“Here is a list of problems I find the most annoying about Apple’s Mac/MacOS,” Thom Holwerda writes for OSNews.com.
Holwerda’s list:
1. Mac OS X does not exactly feel fast.
2. Mac OS X is an inconsistent mess.
3. The annoying Google search field in Safari.
4. Tiger suffers from screen remnants.
5. Macs need an indicator LED for HDD activity.
6. Mail.app is a pointless email client.
7. The evil Mac OS X dock is a UI nightmare.
8. Mac OS X needs a decent uninstaller, supplied with the OS.
9. Apple needs to put more effort into backwards compatibility.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you read Thom Holwerda’s bio, you’ll know that he’s approaching the Mac from an outsiders’ mentality. Currently Holwerda owns two x86 boxes, one Dell laptop and a SPARC machine. Isn’t it interesting how different the lists of “Mac annoyances” look depending upon who wrote them? As Mac users from 1984, we agree only with #1, unless you’re using Mac OS X on an Intel Core Duo or a Power Mac G5 Quad, and then we don’t agree. Remember, we’re comparing the “snappiness” of the OS with Mac OS 9. Holwerda is comparing it to other OSes, but we still reach the same conclusion. We’re not seeing #4 anymore with Mac OS X 10.4.6 for Intel although we have seen it to varying degrees with past versions of Tiger on PowerPC-based Macs. Let us know what you find annoying about Macs and Mac OS X. Let us know how long you’ve been using Macs and if you started with Macs or came to them from another platform. Those factors seem to make all the difference to the content of the lists.
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Nick, the MacBooks and MacBook Pros have a right-click option as part of the scrolling trackpad.
And I’d recommend everyone read the full article. The guy acknowledges a lot of the arguments being made here.
1. Mac OS X does not exactly feel fast.
I would agree that compared to OS 9 and earlier it maybe isn’t as ‘snappy’, but its so much nicer designed that it doesn’t bother me. Also since Panther I have found OS X to be a lot ‘snappier’ than the likes of Win XP!
2. Mac OS X is an inconsistent mess.
Compared to what exactly!?
3. The annoying Google search field in Safari.
If you dont like it you can turn it off! DUH!!
4. Tiger suffers from screen remnants.
Cant say I’ve ever noticed that. XP is far worse for not redrawing the screen etc..
5. Macs need an indicator LED for HDD activity.
Well, personally I hate these. Most pointless things ever, you can usually hear the drive ‘tick’ anyway!
6. Mail.app is a pointless email client.
How can a free email client be pointless?
7. The evil Mac OS X dock is a UI nightmare.
Its simple and a LOT more flexible than the XP taskbar, so dunno what he’s on about there.
8. Mac OS X needs a decent uninstaller, supplied with the OS.
Perhaps a slight point, you can download free ones though.
9. Apple needs to put more effort into backwards compatibility.
Classic, Rossetta anyone?
The guy is obviously trolling for hits, and to get us Mac users annoyed. Dont give him any hits!
He maybe right about the uninstaller but that’s about it. And big deal about ongoing development and improvement of the interface and how it looks…
When writing the list of annoyances about the alternative – Windows – I wouldn’t know where to begin. And the list would be never ending.
If I were in Cupertino, I wouldn’t give this article another seconds thought…
Edit: ok you cant actually remove the search bar, but you can drag the handle and make it really small!
“Here is a list of problems I find the most annoying about Apple’s Mac/MacOS,” Thom Holwerda writes for OSNews.com.
in related news, a bicycle fell over in Shanghai …
The new Dvorak…
This is a Dvorak style posting to get a response. Not worth the effort, and certainly not worth giving him the “numbers”.
If #1 refers to UI responsiveness, I agree to an extent. Windows (with Luna turned off) is instantaneous, especially if you have the pleasure to use Windows 2003 instead of XP. That being said, if you turn off the transitions in OSX and install a Microsoft or Logitech mouse, I’d say they’re about the same. The difference is that to do this on OSX requires a shareware solution.
However, on the opposite extreme, with OSX left alone, and all of Luna’s features enabled, I’d say OSX is far less intrusive that the buttfugly Luna, and Windows animated fade-in menus, especially if you have a less than stellar GPU. And we won’t even mention the new Windows OS…
Regarding inconsistent – while I do agree somewhat (there’s three different styles in current use, brushed metal, the slightly older Aqua look and the newest flat metal look), and that because its app specific, it’s not easy fixable. On the other hand, at least the close-minimize-expand buttons are in the same place, only they style of the bitmaps are differnt.
But in Windows land, we have third party programmers with exophilia – almost to absurd degrees. Even Microsoft can’t make a Media player that uses the Windows GUI, or follow their style guidelines for Office. Why? Because Luna is so absurdly gross, no one wants to leave it alone. The end result? Ten apps on my desktop, none of which look like they’re “Windows” apps, and none of which look the same. In fact, it often takes considerable effort to either a) make them look like Windows or b) at least make them look the same.
I won’t comment on #3. That’s search engine preference.
On #4, this is true. But I’ve seen Windows XP do the same thing – leaving pixel debris on the background. So what, grab a window and wiggle it over to erase it.
#5 and #8 can both be achieved with popular shareware utilities. Personally, I love AppZapper – too many utilities dump stuff in system folders tha doesn’t get cleared out if you just drag the app to the trash. A HDD LED? Why? Honestly, this is like asking “Where’s my defrag, anti-spyware, and anti-virs apps!!!!” – IOW, get over it.
#6 People often miss their Windows counterparts, because they offer VBA, and other things. Well, so do OSX apps – just have to relearn how (i.e., Automator). If you need to, install Microsoft Office and use Entourage.
The dock isn’t the perfect way to organise open apps, but compared to the taskbar in Windows, I’d take the dock. In a normal Windows install (and this is far worse on OEM installs), you have half a dozen Systray items, and a dozen-or-so Quick Start items, leaving enough space for three readable buttons. Any more, and they become “Micro…” unless you pull up the taskbar a few rows.
And finally, backwards compatibility is a curse. Windows 2003 found new levels of speed and stability by dropping a great deal of backwards compatibility, and the “New-One” will have even less. Virtually anything written for OSX will run on OSX – except that the migration to Intel has broken a lot of non-app programs (like screen savers, drivers, etc), and a few apps as well. That’s inevitable with change, and if you really want, you could install an emulator for some really old stuff.
Maybe Apple could buy one of them, and wrap it into the OS for System 9 compatibility. But, I have to ask, why would you want to? System 9 is far more “clunky” that OSX. The only real loss is WordPerfect…
i’ve been using Macs since 1985. here’s my feedback:
1. on my dual-1.8 GHz G5, it’s zippier than Windows on my 3.2 GHz PC.
2. ever use Windows shareware? comparatively speaking, it’s more unified.
3. i use it all the time, but everyone’s different. i’ll give you this, because Apple provides no way to remove it.
4. i’ve only seen this with a new graphics card and outdated drivers. once i updated the drivers, the problem was gone. this has happened once in my experience. ymmv.
5. i don’t need another damn light blinking on my desktop. this is your opinion.
6. Mail.app isn’t pointless, you just don’t like it. yes it has it’s problems. i’d rather use it than freakin’ Outlook.
7. the Dock works fine for me. the Windows taskbar is worse. you either get really big icons, or really tiny ones.
8. i wholeheartedly agree with you on this one.
9. BS. this is part of the reason Windows has so many issues. you can’t expect to run programs that haven’t been updated since 1995. deal with it.
I just personally e-mailed this fool <slakje@osnews.com> (b.t.w. ‘slakje’ in Dutch means snail… let’s not comment) saying that I didn’t agree on any of his points.
For those interested: I have been working on Mac for 13 years now and with great satisfaction ! Started with Mac when my friends were using MS DOS…. what a laugh. Microsoft copied everything they could legally copy from Apple !
Ride on Steve !!
Hmmmm,
I thought the list was very interesting. It had a sort of “rambling” feel to it. If I wrote such a list for my car, it might go like this:
Why I don’t like my car:
My econo-box is not fast like a race car.
It gets dirty all over when I drive on a dirt road.
I don’t like the shape of its tail lights.
I really hate where they put the oil filter.
My old chevy parts don’t fit it.
When bugs get splattered on the windshield, it takes a lot of washing to get them off.
I really hate the know arrangement for my stereo.
——
Hey, neat. Let me give you one of my reasons why I hate my friends NEW HP laptop.
I went to check the trashbin. It had 200 files in it. There was NO delete function available. AFter reading help files for 20 minutes, I discovered that to delete a file from the desktop, it would take 8-12 steps.
Drag to trashbin.
open trashbin.
open special application in Norton to allow final deletion of files.
desiginate which files are to be deleted.
etc
etc
etc
etc.
PLease. If you want to complain, just look around a windows and third party world. Macs come in a very very distant 4th to any PC.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> JMHO
Norm
1- A little slow but more because of my ram which I still havn’t upped as plenned. (didnt do so originally so i could get the pute for Christmas). And i use photoshop and Quark.
3- Pathetic comment, he obvioussly uses MSN search being the bovine he is.
4- yes my only real gripe I do find that annoying on my 6 mth old PPC iMac especially type not updating in photoshop.
6- I use mail all the time so much superior to the mediocre outlook express i used to have to deal with despite having a little less features (an advantage most of the time as using them in OE was a real pain)
7- Well I feared using the dock as at first onprevious machines I tried I found it difficult to get used to. But once i fully upgraded i realised it was only cos I was swapping betweeen the two. Since then I find it wonderful for the most part with just a little further work requireds to perfect it and so, so much superior to the feeble PC interface.
8- I would accept as an advantage though hardly a real problem so far for me at all so totally minor.
9- Well despite only just changing from OS9 I have no problems at all and far less than any PC person I know who have nightmares upgrading despite all the so called backwards compatibility excuses that slow up development there. This was my biggest worry in fact yet has had virtually no impact at all to the point I havn’t turned on my old machine after the first month of so of having this one months.
Inconsistencies in the interface(2)? Well I am sure that the anally retentive will see them but despite being a designer I really don’t notice anything particularly inconsistent here and of course a consistently naff OS is pointless altogether I would say. Sorry db you can sound off as much as you like accuse randomly til to the cows come home, but for me there is nothing of note to complain about, sorry if that upsets your insensibilities.
As for wanting led lights to show HDD activity (5) that is simply embarrassing. I don’t want such chav crap on my hi fi and definately not on my computer either, the stupid things on my gf’s Dell annoy me no end and for 95% of us have no use whatsoever other than to make the penile deficient feel more important, the stupid things should be banned altogether.
correction to wording on #2: Mac OS X is more unified.
Ok MDN, the Bio on OSNews is indeed right that I at the moment do not own a Mac; however, that is only becuase a few weeks ago, I sold my trustworthy G4 iBook. I just haven’t had the time to buy the new MacBook yet. My current Mac is a MacBook Pro, which Apple NL is loaning me for review.
And no, this has nothing to do with ‘getting hits’. We at OSN do not care about hits, because we do not get paid. It’s a voluntary endavour. Also, MDN, it’s nice to see you completely choose to ignore the fact that this article is just part of a series, on which I have already touched on GNOME, and will touch on Windows and KDE in the coming weeks as well.
Oh and people, please STOP bringing Windows into the game. I don’t care about Windows, haven’t been using it for ages, as I come from the BeOS world, and not the Windows one. Perhaps that is my problem: having used BeOS for so long has seriously raised my demands for what I expct from an OS. It’s just real funny multi-billion companies like Microsoft and Apple cannot fulfill these simple demands.
Holwerda’s list:
1. Mac OS X does not exactly feel fast.
Correct. But in my limited 4 year experience of using my G4 Quicksilver, the speed of execution has hardly changed. And I do update my apps a lot. Windoze macchines run fast for the 1st year and after HD reformats (otherwise known as virus removal).
2. Mac OS X is an inconsistent mess.
Not true. As a SUN SPARC owner he should feel more at home than most of us. And look at all OS adjustment to thee OS and UI that can be made through the UI. In SUN/OS and linux this usually means root access + a trip to /etc + the vi editor. I know I did M.S. thesis research on SUN and use a Linux box on a daily basis. KDE makes things easier on linuxd,but Apple’s interface is better.
3. The annoying Google search field in Safari.
Every decent broweser has somethiing similar. And you can remove it duh!
4. Tiger suffers from screen remnants.
I have a 4 y.o. Mac and I get no reminants or artifacts. In fact, 95% of all X11 R6 UI window managers still have the refresh screen command on the desktop because this problem stilll persists on those window managers….i.e SUN…Linux…Irix…etc.
5. Macs need an indicator LED for HDD activity.
You can software based light apps.
6. Mail.app is a pointless email client.
It works great for me. I am sure this guy has the ability to install Entourage or Opera…etc. if he really wants another mail app. How many Wndoze users depend on Outlook Express version for all their e-mail?
7. The evil Mac OS X dock is a UI nightmare.
Very personal opinion gripe. I perssonally like the dock. Every month or so I read a tipp on the web or a magazine that makes it even more useful.
8. Mac OS X needs a decent uninstaller, supplied with the OS.
Yes Mac OS X comes with a great uninstaller it’s called cmd+del. It works for all properly programmed Cocao and Carbon apps. If you dip into the realm of fink…then blame them. I use fink and when I installed it I understood I could be kissing the clean uninstall goodbye.
9. Apple needs to put more effort into backwards compatibility.
Apple’s problem was in the design of X-code. It should be easier for a developer to ship both PowerPC and Intel binaries in a CD. Rosetta exists b/c of this problem. When I buy Mathematica I can get a CD that has the Windoze, Mac and Linux versions in the samee box. This is a hint.
OS 9 is gone. Supporting OS 9 forever would of made Apple as ineffective in 21st century Os market as M$ is. M$’s insistance on supporting 16 y.o. copies of Wordstar and Lotus 123 will be the death of them.
I have been using for a bit over 10 years now, and started with OSX about 2 1/2 years ago:
1. Mac OS X does not exactly feel fast.
– Yes it could be a lot faster. But as also mentioned above, I have not had the pleasure of an Intel Mac just yet. But the spinning wheel sometimes is really annoying.
2. Mac OS X is an inconsistent mess.
– theaoretically yes. some windows are different here and there, curves are different, But the overall look and feel is still great I think. It is at least consistent enough to find your way around every new basic software application without reading manuals and learning about the interface every time.
3. The annoying Google search field in Safari.
– I like the google search field. But you can always remove it if you don’t like it.
4. Tiger suffers from screen remnants.
5. Macs need an indicator LED for HDD activity.
– instead of a spinning beachball. Not a LED though, just a small menubar flasher thingy.
6. Mail.app is a pointless email client.
– So far I prefer Entourage, but Mail is a great app!
7. The evil Mac OS X dock is a UI nightmare.
– Again – this is preference, and I think it looks and works great. A lot better than my 30 Aliases I had hogging my screen in OS9
8. Mac OS X needs a decent uninstaller, supplied with the OS.
– Yes that would be great. Because there are more and more useless preference files and App Support files that are unnecessary, if you just dump the app folders.
9. Apple needs to put more effort into backwards compatibility.
– I am for that as well. There are still a few OS9 apps that I need to use, that have no useful alternative in OSX. So a cut down classic or other virtualisation would be useful.
10. – Clean up the font mess! OS9 font control was a lot better and did not hold your entire system to ransom, if there was a problem.
11. – Bring back a fast search. Panther Finder search was great. It was fast, easy to use, and worked. Spotlight is OK, but when you start searching and the first character is an ‘E’… start waiting. There should be an option to finish the word and then search, as well as easier ‘and’ ‘or’ searches.
Dunc: “Um…
I’d like to be able to view by date modified in column view. Or am I missing something?
Just in case you were being serious, click on the words “Date Modified”.
This is true of the other field headers and is a common feature throughout apps.
My personal opinion:
#2 I don’t care so much what an app looks like as long as it does what I need it to do and does it simply. And Windoze and Windoze apps are visually appealing? And do LESS!!
#5 WTF cares?
#6 I have 7 email accounts both business & personal, I have no problems with using smart mailboxes to separate ALL my incoming which indirecly sorts out the CRAP
All the others are just hit-getters
I wonder what his “200 things I hate about MS” would be (and thats a quick count)
– I like the google search field. But you can always remove it if you don’t like it.
You can’t– at least, not easily. It requires use of developer tools. You can’t just drag it away anymore as you could in Safari 1.x.
MDN: “As Mac users from 1984…”
Wha? I thought you guys were a couple of teenagers working from your bedrooms. Your childish rantings are even more embarrassing than I thought.
Can we talk about the Speed issue from #1 for a moment?
I switched to Mac about almost two years ago now, and of, course, wouldn’t go back for anything in the world. But I did something recently that makes me curious about the speed complaint on PPC Macs.
For my first Mac, I purchased an iMacG5 2.0 Ghz to replace a three-year old, entry-level Dell Dimension 2400. Obviously, using the iMac is still total bliss. Never thought anything was slow, the machine felt leaps and bounds snappier than Windows on that old Dell.
Well, about a month ago, I decided to dust off that old Dell in the closet (hasn’t seen the light of day since The Switch, poor thing). I decided to play around with the OSx86 hack project, and try to install OS X Tiger on that old, crappy Dell. Well, things went without a hitch, and in less than an hour, I had Tiger humming on the old machine.
O-M-G! What an eye opener. WHAT WAS HAPPENING?? I am here to tell you that, as a now nearly RABID, DIE-HARD APPLE FANATIC (I drive my pals CRAZY about it) that the now three-and-a-half year old Dell runs Tiger TWICE as fast as that new iMac. I am still shocked about it, honestly.
Now, I love Apple, but I gotta say that it disturbs me a little that I paid nearly $2,000 ($1,899 at the time) for a new Mac with 1.25 Ghz of RAM, and it runs Mac OS X SLOWER than the three-year-old, bottom-of-the-line, $299 Dell with only 512 Mb RAM. TWICE AS SLOW!
So, reading and studying this, and talking to a few others, makes me wonder… Was OS X really optimized to be run on x86 hardware from the beginning? I mean, we know OS X was developed from NeXT OS, and wasn’t NeXT an x86 based machine? Jobs told us when he informed us of the switch, that they had been developing OS X on x86 architecture for the entire life of the OS.
I just find it incredibly hard to believe that OS X SCREAMS on a now nearly four-year-old Pentium 4 as compared to the gorgeous iMac I purchased to replace it.
Sure makes me realize that some things were NOT so truthful when we heard how much faster the PPC ships were then the Intel chips. Wow.
And no, I’m NO MACDUDE! LOL! (Been here long enough to know who that is!)
(Must add, with all that said, I should also say I’m so smitten with Apple that, if they came out tomorrow with all PPC G3’s and told us it was the best chip out there, I’d still buy it, cause the whole widget would still be the best widget out there, regardless of processor speed!)
JOHN: “OSX doesn’t need an uninstaller because all’s you need to do when you want something to go away is toss the appication in the trash!”
Okay, just one example: toss GarageBand in the trash. Now how many GBs of loops and sample files are left behind?
I’ll agree that the Mac OS can sometimes feel less snappy, but it’s response is always consistent. Windows can be snappier, but sometimes it’ll get hung up on little, stupid things, and the response is not always consistent.
While the google search bar could be annoying, Safari isn’t really an integral part of the Mac OS, so he’s just complaining about an internet browser. FireFox would easily fix that.
A LED indicator for hard drive activity? What’s the point? To tell whether the computer is responding? The Mac OS rarely stops responding.
Mail, pointless? What’s pointless about simple, easy-to-use, consumer-friendly program? Get Thunderbird. It’s not that hard.
What’s wrong with the dock? The dock’s awesome!
The backwards compatibility is fine. Ever heard of an emulator?
1. Subjective.
2. Totally subjective.
3. Then use Firefox. (It is Mac-compatible, you know.)
4. Really? When? Where? I haven’t seen them.
5. Why? How does that help anyone?
6. I agree. Use Thunderbird. (It is Mac-compatible, you know.)
7. Go to Apple, Dock, Turn Hiding On.
8. I absolutely agree.
9. To work with… OS9?! If you haven’t upgraded your OS in 5 years, then you’ve got much bigger problems.
1- The UI is slower than XP on similar hardware. I think the problem is under the hood– deep under the hood. At the GUI level call it the finder. Apple needs to multi-thread the FInder. No opinion– fact. Not trolling–it’s the truth.
2- Whatever happened to interface guidelines? ‘Pro’ apps have a dull gray interface, ‘i’ apps a hodgepodge running from wood to metal, OS apps with plastic to metal. Windowing behavior is still a mess. Go to an Apple store and open a folder– you will see a jumbled mess of icons without organization.
3- The search field in Safari should be customizable. FireFox and others allow this, why not Apple?
4- Screen remnants are for real even on the latest hardware.
5- HDD LEDs are a non-issue. Put menu meters or something like it on your Mac. The real issue is that OS X still has far too many SRBBOD (Spinning Rainbow Beach-balls of Death. Apple needs to make OS X handle and recover panics better than it does. I nominate Mach as the culprit.
6- Mail has major issues on Intel. Attach a large file and watch Mail drag to a crawl. Never had this problem on PPC. Drag and drop into Mail on Intel also sucks very hard.
7- The Dock is a matter of taste. I like it and use it.
8- An uninstaller is largely a non-issue. Send the icon to the trash for most apps.
9- The only compatibility issue I can think of is the Migration Assistant. When I migrated from a G5 PowerMac to a CoreDuo iMac the MA made a mess of everything.
Note to Steve–
Multi-thread the Finder & unify the interface. I don’t need 150-200 eye-candy features in 10.5x. A more stable and less Beta OS at version X.0 would be nice.