Ian Anthony of isnoop.net, a site I became familiar with when it featured a Gmail invite spooler, has come up with Ten Reasons Why I Hate My MacBook Pro. Before anyone chimes in with it, the first thing I thought was “Then give it to me.”
He goes through all ten reasons, but honestly, I don’t really find any of them particularly strong, particularly when presented together. Let’s break them down.
#10 Stripped Down Keyboard
The MacBook Pro has a 78 key keyboard. The Eject button is the only one that doesn’t appear on my laptop keyboard (CD eject is handled by a fn-key combo).Compared to the Dell, it is missing the following keys: Delete (the delete key is backspace), insert, home, end, page up, page down, and pause.
Granted that the functionality of these keys can be emulated with key-combos from within OSX, but they require special handling if I am going to dual boot into any other OS (which is a main reason why I bought this laptop).
To be blunt, buying a MacBook Pro now if you’re primary use is outside Mac OS X while Boot Camp is a beta is downright foolish. There are techniques to handle this and is going to likely change as Apple hammers out more compatibility issues.
#9 Function Keys are not System Level
On a PC laptop, most of the function keys are system level. When I press the key combination to change screen brightness, toggle wireless, or turn on numlock, it just works no matter what OS I’m running or where I am at in the boot process.For that matter, I sure do wish the backlit keyboard was system level as well, but I’ll cut them some slack on that one (even though, again, this is a main reason why I bought this laptop).
shrug It’s hard to care when all that stuff works fine in Mac OS X. There’s nothing stopping Windows and Linux from providing these services as well.
#8 Minimize vs Hide
When I click the yellow minimize button on any given window, it shrinks to the tray (with a fancy ”genie” effect) just as I would expect. However, if I have minimized the last visible window for an app such as TextEdit, I also expect focus to leave that application and move to the next window in Command+Tab.The problem of not moving to the next app upon minimize is compounded by the fact that when you Command+Tab back to the program, the windows are still hidden in the tray.
Hiding windows with Command+H accomplishes almost exactly what I’d like, but I’ve noticed that a few apps don’t behave like they should with this action. I’d probably be able to ignore this if they’d just make the minimize button perform this action and make the key combination hide windows away so they don’t return when you cycle back to the app.
Ok, Mac OS X is not Windows. Macs have applications which have their own sets of windows. This is different from Windows where windows exist on their own, outside the idea of enclosing application. The dock is not the Window tray. It’s a different paradigm. Stop trying to use OS X like Windows. They’re different.
#7 It Does Too Crash
”Lesson 1: It doesn’t crash.”Au contraire! I’m very familiar with Windows crashes, but I’ve been keeping track and this new laptop has crashed requiring a hard restart five out of seven days since I got it. My Dell laptop, whether running XP or FreeBSD would crash on a bi-weekly basis. Tops.
I’ll grant you that I am a power user and that I may do more demanding things with my computers, but I don’t feel that resuming a computer from sleep or losing network connectivity during various actions should warrant a full-on hang.
Anecdotal. I also push my computers really hard and I can count the number of full stop crashes I’ve had since I’ve moved to OS X on one hand.
#6 The Title Bar Hates Me
In Windows, double-clicking the title bar toggles the window between maximized and a smaller state. In other window systems, this same action rolls the window up into the title bar. It is still under your mouse and able to be double-clicked again as soon as you realize what you did.In OSX, double-clicking the title bar triggers the dreaded minimize feature where the only sure-fire way I’ve seen of bringing it back requires mousing down to the taskbar and fetching it. For a Windows user, it’s like shock therapy to perform the exact opposite of the expected action when a user double-clicks the title bar.
While I’m on the topic of the title bar, I sure do wish that I could define more visual distinction between the window in focus and all of the others. There are several subtle clues if you take time to look for them, but the average switcher is used to a complete shift in the title bar appearance for any out of focus window.
The close/minimize/resize buttons on each window aren’t visible in all circumstances, so I can’t reliably tell at a glance which window will respond if I start mashing my fingers on the keyboard.
Again, Mac OS X isn’t Windows. It isn’t other operating systems. As for visual distinction, increased shadowing, striped title bar, greyed out controls, and greyed out title bar buttons aren’t enough? Ok, I give up.
#5 Backwards Compatibility
To be honest, I am ignorant about a lot of Mac software history. I haven’t had an Apple since my Apple IIc and a Mac Classic or two. All I know is that when I want to run an application I found on the Internet, I can’t always do it because it’s not Intel compatible.It just doesn’t work.
Most of the software worth installing is written by developers who have revisited their apps and built a universal binary over the past few months, but there are some apps that I’ve found that don’t have any competitors and haven’t seen any updates in nearly a year.
One of Microsoft’s biggest boons and limitations is their backwards compatibility. I can make good arguments on both sides all day long, but the net for this topic is that non-backwards compatibility is a pain point for early adopters.
Ok, one, I knew compatibility would be an issue when Apple decided to go to Intel. That said, save for Classic applications and some low level OS X applications, Rosetta has most bases covered. Windows has been on the same architecture since its inception. Windows isn’t flawless in this regard either when it comes to backward compatibility. Let’s not kid ourselves.
#4 No Reinventing the Wheel
My early impression of finding and installing Mac software is that not many people have taken to re-inventing the wheel yet. I realize this has a lot to do with the size of the userbase, but I’m disappointed by the lack of programs that try to beat what Apple ships by default.For example, I can name a handful of different Windows SSH clients. Because OSX has a client built in, I believe developers are disinclined to write better versions.
Multiple versions of software that do the same thing doesn’t necessarily yield better software. Or, in other words, quantity is not quality. OpenSSH is a highly regarded SSH client in OS X and the various *nix OSs. Why bother reinventing the wheel if the supplied software does everything it needs to well?
#3 Installing Apps
Windows installers may have their flaws, but at least the typical install process is fairly simple: • Download the .exe • Execute it • Answer a few questions • Delete the installer • You’re done!When I entered the widget loving phase of the switch, I downloaded over two dozen of the little buggers. Some arrived in .dmg format, others arrived in some compressed form. A couple arrived as .dmg.tar.gz. The install process went like this: • Download the .dmg.tar.gz • Double-click the file to un-gzip it • Double-click the new .dmg.tar file to un-tar it • Double-click the new .dmg file to mount the image • If the file inside the image is an app, drag it into your Applications menu • If it is an installer, execute it and answer a few questions • Drag all four of the files and mount points created into the trash. • You’re done!
There are several advantages to the OSX way of installing apps which I will cover in Part II, but you can see how an install can get out of hand pretty quickly.
No normal widget developer wraps widgets in disk images. Application developers do, but they also don’t generally tar and gzip it as well. If they do, then it’s the equivalent of a Windows developer wrapping an installer in a zip archive. It happens. It has nothing to do with the OS. Clicking “Next” a thousand times is more annoying than dragging and dropping an application.
#2 Only One Window Resize Region
In most window managers, any resizable window has eight regions to grab; each of the sides and corners. OSX only allows the lower-right corner to resize a window. If you have a small window in the lower-right area of your screen and you want to make it bigger, you must first drag it out of the corner. This obvious omission is quite surprising to me, coming from a company who so emphasizes ease of use and a smooth user experience.
Resizing from alternate edges in those other operating systems is an exercise in frustration (oops, missed it again, I’m now in a totally different context, great). I guess it’s a personal opinion thing.
#1 No Maximize
All of the Mac users I know will go on and on about screen real estate and how a properly designed app shouldn’t take up the whole screen. However, when I want an application to take up the whole screen, I shouldn’t be forced to drag the window to the top-left of the screen (see above) and then drag it to be full screen.I choose full-screen because it blocks out all other applications and distractions. I choose it because if I wanted my apps to be smaller, I would have bought a smaller computer. I choose it because it makes me feel happy. Please don’t make me hunt for it.
This is really tired. Use Backdrop if you’re so easily distracted.
He promises an article of the ten things he likes. I wonder what’s on it.
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He's right about resizing and maximizing windows, both pet peeves of mine. Try maximizing a Safari window, and it attempts to be "smart" about it, resizing the window to what it thinks is the maximum width of the content.
That's the thing though Mike. That green button is not maximize. It's zoom, which resizes to show all the content. Whether that zoom could be more intelligent, that's another debate. Let's be clear as to what it is though.
10 Things I Hate About My Non-existent Dell Laptop
10)There is no eject key.
9)When I'm running OS X my brightness keys don't work. Oh wait I can't run OS X in teh first place.
8)It doesn't seem to know how to hide windows. And when I minimize them, they just kind of flash and dissapear, real ugly-like.
7)It seems like there are 250 new viruses every darn month that make it crash, freeze up, and erase my entire hard drive. I guess it seems that way because it's true.
6)Double-clicking the title bar toggles the window between maximized and a smaller state. Idealy, it should handle this exactly the way OS X does, because that's what I'm used to.
5)The architecture is like 30 years old.... 'nough said.
4)It's exactly the same as my Windows 98 computer, but instead, the taskbar is bigger and obnoxiously blue.
3)Uninstalling things makes me want to cry. It simply doesn't work. There's extra files all over the place from programs I uninstalled a year ago that "Cannot be deleted". WHY THE EFF NOT!
2)It takes about a half hour to position the cursor over the edge to resize the Window 4 different directions. I wish I could just quick drag it to the top left then grab a big chunk dedicated to resizing in 1 corner to resize it perfectly.
1)When a window is maximized I can never move it to see what's under it, it's locked into place. I always have to use the dredded minimize feature.
(I did my best)
wasn't this 10 things i hate about my macbook pro not 10 things i hate about osx almost everything he said has to do with osx not his new computer. if he doesn't like it he can go back to windows. you get used to the little differences. if i try to use windows now its excruciating. a mac is not a windows pc. get over it.
hello,
to maximize windows in os x you may use megazoomer:
http://ianhenderson.org/megazoomer.html
greetings from germany!
jan