You can always make your own aliases for stuff like that.

I wouldn't mind seeing Apple just finish what they started with updating the various OS components and applications. In this day and age, getting a spinlock for some every day thing such as just clicking a menu items is not really acceptable.

You get a spinlock just for clicking a menu!? You must have an OS 7 machine :D

Um... as much as I was mentioning the Mac being as simple as an iPod, the shell is the underlying "real" OS X. And personally, and some may not like this, I like Terminal with it's current C, Obj-C, and C++ compilation and program building support, along with the Unix base.

Switching to AppleScript in OS X 10.7 would be downright horrible. If you really don't want the OS X shell app or like it, just use the GUI. If you're a programmer, the Terminal app is what you want to use. What makes Mac simplisticity for users easy was built in hard work by others.

On a more positive note, what if Spotlight + Finder + Time Machine + iTunes merged? That would be sweet!

I don't mean just a search bar. I mean the graphics of Time Machine with background music support of iTunes, with files/folders literally done away with, replacing it with a virtual OS with Spotlight. Files would be completely visual with previews on the fly. It'd be radical, but it'd be a major step forward from all the other operating systems out there.

And, what would be better? Add dynamic backgrounds to this Finder concept--your own videos, or professionally done Apple vids playing in the background of your files.

I like AppleScript. I'm using it less now since I'm learning Objective-C but it's useful for small tasks. Besides Terminal supports osascript.

I don't quite get your idea of a 4 way merging. Right, iTunes is boring to have to keep open separately. Time Machine and Finder, if indistinguishable from each other, would be confusing. And for my machine, Spotlight is often imprecise and slow.

A vid in the bg would be confusing.

I'm not keen on the Finder-Spotlight-iTunes-Time Machine merger, either. I want things to be simple, with less distraction, not more. One app, one task: that is the unix way.

Any speaking of which, I don't like the way that iTunes is essentially becoming "iSync".
Give me an app that plays and organises my music.
Give me another app that displays ebooks and PDFs (with or without a central library).
Give me another app that syncs these thing to my iDevices.

iTunes is becoming way too bloated and critical.

@Red Menace: if you're getting spinning wheels, then there's something wrong. Enough Ram?

Well, I'm thinking of a Finder that lets you create simpler Services. The Automator way is bloated and slow. What if I want to just create a simple service for, let's say, creating an executable file with a header #!/command/path, then enabling it with chmod +x and finally opening it in nano. Using Automator is cumbersome. The bash way is about 5 lines I guess.

Not sure - I have 2GB, which used to be OK, but it seems that anything that needs to shuffle memory around (like rebuilding the menu displays) gives me the spinning wheel. Page outs look OK, right now about 2MB after 2 days uptime - typically running Safari, Mail, Xcode, BBEdit, Automator, Script Editor, with about a quarter of the memory free. The original Snow Leopard install was fairly zippy, but it seems that every update clogs it up a little more.

I don't know if it's the answer, but Safari has been awful flaky lately. I seem to have most of my problems when I am either using Safari, or have it open in the background.

Jay, do you have a Flash page open? :D Congrats on 3000 posts.

My wish would be a more integrated Time Machine. I could have keystrokes to go back to Last Change, Yesterday etc. I committed a major gaffe when I accidentally deleted half of my desktop… on vacation, far from TM.

One hardware thing I'd like is a gap between a MacBook's body and a platform, like this:

That way the processor wouldn't burn a hole in whatever's below it.