What is Digg?52 Comments
- upsidedork, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Almost all of those 30 points deserve to have their own individual articles written about them; there's some deep user-interface art/science behind it all. A good article, but I'm having trouble resisting the urge to bury it for using "title says it all."
- tastyterrorist, on 10/12/2007, -3/+111. Closing an application window, thinking it has quit.
2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.
3. Creating endless untitled folders
4. Using Safari’s Google search to get to a website
5. Confusing the concept of wallpaper with screensaver
6. Double-clicking a window thinking it will maximise it, but instead sending it to the dock
7. Not understanding the usefulness of column view and leaving everything in icon view
8. Not using any keyboard shortcuts
9. Thinking that now they’ve got rid of Windows they won’t have problems of _any_ sort on their Mac
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).
11. People trying to find the menus on a window, not realising they’re always at the top of the screen
12. Trying to resize windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner
13. Trying to use the CTRL key rather than CMD key for shortcuts.
14. Thinking it’ll be easy to get a stuck CD out.
15. Installing a program every time they want to run it because they think the installer _is_ the program.
16. Where’s “the internet”? (looking for the Windows Internet Explorer “e” icon)
17. Repeatedly hitting the Apple key expecting the Apple menu to pop up (confused with Windows Key and Start Menu concept)
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)
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.
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).
21. Double-clicking dock icons.
22. Inadvertant click-drags and removing programs from the dock in the process.
23. Saving everything to the desktop or somewhere on the hard drive other than their home folder
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)
25. Not understanding that the dock is used to both launch and return to a program …
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
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).
28. Expecting “home” and “end” keys to go the beginning and end of a line, rather than beginning and end of a document.
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.
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. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8more like "30 mistakes OSX lets new users make"
You really can't blame the user when they're using a completely new OS, thats just ridiculous. - Forse42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6A lot of those just seamed like problems with the Apple UI.
2. Downloading an app and running it from the disk image.
3. Creating endless untitled folders
4. Using Safari’s Google search to get to a website
5. Confusing the concept of wallpaper with screensaver (note: Wallpaper is the stuff you put on the wall all the time to see, screensaver gets rid of screen burns)
12. Trying to resize windows from the edge rather than the drag area on the corner
23. Saving everything to the desktop or somewhere on the hard drive other than their home folder
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.
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).
To name a few. - GloverCom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Great list!
#30 is my fav: Looking for the “complicated” way of doing everything.
Something I always tell new Mac users: "If it seem like what you're doing is overly complicated, it probably is." - PicklePower, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm not.
- bSimms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Title forgot to say "this server blows"
- donjaime, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Top 5 ways to get an article promoted on Digg:
1. Submit a top [0-100] list.
2. Submit an article that includes some reference to an apple product.
3. If the article does not include a reference to an apple product, put one in the Title.
4. Submit something that is emphatically PS3 hating or Wii supporting (or both!)
5. ..... If you did any or all of the above you don't need a fifth. - woodcoxcb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4http://www.duggmirror.com
Bah... they didn't catch it... - sorahn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+310. 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).
So does return. I guess he doesn't understand the difference either - shagie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3took me a few minutes to figure that out when i was trying to send the Firefox image to trash and it was in use. OH, now i get that whole Icon -> Application's folder icon jig now
- shagie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Think I should look this over considering I just got a new web dev job and all they have is macs.
- Zero2aHero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have 4 friends who bought Macs in the past month, so I was going to send this article to all of them in hopes of them getting something out of it... Unfortunately, each point is so vague that a new mac user probably wouldn't understand what most of that stuff meant. Was this article being written for new Mac users to learn from, or was it written for OSX vets to laugh at newcomers?
- cheez, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I like apple's maximize philosophy. I don't need a full screen window for everything
- jeremycobert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2mistake #1 buying a Mac........ Zing!!!!
- sorahn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2give me an example where it doesn't refresh itself. If i watch directories on my machine, and things get added to them, they show up. Not only that, but even as i create files (archives, movies, whatever) in list view the size of the file changes to update with the size of the file as it's created.
There isn't even a refresh option. If you crashed your mac 4 times in 1 day trying to refresh, then i'd call that user error. - klaupacius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i never knew the 'enter' key allowed you to rename a file/folder that is selected (as opposed to the 'return' key that opens it). for that I thank you.
- StatusQuoRules, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The list only seems to apply to absolute noobs, just look at them! How could anyone do these with common sense?
3. Creating endless untitled folders - yes, before they are renamed. how else to create them?
4. Using Safari’s Google search to get to a website - of course the search is going to take you to a website. if i type in macbook review then chances i have used safaris google search to get a to a website
5. Confusing the concept of wallpaper with screensaver - danwarne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's not hosted on a Mac server...
- ratzfatz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This really opened my eyes. Very good read - should make Apple think about making a special intro for users coming from Windows. Instead of generally bugging around to make you sign up for a crap .mac account.
- blatt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What they did leave out was thinking that an application is on the HD after opening a disc image.
- danwarne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1LOL!! You're right! I didn't know that both keys did the same thing on icons :-) Thanks for picking me up on that.
- Crid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2> The directory's refresh themselves.
No, actually, they don't. But that's the response whenever these things are listed: "La-la-la, can't hear you!"
I'll never understand it. Theoretically, some of these people are sane. Many have probably been licensed to drive and registered to vote.
Jobs has the power to warp men's minds. - sorahn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm actually really pissed off when i go back to windows because of the lack of this. I HATE working in full screen, and there is no other solution in windows other then moving them all around yourself, or trying to go find an app that will allow you to do that, then probably getting some spyware in the process, or a toolbar.
- surfing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+215. Installing a program every time they want to run it because they think the installer _is_ the program.
This is a usability issue. Poor design on the Apple's part and something on which they can improve. - surfing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[F2] in windows
- Macskeeball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0OS X is designed to be a truly multi-user environment. If user specific data were stored in the application bundles (which, for those who don't know, are basically folders for an application that normally act as one icon in a transparent manner) themselves, that would not work. Also, the benefit of having the preference files remain when uninstalling apps is that if you ever chose to reinstall a given app your settings would remain intact rather than reverting to the defaults.
- StarCrusher, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Just how much trouble does it take for the submitter to actually READ the article and come up with decent description? If the title really did say it all, there would be no need for the description. Think of all the money that Kevin and Company could save by not wasting the bandwidth to transmit those useless descriptions!
- phileplanet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://www.scrutinizethis.com/url/cached/?url=http://danwarne.com/mistakes-made-by-new-mac-users/
There's about 6 options that work here - stevetures, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2(Mistake #1: Hosting this on a mac server, then clicking on recent RTSP quicktime vuln. executing some code, and then POOF! no more article on digg... awww... its too bad since the first comment mentioning that its good enough that a separate article could be written on each mistake..)
edit: digg up to TastyTerrorist for reposting the article in the comments - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This article wasn't cached?
- Krovek647, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Number 19, though I agree is easier on a Macintosh, is not as simple. For those who have used AppZapper, you will find that by simply dragging an application to the trash does not delete preference files or caches. This is only really an issue if you have lots of apps. I have 1.62 GB of applications which I installed and added in addition to my software that came with my Mac. If I ever wanted to delete them all, I would also want to delete support files and preference that came along with them. So, not that it is a huge deal, but something to keep in mind.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1But it's so obvious how to use a Mac I'm surprised people who have been using Windows for years don't know how...
Of course, for the humor impaired, I'm joking... ;-)
One thing to give new users is a guidebook for Mac OS X. The Missing Manual series is good. Mac OS X Bible for the more technically inclined. Mac OS X For Dummies if they're not insulted by the title.
Sigh... Something tells me this comment is going to get dugg down because of that harmless joke up there and despite the helpful tip... *depressed* Or maybe for no reason at all... :-( - rheaume, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2That list makes me want one even less...
Used one during a photoshop class in 99, nightmare... - Macskeeball, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'll grant you #27 for sure and I'm unclear on the cause of #3, but as for everything else I have to disagree.
#2 is a result of the Mac providing a much nicer (simpler) method of installing apps (drag and drop). Pure user error.
#4 is something I have seen many a Windows user do on Windows, regardless of browser. Many browsers have two text fields in the toolbar (Location bar and search), and many people are using the search bar instead of the location bar.
#5 Desktop pictures (what Windows victims often refer to as wallpaper) are background pictures for your computer's desktop. It has been decades since computer screens have had burn in problems resulting in an actual *need* for screensavers.
#19 is an example of Windows victims looking for a complex solution for a simple problem. Pure user error. - Krovek647, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1See Post Below.
- PsychoPNut, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@sorahn
you win
edit: damnit
Look below... haha... i win? - Luigi239, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I agree.
Whenever I see somebody working on a laptop, with a widescreen window maximized, with 50% unsed space, I cant help but to point it out to them :P - philsherry, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Operating systems are only as intelligent as the people who use them. They don't really do anything until the user starts using them, and that's when things go gloriously right or wrong.
- zaclohrenz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Dugg Mirror: http://duggmirror.com/apple/Top_30_mistakes_made_by_new_Mac_users_3/
Google: http://72.14.209.104/search?hs=sUq&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fdanwarne.com%2Fmistakes-made-by-new-mac-users%2F&btnG=Search
Coral: http://danwarne.com.nyud.net:8080/mistakes-made-by-new-mac-users/ - Crid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Phil, good design can help. Mac ain't got it. The fact that this-or-that feature made it to broad markets first on an Apple is not of interest. The elegance was given muscle in Redmond.
- stevetures, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Can anyone repost in the comments space?
- Crid, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Well, if Apple was as brilliant and intuitive as enthusiasts pretend, we wouldn't have to worry about "mistakes", would we?
I've been working on Apple three months. Everything we've always heard about the elegance of design and slick operation is wrong. It's arcane as Hell, and not a particularly clever tool. (Ever try to refresh a directory? Don't bother.) Four crashes today. - RedRummy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0beat me to duggmirror..
- sorahn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1The directory's refresh themselves. There's no point in trying to force refresh a directory. Ever see windows auto move folders into order by name? didnt think so.
- Zero2aHero, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Top 1 Way to get dugg in the comments section of a story you don't like...
1. Make a "clever" top list of all of your observations about the digg community - beerbaron, on 10/12/2007, -18/+13Mistake #1: Buying a Mac
- fun4stuff, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2They only made 1 mistake: they switched to a mac.
- alexace, on 10/12/2007, -19/+13#1. Buy a mac?
- sorahn, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3yay, a race to get dugg down for being retarded
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