New Mac User Chimes In
 

I've had my first Mac (iBook g4/933) for an entire week now and I'm now starting to get to know it.
Probably the main reason I wanted a mac is to have the flexibility and power of a Unix system with the software support and polish of a main stream OS.

My experiences so far running 10.3.3:

UNIX System is great!
I've got the familiar bash shell. Shell scripts, perl, apache, vi, grep, etc. All the things I love about unix. Fink is great. I can even run X11 apps!

Things just work.
Installing new apps is a cinch. I love how Applications are localized to their particular directory. Unlike a windows app that puts crap all over the place.
Plug in a mouse, it works. Plug in a keyboard, it works. Plug in USB drive, it automounts and works great.
Haven't come across anything that was not easy to make work (except making VCD from DVD, but that has nothing to do with OSX).

Nice gui.
looks Nice. The gui took some getting used to after coming from a Windows world, but I'm warming up to it. Everything looks very clean and polished. For the most part it's quite responsive (the notable exception being window resizing).
Some things don't make sense to me, like why I can't always "hide all" if there is one app open or only the finder it won't hide, and I have to minimize the windows. The other confusing thing is the Zoom button. It is annoying. Sometimes it will make a window fill the screen and other times it only changes the height.
But all in all the gui is nice, except for the items below.

Things I don't like.
1. No application menu!
It blows my mind that apple would do away with something so useful. It's not realistic to put EVERY application you use in the Dock. And it is a pain to have to open a finder window and search for the app you want to open. Why can't we have a simple menu with all the applications on it?

2. Finder is awful.
First, the brushed steel windows take up way too much screen real estate. They are much better suited to being aqua windows. Second there is no easy way to navigate the file system. In a directory with many files and a few subdirectories it takes way too long to find what you are looking for. You should be able to view the directory tree without showing all the files and show the directory contents in a separate pane.
Everyone might not want this, but it should be a configurable option.
(One helpful thing is that I discovered that you can go to a parent directory with cmd-up, but there should be a toolbar button for this.)

I might be missing something, but as far as I can tell there is no file rename shortcut or context menu item. Clicking the filename to rename is okay but I find it tedious. Sometimes I end up opening the file instead of renaming. Very annoying. There should be another option to rename.

It's crazy to me that Apple would make such a great OS and then make one of it's most integral parts so user-unfriendly.

3. Almost no user-configurability.
I want to be able to turn off or adjust effects, transparency (especially dock transparency), animations, etc. I find it all very distracting and unnecessary.
All they would need to do is have an option in System Preferences: "turn off effects". Easy.
There are a million other things I'd like to configure, but that's the main one.

4. The Dock
Actually, I hated the dock at first. I thought it took up way too much space. I then figured out how to move it and hide it and it's not as bad. (I keep mine on the left side pinned to the top and hidden)

So that's the impression from a complete Mac Newbie. I come from about 15 years on DOS/Windows, and 8 or so years with Unix and Linux. So it's an interesting transition.
For the most part I like my new OSX system a lot. There are just a few annoyances. By far the main one is the sorry state of Finder.

The zoom button is supposed to enlarge the window just big enough to show all of the contents. (It is not supposed to necessarily make the window fill the screen.) What "big enough" means is left up to the application developer.

You should look into the 3rd-party utilities "LaunchBar", "Quick Silver", "Butler", etc.

There is a toolbar button available if you use the "View / Customize Toolbar" menu item - it is the one labeled "Path".

Select the file (with a single-click) and then press the "Enter" key (not "Return").

Thanks Hayne,
I look at some of those menu apps.
I think it says something when so many people are having to use third party apps to compensate for something Apple overlooked or eliminated.
Sounds like the folks at Apple make what they think users need and not what their users actually DO want or need.

quite perceptive for someone new to apple. most of what you list as shortcomings of the os are the points long-time users have been noting for ages.

but, the key to understanding why apple develops their hardware, os and software the way it does is understanding the human interface principles it 'polices' itself with. i suppose the most irksome (to experienced users) is that everything is designed for the lowest common denominator. that is, the computer/application/os's ease of use must translate to someone who has never used it before. this seems to be their logic behind sticking with the one-button mouse. evidently countless focus groups and endless studies have proved the one-button mouse provides (on average) the most efficient and 'user friendly' control.

so, apple leaves configuring the computer to suit its power users to the power users themselves. want a better mouse--go get one. want a more intuitive file management system--help yourself. dont like the dock? fine, dont use it*

just me opining here. ±¢2


*if only we could turn the silly thing off without munging the system

You could place a folder full of aliases to your not-so-frequently used apps in the right hand portion of the dock, leaving you a ctrl-click away from a listing of the apps.
After clicking on a file, if you press 'return' or 'enter' the filename is highlighted ready for editing.

For item 1, put your Applications folder in the dock. It will stick near the Trash can end of the dock, not near the Finder icon end. Instant Start Menu! I don't know why Apple doesn't do this on every computer. You may want to throw your Documents or your (username) folder in there too.

For item 2, click the button in the upper right hand corner, that will make the brushed look of the finder windows go away, along with some of the shortcut buttons. Not a great solution and doesn't solve all of the problems, but at least it's easy to do.

I'm glad that, generally, you are enjoying your Mac.

Check out forety-two http://www.kaisakura.com/index2.html

My solution is to make a new folder "Apps" and put an alias for every application you want quick and easy access to in it. Then drag your "Apps" folder on to the Dock. Clicking on it in the Dock will open the folder... but more useful is to click and hold on it in the Dock. This pops up a list of all the applications you may want to launch.

Welcome to Macintosh! :)

a) I use X-Assist to give me back the application menu; another very popular alternative is ASM. Both are available at VersionTracker. X-Assist also provides you with a totally customizable launcher: if you liked launching your apps from the Start Menu in Windows and customized its hierarchy to your liking, you'd like X-Assist. (And nicely, no applications installed in the future are going to dump their shortcuts into the root level or created unwanted groups like BigSoftwareCompanyName with their apps' shortcuts within it, leaving you to move / rename / delete crap after every new sw install)

b) The Dock verily doth suck. cudaboy_71 writes:I've been running Dockless since 10.0.x, and my system isn't munged. You do have to launch it initially at login, but it's harmless to kill it. You have to move it out of CoreServices and put it in Applications (or elsewhere, anywhere other than CoreServices) or else it will restart.

c) Finder is awful...brushed metal / klunkiness. Yep. Join the chorus. Sometimes they do fix things, btw — they finally ditched that irritating column view in Save, Save As, and Open dialog boxes and gave us back List View.

d) Apple doesn't let us configure / customize. Yep, but fortunately there's a rich tradition of freeware and shareware that does. I personally detest the entire Aqua look which you like. (Different tastes, etc.) so I run with a MacOS 9 themed skin.

e) Renaming files -- I get a "rename..." option when I ctrl-click any file or folder in the Finder, you don't? Might be a 3rd party add-on contextual-menu item. See previous comment about shareware and freeware. Also, though: Click directly on a filename (or folder name) and see if it doesn't always put you in name-edit mode rather than selecting or opening the item.

thanks for the info. i'd never stumbled upon that tip (i think i finally just got my spirit broken and resigned to deal with the damn thing)

b) Personally, I like the dock, but it works very much like I used to use drag thing back in the day. I only keep around 10 apps in the dock, the rest I access through the terminal, or with keyboard shortcuts. I'm a big fan of hitting Apple+Shift+A or U (shortcut to Applications or Utilities), typing a few letters to get an app, then hitting Option+Apple+O (Open selection and close window).

d) And a rich tradition of doing things Steve's way. ;) Unfortunately, there seem to be less well made themes for Shape Shifter and the like than there were for Kaleidoscope from 9 and earlier. I have yet to find a dark theme for OS X that I can stand for very long.

the dock isnt horrible. i do like it for the live badges that show up with new mail or ichat messages. (i dont like the infernal bouncing notifications--but at least unsanity finally got detox working for X.3). and, it is nice to be able to see which apps you have running--and that's all i use it for now. but, an application menu ala os9 would suffice for that as well.

it's just that the dock should just be an option (which i've since found it is in a non-intentional sense). the only real beef i have with it is when i'm using tools like illustrator, freehand, photoshop, quark, indesign, etc.

with only a single monitor (albeit a 22" one) i still 'bump' into the dock, even when it's hidden when i grab a ruler or work on something close to the edge of the screen.

the best place i've found for it is on the left hand side of the screen, pinned to the bottom. but, i still bump into it on a daily basis.

More options in usually better. I've much preferred column view in Open/Save dialogues in X, especially now with Panther's sidebar. What would be even better here would be to actually get the Finder with all its operations available in Open/Save. Maybe it's headed in that direction?

One thing you might want to check out is Path Finder. It is a replacement for the Finder, considered by some to be a "pro" replacement. I really like it. It can be checked out here. You may rebel at paying additional money for something that should be done better by Apple, and that'd be understandable. But check it out and see if you think it's worth the cash.

Also, I chime in with others who recommended Quicksilver, LaunchBar, and Butler. Quicksilver is great, but it looks as if it's gone back into a private beta, meaning you wouldn't be able to download it.

And hopefully you've found that your fellow Apple users want to, for the most part, make your experience easier. We're a pretty cooperative bunch. Welcome on board.

Check out Onyx and Tinkertool. (Also, Tinkertool System, if you want, although that's a pay app -- the other two are free.)

Also, check out ShapeShifter for theming (you can even make your system look like XP again :p), and most of Unsanity's products are pretty damn schweet ... but they may (and I do only use the word may) introduce minor instability into your system.

[Not to be mean, but coming from Windows, when I say minor instability, I really do mean minor. Mac OS X as a system is very, very hard to crash -- mostly you're just going to see an app crash if it's badly munged, and it's not going to take down the whole system.]

I agree, I wouldn't have even considered a Mac if it weren't for the fact that OSX is UNIX

Finder is awful for many reasons, most of which have been expressed already in this thread. Here's one that hasn't:
I'm sure you'll notice shortly, that there's one part of the Finder (and desktop, since it's part of finder) that isn't responsive - it doesn't update new files immediately. Sometimes you have to hit "Clean Up" to find the file you just downloaded. For all the great work Apple has done, this is really inexcusable.

Paste this into Script Editor, hit "save as...", and choose "File Format:"->"Application", and uncheck "Startup Screen." Then stick the file in the Dock, or bind it to a key [using a third-party app : (] or whatever.
I've got a program called "TigerLaunch," but I've found that once I added the applications that I use most often to the Dock, I don't go back to the Applications folder enough to be annoyed by it (YMMV)

"I want to be able to turn off or adjust effects, transparency (especially dock transparency), animations, etc. I find it all very distracting and unnecessary."

First:

ClearDock

Then: System Preferences/Dock

http://24.118.196.224/~williamoreilly/prefs.pdf

This is exactly what i do and it works great. and inside that i put an alias to my entire apps folder so i have access to it that way too.

I suggest a program called tinkertool for some more tweaking too.

bimtob,

Some extremely reasoned pros and cons of Macintosh--well said!!

Amen brother. This and your lack of application launcher has been solved for me by using only one utility--DragThing!! Not only will it automatically hide all applications windows except the one you wish to use, but you can put the trash can on the desktop (where it belongs) and create a myriad of custom menus, including a custom launch bar.

http://dragthing.com

Good luck and keep us appraised of your user experience. And don't forget to let Apple know of your experience and angst as well. Unlike MS--they listen.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

Schneb

Make a folder for the Dock
 

Create a Folder and fill it with Aliases of as many apps as you want. Drag the Folder to the Dock, and just move the mouse over it and a list of the apps will appear.

Windows >>>> Mac Tutorial?
 

Hi,

I have been using Macs for several years now at work (love them) and my family utilizes a few PCs at home. We are about to hire several new personnel at work and although they are all well-qualified for the positions, they do not have any Mac experience (we are making a move to 100% Mac). Is there a website that would be helpful for those that are (perhaps, reluctantly), transitioning from their comfortable world to Mac?

Thanks

A much-needed tip! I keep forgetting to post something asking about functionality like that, didn't know it was that easy.

Humans are a varied breed, for sure. To me, one of the best features of OS X is the finder. I absolutely love it. I agree there could be a lot less wasted space, but I love the columnar interface and how it works with either the mouse or keyboard (except I think <enter> should LAUNCH, not rename). I love how it works with plug-in devices as well as it does with the system, and how everything looks integrated and smooth. FAR more productive, for me, than the equivalents in Windows. And I've only been a full-time Mac user for two weeks.

The Dock though, is my absolute #1 favorite feature. It's really what first made me want to switch. I love how apps are arranged as you want to, and a running app stays in the same place with an arrow. In Windows I'd make sure to launch all my usual apps in the "right" order so they'd always be where I expected. I keep a LOT of apps running all the time, and searching for the app in the taskbar is a big waste of time, done hundreds of times a day.

Several people have given you good suggestions on replacing the "Start" menu. I'm glad I didn't try any of them, because the more I do it Apple's way the better it works, as I get used to it. Between a highly tuned Dock and the simple "Applications" button in finder, I'm getting to my most-used apps faster than I ever did in Windows.

Definitely get a multi-button mouse. Though unfortunately, more than two buttons is ill-supported. Then you get the right-click ability you're used to in Windows.

I have a training/intro tutorial i made for some people at work that are very computer literate people, but not mac literate. when i made it the os was at X.2.6 so that is what it references. you are welcome to it if you want it. PM me and i can email it to you. it is a 2.12MB PDF.

EDIT:

i just went ahead and put it on my server so you can download it

Thank you, I'll download and go over it with a few labmates.