Why I don't like Macs ( not a troll! )

p

Hey all,

I'm not really a Mac person to be honest, there's just something about the interface that bugs me, although I've yet to try OSX which seem to have a lot of nice things.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if the things I don't like about the interface are warrented or not. I might simply not know how to do things, so I'm just gonna post up the things I miss from Windows(and other Oses) and see if there's a way to do them in the Mac.

I'm not looking for a debate on Mac vs PC, it's against the charter anyway, I'm just hoping to make my Mac experience better. (:

1. Keyboard shortcuts.
I can sit down on a PC and operate it without a mouse using cmds like alt+space to move windows, and others to navigate on screen elements. I know most apps have kbd shortcuts, but i'm just wondering if the OS itself does. I'd like to be able to operate a Mac without a mouse.

2. Opening/Saving Files.
In windows when i'm opening or saving files, I can do quite a bit in the dialog box. I can click on a file I want to over write. I can create new folders if it's a new project. I can select multiple files to open. Most mac apps don't have this(if any).

3. File Broswer.
The Mac's default file browser sucks ass. Windows could definately be improved too but the basic lack of 2 panel browsing is infuriating. Is there a 3rd party solution, or an option to enable it?

4. Right/Ctrl-Clicking.
There's less context sensitive menus in the Mac with regard to files etc...

5. Switching
The way alt+tab works is damn annoying. I often work between 2 applications and the Mac alt+tab breaks my workflow. Can I change that. Also, ctrl+tab in windows usualy switches betwen open windows of that app. E.g. 2 open documents in Flash.

That's all I can think of off hand.

If anyone has any solutions or little apps that make using MacOS better I'd be delighted to hear them.

Of course if anyone wants to tell me things that the Mac does better that'd be cool too. (:

Thanks for reading,

- Kevin

pa

I'll answer point by point.

1. OS X can be operated entirely using the keyboard, if you turn it on through the preferences. It's still faster to use a combination of keyboard and mouse to operate though.

2. You can create new folders and open multiple files in OS X, although only some apps allow the opening of multiple files. Re-naming, moving, deleting of files is not allowed.

3. The OS X file manager sounds like what you need. It's much nicer than Windows Explorer, for reasons such as:
- column view
- spring-loaded folders
- the toolbar

If you've no choice but to use OS 9, then download Greg's Browser.

4. If you're running OS 9 and want to beef up your contextual menus, try Finderpop.

5. OS 9's keyboard switching is just broken, plain and simple. OS X's is much better and more consistent - command-tab switches between open programs, command-tilde between open documents in an application. Pressing command-tab once switches to the most recently used app.

Bard

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
I really like the "look" of OSX. If all my software was available on the mac I'd nearly use it just for that reason alone.

Agreed.

I use both Windows XP and Mac OSX regularly, ... Windows taking up about 90% of that time, to be honest...

... but I've got Windows XP themed to LOOK like OSX (right down to the [optional] application dock at the bottom!) ... and it's just easier on the eyes (mine are quite sensitive)

After playing with Jaguar, I'm sorely tempted to make my next machine a Mac.

pa

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
I miss the right click and all the other extra buttons on PC mice though. especially the scroll wheel, thats such a productivity boon its unreal.

If your mouse is USB, it will work fine on OS X, right-click and scroll-wheel included. I use a Logitech optical mouse here and it works fine without needing any drivers installed.

Dr_Teeth

teehee, coming on here and saying you don't like your mac that is running some ancient version of MacOS! Bad monkey! *spank*

I used to be a Mac zealot, back around OS 7 when it was clearly superior to what MS had to offer. However I lost interest in them during the bad years when the OS was a real embarrassment.

I'm back now though! I bought a iBook last year and after years of cruddy PC hardware it's a dream - and MacOS X is superb! I can again hold my head up high as it has the measure of any other OS out there.

p - you should sit down with a modern Mac (preferably a G4) running OX 10.2 for a while and come back to us with your impressions.

Teeth.

pa

Originally posted by RicardoSmith

Its pretty slow though on anything other than a G4. But the G4's are eye wateringly expensive.

The 10.2 update evened the field between G3s and G4s significantly, as it made everything in OS X an openGL texture and offloaded it to the 3d processor on the graphics card, meaning the Altivec engine of the G4 was a lot less important.

p

So in conclusion I should just use OSX then. (o:

They're college Macs so I can't upgrade them sadly, but I think they've some OSX machines locked away somewhere.

*dashes off*

I'd love to get my hands on a nice Mac actually. The hardware is out of my student budget though i'm afraid.

- Kevin

pa

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Ah, but it only does this on AGP graphics cards. Which is fine if you have one, or its onboard the motherboard like a laptop or iMac. But older Mac's like mine (9500) only have PCI slots and the update doesn't offload openGL the to PCI graphics cards! So the GUI can't be speeded up!

Actually, you can enable it on PCI cards as well. I've not done it (the Mac I use is agp) but there are conflicting reports on the web about whether it actually speeds things up, or only makes it worse.

Personally I'm a bit peeved the way Apple just drops all the old hardware support. It one of those things that makes them more expensive to run than a PC. Every Mac I ever bought, Apple made something different on the next one that made the one I had obsolete. At least with a PC you could have a 386 and still be able to source perpherials and software for it. A friend of mine still uses his 386 for WP. Whereas my old Quadra 800 (similar to a 486,66dx) is basically stuffed. I can't even get a modem or printer for it.

The last time Apple obsoleted any hardware ports was 1998, when systems moved from serial/scsi to USB/Firewire, where they remain to this day and the foreseeable future. OS X also works on Macs that date back to 1997.

SouperComputer

AFAIK, the "modem" port is basically a com port with a din plug. a standard v90 external modem should work perfectly with it.

i use my ext modem with an emu on the Pc and it works sweet.

SouperComputer

thats strange, never had any problems. Just out of interest, what systems and OS where you running?