What is Digg?149 Comments
- inactive, on 08/30/2008, -21/+94This chick didn't try out OS X long enough. Half of the stuff she says is untrue. Here's her criticisms and my counter-points.
"No location bar"
The Finder does have a location bar. Go to the Finder's Menu and click on "View/Show Path Bar". You can also get your location by holding down the command key and clicking on the heading at the top of the Finder window.
"No tree structure"
I think she needs to take a look at List View. Seriously, has she ever been in the View Menu? OS X has 4 different View modes: Icons, List, Columns and Cover Flow.
"difficult to navigate folders and move files around the way I want to"
WTF? Everything in OS X is drag and drop. What's complicated about that? You can also Cut, Copy or Paste.
"Insufficient panels & customization. In Ubuntu I can have as many panels I want, can put all kinds of stuff on them, and can arrange them however I want. In OSX You just have the dock, and you can really only put applications or files on them, and you can’t even put in a separator to keep them organized."
Uh, the dock has a separator on the right side for Folders. You can drag any Folder there and make it open as a List, like in MS Windows or as a Fan, a Grid or Stack. Furthermore, the Finder lets you drag and drop any Folder in the Sidebar. You can drag Apps to the Finder's Title Bar and the "Customize Toolbar" option lets you to drag in Separators or spaces between the apps.
"Program menus are glued to the top of the screen on one monitor only, which detaches them from the window. This is especailly annoying when the program you’re using is on the second monitor."
This is a valid point, but not enough to make me switch to Linux.
"the date/time doesn’t open to a navigable calendar. I often use this to check dates in the past or future."
This is just a bold faced lie. OS X's date and time calendar has freaking arrow keys at the top, which allows you to navigate to future or past months. You can even change the calendar to another year. Is this chick just blind or stupid?
"you can’t see hidden files unless you run a command from the terminal to turn them on. Thus, hidden files are either always on or always off."
Another valid point, but a very minor one, unless you're some kind of Unix hacker. - MaxMWood, on 08/30/2008, -12/+62Did I mention no one cares.
- mogebier, on 08/30/2008, -3/+47Not to sound too mean, but why does anyone care which OS you use??
Yay for you for choosing one. - thecheatah, on 08/30/2008, -5/+35everybody has there own tastes. As far as I know, spend enough time with a OS, you will learn its ways! Linux is free and can be put on any computer, so if you learn its ways, you dont really have to worry about learning others.
- chawkie, on 08/30/2008, -11/+32Says a very pathetic Linux loser.
- Dylson, on 08/30/2008, -2/+21Who cares why they move. It doesn't matter. Just use the OS you prefer and be quiet.
- inactive, on 08/30/2008, -1/+18Agreed. She couldn't have spent very logn AT ALL on OS X. This article is pretty silly because of that fact.
- judicar, on 08/30/2008, -4/+21>I'm a Canadian web designer specializing in ... and SEO
Well that explains a lot. - jbess, on 08/30/2008, -7/+21Different strokes for different folks.
For her purposes, OSX just doesn't sound suitable, and the layout of Ubuntu does the job.
Not really a fair critique of either OS, just matters of taste. - acmethunder, on 08/30/2008, -12/+26It doesn't sound like she dug very deep to find out what OSX is capable of, nor does is there mention which version of OSX she's using (Tiger, Leopard, Panther?...which one?).
- Kallius, on 08/30/2008, -1/+14Maybe instead of switching from Mac to Ubuntu, she should consider moving from a lame server that is already down to something that can handle more than a few hundred hits.
- imcquill, on 08/30/2008, -15/+28The menu being glued to the top is definitely by design. There are a lot of benefits of doing it this way.
The first benefit is that you don't lose the screen real estate associated with each window displaying its own menu bar. And if you have two windows (say firefox windows), then you really don't need two menu bars for the same app.
The second benefit comes in terms of the speed with which you can select things with the mouse. This is not obvious, but it follows from Fitt's law, that it is easier to select things around the perimeter of the screen (this is not the definition of Fitt's Law, but it is a consequence of it). Essentially, when you have a fixed button in the middle of the screen, you have a precise spot you need to aim for, and you slow down the closer you get to it. Whereas around the corner of the screen, you actually have an infinite amount of space (everything past the object) that you can aim for. (side note: the absolute quickest way to select something is by fixing them to the corners of the screen, which many OS X users turn on. I've got three corners of the screen tied to expose, spaces and expose desktop. There are HCI papers out that measure the speeds with which you can do this, and it is fast!). I think even windows/linux users *prefer* to have the menubar at the top of the screen. Ever notice that most windows users tend to run their apps maximized, even if that is not necessary? You don't see OS X users doing that nearly as much. Even on small displays I'll keep two windows in the forefront. Therefore, you lose a lot of the ability to drag and drop between windows and apps if you always keep things maximized. These are subtle consequences of the decision to fix menubars to windows.
Also, the spacial memory of humans is very good (lots of HCI papers around which demonstrate this), so always having the menubar in a fixed position helps to remember where it is without thinking about it. - scabbers, on 08/30/2008, -11/+23Like I'm going to listen to a girl who can't even get on with OSX.
- inactive, on 08/30/2008, -3/+15What's ever more laughable to me is that she complains that you have to show hidden files by going to command line. Isn't that something that all Linux users love to do?
- nesagwa, on 08/30/2008, -4/+16Hey another one.
Once again we dont care what the ***** OS you use or why.
Stop telling us.
Hey, our tech blog needs filler. Go write something about switching to Ubuntu from some other OS! - ChappyChaps11, on 08/30/2008, -0/+11Am I the only one getting sick of the "Why I switched" articles? I use Ubuntu too but why does everyone feel the urge to write about it and post it on digg? Theres at least 10 "I swtiched" articles a week. We get it, if we need a reason to switch, we'll look at the hundreds of articles stating why.
- rawheadrex, on 08/30/2008, -2/+13I don't care if someone ditches OSX to go to Windows or Linux or *****. It's their choice, I'm sure everybody has good reason to make those choices, and it's none of my business, even though I'm a pretty big Mac fan, to bitch about such choices.
However, clearly this woman was never a "Mac user". She says it herself, she never wanted to use a Mac but was "forced" to use one. That is not a switcher, and so this article really does become a "so what?" spam. - n0odles, on 08/30/2008, -18/+29Very pretty Linux user.
- inactive, on 08/30/2008, -1/+10...Don't actually care, but dugg it because it said Linux
Sorry guys, I can't stand hearing these switch stories anymore. How about some new software or something? - strangewill, on 08/30/2008, -1/+10"EVERYTHING just works"
LOL, no. No no no no no, no. Just... no. It always varies on the software.
However I still love apt-get. - musabb, on 08/30/2008, -0/+8Moving from Mac to Ubuntu: Why I’m switching
When I started my new job in October the computer that I had to use was a Power Mac G5. This wasn’t my choosing - the guy before me really liked macs and had the whole office switch over several years ago. I was allowed to get a new laptop as well, and chose a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 and installed Ubuntu. Until now the Mac has been my primary machine - home of email, web browsing, scheduling, and my main design activities. Why? Because that’s the way I set it up at first, before my laptop arrived. I used the laptop mainly for harder development activities, and file transfers (more on that later). This week I finally decided to move to the Ubuntu machine for my primary activities. Why? Because I just don’t like OSX that much. It hinders my activities in some pretty significant ways.
Why I’m leaving Mac
1. Crap file management.The Finder doesn’t work for me. No location bar and no tree strucure side panel makes it difficult to navigate folders and move files around the way I want to.
2. Insufficient panels & customization. In Ubuntu I can have as many panels I want, can put all kinds of stuff on them, and can arrange them however I want. In OSX You just have the dock, and you can really only put applications or files on them, and you can’t even put in a separator to keep them organized.
3. Various other annoyances. Such as:
* program menus are glued to the top of the screen on one monitor only, which detaches them from the window. This is especailly annoying when the program you’re using is on the second monitor.
* the date/time doesn’t open to a navigable calendar. I often use this to check dates in the past or future.
* you can’t see hidden files unless you run a command from the terminal to turn them on. Thus, hidden files are either always on or always off.
Why I’m keeping Mac
I’ll keep the Mac around for some tasks (I have a KVM switch set up so I can easily toggle between the two), including:
1. Those pesky .docx files.
2. Dreamweaver - until we get a CMS in place I still need to manage sites built with DW templates.
3. Photoshop - because sometimes the Gimp isn’t enough. - fabriciom, on 08/30/2008, -1/+9When one gets old they also start using an OS for work only. Until there is a Logic, Final Cut, or Aperture for Linux. I'm not changing. Well until there is Logic for me.
- zcreem, on 08/30/2008, -0/+7Yours gone was it?
- WinMacLin, on 08/30/2008, -1/+8I agree as well. These no-name switch stories are starting to get boring. Wake me up when Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or someone that maters switches, that will be a story worth reading.
- rawheadrex, on 08/30/2008, -1/+8"This is just a bold faced lie"
I think she's talking about the analog/digital clock that's on the menu bar. You can't click it to get a navigable calendar. It is true, and if you're used to having such a calendar there, I can understand feeling a little frustrated.
However, it's like that by design more than anything else. Complaining about that is like complaining that Macs don't have a Windows Key. Personally, I keep the iCal widget open in Dashboard; I have even faster access to a navigable calendar, but she wouldn't know that ;-) - fantastcandy10, on 08/30/2008, -1/+8I'm not sure why imcquill being dugg down. He's right
- Spadassin, on 08/30/2008, -2/+9mirror?
- dtfinch, on 08/30/2008, -0/+6You mean the memory leak in the closed source nvidia driver that was fixed in April?
- zaqarov, on 08/30/2008, -1/+6That's a hell of a point you make there...
/sa... meh - inactive, on 08/30/2008, -5/+10Really??? Ive been watching Linux for 10+ years now. And... It appears to be at an all time low.
- inactive, on 08/30/2008, -3/+8No, it's because 90% of what she says about OS X is simply not true at all.
- DirtyWorker, on 08/30/2008, -0/+5KevinRose.com, BlakeRoss.com and a bunch of other guys wants to have a word with you.
- trakie, on 08/30/2008, -0/+4currently ive been up for 11 days 3 hours 42 mins and 28 secs with no crashes. oh and i run compiz with a whole bunch of plugins, real memory leak and crashes.... there are things to complain about with ubuntu, however stability is rarely one of them
- deadbaby, on 08/30/2008, -4/+8I use Linux on my work laptop and OSX for everything else. I greatly prefer OSX simply because the quality of Linux apps, overall, is very poor. Sure there's a good web browser, good bittorrent client, good e-mail program, decent media players, but that's about it. When you start looking for certain types of apps there's simply nothing even remotely comparable.
- statc, on 08/30/2008, -1/+5What's better for SEO than writing a switching OS article and hitting the front page of digg...
- AleGuy, on 08/30/2008, -2/+6I use a Mac - switched when OS X came out. But this blind defense of the menu being glued to the top of the main screen drives me crazy. It might have been a benefit on the original Mac (with it's 512 x 342 screen), but with modern screens, the "loss of real estate" argument doesn't carry much weight. And the whole "it's faster" argument is total BS. I have multiple monitors. To have to mouse over all the way to another screen is way slower than just hitting a menu button right there where I'm working. This is the point she was making.
- braveryonions, on 08/30/2008, -0/+4Thank you. I hate OS wars with a passion.
- infiniphunk, on 08/31/2008, -0/+4When reading the comments of others in this thread, it becomes so apparent how little Mac and Windows users know about linux desktops. What so many of them don't realize is just how easy it is to customize a desktop like Gnome, Xfce, or KDE for that matter. I still cringe a little bit every time I have to use a Mac.
- jrlcopy, on 08/30/2008, -4/+8This is just a viral advertisement put out by Ubuntu...
- kevdotbadger, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3Oh, and here's a mirror
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:xuaPrc7ez_IJ: ... - andrewtheart, on 08/31/2008, -0/+3...nope, Ubuntu came about. Enough said.
- secrity, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3When asked, Dolphin will show hidden files; no command line necessary..
- rawheadrex, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3AleGuy, you're right.
I've always been a proponent of the single/universal menu approach of the Mac OS; but not having a second menu on your second monitor and a third menu on your third monitor, etc., is plain dumb. - inactive, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3I just want to say, THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING AN OS FLAMEWAR! If I have to read another Obama or Palin article I'm going to vomit.
- peestandingup, on 08/31/2008, -0/+3Yeah, and there's only one flaw with that logic. OS X doesnt market itself as being able to run on multiple hardware systems like Ubuntu does.
- mCanada, on 08/30/2008, -1/+4In my homeland, back during the great war, SEO was called "furckendorf *****" or roughly translated "spamming the holy living ***** out of digg.com with useless ***** about SEO". (it translates cyclically).
- 5xSTUN, on 08/31/2008, -0/+3I just hit F12 and pull up the Dashboard calendar widget.
- inactive, on 08/31/2008, -0/+3so basically "a web designer who only really knows how to add keywords to pages"
- kevdotbadger, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3I wanna read an article title "I'm a retired Nascar driver, these are the reasons i moved from DOS".
- ooblez, on 08/30/2008, -2/+5I used to jump to OSX's defense, but now I just don't give a *****.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with it, but I can perfectly understand why people use other OS's.
Funny how everyone needs some form of God, I'd say for the atheists on digg it's their operating system ;-)
(yes I'm an agnostic) -
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