“Whether you prefer OS X or Windows, you’ve probably heard and likely believe that OS X is a ‘closed’ system that won’t let you customize it in the way you can customize Windows, and that real power-users therefore prefer Windows,” Edward Mendelson reports for PC Magazine. “This is a myth.”
MacDailyNews Take: The only people that “prefer” Windows are those who haven’t really used a Mac.
“Unless you’re a skilled programmer, the only changes that you can make in Windows, using Windows’ built-in tools, are changes that affect the way it looks, not what it does,” Mendelson reports. “In contrast, OS X’s Automator feature makes it easy for anyone to create miniature applications and utilities that make OS X perform complex tasks with one or two mouse clicks. You can use Automator to automate almost any task that you perform repeatedly in OS X—and you don’t need to learn a scripting or programming language to do it. There’s nothing like it in any other operating system.”
Mendelson reports, “Automator gives anyone who uses OS X the same power that only high-tech experts have under Windows. It’s one of the reasons I use Windows when I need to, but I use OS X because I want to.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Note: For more info, check out Apple’s “Mac 101: Automator” here.
This is why Macs are worth every penny. They last, have great OS updates, just work, this list goes on and on. Now if only Apple actually made every component, and got away from Samedung and LG (largely grotesque)!!!!!
“Unless you’re a skilled programmer, the only changes that you can make in Windows, using Windows’ built-in tools, are changes that affect the way it looks, not what it does.”
In other words, eye-candy, rather than functionality.
And they call Macs “toys”.
“No Start Menu for you! But you can color your tiles with any shade you like! And you LIKE that don’t you! LIKE the tiles, dammit!.”
Old news and don’t bother. While I love(d) Automator, Apple hasn’t been fully supporting scriptable actions (AKA: AppleScript) in their own app development for years now because almost nobody uses it. It’s going the way of iTool/iCards/iWeb/.Mac/MobileME. Automator is a legacy App and isn’t even included in devices sold with Mountain Lion. Most Automator scripts I once made have been broken one by one and rendered irreparable with each version update. IE: iTunes, since V10, no officially longer officially supports Automator actions but some legacy commands still exist. Chances are they too will be gone soon with the shift to more unified code between iOS and OSX. True coders make their own apps and in the process become devs; Apple won’t let the wants of a few pseudo geeks outweigh their progress and the needs of the many.
Made a mistake. While not listed on the Store, further research shows Automator IS offered in Mountain Lion. Can’t say whether Apple has rectified the missing scripting in iTunes, but I would like to know for sure.
“Further research”? You mean, click on the Spotlight icon and type “Automator” and it opens right up? And of course Automator still supports iTunes actions. Just open Automator and see – it takes ten seconds to get this right before posting things that are totally wrong.
Will try it out.