.
"7. Not understanding the usefulness of column view and leaving everything in icon view
OK, if this refers to the ridiculous three-boxes-across Finder view, what is this supposed "usefulness?" The only view worth a rat's ass is the treeview (which of course is the normal Explorer view). Why on earth would you use the stupid column view, which is grossly inefficient because each sublevel is indented all the way out beyond the end of its parent? In the treeview, subdirectories are all indented the same small amount, showing the greatest number of items and their hierarchy in the least space. Duh."
All different views have their advantages depending on how you structure your files. Saying any one is bad is just being stupid. I use icon for most stuff, column for my projects (which usually have loads of folders), and only ever use list/tree view when the width is confined (eg. in the files pane of an Xcode project). In a wide window, I find columns far superior from a speed-of-navigating point of view.
8. Not using any keyboard shortcuts
That's because the keyboard shortcuts on the Mac are not only ridiculously cumbersome (often requiring multiple keys and two hands to do the simplest thing), but they're essentially undocumented. Look in a Windows menu, and you'll see the shortcuts spelled out: "Ctrl+C". Now look at the Mac menus. We have arrows, a cloverleaf, and WTF is that, a ski jump with a line going toward it? The only one that even appears on the keyboard is the cloverleaf. Gee, no wonder people aren't using the shortcuts.
Keyboard shortcuts are for advanced users, anyone who's tried teaching a n00b to use them will find that they flat out refuse. More advanced users can certainly learn the 4 simbols that save space and make it easier to read the menu items (especially for n00bs).
Furthermore, the Mac reinforces the idea that the keyboard doesn't do much. Try selecting a bunch of unneeded files on your desktop and pressing Delete. Nothing happens. Users are taught to drag, drag, drag ***** around everywhere.
Try holding comand and pressing delete. The files are deleted. MacOS X has a full keyboard UI, there's nothing you can't do on a mac with the mouse, except maybe artwork. And you can even do that if you're really keen (and willing to put up with ugly results). Beleive me, my mouse failed a few years ago and I went 2 weeks before buying a new one.
"10. Renaming desktop icons to random characters because they don’t understand the difference between the enter and the return key on Mac. (Enter puts an icon into rename mode).
WTF is this referring to? I have never seen this happen, nor have I seen both an "enter" and "return" key on a Mac."
I agree, he's talknig really wierd *****. Oh and all of apple's current keyboards, and most of the older ones, have both an enter and a return keyboard. Notebooks only have return, but if you hold the fn key and press it you get enter (it even says enter in grey above return on my iBook).
"11. People trying to find the menus on a window, not realising they’re always at the top of the screen
A *****, ***** design. There is simply no defense for it. A lame one is that, "Oh, well menus on every window waste screen space." Totally wrong. If you want Mac style, then just maximize the window. Voila, your one menu's at the top. Otherwise, even with multiple apps running, their windows can OVERLAP. Only one app has focus at a time, and it is on top. It can totally cover the other apps if you want. The "wasted space" argument is complete bunk."
"What makes the one-menu design so ***** is that the contents of that menu change continually, depending on what app window the user happens to click on. And with many Mac apps littering your screen with a ***** of floating windows, it's not always clear which app each one belongs to. Conversely, the menu captions may be exactly the same between apps, but the user may actually be operating the wrong one. For example, let's say you have Word running and you launch Safari. When you're done with Safari you close it with the red gumdrop. Word now fills your screen again, and you decide to open a file. So you go to the File menu. Guess what, that's not the Word File menu, it's the Safari File menu, despite the fact that it doesn't have a single window. THIS DESIGN SUCKS."
Oh come on. I agree both have their pro's and cons. You've listed the pros of the windows world, I'll list the mac ones: You can have a menu bar without any windows; the menu bar is allways in the same place no-matter what; The far left and right side of the menubar are used by the system, in a similar way to the right hand side of the task bar and the start button; And most importantly, having the menubar on the edge of the screen makes it much faster and more reflexive to click them. On a mac you don't have to aim for the menu items, on windows you do.
Actually, this points out something I've allways known. Microsoft tries extremely hard to make their computers easy to use in that you don't have to learn much. Apple however, will usually choose productivity over ease of use, the menubar is an example of that. The argument here is that one hour spent learning something is better than 0.2 seconds every time you click a menu because you have to find the menubar, and then aim for it.
"12. Trying to resize windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner.
NO *****. The Mac OS is the only GUI available that can't resize its windows from their edges. Seriously, Apple, WTF? Gee, what happens when the window is actually larger than your screen, putting the stupid lower-right triangle out of reach? Hosed."
MacOS is also the only UI where teh srcoll bar is on the edge of the screen. See menubars. As for the window being larger. That never happens on a mac, unless you're using buggy alpha quality software.
"13. Trying to use the CTRL key rather than CMD key for shortcuts.
I don't see a CMD key on any Mac."
It's the clover leaf, and it's called command. Some people call it the apple key, but that's mostly because they think there's a windows key on pc's, so there must be an apple key on macs.
"14. Thinking it’ll be easy to get a stuck CD out.
Yes, Apple never learns. It was the same ***** with their motorized floppy loaders."
Very true, I've had headaches with that a fair few times. Mind you it's not that hard once you know how.
"15. Installing a program every time they want to run it because they think the installer _is_ the program.
Wait a minute, I thought there was no installer, and installing everything was as easy as dragging it somewhere. Right."
WTF is dan talking about here? lol.
"17. Repeatedly hitting the Apple key expecting the Apple menu to pop up (confused with Windows Key and Start Menu concept)
Yes, the Start menu SUCKS. No argument here."
One would hope the user would realize that the apple/command key doesn't do anything after a couple of tries...
"18. Thinking the green “+” button maximises a window to full screen (not realising that Apple’s maximise philosophy is to only make a window as big as it needs to be to comfortably fit the width of content currently being displayed)
This is another design defect. Everyone hates this. When we say maximize, WE MEAN IT, Apple."
Well, technically it's not a maximize button. It's a zoom button and it's suposed to zoom the window to the right size. If window has an image in it, and that picture is smaller than the screen, why would you want the window full screen? 99.9% of apps do resize to full screen when you click that button, in fact it's the default behavior, a developer actually has to jump through hoops to make it not resize to full screen. Finder however is pigheaded and you can completely forget that button even exists, without fail it will resize to something even worse than before you clicked the button! iTunes is also completely screwed up with the zoom button (they've decided to replace it with a completely different action... $#@!
"19. Looking in vain for an uninstaller app, because they don’t realise that uninstalling an application on Mac is as easy as dragging the program icon into the trash.
TOTAL *****. This one is truly irritating. Installing something on your Mac can litter it nearly as effectively as a Windows installer. First, frameworks may have been installed in any one of three Frameworks directories. Second, installing an app also often creates a "receipt" in one of the Library directories, which can screw up subsequent attempts to reinstall the program. And considering that receipts are written, why the hell ISN'T there an uninstaller?"
Any app that installs frameworks is a ***** app. Frameworks are intended for enterprise software, and end users should never need them. Almost all software that needs a frawework should bundle the framework within the app. I do however agree with the reciepts. Perhaps it's a sign that there will oneday be an uninstaller. Or perhaps one was planned but didn't end up getting created.
20. Minimising windows all the time rather than using “hide”, leaving the document section of the doc littered with forgotten minimised windows (that are quietly occupying system resources).
WTF is this referring to? It doesn't even make sense: "the document section of the doc?" How is this different from Windows? There should be no "hide" menu item; that is a ***** workaround for the execrable Mac-oriented mania for floating windows. FCP is a great example: a patchwork of what, six windows, glued together but all with their own close/maximize/minimize buttons so there's no damned way to just temporarily get rid of the app. Oh, unless you dig around in some menus and find "hide". Making users dig through a menu to figure out how to minimize an app? LAME.
There's a huge difference between hide and minimize, I almost never minimize and hide *all* the time. For example I have my email program allways open, but I don't want to ever see the window, and I don't want the minimized windows sitting in my dock. Hiding is perfect, and the comand-h keyboard shortcut is reflexive for me.
"21. Double-clicking dock icons.
Dumb, but you don't have to double-click Quick Launch icons on Windows either, so this is just ignorant users."
Lots and lots of users double click. It's very important for developers to ignore the second click on all buttons, there's a *lot* of people out there who seem to be completely in-capable of clicking the mouse button once. Of course, most developers don't figure this out until they deside to use their own buttons, and they usually figure it out the hard way. This isn't at all mac specific, so I don't know why it's even in the list...
"23. Saving everything to the desktop or somewhere on the hard drive other than their home folder
Oh, because Safari and all the decompression apps just download and expand stuff willy-nilly without asking where you want it?"
Um... I'm anything but a n00b and I save stuff to the desktop all the time, that's what the desktop is for in my opinion. Just like my desk in real life, eventually it gets totally messy and I clean it up.
"24. Trying to load documents or programs multiple times because they don’t recognise the progress indicators (sound of hard drive grinding, CD spinning, Mac spinning beachball, browser status bar)
That's just dumb."
My hard drive is silent, I hardly ever open stuff off a CD, the beachball doesn't start spinning immediately, and the browser status bar is way to tiny for informing users that something just happened. This issue was fixed about 4 years ago in 10.3 by an animation that clearly shows the icon "opening", and while web browsers should probably do the something similar, safari's big blue progress bar at the top of the screen is pretty hard to miss. Did you just stick this in so you could reach an even 30?
"25. Not understanding that the dock is used to both launch and return to a program …
What problem does this cause, exactly? So they don't notice the little triangle under the icon and they click it again, giving them the desired result: the app is active again. What's the problem?"
OK, now that's just lame. From a users point of view there shouldn't even be any difference between openning and returning to a program. Which is the case in all well written applications, infact the event when you cilck on the dock icon is not "activate", it's called "reopen". Therefore you really are opening the application again.
"26. Inability to work with multiple documents on-screen at the same time, because they have only ever learned to use Windows’ maximise mode which always makes everything full-screen
Then why are they confused about the menu being at the top of the screen? Contradictory nonsense."
Um... since when does a new user ever need to have two documents open at a time?
"27. Confusing “delete” with “backspace” (because Apple has two keys named “delete” on the keyboard, one of which does forward delete and the other backward delete. Way to go, usability geniuses).
NO *****, AGAIN. And to make matters worse, there's no Delete key at all on Mac laptops. Check it out: There's the Backspace key that Apple has wrongly labeled "Delete". But to delete characters normally, you have to arrow over them to the right and then backspace over them (since most users won't know to save at least a little time by holding Shift to extend the selection). UN ***** BELIEVABLE."
I've never seen a keyboard with two delete keys... It's allways delete and forward delete (which is sometimes an icon). BTW on mac notebooks you hold fn and it does forward delete. They are only different when entering text, in other areas the mac delete key does the same thing as the pc delete key. I agree this difference sucks, but it's not apple's fault, they've been doing it that way since before windows existed.
"28. Expecting “home” and “end” keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.
Again, NO *****. What do you do more often: Go to the end of a line, or the end of the entire document? Yes, the end of a line, so of course that's NOT what Apple dedicates a hardware key on the keyboard to. At least Word and perhaps other apps have seen fit to provide an override for this stupidity."
Try holding comand or option and pressing the arrow keys (all four of them). That's how you navigate text on a mac. The home/end on a mac control the scroll bar, not the insertion point. Notice when you hit end it only scrolls to the bottom, it doesn't move the insertion point at all.
Personally I think the mac system is far better than the windows system, and only outdone by the old unix system of holding control+various letters, and mac os x is the only OS that I've ever used where you can use the unix key bindings in all text fields.
"29. Not realising that when you copy a folder over an existing one, OS X -replaces- the destination folder rather than merging the contents, which is what Windows does.
Sigh. No kidding, again. Windows warns you of possible deletions IF there's a conflicting filename and asks you if you want to continue. How the hell are you supposed to merge like-named folders on the Mac? It's anybody's guess."
You can't merge folders on a mac, end of story. It's a feature that doesn't exist, and to be honest I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to do it. Replacing the old folder is far more user friendly if you ask me... But anyway again you can blame microsoft for doing something differently.
"30. Looking for the “complicated” way of doing everything. For example, trying to go into system preferences and right-clicking on the networking icon in order to find available wireless networks, rather than just clicking on the Airport icon in the menu bar and selecting the relevant wireless network. Maybe that's because it's better to give people ONE place to go to in order to control system functions instead of having them guess at cryptic icons all over the place. Just look at some of Apple's icons. WTF is that gear thing that's just sitting there in many applications' toolbars? And since when do you RIGHT-click on stuff in the Control Panel? This one doesn't hold water."
The gear thing is called the action button, click on it and you'll find out what it does. And I've never heard of anyone right clicking on something in the control panel... where did you get that from? I just tried it and it doesn't even pop up a contextual menu. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Seriously, why does anyone even bother posting a story like this? All it is is just another way of getting a Mac vs. Windows battle thread on Digg ONE MORE TIME. We have absolutely so substance here, just flaming fan boi *****.
I like Mac, some other people here like Mac, while others like Windows. Whoopie-*****-doo. Let's all pat ourselves on the back for being so superior.
Only a matter of time before half of the idiots here find yet another lame XBOX 360 or PS3 story that is meaningless, just so they can put their 2 cents in about which platform sux.
I weep for the future. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Breaking News just in!
Crack researcher discovers different operating systems work differently!!! - idesign, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0fisherman is a moron.
Only a dumbass windows user complains about keeping a program running that's not in use because it hogs resources. - ronaldpoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0man, that fisherman needs some relax... windows user's mistakes are even worst... by far...
i switched from windows to mac, and i really love my new machine =) - vinny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Oh, unless you dig around in some menus and find "hide". Making users dig through a menu to figure out how to minimize an app? LAME."
CMD-H will hide. No need to dig. Maybe you should try to understand better before you complain. Also hide and minimize are two different things. CMD-M will minimize. It's all pretty easy once you know what you are doing. Just like other things in life. - tablatronix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Should have been mistakes made by switchers.
Anyone using a mac from the get-go isnt confounded by their preconceived notions of what an OS is supposed to do.
God i hate crappy journalism. - mpeters13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I love OSX, but this list is absolute TRUTH. Especially #29. Try replacing your entire damn Utilities directory. Dugg+++
- craigtheguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0#1 and #28 (keeping apps open after closing windows and the end/home keys) are great features.
CMD-H for hiding an app is an underutilized feature. Also, keyboard mavens know other handy keyboard shortcuts: CMD-CTRL-D brings up a context-sensitive dictionary window. CMD-SHIFT-4 takes a screenshot and hitting the spacebar lets you capture a particular window. Holding shift and hitting down or up should select an entire line of text, although FireFox breaks this which is why I will keep using Safari. - maxrcul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is why you should have to pass a test before you're allowed to buy a computer. Based on the comments I've read on this thread, we could eliminate about 95% of the world's computer users. Like George Carlin says, "You people are depleting the human gene pool."
- troydoogle7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0First Mistake was buying the mac so they could get their itunes to work without crashing. If you kill the ipodservice and the itunes helper on the pc. Itunes works great. Come on songbird!!
- Wyattx17, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"thinks the world revolves around Windows."
ummm last time I checked, for the most part it does. - benb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0From Fisherman:
"and WTF is that, a ski jump with a line going toward it?"
I got a chuckle out of that. I remember thinking almost the same thing the first time I saw it.
Yeah, this list is kinda lame. Mistakes are made by new users to any OS. That is why they are NEW users. - Cippy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You have to be a complete dumbass to make any of these mistakes.
No digg. - swindmill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is repetitive and stupid. Every single one of those "common mistakes" is either irrelevant or the result of an uninformed user. This one gets me the most:
1. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.
This a great feature in OS X. I like to keep my mail app running so I know when I get new mail, but I don't want the window open all the time. I like my browser to keep running so I have instant access to it, as I am constantly closing and opening the window. Same goes for RSS readers and other apps. If you want to close the window and quit hit cmd-q. It's pretty damn obvious when it hasn't been quit b/c there is a notification in the dock icon, or the icon remains in the dock if it isn't typically there. -
Show 51 - 79 of 79 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is