Mac OS X Not For Me

Posted by on 29 October, 2006 Leave a comment (4) Go to comments

Recently I bought an Apple iMac 20” (Intel Core Duo2 one). Here is a picture of “magrathea”, currently running GNU/Linux…

[[Image:life/imac.jpg|center]]

Why?!

The reason is not because I am an Apple fanboy and I like shiny products, nor because I want to use Mac OS X. It’s a nice compact screen-only PC with really nice specs. One may say – if you want something compact why haven’t you bought a laptop? I already own a great tablet pc/convertible (Toshiba Portege M200) and I’ve been using laptops as workstations for the past 8 years or so. I am tired of those 12”, 14”, 17” laptop screens and keyboards. I take my tablet whenever I travel for short periods of time, but what happens with me is that I spend 1/2 of the year in the UK and the other 1/2 in Bulgaria. That’s why the iMac seemed like a reasonable solution (also with a reasonable price) to me and I bought it with the idea of installing GNU/Linux on it, which is the OS of my choice.

I decided to test drive Mac OS X, because I have never used it before. I have heard that it is really nice and the usability is great. I have also heard/read that Mac OS X’s roots are unixish, so for a moment I thought I will be able to run all the open source applications I use, so I will configure an environment that matches the one I am used to on GNU/Linux. For a start I knew that there is a Terminal with Bash in Mac OS X. :)

Booting up

After booting up a welcome screen with a configuration wizard (or in GNOMEish – a druid hehe) showed, which made me specify all my contact details and if I have .Mac and Apple accounts, also if I want to subscribe to the .Mac one or have a free trial.

Mouse

No right click. You can enable that in the preferences for the mouse. Incredibly annoying acceleration, which is considered a bug. The cursor either moves incredibly fast or incredibly slow. I googled for a solution and found two $30 such (shareware programs) and an open source one. The open source one did not help. I ended up using my laptop’s Microsoft mouse and installing the Microsoft’s mouse driver for Mac OS X, because it allows disabling the default system behaviour and replacing it with Microsoft’s IntelliPointer or whatever it’s called. One can thank Microsoft for helping out with Mac OS X bugs, quite funny I think.

Keyboard and Shortcuts/Hotkeys

Keyboard layout: [Ctrl][Alt][Apple Key][Space][Apple Key][Alt][Ctrl]
Ctrl+C for copy and Ctrl+V for paste? NO! Apple Key+C and Apple Key+V. HOME/END keys? NO! Apple Key+< --/Apple Key+-->.

Windows and Dock

Now. I thought the Close button is for closing a program, but that’s not the case with Mac OS X. The close button (is it actually called a close button?) places the program in the left side of the dock. The minimize button places a thumbnail of the program in the right side of the dock. To quit explicitly an application you have to either do it from the menu or from the right click menu in the dock…if you have a right click.

[[Image:software/mac-dock.png|center]]

File Browsing and Manipulation

The logic in Mac OS X for file browsing is nice – you don’t have to know where something is – just use the search in Finder or even by using Spotlight, which is an icon in the notification area/taskbar. Of course you can navigate through the directories. But what if I want to know where is something or copy paste the path to a file? No go. After poking around i managed to put a button in the toolbar which when clicked will show a drop down list with directories. I realized that I can drag and drop the directory in the terminal and it will paste the path for you. You think there is a Rename function in the menus? Think again. To do that you have to select a file and hit Return. Deleting a file with the delete key? No go. You have to drag and drop in the trash.

[[Image:software/mac-finder.png|center]]
[[Image:software/mac-spotlight.png|center]]

Programs Install and Uninstall

I really liked that. The only thing you have to do in order to install an application is to drag and drop the .dmg file in Applications. To uninstsall you just have to drag and drop in the Trash.

Terminal

You get the standard unix tools, but … Keyboard and Shortcuts/Hotkeys …

Shut Down and Restarting

I have no comment on this one. I bet you will like it when applications stop the shutting down process, because they want to be closed one by one?

[[Image:software/mac-shutdown-canceled.png|center]]

Conclusion

Probably a great OS for the average user that uses 1-3 programs at a time. Easy to use, but extremly frustrating to me. I don’t want to do stuff the Mac way. Mac OS X is just yet another OS I wanted to use (I gave up after a week. I couldn’t use it for more than 5 hours in a row). Also, I am not trolling here, I just state personal opinions and I am happy for you if you think Mac OS X is great for you. Everyone on his own!

P.S

Wondering how I took the screenshots? It’s Apple Key+Shift+4+Space+Click …

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    Coding
    • http://therox.org orta

      As I now too have a desktop I have to use the mouse, but to be honest I’ve had no problems with all the default settings, I did turn on the second and third mouse buttons on my mighty mouse. I don’t see the acceleration as being a problem for me.

      Keyboard and Shortcuts/Hotkeys
      Your used to different hotkeys, I could be pissy and say that obviously the command + X shortcuts came well before the ctrl ones did and that of course you adapt to it if you’re a switcher.

      Windows and Dock
      With OS X apple realised there is two types of apps. Documents apps and not. For example a text editor is a document app, you can have about 50 of them and it will only show one icon on the left half of the dock, with 50 documents on the right. Something like iPhoto which you’d only have one instance open closes when you hit the close button. This is half intuitive, of the people I’ve helped switch I’ve generally just showed them to close an app by the menu or command-q. But as a power user it makes perfect sense for saving desktop space. (A good use of this is iTunes, where you can close the actual window but the program will carry on playing, saving ram for the gui)

      Anyway, give it another try sometime, and feel free to ask me questions in IRC!

    • http://therox.org orta

      As I now too have a desktop I have to use the mouse, but to be honest I’ve had no problems with all the default settings, I did turn on the second and third mouse buttons on my mighty mouse. I don’t see the acceleration as being a problem for me.

      Keyboard and Shortcuts/Hotkeys
      Your used to different hotkeys, I could be pissy and say that obviously the command + X shortcuts came well before the ctrl ones did and that of course you adapt to it if you’re a switcher.

      Windows and Dock
      With OS X apple realised there is two types of apps. Documents apps and not. For example a text editor is a document app, you can have about 50 of them and it will only show one icon on the left half of the dock, with 50 documents on the right. Something like iPhoto which you’d only have one instance open closes when you hit the close button. This is half intuitive, of the people I’ve helped switch I’ve generally just showed them to close an app by the menu or command-q. But as a power user it makes perfect sense for saving desktop space. (A good use of this is iTunes, where you can close the actual window but the program will carry on playing, saving ram for the gui)

      Anyway, give it another try sometime, and feel free to ask me questions in IRC!

    • Dan

      yeah, this was made in 06 and all these problems are still there. As a new mac owner I don’t know how people put up with this bullshit. I agree with you that some points are just great, for example, program uninstalls are fantastic. There are many other things are that cool. But by and far, OS X just doesn’t make sense. Many of the decisions apple made just have no logic at all.

    • Dan

      yeah, this was made in 06 and all these problems are still there. As a new mac owner I don\’t know how people put up with this bullshit. I agree with you that some points are just great, for example, program uninstalls are fantastic. There are many other things are that cool. But by and far, OS X just doesn\’t make sense. Many of the decisions apple made just have no logic at all.