“After I installed Windows Vista in November 2006, I was perplexed. Why was it suddenly so much harder for me to use my computer? I knew XP cold, and I could use it without thinking. But with Vista, I felt a little lost and began to notice the extra work required to perform tasks that had become second nature. By hiding various features in an attempt to simplify Vista’s interface, Microsoft was in fact adding overhead to my Vista transition, forcing me to learn a new UI,” Galen Gruman reports for InfoWorld.
“Me, I took the easy route: I switched to a Mac and have been happy ever since. Tiger, the Mac OS X version available at that time, proved robust, offering a modern yet familiar UI. The current Mac OS X Leopard is even better. But here comes Windows 7, seeking to breathe life back into Windows where Vista had stumbled. Less than a year from being released, Windows 7 aims to fix the many Vista flaws, including its UI. I decided to test-drive the Windows 7 beta to see whether Microsoft had redressed its UI sins,” Gruman reports.
“The bottom line: Nothing in Windows 7 will tempt a Mac user back to the PC,” Gruman reports. “There are some cool, useful enhancements, but overall, the UI remains largely unchanged. In other words, those who upgrade from XP to Windows 7 will still have to relearn Windows.”
Gruman covers the following:
Where Mac OS X beats the Windows 7 UI according to Galen Gruman:
• Finder toolbar and search
• Default desktop configuration
• Control panels
• Hardware-dependent feature display
• Dock/Taskbar preview
• System utilities
• Stability
Where Windows 7 beats the Mac OS X UI according to Galen Gruman:
• Gadget sidebar: Your desktop is no longer partly obscured by “gadget” utilities that, quite frankly, you won’t use often. Instead, you can toggle the gadget sidebar when you want it — just as you can with Mac OS X. And you can drag them out of the sidebar and let them free-float where you want. The big difference is that Mac OS X’s sidebar equivalent covers your entire desktop, rendering everything else inaccessible, and the individual gadgets can’t be pulled out of that covers-everything sidebar.
MacDailyNews Note: Enabling “devmode” for Dashboard lets Mac OS X users run Dashboard widgets directly on the desktop.
• Network and Sharing Center: Although it is easier to actually connect to other Mac users in Mac OS X than it is to connect to other PC users in Windows, the latter provides a better overall picture of your network state than the Mac OS does.
MacDailyNews Take: Debatable. However, we’d rather have easier connections than “a better overall picture,” if that’s even the case.
• Window resizing: Windows has long let users resize application and other windows by dragging any side. Mac OS X still forces you to use the lower-right corner.
MacDailyNews Take: Agreed. Give us the option, Apple. For now, check out MondoMouse (US$14.95, free 30-day free trial) which allows resizing of Mac OS X windows from any corner, not just the lower-right corner.
• Dialog box actions: Although this breaks with Apple’s purist mentality, I’ve always liked the fact that in Windows when I’m using an Open or Save dialog box I can rename or otherwise manipulate files and folders through that dialog box, without having to close the box and switch to Finder. Yes, I know that breaks the architectural line between applications and the OS, but it makes life easier. And, yes, I know you can usually create folders from apps’ Save As dialog boxes on the Mac, but that’s not enough.
MacDailyNews Take: We do not agree that Windows’ way is better here, do you? If so, you’ll want to check out Default Folder X (US$34.95, free 30-day free trial) which lets users open up or save to any Finder window with a single click. It also lets users get info, rename, and delete existing files in every Open and Save dialog box.
• Uninstall: The one big deficit in the Mac OS is its lack of a central way to uninstall applications and their support files. Although the Windows uninstall doesn’t always clean up everything, the Mac provides no facility for finding and removing these stray files. They don’t seem to do harm, but why leave them around?
MacDailyNews Take: FreeMacSoft’s AppCleaner (free, donations accepted) is a small Mac OS X application which allows users to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.
Gruman writes, “Overall, Windows 7 does not yet present a clear step away from Vista in terms of user experience. There are some nice UI enhancements, but nothing to undo the learning curve necessary to transition from XP. Then again, at least it hasn’t gotten worse — a real possibility given what Microsoft has done to Internet Explorer and Office.”
There’s much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve quite effortlessly taken each of the points where Galen Gruman says that “Windows 7 beats the Mac OS X UI” and defeated them for a grand total of $49.90 which is significantly less than the price difference between Mac OS X (US$129) and Windows 7 (US$199.95-$319.95). Note: Microsoft says “7” will employ the same general pricing as “Vista” – probably because it’s the same pig with some more lipstick.
Why pay more for an inferior OS? Get smart. Get a Mac.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Samir” for the heads up.]
