Double Crossing
For the past few weeks I’ve had a shiny new Macbook Pro sitting under a pile of papers on my desk, more or less untouched. Besides not having time to set it up, I’ve also been fairly reluctant to switch (back) over to the Mac.
For most of my life, I’ve owned nothing but Apple computers. I used every Mac OS from version 1 through to 9. As a devout Mac user, I regularly scoffed and mocked all the pitiful fools daft enough to put up with the miserable, draconian ordeal that was Windows.
All computers suck
As the Mac started getting long in the tooth, I became entirely fed up with all computers. They all sucked. Apple, Windows, it made no difference. Both were lame, in their own ways. Eventually, commercial realities forced me to run both Windows and Mac.
When OSX stumbled onto the scene, I found it clumsy and laden with gimmicks. Meanwhile, Windows XP came out and it actually provided a good experience. Windows finally worked well and looked nice. It provided some real innovations. It was fast. I could get things done in ways that worked well for me. XP became my one and only.
I followed OSX as it matured, using it occasionally and finding myself wholly unsatisfied. It was always clumsy, slow, and full of silly gimmicks. It was also woefully deficient in many ways. Yet, over time I was surprised to see more and more people that I respect, even admire, switching over and raving about the glory of OSX.
Best of both worlds?
With the arrival of the Intel Macs I’ve become willing and ready to give it another serious go. I feel comforted by the fact that I can run both systems simultaneously. The best of both worlds, right?
There have been some interesting apps and UI concepts which have emerged on the Mac that I’ve been wanting to try out. Meanwhile, Vista is looking like a bloated beast that I’m in no hurry to deal with.
Simple does not always mean better
My impressions so far are quite mixed. The Mac hardware is sexy and the UI is visually gorgeous. However, in its pursuit of design purity, Apple seems far too willing to sacrifice basic usability for the sake of superficial, cosmetic “simplicity”. It’s evident everywhere in the design:
- Apple still defiantly refuses to offer a right click mouse button or trackpad button. Instead you have to perform various convoluted hand contortions to access a contextual menu. If contextual menus weren’t necessary then they wouldn’t exist.
- I can’t interact with dialog boxes using my keyboard?!? WTF?! That is just flat out inexcusable.
- The Mac keyboard has half as many keys. Great. That just means that I have to use both hands to twist my fingers up and do what on a Windows keyboard I can do with one key.
- Need to resize a window? On Windows you can scale a window from any edge: the top, bottom, sides, corners, anywhere. On the Mac you are limited to one spot: the bottom corner.
- What exactly is it that people love about needing to know a super-top-secret, five-finger key command in order to set up a printer? That sure is elegant and friendly. Thanks Apple, buddy ‘ol pal, thanks for shielding me from being able to set up a printer.
As I said, I haven’t even had time to get the basics set up, so I haven’t really scratched the surface. Maybe after all is said and done these hiccups will turn out to be just a few transitional adjustments on the road to nirvana. Maybe I will fall in love with the Mac, all over again. That would be wonderful. No matter what, I’m sure I will find some inspiration, glean some new concepts, open my horizons. That’s why I’m doing it.
Fond farewell to the Vaio
However, I have to admit that I’m reluctant to give up my trusty Vaio. I love it. It’s easily the best laptop I’ve ever owned. It’s got everything I need in a well designed, compact package that was significantly less expensive than the Mac. It’s also been really nice having a slot for the memory stick of my beloved K750 phone.
Theoretically, once I get my Macbook set up I’ll be in the cool club, with all the other hipsters. Back to looking down on all those poor slobs, sacrificing their souls working on their vastly inferior Windows computers. We’ll see about that. I’m really curious how I’ll feel in six months time.
Posting your comment
Wayne | November 19, 2006 @ 7:32 am
I have been considering making the switch also – to a Mac desktop.
I’ve built my last three PCs and like the ability to customize and pay much less. In terms of speed and uptime, Windows XP has been a good value. Yes, the interface has some awful things about it. I don’t think it looks quite as ugly as Mac people say – I never thought OSX looked gorgeous. They both look somewhat Fisher Pricey with upbeat blues and 3D shadowing and effects.
But for the reasons you mention, Vista lameness and security, its a good time to switch back.
In terms of the people you respect, admire and the hipsters – I always sensed that part of the reason Mac designers were so loyal is that they felt the Mac experience made them better designers. That being surrounded by a nicer looking and smarter UI both inspired and informed their work. While I can appreciate this, designing in a different world (even if it is better) than the world 95% of users experience always felt like an obstacle to me.
Philip | November 19, 2006 @ 3:25 pm
I think the OSX ui has gotten gorgeous only recently. Aqua was heinous. And the aqua button leftovers are still ugly as sin. The old pin striping was cheesy-as. Brushed metal was a bit better but still cheesy. However, “Unified” is definitely gorgeous.
And those cringe worthy animations like bouncing dialogs, vacuumed screens, and tsunami are still there and annoying as ever. But the design of Dashboard is hot. Plus, Expose is really nice and useful. iTunes has gotten better over time, too. I also have to admit that the 3D spinning cube effect is super slick, even though it is pretty damn cheesy. Apple also goes way overboard with the reflection gimmick.
I get the feeling that many of those hipster designers think of people like me as clueless, tasteless, hacks who don’t appreciate the sublime elegance that is OSX. To them, I say bullshit. Apple once dominated good UI design. Now they are just as guilty as anyone of creating trendy gimmicks rather than smart design.
Wayne | November 20, 2006 @ 7:12 am
iTunes has the new CoverFlow where you flip through albums by covers and that has the reflection thing to an annoying degree.
One problem with iTunes and iPod UI is they are closed to user innovations. In Firefox, if you don’t like something about the UI, there is probably an extension to tweak or fix, or most importantly extend a feature like tabs. iPod especially is frustrating because a few key user tweaks could make it so much better.
jason | November 22, 2006 @ 10:57 pm
Like any OS, working efficiently requires learning the “tricks”…
> Apple still defiantly refuses to offer a right click mouse button or trackpad button.
Holding two fingers on the trackpad and clicking will get you a right click. It’s non-obvious (and may need to be enabled in the Keyboard & Mouse prefs), but quite nice once you become accustom to it.
You can also scroll (vertically and horizontally) by placing two fingers on the trackpad.
> I can’t interact with dialog boxes using my keyboard?!? WTF?!
You can… but you need to turn it on first (?!%$#). It’s also in the Keyboard & Mouse preference. At the bottom of the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab you can set “Full keyboard access” to “All controls”. It’s a bit different than Windows (from what I remember). Typically the default choice (the blue button) is accessed by hitting Enter. A secondary choice has a blue outline. This can be accessed with Space or moved with the Tab key.
Again, it’s a pretty nice setup (most of the time Enter for OK, Space for cancel) once you become accustom to it. If you can. Inconsistent implimentation and Apple’s variety of button styles (ex: Pro vs Standard apps) makes it very hard to get comfortable enough to forget about it.
> What exactly is it that people love about needing to know a
> super-top-secret, five-finger key command in order to set up a printer?
System Preferences > Print & Fax > “+” Button doesn’t work?
SuperMatt | December 15, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
It’s astonishing to me how people will write a public blog about how they just CAN’T do things on their computer, instead of doing a quick google search or even trying the help feature. Yes, things are not in the same place on Mac OS as they are on Windows. Many people (including myself) find the setup of things on the Mac much more intuitive than on Windows. Next time, before you go on a rant about how you can’t do this or that, at least try and figure out if you can do it. And, oh yeah, not everything is gonna work like it did on Windows. For many of us, this is a GOOD thing.