Improving Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
Room for Improvement
13 February 2004 Justin Williams Skip to comments
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Mac OS X Panther is Apple's greatest operating system to date. Even with its excellence, there is always room for improvement. Justin Williams writes about the things he would like to see in future revisions to your favorite OS.
Panther Ain't Broke, But We Can Still Fix It...
I love my black cat. It has served me well since October with its new Finder, refined interface, Fast User Switching and Exposé. I love Panther so much that I am willing to debate until the wee hours of the night with PC Zealots and die hard Classic supporters about its merits. Even in all of its glory, however, there is always room for improvement.
Let's face it. If we left an operating system the same way forever, we would still be typing commands at a prompt as we did on our Apple IIe's or heaven forbid DOS machines. Innovation is the driving force in the tech industry, and Apple is always ahead of the game in that department. In the 2003 fiscal year, Apple spent over $400 million on research and development. That investment in the future is the reason that Apple's products are always king when it comes to the "Wow" or bling, bling factor. Have you or anyone you know ever had the same reaction for their new Dell or Compaq? I didn't think so.
I was sitting at Hooters the other night with my fellow MacZealots comrades and we got into a discussion about what could be improved or added to MacOS X to make it even better. We had a hard time coming up with a list of things to improve it, but I think I have found a few areas that could use some sort of refinement or new features.
A better Dock
The main application that we all use when we start up our Macintosh is the Dock. We need to launch our favorite applications and the Dock allows us to have single click access to those programs. The Dock is a thing of beauty. It's simplicity allows even the most elementary users to understand its basic operation. Even with its simplicity, I still believe the Dock has its problems.
My biggest gripe is the size the Dock can get when you have several applications open or items minimized, the Dock keeps expanding across your screen until it is eating up the entire lower part of your screen. Let's say, for example, I minimize four iChat windows and a few Word documents in my Dock. That is six or so items from the same application that are each taking up real estate next to my trash can. Shouldn't we be able to consolidate those items into a single icon? Let's tuck them away in a drawer.
A better Dock with Drawers
Imagine minimizing those iChat message Windows and having them shrinking into the iChat icon. Your Dock isn't going to expand any wider than it already is. When you want to retrieve one of those said windows, simply click on the iChat icon in your Dock to expose a drawer (or some type) that slides out above the icon giving you a larger visual representation of the Window. Currently, the ability to visually distinguish between minimized windows from the same application is difficult, if not impossible. If you had a larger representation of the window, it would make the process much easier.
If someone didn't like the new behavior, who is to say they couldn't disable it in the Dock preferences and go back to the old way of doing things? After all, Apple allows us to switch between the Genie Effect and Scale Effect. Why not let us decide how we want our applications to minimize?
A big, warm hug to the Finder
A topic of much debate since the inagural OS X release about whether the Finder was an improvement over OS9's or not. With each update to OS X, the Finder gains abilities and features that excel above and beyond what Mac OS 9 offered. For example, take a look at the Finder's sidebar introduced in Panther. Before, a user would have to dig deep into their hard drive to access their often used folders. With the sidebar, they are a simple drag and drop away at all times. Even with its simplicity, there is one thing that would make the Finder's sidebar even better: Trash.
Trash in the Sidebar
Imagine being able to select a few folders in a window and simply drag them to the trash icon in your sidebar rather than using the Action menu or dragging them to your dock. I have trouble when I question Apple's oversight of this. Yes, you can drag the .trash folder to the sidebar, but it doesn't have the same representation and feeling that an actual trash icon in the sidebar would to me.
Network Browser on Steriods
Another issue to take to task with OS X is its support for network volumes. Whenever I take a system off the network, it will lock up any machine that had it mounted while it tries to reconnect to the stystem. I wish there was some way I could designate a system on my network as a laptop so that it would be more accepting of its addition and removal from my LAN. Let's take this a step further. When I am in the Network Browser, wouldn't it be convenient if I had some sort of visual representation of what type of system I was about to connect to. Is it an OS X Server? Is it an iBook, Powerbook, Powermac? Is it running Panther or Jag-wire? Why not give me an icon of what type of system it is and maybe a tooltip with other pertinent information. Right now every server has a generic grey globe. If you are in a large corporate environment it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between those servers.
Virtual Desktops
If you are like me, you usually have a lot of windows open at the same time. Exposé has done a lot to help us deal with the clutter of this work environment, but a feature that I wish MacOS X would borrow from the X Windows world is virtual desktops. Virtual desktops creates any number of extra desktops on your system that function just like a second monitor would. The only difference is that you are not able to see both desktops at the same time. Using some kind of pallette a user is able to switch between his various desktops. The user would also have the ability to drag between desktops, designate what desktop an application would open at, and many other options. Anyone that uses multiple monitors or desktops knows what an increase in productivity it provides. You are able to divide your work up into separate partitions on the screen. For example, I prefer to keep all of my iChat windows on one monitor while I have my real work on the other. Virtual desktops allows a user to do the exact same thing but at a fraction of the cost of buying a second display.
Mac OS X: More Digital Hub
Let's take a step away from the OS itself and look at a few of its core applications and where we could improve those.
With the release of Panther, Apple included support for connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server via Mail and Address Book. This allowed us Mac users to easily retrieve our Exchange e-mail and contacts from the server without using Outlook Web Access, Entourage v.X, or Outlook 2001 in Classic. What is missing from the equation is support for calendaring. One of the biggest features of the Exchange system is its groupware capabilities. Apple is missing the boat in this department. If they could walk into any corporate environment and tell the CTO they could offer them Exchange capabilities without having to pay for Outlook, they would be able to switch a lot more desktops from Windows to the Mac. Apple could implement the calendaring in iCal so that it would synchronize events from the server to and from the local Macs. When it comes to inviting users to meetings, iCal already has basic abilities for that. You can designate people who will attend a meeting and invite them right now.
iLife for your Professional Life
On the subject of iCal, Mail and AddressBook, I believe they should be consolidated into one single application: an iLife for your professional life. Right now, using three applications to maintain my professional workflow is tiresome. If I get an e-mail from a user who wants to schedule some of my time, I have to jump from Mail, open iCal and add the event. In another scenario, I get an e-mail address from someone and want to add it to my address book. I have to open up another application to do that. There is no simple way to click on an e-mail address in the body of a message and add to the address book (only if they are in the to / from lines). Tighter integration of these three programs would possibly eliminate a user's desire to switch to another PIM such as Entourage or Now (Now-Up-To Date & Contact). Tie that in with a full Apple Office Suite and you have one hell of a case to present to that CTO.
Panther still king of the Jungle
As we've already proven, MacOS X Panther is the best operating system on the planet with its ability to seamlessly combine stability with ease of use. It reaches such a wide range of users from my Grandma who surfs CNN.com and CourtTV, to my geeky friends who live their lives staring at the Terminal window. The suggestions I have added are beneficial to every Mac user, no matter how much of a power user they are or are not.
Agree? Disagree? Have your own ideas for OS X? Leave it in the comments and let me know what you think!
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (55)
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#1) On February 13, 2004 4:50 AM
The suggestion of Dock with Drawers is a bit like the way XP stacks…but obviously much better. I’m a lil worried about the performance penalty of having this extra detail. Obviously, it would be very helpful, but hopefully the interface footprint shouldn’t be that substantial…
Particularly with iChat. Using AIM on a chat windows platform, windows easily can multiply from just 2-3 to 4-8 at a time. Fortunately DeadAIM, an auxiliary program, TABS the extra chat windows. A mini Firefox/Safari type chat window if you will.
#2) On February 13, 2004 9:25 AM
I don’t think the performance hit of the dock drawers would be too excessive on any machine built in the past two or three years. Yeah, my iBook 500 is probably not going to like it too much, but it sucks it up when it comes to Exposé too.
#3) On February 13, 2004 10:30 AM
I think the iLife PIM would be great, but it need not come from Apple. Apple uses common formats for iCal and I think for Addressbook, so all someone has to do is write a PIM with Email that reads and writes to these formats. I would suggest someone who already has a good email client like BareBones. They could just build on iCal/Todo/Addressbook integration and make it one big app that still writes to all of the same files so you can open up iCal or Addressbook and also not lose all of the Apple syncing, backup stuff.
BZ
#4) On February 13, 2004 12:24 PM
Virtual desktops:
An easy equivalent under Panther is simply to create other user accounts (I’m using three)and switch between them with Fast user Switching.
Finder:
Apple please give us the option to use metal or Aqua. Choice is good.
#5) On February 13, 2004 12:31 PM
Virtual Desktops != Fast user Switching with multiple accounts. You can’t drag windows between accounts.
#6) On February 13, 2004 12:37 PM
I agree with the drawer bit, that would improve the docks usage significantly.
The one gripe I do have with the finder, and I cannot confirm this in Jaguar. But say you are in Safari, and you download something. Well, I default to the desktop. If you then grab that something and drag it to a removeable disk, or to another folder, the finders windows “pop under” the current Safari window. Its like the finder doesnt move to the front. Even if you right click on it for the menu, and a lot of options are greyed out, until you left click, bring the finder to the front, then left click on the icon.
Can anyone confirm that?
But otherwise, virtual desktops and a drawer-dock, and a proper “finder coming to front” would make Panter uber-slick.
#7) On February 13, 2004 1:17 PM
Definitely good ideas. My main long-standing gripe with OS X that causes a lot of waste is poor printing preferences support. I don’t know how wide-spread the problem is, but in FileMaker Pro for instance, I have to open page setup EVERY TIME I print to change the format from landscape to portrait. Even when I click save preferences it doesn’t work. Furthermore, the preference settings in the print dialog doesn’t save ALL preferences, just certain screens. So the end result is I am constantly having to reprint things because preferences don’t work predictably.
#8) On February 13, 2004 1:21 PM
Totally agree with the dock and especially iLife Pro. Jumping between programs is a drag—that’s the one thing I miss about Entourage.
#9) On February 13, 2004 4:16 PM
The Dock needs enhancing. E.g. Let’s use 3D, all Safari windows are’at’ the Safari window in the dock, but if there are multiple instances, then you could move the mouse up or down to traverse the ‘pile’. something needs to be done, as we are not very far ahead from the GUI created by Xerox at Pal Alto. Thirty years should give us more than a pretty GUI. Vive La Mac.
Sightly unrelated, but check out
www.acm.uiuc.edu/macwarriors/projects/3dosx/download.html
#10) On February 13, 2004 5:03 PM
I heartily agree with all your points, and I’d add a few things :-)
- Exposé is groundbreaking enough to warrant that future Apple keyboards have three special keys built in (I’d go with bottom left corner).
Using F9,10 and 11 is a little odd; they’re in the middle of the top row, and hard to hit quickly. Also, given that my particular way of working involves launching all my apps with keyboard shortcuts (I keep the Dock clean, for running processes and minimised windows only), re-mapping the Fkeys is going to lose me some precious key-combinations. I’d prefer three new keys, and I honestly think Exposé is worth them.
- Metal Finder windows are too HUGE. And there’s a vast wasted space in the titlebars.
- Proper, OS9-style, predictable zoom widget windows maximisations. Panther windows zoom to unexpected, illogical sizes, like tall and narrow, burdening me with a @&*!ing horizontal scrollbar that shouldn’t be there!
- the option to have OS9-style window-layering (by app). Bring ALL of an app’s windows to the front b y clicking on one. I frequently get Photoshop document windows stuck behind a mish-mash of layered windows from several apps.I know I can click on the Dock icon, but it’s lees intuitive, and further away from my mouse.
- Either an option for single-app mode, or a one-click “hide app” widget. I have Windowshade for this, but it should be built-in.
Voilà : all of these are Finder-related, and add to and complement the suggestions by others above.
#11) On February 13, 2004 5:35 PM
I don’t much like the idea of a drawer for the dock — I don’t think it would give you any more than what you get now but with pretty pictures. What would be interesting however is the ability to cycle through windows of an app similar to command tab works with cyclingly through application.
#12) On February 13, 2004 5:41 PM
Multiple desktops is available free from http://wsmanager.sourceforge.net/
The website claims alpha quality, but I use it anyway and have had no problems. The most recent version added transition effects including the 3D cube used by Fast User Switching.
I agree that this should be a built-in feature of the OS.
Cheers!
#13) On February 13, 2004 10:55 PM
The only thing I disagree with is the combining of the three PIM apps. I don’t use mail or iCal, but I do use Addressbook, as my mail app uses it as it’s address book as well. If Apple were to start combining them, it would feel too much like the MS approach of Entourage.
#14) On February 14, 2004 1:18 PM
Virtual Desktops? Got ‘em - and in a non-alpha app. Check out CodeTek VirtualDesktop at:
http://www.codetek.com/php/virtual_pro.php
Not affilated with them in any way, just a happy, happy user. Makes working with a 12” iBook a much better experience.
JVA
#15) On February 14, 2004 1:22 PM
And a excellent Dock-like utility can be found in DragThing:
http://www.dragthing.com/
Not affilated with them in any way, just a happy, happy user. Makes working with a 12” iBook a much better experience. (I love cut’n’paste).
JVA
#16) On February 15, 2004 5:25 PM
Agree that network drive mounting in Panther could be cleaner. I have an XP machine on my home network. When I mount its drive, then eject when I’m done with it, it doesn’t - it stays mounted. If I turn off the XP machine, I get error messages on my Mac about it not being connected. This no matter how I have tried to eject the XP drive. Very annoying.
Also, regarding email, I wish when sending someone a URL for a page I’m viewing in Safari by using Services, Mail, Send Selection, that the new Mail window would not open BEHIND Safari. If I’m starting a new service, why doesn’t that service come to the forefront?
#17) On February 16, 2004 12:38 AM
I also disagree with the idea combining of iCal Mail and Address Book into a single application. I agree that Apple could provide tighter integration between them, but I use iCal and the Address Book, but do not use the mail client.
#18) On February 16, 2004 12:59 AM
Could we get Apple Remote Access going again. I would really like to be able to dial in to my network while I am on the road and access resources at home (particularly shared folders)
Mark T
#19) On February 16, 2004 1:11 AM
As other people have said, the beauty of having Mail, iCal, and Address Book, as separate apps is that you get to pick and choose the ones you need. That said, better integration between them all would be very nice.
One thing I’d like to see is more third party pluggability, for lack of a better word. For example, the integration between Address Book, Mail, and iChat (buddy status shown in Mail) looks cool, but I’d like to be able to somehow replace iChat with Fire, or even augment it with Fire. Maybe there could be some internal protocol for IM status, so I could have some buddies in iChat, some in Fire, all cross-referenced back to my Inbox via Address Book. I don’t know much about AppleScript, but I’d imagine that this whole thing could be mostly implemented using AppleScript for the inter-app communications plus some kind of thing to say that App X provides IM Status (for example).
#20) On February 16, 2004 1:18 AM
My only gripe in all this is I can’t afford a Mac. I use Linux on the PC. I wish there was a Mac store nearby to see and play with the Panther.
#21) On February 16, 2004 2:50 AM
I’d use Desktop Manager for Virtual Desktops, which is not only free, its GPL, and it has some nice improvements it the latest release.
See http://wsmanager.sf.net
dreamind
#22) On February 16, 2004 3:22 AM
One of the biggest things for me is the lack of secure Webdav in the finder. This is X.3 and thiss still has not been addressed? M$ had this down long ago. why in the world has this yet to be addressed? Sure there is Goliath but there is no reason that it should not be integrated into the OS. I woluld also like to see the ability to mount sftp filesystems integrated into the os.
hopefully X.4 or sooner will address this.
-jeff
#23) On February 16, 2004 3:34 AM
Groupware opensource
I’m a wannabe switcher(I hope to buy an iBook G4 soon) and actually a Linux user.
Talkin about groupware, in kde i use kontact, that does(only in part, it’s still in development) what you say in your article mergin other existing apps (kmail, knotes, kaddressbook, korganizer) using the kpart technology, if someone could port this (the qt toolkit is also avaiable for mac) there will be a groupware suite! alternatively you could use it under X11
#24) On February 16, 2004 3:47 AM
I like mail-address book-iCal as separates ‘cause I don’t need to use all the stuff at once. Nice fast loadies for me…
#25) On February 16, 2004 4:56 AM
virtual desktops?
Have you forgotten about the Expose Box?
This feature will most likely be in 10.4
There were serious compatability issues with Adobe app’s in particular.
I’m sure they’ve ironed those out.
#26) On February 16, 2004 6:56 AM
please, official detailed shadow-prefs. i dislike the shadows everywhere… it seems to me apple is doing all the things GUI-Designers wanted to do in the 80ies, regardless of usability.
wanted options:
-textshadows yes/no (text-color for desktop is also a must option)
-menubarshadows yes/no
-windowshadows yes/no
-soft blurred shadows/hard shaped shadows
yes, shadows “look” nice for some minutes, after that they annoy me.
right now i use shadowkiller, but textshadows and menubarshadows stay :-( - besides: text on bright desktops is nearly unreadable, thanks to the white (default) color and the shadow.. bad beta-testing, apple!
#27) On February 16, 2004 7:16 AM
There’s only one thing that I think is really lacking from panther and that’s sftp:// support in finder. I miss the way I can connect to a server over ssh the way I can with konqueror( http://konqueror.org/ ) and just drag ‘n’ drop files between the server and my hard drive and also editing files on the server directly instead of having to save them locally, edit them and then upload them again.
#28) On February 16, 2004 7:37 AM
Object orientated Finder!
Apple seriously needs that - the beauty of the classic Finder was that it didn’t feel like a seperate program - it just felt like your computer.
#29) On February 16, 2004 8:23 AM
You need to drop Panther all together. Though darwin isnt as good as Free BSD bad you should switch to using KDE ontop of X11 ontop of darwin. Its a much better choice. Sure you dont have Expose, but you can use just use pager(Which provides the virtual desktop preview you speak of) and multiple virtual desktops. If speed then becomes the issue due to resource consumption, Use gentoo linux with the optimizations for your platform. You can also try to use REISER4 fs. Its better than HFS+ because it has B+trees instead of B-Trees, not to mention dancing algorithms! Reiser4 will be good for you itunes users that have large music libraries.
If you insist on improving OS 10, port more of konqueror to support the Apple already ported much of KHTML for use in safari. I suggest they take much more of Konquerors network browsing capabilities.
#30) On February 16, 2004 8:26 AM
Before you counter flame, please remember i consider my self neutral though i use mostly pc hardware. Though you’ll be happy to know i got Darwin to run on my Athlon XP before i had to get rid of it for a less patchy os. There’s nothing wrong with darwin, its just not designed for PC’s nor is it as mature as FREE BSD.
#31) On February 16, 2004 10:10 AM
I disagree with your comment on a professional iLife app. I prefer Apple’s approach of separate applications for mail, calendar, and address book to Microsoft’s bloated app Outlook and Ximian’s clone Evolution. When I want to look up someone’s address, I don’t want to have to open some bloated piece of software which does everything. I just want the address book. Apple has followed the Unix philosophy of software. An application should do one thing and do it well. Apple’s mail, calendar, and address book are good examples of this. Could each of them be improved? Yes. But don’t merge them. As long as they integrate with one another, there is no need to build a bloated app.
#32) On February 16, 2004 10:41 AM
Regarding KDE apps on OS X: there is a pre-alpha version of KDE available from http://kde.opendarwin.org/ .
This version uses Qt/Mac and thus does not need X11.
#33) On February 16, 2004 11:31 AM
a support gripe here.
arrg! none of the mac OS X Jag based machines on our net can talk to the NIX based mail system properly. why? because the hostname of the machine to computer_name.local! this is not compliant with internet standards! invalid TLD!
i am not a mac user, im primarily Linux/BSD/Windows. but this is extremely aggrivating. i know how to change this via the mac termial, but the user requres priv accees to run ‘hostname’. hostname in some cases does not report this, but it does show up when talking to other machines over the wire.
as for the multiple desktops… all major OSes have this ability now. OSX should as well. its a default function for most of the window managers for *NIX [KDE, GNOME, *box] and winxp has this avalible as a powertool. there is no good reason that OSX shouldnt have this.
i also agree with #20. drop the prices, and more *NIX and network oriented people might purchace. as there does not appear to be much in the way of propri hardware in the box anymore, the pricing no longer justifies the price you pay for a mac.
for #27: you might want to look into using the scp protocol. it is a subsystem of sshd that acts much like sftp. you can also tunnel standard ftp over ssh. see ‘man’ for the spesific flags. if you are accessing scp from a windows box, theres a great open source freeware app called WINSCP2 for scp. i know that this is probably not quite appropriate for downloading from sites that are not your own, but it is useful for remotely accessing one of your own boxes. as for remotely editing files, sshd is great for that too. the mac os MUST have something like pine/pico[nano] or vi/vim that you can use over an ssh session, if it doesnt have those apps themselves.
#34) On February 16, 2004 12:16 PM
I have to chime in to agree about combining Mail, iCal and Address Book. One of the reasons I was so psyched back when about Entourage coming to Mac OS X was the seamlessness of the program’s components. I’d love to see that with the “Comm/PIM Triangle”.
#35) On February 16, 2004 12:40 PM
good idea about the drawer. i think that a piles implementation of it would be even better.. also. it has to activated by a hover, no click required. this behavior is what makes windows xp’s grouping feature a pain to use…
#36) On February 16, 2004 1:20 PM
I thought Panther was great……until I bought XP for my home computer. All the bad things I had heard about XP seem to be ignoring the benefits and the enormous improvements between Win2k and XP. XP makes it so easy to burn CDs for example. Now my gripes with Panther:
#37) On February 16, 2004 6:01 PM
Re: 36
Firstly, I live in Australia and so am familiar with pricing around here. I’ve just compared (to be sure) the pricing difference between the IBM ThinkPad X31 as found at http://techbuy.com.au/ and that of Apple’s iBooks and PowerBooks as found at http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiastore/ and I think you’ve given the wrong impression - either that or I’m looking at the wrong IBM ThinkPads, ‘cause they’re not cheaper!
As for your other gripes - I must say that (though I could be wrong) it seems as though you didn’t spend enough time with Mac OS X and/or were trying to make it work like Windows. Allow me to explain…
You said, “Panther refuses to show servers in the Finder. I have to mount them.” Yes, you have to mount them in the land of Unix - for both security and efficiency’s sake. You need only do this once with Cmd+k as once it’s mounted you can drag the icon to the Dock (or Finder Bar) and thereby give yourself easy access to it again in the future. Not a fair gripe.
You said, “10.2 Mail has not been patched to use Exchange server for email.” So upgrade - it’s cheaper to upgrade than to buy XP which should have been good news to you seeing as I gather you’re into free stuff from the repeated mention of Mozilla. Not a fair gripe when you haven’t upgraded - knowing that those features are available. Alternatively, use Microsoft’s Entourage. How can this be a complaint?
You said, “Compared to Mozilla, Mail is a poor email program.” So install Apple’s X11 and use Mozilla - or one of the other email programs (again Entourage is an option - many features). What does this gripe have to do with Mac OS X? Mail’s an application - not an OS. There are options for you…
You said, “Safari has dumb keyboard navigation.” You can change it using the defaults command in the Terminal, or you can use another browser such as OmniWeb which has wonderful keyboard configurability (and also uses WebCore).
You said, “Alt+Tab in Windows switches between instances of (say) Mozilla.” That’s right. Cmd+Tab switches between ‘Applications’ in Mac OS X (think of it as ‘groups’ of instances of (say) Mozilla). Within these ‘groups’ (i.e., Applications) you can Cmd+` to switche between its documents (i.e., think instances) OR you can use its Window menu OR you can use Expose. How do you hide all windows or bring them to the fore in Windows with ease? Now which one gives you more options?
As for burning CDs - it really is quite simple. Select and Burn. How is this difficult?
#38) On February 17, 2004 11:29 PM
Virtual desktop: Yes. As mentioned above, codetek offers a shareware app for virtual desktop, but built in would not be bad
Dock Drawers: Yes! Also, one thing that I am surprised to have not encountered here is an I idea/desire I had: Folders in the dock containing multiple applications, with configurable default actions. ie: I would have AppleWorks, Word, TextEdit, and EasyNotes in one folder. The default action of clicking the dock icon would be to launch Appleworks (my personal favorite, and most used, but this could be configured 100% by the user), right clicking would present a menu with the other apps. CodeTek also has a “DockExtender” app that performs similarly to this, but I have yet to try it.
-cmd + tab for application windows: absolutely! I love cmd tabbing through apps, and an alternative for app windows would be great, for now, however, I use Expose (app view) and the arrow keys + return. Does the job, but not as nice.
#39) On February 18, 2004 8:12 AM
It spite of all the improvements, for high-end users with tons of hard disks and pci cards, it remains pretty useless.
Even with a Dual g4 only 1 1/2 yrs old, the finder is so slow that I find myself using XP more and more and being far more efficient. And lets not even start with the stupid font management in OS X with fonts in different locations. USELESS! and very annoying.
Networking just blows. End of story
At the end of the day. Apple has a good but really unfinished product that is based on glitz and show and not productivity. By this time in its’ evolution, OS X should be much much better.
#40) On February 18, 2004 11:15 AM
A few of my biggest gripes with OS X:
Add Delete! I don’t know how many times I’ve forgotten and tried to delete files the logical way… highlight and hit delete. Of course nothing happens. If I need to clean out a large number of files I usually just do it from the terminal.
Fix Scrolling in Mail! I was sure they would have fixed the scrolling issue in Panther, but no. try to scroll through a message using the cursor keys. It will work fine as long as the message is plain text, otherwise it will not only fail to scroll but will select the next message in the mailbox causing you to lose your place… arg.
Safari Needs a Full Screen View. Safari is terrific… except it doesn’t have full screen view. Hell, I think even IE has that very basic feature.
Finder “forgets” custom icons constantly. I have changed the icons for Applications as well as all subdirectories of my home directory. The finder sidebar constantly reverts to the default icon, usually correcting when I change directories.
#41) On February 19, 2004 9:47 AM
Yeah, OS X isn’t quite there. We need a fully 64-bit OS X including X11 on 64-bit now - we need to access all of the 8 GB of the G5 at once - and we need each and every part of the system and X11 software to easily support cluster-software such as XGrid or Pooch. That’s the wishlist, and it’s urgent.
#42) On February 22, 2004 4:18 AM
Re: the dock drawers idea.
One thing I loved about OS9 was the windowshade (where you double click on the top of the window and it collapses to just the title bar). It used to be a third party utility until Apple realised what a great idea it was and made it part of the system (starting I think with OS 8.6).
Now you can download it again for OSX at
http://www.unsanity.net/
and it does a lot more cool stuff than just collapsing windows like OS9 used to. So there’s no need to fill the dock up with minimised windows at all…
#43) On February 23, 2004 4:46 PM
Switching between Application windows: Command - ` (under the ~) It’s a system wide function.
Deleting from the keyboard: Command - Delete (the ‘backspace’ key)
As for the original article…
Trash in the sidebar is a good idea. That would be pretty handy.
And yes, the Network lockup thing is a definite problem. But I think it got a bit better with Panther…at least on my multi-processor box…maybe it just locks up one processor.
I prefer Expose to VD..er..Virtual Desktops. I think it is an excellent implementation of the concept. I prefer multiple monitor setups as well (2nd monitor for thing like palettes & iChat), but the reason I like it is because the information is readily available at a glance. You don’t really get that with Virtual Desktops, because you have to switch desktops.
The PIM apps should remain seperate, though better integration would be welcome. This does not require the apps be merged.
#44) On March 1, 2004 2:11 AM
I’m a PC user (what am I even doing here?). But I must give it up to Apple for Panther.
Somethings the continue to bug me about Mac OS’s:
Can’t resize a windows from any side/corner. I waste a lot of wrist movement and clicks trying to get the right position and sizing of windows.
Why doesn’t the Home key go to the begining of the URL in a browsers address bar?
Similarly… Got End key?
On the topic of address bars… how many clicks does it hae to take to highlight the entire URL. Often it seems like 3! Is that necessary? 1 is sufficient.
And finally, this one if probably just a lack of my OSX knowledge, but there should be a real simple way to keep a mapped network drive across reboots. I shouldn’t need to reconnect to a server everytime I restart.
OK that’s all. Great article!
#45) On March 6, 2004 3:21 AM
if you want to add a real trash icon to your .trash folder in the sidebard, just get info on both the .trash folder and the open trash folder. you can copy the icon from one to the other and voilà, a trash can in the sidebar.
sort of agree with above poster that apple does need to continue to speed up the interface. still too many beach balls.
#46) On March 9, 2004 3:03 PM
Nice article.
I used to work for Apple as a tier 2 support agent.
I feel I have a good grasp on what kinds of things Apple will do and won’t do. Many of these suggestions are great suggestions, but most of them don’t fit Steve’s “vision” for the OS. Thus they won’t ever happen.
Apple isn’t likely to do Drawers in the Dock, or a second dock, or a fully customizable dock. Apple is currently in a mode to make features that are “like Windows but better”.
Thus for the dock: contextual menus for each application with more than one active window to select a window, to hide other applications (making this application the only one showing), and to tile the windows neatly on the screen as necessary. I’d also expect a Desktop option in the Finder application. Thus the Dock’s contexual windows would tie in well to Expose.
Aqua/Platiunum: Not going to happen. Apple wants to control the user experience for Newbies. Apple figures (correctly) that power users who want a customized interface will find a way to get one (even if they’re not happy and not being provided one). Choice is good for the power user, but confusing for the Newbie. With Mac OS X, Apple is appealing to the lowest common denominator. Don’t hold your breath.
Trash: Use Alec’s suggestions. Apple won’t do it unless everybody complains to them. (Well, get complaining!)
Apple likes user feedback as much as any other technology company that has a gameplan set in stone. Aka, they hate it. No matter how much they say they love and welcome feedback, you have to bitch until you’re blue in the face to get the message across, and then, if it still doesn’t fit into Steve’s nice neat little box, it still won’t fly. Thus complain away! Please make it well thought out constructive criticism, elsewise the feedback may be rejected out of pocket:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
I totally agree that as a UNIX operating system, Mac OS X is immature. It needs a LOT of work. There is a lot they could learn from AIX, which is an ingenious derivative of BSD, highly customized for security and power. Too bad Avie can’t work something out with IBM’s AIX division to learn how they’ve improved on AIX since BSD. There is a lot that Apple could learn from IBM in its server strategy as well.
Apple should improve it’s underlaying UNIX technology (and pay for POSIX certification, they have the money). Apple should also listen more to customer feedback on OS design because its the customers who use it. And Apple should look to IBM for advice in the server market, and try to compete below IBM’s kits, not against their kits, but providing the best price per performance ratio in that category. Imagine an XServe Blade Server, U3.
Just something to chew on.
Khelan
#47) On March 13, 2004 3:12 AM
[Home] Command-click the title in the title bar for the path. Or use a browser that has a LINK bar (like iCab). Or do you mean to place the cursor at the beginning of the url? (Command-L, left arrow)
[Highlight url] Just click favicon once (or: Command-L)
System wide text box behaviour: one click to place the cursor, two clicks to select a word, three clicks to select a line.
[End key] Cursor to the end of the url, I suppose: Command-L, right arrow
#48) On March 29, 2004 5:41 PM
Generally good ideas except for the absurd idea of combining mail, ical, and address book. These programs should be able to call on one another’s functions, but should not be combined. I rather like ical and addressbook, but hate mail. I would hate to have to load a mail app to use the address and cal functions. Apps should be modular; interoperable, but seperate.
#49) On August 25, 2004 5:23 PM
A dissenting opinion:
I think there are some great ideas for interface advancements in this article (with the notable exception of combining iCal, Mail and Addressbook which I think is misguided, for the same reasons Robert Buice stated) however, the changes you describe would only be a benefit to advanced users. Many of them would be a hinderance to the vast majority of users out there your everyday email checkers, web-surfers and word composers.
Apple has for many years been a champion of total usability to the extent that many apple users (including my dad) learned how to use their first Macintosh simply by turning it on and screwing around with the mouse until things started making sense.
It is also true that many apple greatest endorsers are far more demanding of their computers than their Microsoft Windows running counterparts. But that is exactly why they have to keep it simple: in order to gain marketshare apple must maintain it’s legendary ease of use to capture users with basic needs and a simplistic grasp of computing concepts.
This is why your Mac comes with a one button mouse it allows you to do everything a two button mouse does (via modifier keys) but it’s proper usage is plainly obvious even to the most wooden-headed dolt. Those who want a fancy 6-button mouse can buy it in the aftermarket.
My feeling is that such tweaks are best left to the aftermarket 3rd party software companies. We don’t have virtual desktops because they will confuse the hell out of new users (where is that word document? Where is my Web Browser?). The Trash is universally available from one spot, putting it in another doesn’t make it any more accessible and could confuse neophyte users (which trash should I use? What’s the difference?). Modifying the dock such that an applications minimized windows disappear until the parent app icon is clicked would be disastrously confusing to new users (I forgot I had that document open, so I quit the app? Where is that word doc I had open? Should I open it again? (revert to saved) …
I think these are all great ideas for advanced users. For new apple switchers or computing neophytes, they would create a computing environment that is disastrously confusing something apple avoids at every turn.
#50) On August 26, 2004 11:59 AM
Why were you talking about tech stuff at Hooters? I’m I missing something?
#51) On October 28, 2004 6:27 PM
Hey,
Let’s admit it now, APple computers suck, don’t they? Everyone tries to pretend they are just great, but they have their problems like anything else. Having sold too many Apples to unsuspecting nitwits like you all, I have to say:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.GRAG TARM AFTUREWID!
#52) On June 11, 2005 3:47 PM
Okay…here’s what I want to see.
Dock: a drawer feature like what I had with NeXT or with AfterStep. I hate having to go digging for an app via finder. I also don’t want to have EVERY app on my system in my dock.
iProfessional-Life: I don’t think all three apps should be made into one, but WAY better intergration would rock. Heck, maybe even an option to tie in a project management tool with FastTrack Scheduler.
An option for Virtual Desktop with a Pager
Just my thoughts.
#53) On June 17, 2005 12:51 PM
Justin:
“…MacOS X Panther is the best operating system on the planet…”
Realy?
And how does one disable the shadows on windows of OS X (who knows maybe someone wants to improve the performance of the system)???
How about consistency. The HOME and END keys don’t work. Instead one has to go through:
CTRL+arrow keys
ALT/OPTION + arrow keys
APPLE + arrow keys
all depending on the application in use!
Ever heard of consistency?
#54) On August 10, 2005 5:38 PM
There’s a nice app crm4mac that combines the power of Ical, Addressbook and Mail
for your relations management.
personally I like them as single apps - and the ability to extend and tie using applescript.
look inside crm4mac.app to discover all the applescripts that do the actual work.
I love it
#55) On February 23, 2006 2:33 AM
virtual desktops+expose = deskpose.
create 2, 3, 4 desktops, then show all four in expose form to choose which one you want to use.
I stil don’t understand the logic of getting rid of window shading…I too use unsanity’s WindowShade, but it should be built in. There should be an expose key combo for shading all.
The idea of extra keys on the keyboard for expose is stupendous, bravo. Yet it took Apple a dozen years to put sound keys on the keyboard, so I expect it will take another 5 or 6 for them to make more changes like the keys that most PC and 3rd party Mac keyboards include.