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A few things Mac OS X should change

November 25th, 2008

I use a MacBook, but until recently, ran Windows on it. However, I’m writing an iPhone version of one of my apps, so I had to put on Mac OS X. The bulk of my development is still in Windows, so I bought 4 GB RAM, put up VMWare and run virtual windows most of the time.

But I generally use Mac OS X for normal everyday things like word processing, movie watching and even after a few weeks of using it, there are a few things that have continued to stay annoying. I believe that if Mac OS X is to really enter the mainstream, it will need to change these things.

  •  The fact that the taskbar does not have a clearly defined upper border. Windows seem to float.
  • One cannot see if an application is open or not by looking at the taskbar. Some apps (like Adium) show this, most don’t
  • No easy access to the desktop
  • No proper fullscreen mode. Sometimes I want to focus on just one application without distractions
  • When you have several windows open, it’s difficult to locate the one you are looking for
  • When you click the Firefox icon, a new window does not open
  • There is no date on the clock
  • External keyboards get weird
  • When you search for files, you don’t see the file size
  • The finder sorts the folders together with the files instead of separately
  • The menu bar is way at the top of the screen instead of on the window it belongs to
  • Buttons often don’t have tool tips, so you have no idea what they do
  • Clicking an application icon sometimes has no effect. It just does nothing
  • My jpeg files preview in finder
  • When you overwrite folders, it deletes all the old items
  • The indication that a folder is empty is not easy to recognize
  • Some applications like XCode and Photoshop open, but only change the menu bar at the top. It’s difficult to see that they have started
  • The installation process is really weird. That dragging file from left to right thing was difficult to grasp at the beginning. Also, different apps seem to use different installation processes for no reason I can figure out

You probably say - why should Apple change? It’s the Apple way, no? Well, Apple should change so that there is greater consistency across all operating systems. The Apple way in the aspects I’ve listed above are inferior to both Linux and Windows.

Software needs to get more consistent - it’s already complex enough. We need to not only simplify, but gravitate towards common behaviour, such that the learning curve is eliminated when one switches from one operating system to the other.

Car’s don’t behave differently in their fundamental usage, but they can vary widely in their comfort. That same type of difference in operating systems should be strived towards, not fundamental differences in behaviour.

The OS is becoming increasingly irrelevant - at the moment I switch seamlessly between Windows and Mac OS X apps, without noticing any significant difference in performance - 4 gig RAM and 2GHZ dual core make this possible. In a few years, this will be even more pronounced - the only source of irritation in choosing your OS then will become this behavioral inconsistencies.

Category: Software Comments
  • Serious Computer User
    Your problem is that what you deem *annoying* is what you are used to on Windows. OS X is *not* windows. It's not designed to be like Windows in that you can move from one to the other and use it the same way. I use multiple OSes on multiple machines and with each new one comes a new way of doing common things. Take some time to learn how the new OS works.

    1. No task bar border? It's not a task bar. It's a dock.
    2. Each application that is open is highlighted by a "dot" under the icon on the dock.
    3. Pressing F11 will show you the desktop, pressing it again will put windows back where they were.
    4. You won't ever get a fullscreen mode. If you want to hide other apps click the current application name on the menu and click "Hide Others". Works a treat.
    5. This is what Expose's for. Try pressing F9.
    6. Clicking an application in the dock will not open another copy of it if it's already running. If you want another window for Firefox, hit Cmd+N.
    7. There indeed is no date with the clock, just like by default in Windows. Click on the clock and lo-and-behold, there is the date.
    8. External keyboards get weird? You what?
    9. That all depends on how you are searching for files.
    10. Indeed everything is presented together, *alphabetically*. Surely knowing the alphabet is enough for you to work out where the folder/file you want to differentiate is?
    11. .....

    You know what, I'm bored already. If you aren't prepared to forget what you already and learn new stuff then just take the Mac back to the store and get a cr*ppy Dell instead or something. Sheesh.
  • Those are some good tips, particularly the keyboard shortcuts. Thanks!
  • David
    It is ovioubus you don't use mac os x very much! Most of the complaints are just wrong. Almost all have shortcuts etc... Like which App is running has a little dot next to it if it is running. The date can be turned on in the tool bar... it goes on and on..
  • Now I see the dot, but it's not obvious at all. What about the rest of the items?
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