The Mac’s commitment to standardization doesn’t just have the effect of knowing what the main controls do in a rental car. It removes the need to focus on the interface from the process of learning to use the application. In other words, that Windows interface barrier is completely missing in the Apple world because the Mac OS transparently hosts the applications without imposing itself on the user’s attention. Read the article here.
Interface Burdens and Mac Usability
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
While I wholly agree with the author about the Mac UI being the least intrusive among all the ones I have used so far, the examples he has provided lead me to believe that he is mostly clueless about the whole thing himself … (by his own theory) a consequence of using windows perhaps?
I switched to the Mac about 8 months ago, but still use a PC which I have for over a decade.
The thing is this. While it’s no rental car–that would require copying Windows directly which Apple doesn’t want to do, nor should they–it is extremely intuitive to figure out.
Yes, occasionally I have to hunt around to figure something out on the Mac, but it’s never any longer than a few minutes. In Windows, I have spend hours on the phone with a help desk to get something to work–and I could of never figured it out myself. (And I have worked in the technology business for a decade.) I have never had to call AppleCare to figure out how to configure something.
And that’s the point. It’s not supposed to be a universal interface like a car or airplane, but intuitive and designed around human factors. This allows for independent innovation and new functionality in the future–like expose.
Switching and learning how to use the Mac was simple. Easier than configuring a a linksys print server last weekend (which I finally gave up on and returned to Amazon.)
There is a lot in this article which is silly thinking and misses the boat all together, IMHO.
Yes the mac is the BEST but its no longer has the moral high ground after Metalling everything that moves.
This FUDish Windows bashing article is rediculous. I agree Windows isn’t as good as the Mac but isn’t that bad either.
The author is a LinuxInsider columnist yet he didn’t say a word about KDE/Gnome! Why? The Gnome file selector has been talked about extensively here which from what other people have said isnt that good.
Gareth
P.S.
I could go on but I guess that because im not bagging windows then im a troll and ill be modded down
Linking from osnews to this kind of fluff article is a mistake.
As a long time Windows developer, I have a big problem with Microsoft’s OS and software design (as well as it’s revenue models and abuse of it’s monopoly) but the piece is shallow and uninformative, and only helps those wanting ammo against people criticising Windows.
There are plenty of articles slamming Microsoft and Windows that actually have some content, something an intelligent reader might actually respond to.
– Tin
The author didn’t give any examples of real-world differences between Mac and Windows. What makes Windows sooo much harder to use?
My experiences with Mac and Windows are that they are equally easy to use. Some tasks are harder and some tasks are easier in each of them. Just not the same tasks.
To claim that either of them is superior is ridiculous. They are so much alike that it is completely a matter of personal preference.
1) He should state specifically what is so problematic about the Windows user interface, and how this has been avoided in Mac OS
2) The merits of various airport layouts are of absolutely no relevance to the user interface
It would have been really cool if Apple made an OS X Live CD for x86 that everybody could download for free.. They would have gained a lot of attention!
No… running Macos X in 256 colours with no sound or network doesnt sound like fun
Unless they used the windows driver wrapper that some linux distros are using. but then they’d need to bundle all the drivers on the disk
Don’t be so negative.. ;o)
Of course they would need drivers.. There are a lot of drivers for all the different appendix to x86-hardware out there..
But I don’t think it will happen though..
Mac OSXis basically bSD, and why wouldn’t recompiling the exsisting drivers work. add a small hal layer to make it easy.
OSX of x86 is possible, the question is why? Even Intel is admitting speed isn’t everything any more. If the G5 get’s kicked up a notch, the power pc stuff will be faster than most of Intel’s line anwyay.
At first I didn’t notice any real benefits to the Mac UI, but then it started coming to me that they were so seamless it wasn’t immediately obvious
I’ll list a few:
1) Modem icon on Apple bar, two clicks to connect, this compares to navigating into Start-Settings-Network Connections and double-clicking a connection on Windows
2) Battery life readout on Apple bar, need to click on battery icon or hover cursor over it on Windows
3) Can empty recycle bin without minimising windows to be able to see the Desktop
4) System software isn’t painfully interwoven with system files.. if Safari becomes corrupted I can drag it to the recycle bin and reinstall it (This is probably true of Windows 95 and NT4 as well, but not of more recent builds)
I’m not a Mac zealot – in fact I can’t stand them, it was revulsion at their tactics that kept me on Windows for so long – but I have to admit these small details make quite a difference to the way in which the system can be used.
Granted, they could probably be added to a Windows system very easily, but the point is that they’re just already there on a Mac, and the logic behind them is good.
It’s the small details that count. Incidentally, has anyone noticed that the Mac OS X 10.3.4 update changes the behaviour of the battery life meter on Mac laptops? Now it never says “calculating”, it just speeds up or slows down the battery clock when it feels the system power drain changing, until it’s right again.
I actually found myself agreeing with the author up to a point. To a newbie all OSs look confusing. Thus, the Mac has no real edge over Windows or Linux or any other OS.
I do not find Windows to be totally lacking in logic. Inconsistant, yes. But so is the Mac OS. Therefore the comparison should be a discussion on which OS has the most inconsisties and which one imposes the most rote memory to learn how to do complex steps.
My experience using these OSs is that the Mac is less obtrusive than Windows and less complex (eg. esoteric command line commands) than Linux. Having said that does not necessarily make it true for all users. We are all capable of learning the strangeness of an OS. Yes, I have taught people how to use CPM, DOS, Apple II, Mac, Windows, and Unix/Linux. They were all capable of learning. Comprehending the logic is questionable.
When a bad article about Apple goes out and it says bad on it all is ok. When a good article about Apple goes out and it says good on it all isn’t ok.
Um, no. When a bad article is written, it’s bad. When a good article is written, it’s good. It has nothing to do with whether it says good things or not. This was a bad article. Not because it tried to say good things about Macs, but because it was a bad article.
Now, I am not one to suggest that he is wrong. Macs have a nice interface. But he goes on for so long trying to draw a parallel between a airport terminal and interfaces. That’s the majority of his article. Guess what, that parallel fails because it doesn’t really add anything substantial. So the Air Canada terminal sucks. And because the Air Canada terminal sucks, somehow, this means Windows sucks.
Why? Why is this? Accepting this fact on blind faith is one thing: stupid. His article isn’t an opinion, it’s an analysis. At least, that’s what they call it. But it’s not. It’s an article that’s just a lot of fluff.
I get tired of people who defend bad articles on the basis that they are talking good about the things we like. Whether it’s Linux, Windows, or Mac, a bad article is a bad article. It’s not hard to spot one. We just allow ourselves to be blinding by our zealotry.
I HATE LINUX, it is a bad grass like all the Mac-envy sub-human LinuxUsers.
Because apparently, you are so much better, especially with lines like that.
My wife has a mac and I have a mac laptop but my home computer and work is windows XP, to tell you thr truth I like Windows xp but I enjoy using Mac os X, but when something breaks in Windows since I work on computers for a living I have no problem finding a solution to fix it, but when somethinhg goes wrong in OS X it is so easy to use that I have a very hard time finding a techie solution to the problem
I remember feeling like a dumba$$ when I posted on a mac forum a few years ago asking how you uninstall something in OS X and not believing someone when they said just delete the folder
I’m not sure why, but I can’t seem to settle in with the Mac OS X interface. I’ve tried to work with it a few times, but am always left feeling separated from the computer by the interface, as opposed to drawn in.
Apple is a HARDWARE company. Any and all software Apple writes is ONLY to sell hardware. Keep repeating that until your head explodes if you have to. But unless IBM and Motorola (and all other companies) just up and stop making RISC chips you won’t see OS X on x86.
To continue that theme. iTunes ONLY exists to sell iPods, which is hardware. The reason why Apple won’t let other music players connect to iPods is that iPods, the hardware, would then be only one of the choices for the person to buy. Apple doesn’t want that. So you will never see official music players that connect to iPods other than iTunes.
Why has Apple focused only on iPods lately? They haven’t. Because IBM and Motorola don’t have new RISC chips to put in Apple computers there is nothing for Apple to talk about. So you only hear about iPods. This is not a change in focus but reality. Once IBM gets their kinks worked out and can delivery quality chips in quantity you will hear a lot about new G5s or G6s.
For those still hoping for x86 version of Mac OS X. Go over to your chimney and wait for Santa to come. (Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone. But Santa doesn’t really exist. Sorry.)
You have things backwards: Windows copied Apple, nearly directly, not vice-versa.
… and Apple copied Xerox. Your point?
Just look at all the comments: people immediately start defending Windows.
What was there to defend? The guy hates an airport somewhere. He must also hate Windows. So he equates the airport to Windows.
Pointless article in my opinion.
“… and Apple copied Xerox. Your point?”
Apple COOPERATED with Xerox.
Microsoft COPIED Apple.
This is a sensible difference.
I think the Live CD suggestion was to get some attention around OS X.. to advertise..
thats why he only suggested a Live CD, not an installation version…
This IS a bad article. Not because it hails (in my opinion without merit) Apple and MacOS for some kind of brilliance, but because he clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about unless it is Mac-centric. I see people like this every day at work. If something doesn’t behave the way they expect it to, it’s crap and badly designed. He should study behavioralism, habit-formation and attitudes a little.
I use several operating systems. I can handle them all pretty much as though they each were the only one I ever used (familiarity). Sure I get frustrated with design mistakes and bad implimentation, but that’s equal to all OSes. Mac, Win, BeOS, etc. The only one that I really cannot tolerate much at all is Linux, but I’m sure that will change as it evolves. It will eventually be as behaviorally the same as Windows and/or MacOS at some point and my annoyances will vanish. My point being, each system has its plusses and minuses and none is so bad as to deserve being labeled as the copier who failed. I’d go even further and suggest that they all have almost all the same exact failings: failing to give the user full control over the environment, not being responsive to the user (i.e.: realtime reaction to all things user-centric; the UI should be at least as fast as the human’s ability to deal with it and for me, at least, there’s a huge failure here), poor methods for file typing and storage/retrieval, being driven by non-user-oriented goals, etc.
This author is telling more about his own ignorance of human behavior and inexperience/understanding of other systems than showing any special understanding about OS design.
Here’s one example of his horse blinder attitude: if the OS stays out of the way of the user, if the application UI is transparent… why is it that you cannot drag photos to the system trash to delete them from inside iPhoto? You have to use the application-specific trash to do that. Hello to stupid inconsistency. Many more where that comes from. (i.e.: every time I tab from one page to another in Safari, it resets my text edit box to the top so I have to find my writing spot again!!)
Also, his analogy is more colorful “look how clever I can write” prose than it is informational. This person needs to step out of his little isolated world and see things from further away. But, hey, who cares… it’s just a junk article. If you want something well thought and open-minded, don’t read trashy sites like this one (Mac News) which has the single goal of getting its readers to keep reading (thereby praising them for being Mac Users).
I switched to OS 9 4 years ago from Win98 and loved 9. It was so easy to use and different enough to be unique and powerful enough to edit movies and photos,,,etc. Since then I have installed OS X which is exellent, and have a newer XP machine(2800+). XP is a ton more stable than win98 but not really much change, cosmetically…a few colors here and there, but when you get to OS X……..I can see that there was some thought behind every detailed part of the OS.
Competition between Apple and MS is great, because a person like myself who uses a mac 95% of the time and a pc about 5% of the time really gets the best of both worlds.
Except for the fact that I spend a good afternoon ridding this pc from 2 viruses yesterday. If it would of been my mac, I wouldn’t of finished any work.
This was the worse thing I have seen in a long time. Nothing he said had anypoint or connection to reality. I never even found where he was trying to go with the airport to connect it to OS’s or how it remotely fits. It’s like he did a
“I hate windows, I hate this airport, their must be a parallel in here someplace and if I ramble on anough I’ll find it”
Why can’t people just accept that their is little differance betweeen the mac and windows UI, and both are pretty dead simple to use, both have their pluses and minus. You could write a article that is MacUI rules, windows sucks, and here is proof and give examples to support. And you could write and article that is WindowsUI rules, MacUI sucks, and here is proof and give examples to support.
This person wrote absolutely nothing, he never made a single point or showed anything.
Some comments about the article:
The author does a good job selling Windows. He also makes me want to see and appreciate the Air Canada terminal in Toronto. Also, I really want to meet the builders of the Air Canada terminal, because they have to be less bigoted, and better able to think than the author of the article.
I remember a study done back in the mists of time that indicated DOS (as in MS or PC) users were better able to write, and in general were more intelligent people than Mac users. The author of the article continues to prove the validity of the study: MS-DOS users are still more intelligent than Mac users.
A couple of comments on CdBee’s “As a switcher” post:
The modem should dial when a program needs to connect to the Internet under Windows. There should be no reason to hunt up the dial-up networking window (or click an icon on the Apple bar) to launch a connection. To disconnect, either have Windows do it automatically, or use the icon in the system tray, which is always available when connected.
On all the Windows laptops I have used there was a battery life icon in the system tray that indicated the state of one’s battery at a glance. And it has never said “calculating,” either, but simply adjusted the time remaining. The difference, of course, is that Windows laptops have had this for years, while CdBee indicates Apple users have acquired the capability this week.
It is easy to empty the Recycle Bin without minimizing everything. That capability has been built in since Windows 98. This is a strange point to raise, as one should never have to empty the trash or the bin, unless one is a compulsive control freak (like me), or trying to cover one’s tracks (in which case there are more comprehensive methods available).
I’m not sure what CdBee is referring to in his fourth point. If he means Internet Explorer, then I would swap Safari for Mozilla on the Windows side, and go further by saying that I have not needed to delete Mozilla and reinstall because of corruption. Further, I can delete the “mozilla.org” directory under “Program Files” and reinstall quite easily, keeping my bookmarks and other settings, while I am at it. Unfortunately, Mozilla tends to run better under Windows (and Linux) than on a Mac.
As for Internet Explorer, if you use that under any platform, you deserve what happens to you.
I’m not sure whether my comments are vague or just mis-read, but I’ll correct them
On Windows, you get a picture of a battery, with a line which sinks toward the bottom of the image as the battery drained. 50% remaining, wow thats useful information
Macs give you a time remaining readout, quoting hours and minutes. Prior to 2001 they had the same indicator the Windows machine had. The Time readout has existed since then. In the past week the behaviour has changed to make it more accurate as it would occasionally get confused.. when power usage changes it had to recalculate and would disappear, now it doesnt disappear.
I can think of several cases where I would wish to initiate a dial-up connection manually, including the common situation of not wishing to have applications auto-dial, especially undesirable on a laptop which may not always have a modem cable plugged in… and also that one may wish to have several connections (free-call, roaming, VPN)
Note I never commented on terminating the connection, thats as easy on windows as mac, but it is SO MANY fewer clicks to start it up.
Now that is finesse
Please tell me how I can empty the recycle bin without minimising all my windows… I still have a Windows machine and it would be a useful thing to know.
(if it’s “navigate to recycle bin using windows explorer” I won’t be impressed!)
The more I use it, the more I like he Mac OS X interface. IMO, they make very efficient use of screen space and do many things in a far less obtrusive manner than Windows and the various UNIX DEs traditionally have.
I like the way that OS X has one menu bar along the top, instead of one inside of each application’s window, and other little things like how Safri uses it’s address bar as a preogress bar, eliminating the need to have set aside space somewhere else in the window for one (everything looks less cluttered to me in OS X).
I also like how most alerts are (more often than not) implemented as sheets anchored to the application window in question, instead of being a dialogue box that must be dealt with before you are free to do anything else.
The available options in alerts, and other dialogues also seem better chosen that in Windows, though GNOME and KDE are catching up here pretty quick.
All in all, it just seems less intrusive than most other UIs I’ve dealt with.
First, I have had Windows laptops where you did get a time remaining readout in the status bar, but I tend to disable that, as I like these things to take up less room. A readout of 50% remaining is quite useful, and the rate of drop gives me a good sense of what’s left.
It is very easy to set Windows up to autodial unless connected via a high speed connection. That is the better way to go.
As for emptying the Recycle Bin, you first set up what used to be called Quickres in Windows 95. It’s built in to all later versions. Right click the task bar, select Toolbars, and put a check mark by Desktop. I tend to drag the resulting desktop indicator all the way to the right. Once that is set up, you click the Desktop arrow, right click the Recycle Bin, and select Empty Recycle Bin.
my 64 year old father in-law can’t get the damn thing to work right! He “got things done” with Mac OS 9 for many, many years. Recently he replaced his old Mac with an eMac and he can’t stand it. Applications are more complex and crash on him, every single application that he was comfortable with has changed so dramatically that he gets stuck constantly. He thinks that liquidy task bar is ridiculous. Not surprisingly, he spends more time on his Windows XP box now.
His opinion is, if he is going to be forced to spend the time to re-learn an operating system it should be Windows XP, since most people he relies on for assistance are Windows users. I think this “baby boom” generation is largely the reason for Apple’s declining market share. When faced with the prospect of re-tooling, many just go get a Dell and be done with Macs forever.
No, I’m not a Windows stooge – I’m just a Linux/KDE uber geek with his own relative’s Mac OS X experience to share, FWIW.
Sean.
but it is SO MANY fewer clicks to start it up.
Just create a shortcut on your desktop to your dialup connection. Thats what I do on my laptop. Works like a charm.
I like Apple because many of the Key Combos are the same and I can bounce around quickly using the keyboard. I don’t know if WinXP made this better.
that is such an obvious troll. some one going from Mac OS classic to windows XP would have a harder time making that transition than going to OS X because OS X keeps 90% of classics method of operation, also, maybe he should invest in some new Mac OS X versions of his apps rather than using classic versions or investing in windows versions, because OS X native apps are much more stable than classic apps run under OS X (or even run on an OS 9 machine.)
“Not surprisingly, he spends more time on his Windows XP box now.”
Well, I used Windows for 3 years and Mac OS 8/9 for 4 years.
One month ago I changed my old iBook G3 with a new (VERY CHEAP) iBook G4 12″ and two day later I edit my desktop exprerience in Mac OS X: Dock at the side of screen, no hard drive icon od Desktop, Finder’s sidebar drasticaly personalized, all bottons and bars in Safari, my own system setting ecc. And I didn’t use Mac OS X before.
I think it isn’t a problem about the “smartness” of the OS, but about the “smartness” of the person. Belive me, I’m not blaming your father. I think there are persons that can adapt theirself and the OS faster than other: someone has this “skill”, someone not.
Thanks to God, not all the persons are the same.
cheers! any number of you guys has said more about mac os usability in a few lines than this article did….i think there must be a lack of airports and architucture websites to submit it to….. so he tacked on a bit about mac v windows!
having spent the last year or two pointin’ my 64 yr old dad in the right direction as to how to edit his photos with os9 and his photographic buddie on windows….. my dad asks me about how to get the best out of photoshop and scanning things while said friend struggles with the system and how to get everything connected!
upgrade my dad to os x anytime! even less worry for me! and i’m sure he’ll actually find it clearer and cleaner!
Firstly, I agree with most people here that the Article is crap, but it still got me thinking.
A Person who eventually grew familar with the Air Canada Terminal, and therefore could use it efficiently (buying Parking Tickets before getting in thier car), going to the Carusel thier Luggage will actually be on, rather than the one it should be on, etc.) would be totally lost at the Salt Lake City Airport. Its too busy, there’s too many people, The Departure Lounges are too big, There aren’t any Ticket Machines in the Car Park
After they’d used the Salt Lake Terminal a few times, they’d probably become more familiar with it, and eventually say “Why isn’t the Toronto Terminal like this?”
The same applies to most Windows Users I lend my iBook to on occasion. They absolutely Hate it because they have to relearn how everything works, but once they figure it out, they feel a bit uneasy using thier own computer again.
The more I use it, the more I like he Mac OS X interface. IMO, they make very efficient use of screen space and do many things in a far less obtrusive manner than
—
i completely disagree, os-x wastes WAY too much screen space and the user can hardy do anything against it.
-sure i can choose smaller fonts for desktop/listviews, but the small fonts are a fuzzy mess. disabling aa on small fonts results in poor crafted bitmaps.
-i can’t choose any other font for system than apples. (don’t replay use haxies, haxies doesnt work properly, besides it’s APPLEs job to offer this kind of functionality)
-apple doesn’t offer any decent customization options in x, just VERY basic options. It’s way behind os9, i don’t say this bc. i love os9 but because this is a fact.
sure i can choose smaller fonts for desktop/listviews, but the small fonts are a fuzzy mess. disabling aa on small fonts results in poor crafted bitmaps
I can buy that. I was refering more to the layout of things, but you’ve got a valid point.
i can’t choose any other font for system than apples. (don’t replay use haxies, haxies doesnt work properly, besides it’s APPLEs job to offer this kind of functionality)
Yeah, I dislike having to resort to third party stuff as well, but I have found OS X to be configurable enough for my tastes.
apple doesn’t offer any decent customization options in x, just VERY basic options. It’s way behind os9, i don’t say this bc. i love os9 but because this is a fact
I’ve very little experience with pre-OS X, so I’ll have to take your word for it. From what I do recall however, they were rather brittle operating systems, which greatly hindered their overall usability.
i dont realy like any of them, they are both to hardline on whats suppose to be where (sure i can exchange the windows defualt gui with say litestep but thats a hack that dont work with everything). personaly i hold kde and gnome in more high regard as they are flexible to say the least alltho i kinda enjoy kde more as it seems more mature. on both you can but bars anywhere with all manner of stuff on them. if i want to emulate the current mac layout i can by putting one bar at the top of the screen and adding the “start” icon to it and a second bar at the bottom holding the taskswitcher, then i can add say a desktopswitcher, some small toys if i want to and so on. hell i can go insane and add a bar on the side that dont cover the entire screens edge but rather grows along it if i add stuff to it…
as for that dialer in windows. in win2k (thats windows 2000) you can go to the taskbar & start menu options, advanced, check the expand network and dial-up connections option and then you can just do start, settings, network & dial-up connections and select your connection of choice. cant be simpler…
unless im mistaken any shortcut made that links to the resycle bin have the option “empty recyle bin” on it. drag a shortcut to the start menu and you will never have to minimize a screen again to empty the trash:)
you can go to the taskbar & start menu options, advanced, check the expand network and dial-up connections option and then you can just do start, settings, network & dial-up connections and select your connection of choice. cant be simpler..
Hmm – so – clicking on one visible icon on the menu bar, which then expands into a menu with a one-click option for “connect” on it, isn’t easier than what you describe?
Oh, I think it is. 2 clicks against 5 or 6. I’m the first to admit that’s a small difference but its the sort of thing I find throughout the UI.. significant shortcuts which dont exist by default on Windows.
The recycle bin trick is useful, thanks, just copied it onto my windows machine.
“Unless I’m mistaken any shortcut made that links to the resycle bin have the option “empty recyle bin” on it. Drag a shortcut to the start menu and you will never have to minimize a screen again to empty the trash:)”
Why have a Trash at all? Why not simply delete files you don’t want?
The whole idea of having to delete files in two steps strikes me as nothing but a nuisance.
what a stupid article.
When you want to see a real comparsion of these two os’es with a good UI analyses, have a look at
http://www.xvsxp.com/
As someone who’s used Windows and Gnome extensivly and now OS X, I’ll try to give some comments on what advantages and disadvantages the Mac UI has over the windows UI.
One advantage both OS X and Gnome have over Windows is instant apply preferences. Gnome applications tend to follow instant apply rules more than OS X applications however.
The other major way the OSX interface better than the windows interface is not as simple as interfrace elements. It’s in the overall architecture and design of OS X applications. On the whole OS X applications seem to require fewer mouse clicks and manual configuring than their windows counterparts. For instance, bluetooth configuration on the Mac presents far fewer uneeded dialog boxes over the Windows configuration (windows bluetooth config stuff based on logitech). Even the mac shareware/freeware apps tend to be more intuitive. AdiumX, a mac IM application makes installing plugins as easy as double clicking them. In comparison, Miranda IM requires you to find the correct directory in the filesystem (always annoying) and manually copy stuff into a plugin directory, then restart the app.
That said, OS X has it’s share of hard to configure applications as well, but it’s my subjective opinion (if that’s not worth anything to you, then please don’t bother commenting as such) that on the whole most OS X applications are simply made to be easier to use. It’s a UI issue for sure, but not one as simple as widgets and guidlines.
There are some UI annoyances on OS X too of course. Home and end do not go to the front and end of the line, but rather the start and end of a page and even that is not standard among applications. There are ways aroudn this (using ctrl a and ctrl e) but it would be nice if the UI guidlines had standardized the function of home/end. You can’t delete a file (taht I know of) by any means *other* tahn explicitly dragging it to the trash. Coming from Windows and Gnome this is annoying. If I had time I could come up with other such examples.
On the whole though, I do find OS X to be easeir to use than Windows.
You can’t delete a file (taht I know of) by any means *other* tahn explicitly dragging it to the trash. Coming from Windows and Gnome this is annoying
Just to clarify:
1) You can right-click a file and select “Move To Trash” (That’s control-click if you don’t have a two-button mouse, of course)
2) You can select the file and hit key combo: Command+Delete
I don’t ever explicitly drag a file to the trash – usually I just use the number 2 method, but their are several easy methods.
This guy is totally off-base. As others have pointed out, his entire thesis seems to be I don’t like windows and I don’t like Pearson Terminal 1, I do like Mac and I do like the SLC terminal, therefore the comparison is valid.
A bit off-topic here, but he’s pretty thick if he can’t figure out Pearson’s Autopay system and why it’s a good idea. As you pull into the parking lot there’s a big sign explaining that you get your ticket stamped at a machine. In fact there are these big signs hanging from the ceiling every 20m or so reminding you to take your ticket with you and pay before you leave. I think it’s actually written on the back of the ticket too.
So after you drop off or pick up whoever it is you walk back to the parking garage. It’s impossible to get back to the garage without passing these big orange and blue machines with the AutoPay logo on them. You walk up to one and, following the well-worded directions, you insert your ticket, it tells you how much you owe and you pay it with coins or cash or credit card… the only thing it’s missing is debit or Paypal. Then the machine spits out a receipt and tells you to take your ticket with you. If you don’t have the cash on you, you can easily leave and go to a bank machine to get some money out.
Then you drive to the exit (within 10 minutes), choose one of the AutoPay lanes, slip your ticket to the machine and drive away. There’s even a well sign-posted pay-the-cashier lane in case you forgot.
What do you benefit from this system? No more sitting in your car while someone leafs through her purse looking for change to discover she’s $5 short. Instead you just stop for a second, slip it your paid ticket and leave. It’s fast, easy, and guess what, despite his contention in the article, you’ve still got your receipt.
The same trick for the Recycle Bin works for dial-up networking. Put a link on your desktop, and it will appear on the “Quickres” button on your task bar. That brings it down to two clicks.
MAC is usable? Lunacy!
To switch among applications windows – Alt-Tab
To switch among browser windows – …
You close a window, and the application (or the menu of it) stays open – very fricken intuitive.
ONE MOUSE BUTTON?!
Mac user interface decisions are like drugs – they all are individually sattisfying, but leave you dumber and sicker than other OS’s.
You can also place shortcuts to the recycle bin, dial-up networking (or whatever) on the quicklaunch bar for fast access.
Drag files to the recycle bin on the start menu, empty with a right-click, etc.
“Drag files to the recycle bin on the start menu,”
replace start-menu with taskbar
To click between browser windows (or any application that has multiple windows), press F10 (default Expose setting)… Very easy…
Yes, one button mouse is silly these days, but just plug in a 2 button mouse (I use an Intellimouse on mine).
Someone else mentioned that their Father struggles with OS X, which is probably true. My Mum (who really struggles with any form to tech (took her ages to get how the backspace key works)) loves OS X, more so than OS 9.
My point is that these OS v OS articles are pointless. Some people prefer one, some prefer another, so what… Doesn’t make one better or worse. Really…
Please OS users out there, don’t hate the Zealots, just feel sorry for them, sorry for their religious beliefs
I use a wacom tablet for everything …..right hand tablet, left hand keyboard shortcuts and control click…. so when i use a mouse a single button its no problem… but more of a problem when there’s a different combo app to app… the right button mouse becomes more important when there are! ..now which os is more intuitive in that respect? stick shift and steering wheel anyone?
osx and winxp user here.
just to point out that it#s not really apples invention
http://www.benchmark.co.yu/tests/notebook/ibm/t40/snap000015.jpg
look for the green battery bar on the lower right. it’s been on ibm thinkpads for some years now
flo
2) You can select the file and hit key combo: Command+Delete
I tried this, but at the time it turns out I was using an external keyboard made for both mac and windows. Oddly, the delete key on this keyboard doesn’t work with the above shortcut. But backspace does.
Thanks for the hint.
You can minimize all windows in XP and drag it to the trash/desktop. Drag whatever to the lower right of the taskbar near the systray, hold a few secs, and voila
I want this in Gnome!!
i dont have anything against your way of doing it but as i like haveing the taskbar as small as it can be (alltho my quicklanuch now have atleast 4 submenus to its popup menu) i prefer useing what windows have of menus allready in the startmenu. its more a matter of taste realy then anything else…
oh and after its turned on its just a matter of clicking the start button, drag to settings, drag to network and click your connection of choice, last time i checked you dont have to click for every submenu on the start menu. still, the ultimate is to create a quickuse keycombo for your favorite connection
(create shortcut, and set a keykombo for that shortcut)
I haven’t seen any references to Jef Raskin jet.
If anyone is even remotly interested in interfaces, take a look at his site. He is the one who created the macintosh interface once. I must say, some of the ideas he is working on now has me drewling.
“http://humane.sourceforge.net/home/“
I just can’t find “It”. I have gone thrugh Win3.1-WinXP/MacOS7-MacOSX/KDE,Gnome,Enlightenmen,fvwm,ION,WMI and no one beats the CLI! ION got my love though, but Gnome 2.6 is more compatible with the existing applications and serves me now.
The ultimate would be a WMI/ION developed by the Gnome team led by Jef Raskin!
My point is that these OS v OS articles are pointless. Some people prefer one, some prefer another, so what… Doesn’t make one better or worse. Really…
This one is even more useless than usual, as it has no real discussion of the actual operating systems, but rather is a long drawn-out complaint about an airport terminal that is only half way through a long construction project.
Sure, I can handle metaphors and all of that, but when you’re criticizing something, you have to eventually come up with some explicit complaints that can be validated by others. The only complaint here seems to be a vague mention of the transparency of the OS, along with a desire for the OS to enforce a set of interface rules to establish this transparency. In the end, the two would conflict in my mind, but maybe that’s simply because I write software for a living.