BTW, Macs are Awesome.

[thorfinn]

Oh hi. I forgot to mention. Macs are awesome. Your next computer should be a Mac, assuming you just want a computer where you can do general average day to day stuff and Get Things Done.

If you want to do a specific weird thing (yes, hardcore computer game nerds, that mostly does mean you), then alright, you have special needs, and probably need more thought than just buying a Mac will necessarily get you. You already have the mad skillz needed to go do that. This message isn't for you.

However, for everyone else, if you just want to get connected to the internet, do email, browse the web, maybe do some word processing, download pictures off your digital camera, maybe upload some pictures to the interweb, even have automated hourly backups done for you... then absolutely just get a Mac already.

Oh, and if you're a unix tech-head, you really want a Mac too. Just think, a real Unix OS with a consumer grade UI on top.

See: http://morganjaffit.livejournal.com/34058.html

He says it better than I do.

Comments

[thorfinn]

As for the Application based UI rather than window based... that's absolutely one of the conscious Interface Complexity tradeoff choices that Mac OS has made. It's a conscious reduction in feature complexity, coming at the cost of a lack of Power User speed.

Their solution to the worst issue caused by it (I want to get to a particular window, quickly) is actually somewhat solved by Expose... Only somewhat, but it's about solved as best as you can.

Not solved the way us X11 nuts are used to, no... But heck, the point there is, if you want X11, you have it. :-)

[pir.livejournal.com]

Expose is a terrible answer to finding a particular window unless you're so disorganised you never know where anything is (I know it's behind this one, oh look, lets move them all around to different places on the screen and make them smaller and so I can't actually see what's in them all, that will help!) and doesn't do anything for when I want to change focus or move individual windows without bringing something to the front.

I want X11 with focus follows mouse that actually works, the abilit to move windows and change focus fully without bringing a window to the front (I want to read this one and type into that one, but oh, now it's on top and in the way) and the ability to move windows properly, which I don't have, because as it is, it's a poor imitation of real X11.

The GUI sucks. The bandaids added later to try and make it more usable (like Expose and Spaces) are partial answers to not the problems it actually has, the "tradeoff" with applications and windows is a bad one and doesn't make things easier for anyone; it's purely about how they've always done it since back when only one application could be running at a time and has persisted because of not wanting to change and the menu bar across the top of the screen (which could perfectly easily change with focus follows mouse).

My personal answer to the awful GUI choices is to try and never put anything behind anything else and break different sets of windows (because I don't work in one application at a time, I work at a task which may involve individual windows from several applications at a time - read my email and put an event in my calendar, for example) into different virtual desktops (and with Virtue; while spaces does very pretty changes from one window to another it doesn't actually work properly, particularly not for X11).

Not being the way I am used to it is one thing, making it actively hostile to doing anything in a different way is another. If you worship at the church of steve and do everything exactly how he wants you to, you're all fine, otherwise you're SOL.

[thorfinn]

Mmm.. I don't buy that the tradeoff is a bad one - for most users.

I think it's vastly more common and natural for the majority of users to want to be using one application at a time... and for that purpose, the mac GUI paradigm is the best solution.

You (and I, and most unix geeks) are (unfortunately for us) unusual in that respect.

I agree, Expose + Spaces is nowhere near as good as proper X11 window manager and mouse fu. :-) But the latter is most definitely a metric boatload more complexity than the average user bunny wants or needs.