I've been following, with interest, the debate about OSX, and I thought it
was time I threw my 2 cents in:
OSX rocks, but does have some major problems. However, I find it quite
useable, quite stable, and quite beautiful -- which really is a major
consideration given the amount of time we spend staring at our computer
screens.
My only major issues are:
- The dock: as a short-cut bar it's kind of cool, as a launcher, it's pretty
much useless. What would help a lot is drawers. Remember in OS/2 Warp (3 - I
never used 4 so I don't know) how there were were drawers in the launcher
where you could logically group applications in to pop-up menus. I believe
they had this is NeXTStep as well.
- The apple menu: it rocked -- they based the Start Menu on that which has
been used everywhere (on Newton shells, Palm shells, Linux...). Now it
sucks -- it's just a menu, and an illogical one at that.
Other than that, there are a few things that sort of fly in the face of
Apple's original Human Interface Guidelines, and maybe some difficulty with
Finder windows (that's probably just from lack of experience/the fact that
I'm used to Windows). Nonetheless, I think OSX is a tremendous step in the
right direction, and M$/KDE/GNOME still have a lot to learn from Apple.
-Jonathan
-----Original Message-----
From: newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net
[mailto:newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net]On Behalf Of Michael J. Hu?mann
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 6:33 PM
To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
Subject: Re: [NTLK] OSX - OT
Stephen Jendraszak (stevehj_at_mac.com) wrote:
> However, just because OS X is not that quantum leap we are waiting for,
> does not mean it lacks value. In my opinion, it IS a step forward for
> the Mac platform... albeit a small one.
I don't think so. The classic Mac OS had its issues, but Mac OS X fails
to address those, except that it offers preemptive multitasking and
memory protection, like any modern OS does. And it does this by adopting
the legacies of another, even older OS. At the same time Mac OS X does
away with a lot of classic features that were quite useful, without
offering any replacement. In my opinion, Mac OS X doesn't lead anywhere.
I'm not quite ready to switch to Windows yet, but it's really just a
question of which OS sucks less now. Neither switching to Mac OS X nor to
Windows is something I'm looking forward to.
- Michael
Michael J. Hussmann
E-mail: michael_at_michael-hussmann.de
WWW: http://michael-hussmann.de
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