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November 30, 2006

rivals

Mac OS X’s turn offs include…

Posted Nov. 30, ’06, 10:46 AM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | Apple » Rivals

Well the pregnancy was longer than expected, but Vista has finally been born. (I heard it was so ugly that the doctor slapped the mother… snap!) With its release, Joel on Software remarked upon the new “Shut Down” menu. He concluded, through suspect yet concise reasoning, that the number of options should be reduced from seven to one. After this was posted, Moishe Lettvin, a member of the team that actually designed the function, commented on how bureaucracy can stymie intuitive design. The team that determined how Vista turns off had 24 members, and had to deal with outdated builds due to Microsoft’s system of development. Fun, right?

How was the function designed in OS X? Arno Gourdol, Mac OS X Finder Lead, describes the process:

But the biggest difference probably was that only a few people were involved in the whole decision making process: a UI designer, a kernel engineer, a UI engineer, a Senior VP with very strong views about this feature
For the most part, I’m pretty happy with OS X’s Shut Down process, though I do wish that “one key” Shut Down was implemented:
We even had “one key” keyboard shortcuts, so that to restart the computer all you had to do was press the power key, then R when the dialog was displayed and the Restart option was selected.
So what do you think? Do any of you have any strong feelings either way on the OS X Shut Down feature?


10 Comments

Richard Neal said:

I'm fine with Control-Option-Command-Eject for shutting down, no Apple menu or dialog necessary.

November 30, 2006 11:06 AM
Dave said:

Just that Mac OS X is much better than Windows. The only suggestion I have read that would be an improvement is to put a power key back on the keyboard such that, when pressed, you can choose sleep, restart, shut down, or log out.

Joel and Arno are both going too far. Neither has considered remote administration when they want to eliminate the restart option. Joel wants one b'bye, but to get there requires hardware that isn't on a lot of machines today, much less legacy systems.

November 30, 2006 11:22 AM
Brian said:

Whenever I have to shut my computer down I just hold down control-option-command and then hit the eject button. Very quick and painless.

November 30, 2006 12:36 PM
T said:

I could care less either way, I usually just put my mac to sleep when I am not using it, the only time I really use shutdown is if I will be gone for several days, which is few and far between. I don't think the shutdown option needs any changes.

November 30, 2006 1:16 PM
wackybit Author Profile Page said:

to turn off just cmd+option+ctrl+eject
to sleep just cmd+option+eject
to restart just cmd+ctrl+eject

It's really that simple

November 30, 2006 1:30 PM
Richard Neal said:

I'm fine with Control-Option-Command-Eject for shutting down, no Apple menu or dialog necessary.

November 30, 2006 2:10 PM
Aldrin said:

From what Pat said, "For the most part, I’m pretty happy with OS X’s Shut Down process, though I do wish that “one key” Shut Down was implemented..."

Well, Pat, if you mean that there's no "one key" keyboard shortcut for shut down after pressing the Power key, you can just press the Return key ... the "Shut Down" option should be the highlighted default in the "Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?" dialog box.

Anyway, I've always liked the way my Macs shut down (much faster than Windows machines) ... two key presses (and perhaps an additional Return to compact my Filevault when necessary) and my Macs cleanly shut off in just a few seconds. I don't have to wait long if I need to pack away my PB on those rare occasions when I need it shut off instead of sleeping.

November 30, 2006 6:49 PM
Boz Kay said:

I'm happy with the way it is.

December 1, 2006 2:09 AM
Rick said:

Shut Down ? when do you use that?

December 1, 2006 3:13 AM
macnuke said:

I miss the powerkey on the old ADB keyboard.
hit it once, hit return and you're off.
the multiple keys required now, it's easier to just use the mouse and the menu.

December 2, 2006 7:22 AM

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