“Microsoft is losing consumer operating system market share to Apple for many reasons, but most of those reasons can be oversimplified thus: Mac OS is simple, and Windows is complicated,” Mike Elgan blogs for Digit.
“That’s why it may be such a costly error for Microsoft to make the Vista upgrade such a confusing mess,” Elgan writes.
Elgan writes, “Until today, even experts couldn’t tell you off the top of their heads the differences between each of the many Vista versions — or even how many versions there are — or what the basic requirements are for the Upgrade versions. Ordinary consumers are baffled to the point of paralysis.”
“Windows Vista launched with 10 — count ’em, 10 — versions. Instead of giving us a simple new upgrade path to the future, they instead gave us a homework assignment,” Elgan writes.
Elgan writes, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Don’t buy Vista yet. But if you really must, consider only two of the 10 versions: Nontechnical consumers should buy the full version of Windows Vista Home Premium, and power users should buy the full version of Windows Vista Ultimate.”
MacDailyNews Take: $399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac).
Elgan writes, “It’s obvious that Microsoft decided to extract maximum cash from consumers by micro-segmenting the market and trying to provide a different version for each. But they may end up with the opposite result. All this confusion over versions and upgrade policies will motivate unknown millions of consumers to simply stick with Windows XP or move to a Mac.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Macaday” for the heads up.]
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“Hold down the Command key then click on the Finder icon in the Dock.”
To a windows user, that’s “right-click” !
Want to have fun with someone. Fake them out with this Vista Upgrade prank. It simulates a Windows Update, then pretents to upgrage them to Vista. At the end the user is left with a ‘fake’ Mac OS X desktop (click mouse to close). http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/entertainment/vista/screenshots.shtml
@ Windows Switcher
There have been many ways suggested from opening a new window in the Finder from another application. There are many solutions.
For technical info about Macs and Mac OS X see http://www.macosxhints.com or http://www.maxfixit.com or http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa
there are others too, but those three are the best.
The main reason why you cannot directly open a finder window from within another application, is because it doesn’t make any sense to do so. Apple human interface is such that it retains focus on the application at hand. If you are working in a document and want to save it, but find that you want to create an new finder window, the open/save dialog box gives you the option to do so. I know it may not seem intuitive to you, but you will get used to it. Afterall the Finder is another application.
If you truly must have the option, you can assign a custom key combination within the Keyboard & mouse preference pane (maybe something like shift-option-command-N) However I am not sure if this will conflict with another process.
You could also assign a (combination) button click to it on a multi button mouse. Or you could make an Apple script to do this and place the script in the dock, or just assign a key combo to launch the Apple script. Something as simple as:
tell application “Finder”
make new Finder window
end tell
Save the script as an application, name it something convenient for you, and store it anywhere you like.
There are numerous 3rd party utilities that will assist you in this endeavor too. Good luck and have fun learning.
zac
About Switcher
So basically, what everyone is saying, is that there is no single key combination to open a Finder window from anything other than the desktop? That seems kind of silly. Windows has that. Sure, you could chalk it up to some kind of “design ideology” wherein users “aren’t supposed to do that” but this user obviously wants to, and it seems like something that would be useful. The Save dialogue in apps is horribly inadequate, i.e. you can’t delete files with it. Sure, I could download and use one of those shareware/freeware programs to do things like this, but that seems an awful lot of effort to do something so simple, now doesn’t it? I can customize Windows up the whazoo with shareware apps too, but nobody ever brings that point up.
Of course it’s true that almost all corporations use Windows for desktop machines (mind you, not for anything serious). And the reason is simple. The decision of which system to use is left to the experts in the IT department. They know that if they select Windows they will need 10 times as many staff than if they choose Mac’s. That was true even before MacOS X came along and now the ratio is even higher.
Obviously they all have an interest in growing thier empire so clearly they would never choose MacOS X. Windows is so complex and hard to keep going that an army of techies is needed. I work in such a place and we have a break-away Mac group with no IT support. Strangely we have less down time…
On a side note. Windows user ever since it started – but now i use a mac, i have less headaches and i am happier. While the Windows IT guys at work are always on alert and stressed out with updates and integration – are miserable.
I wouldn’t say UNIX, LINUX, and OSX are just toys. But they certainly do the job.
Hey, go ahead and buy Vista or XP, that’s cool. Go ahead and proclaim, we are top dog and brag. We Mac users are getting our work done faster, better, and more efficient without problems.
Oh yea, it is good that only 5% – 10% of the world are mac users, seriously. I thrive on others misery.
* Apple key = Windows Key = Apple key
Backwards 7 = shift key = cmd key
Windows Key N opens finder
Apple OS X 10.3.9 Windows Keyboard
F11 for clear windows or widgetts
F9 for spaces
Desktop Manager for cube effect
Alt Tab for scrolling windows