10 months ago, starting a new job and needing a new laptop, I had a choice of platforms. Since I work in user experience design, knowing multiple operating systems is valuable in keeping my frame of reference as broad as possible. I haven't used Macs after 1999. I certainly preferred Win2000 and WinXP over Mac OS 7-9, but have become frustrated with Windows with increasing regularity. So I opted for a Mac (Powerbook 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM).
Since then, I've kept a list of the pros and cons of OS X (Tiger) compared with WinXP. Naturally, there were many annoyances in the beginning, but I didn't want to blog about it until I've become settled on the new platform. I've not strictly switched either, since my home computer still runs WinXP, and I simply couldn't use OS X without also having WinXP on Parallels.
Short version: Took me about 3 months before I preferred working on the Mac, and am now likely to stick to the platform for work. Read on for my list of OS X annoyances, and likes.
OS X annoyances
Many of these complaints are really the fault of particular applications, rather than OS X. But I blame OS X since they're all behaviours that should have been standardised at the OS level. (That, or Apple has been less successful at getting developers to follow standards than Microsoft.)
- Lack of "click through" to background windows. This is a fundamental difference between Windows and Mac and I admit there are strong arguments for both. There are certainly cases where click through can be annoying or dangerous, but even after 8 months it continues to annoy and slow me down. Plus, it's inconsistently implemented: e.g. the Finder clicks through for some operations (window buttons, drag). Some applications make it worse, e.g. the Firefox Back button menu which appears too easily, often forcing me to click 3 times before getting the desired result. The suggestion menus that appear below text fields have the same annoying effect. The latter does not happen in Safari, but dropdown menus still require an extra click to dismiss.
- Modifier keys. I believe Apple screwed up by insisting for far too long the one-button mouse was easier to use than the 2-button mice common on PCs. The mouse may have been simpler, but it soon foisted upon Mac users a third modifier key, confusingly named Control, in addition to the other two modifiers known variously as Apple, Command, Alt, Option and various runes with even more nicknames. Nowadays Macs have a right-click, but users still have to remember more finger-stretching chords than PC users do. If you use a non-Apple keyboard (inevitable if you, like me, prefer the "natural" layout), then you have the added problem of confusing key labelling and placement.
- Cursor controls are application-specific rather than OS-level. The most frustrating is the inexplicable lack of support for the Home and End keys. But Cmd-Left/Right, Opt-Left/Right, and Cmd-Up/Down behave inconsistently between applications and is sometimes not supported at all.
- Keyboard access still lags behind Windows. When a dialogue box comes up, you have no guarantee that you could Tab through the buttons or fields, or activate buttons with keyboard shortcuts. This is up to the application, and there are no keyboard cues (e.g. underlined letters). Lately you can turn on better keyboard access modes, but this is still unintuitive.
- Application installation / uninstallation inconsistent. I think this is simplicity gone wrong. At first blush, the experience is wonderfully intuitive: just drag the application bundle icon to Applications, delete it to uninstall, and that's it. But not all apps follow this, e.g. some have their own installer, or just a folder rather than an application bundle - hence the need for utils like AppDelete, still flaky.
- Apple hardware is usually wonderful, but there is still the occasional style over function mistake: the Mighty Mouse can't click when you're holding the mouse in the air, or if you've rolled onto a cable.
- Unnecessarily hard to resize windows. Can't believe it's still only the bottom-right corner. Again I blame a wrong-headed idea of "simplicity".
- More simplicity-gone-wrong: I don't agree with absence of OK/Cancel in dialog boxes (e.g. System Prefs). No way to Cancel except manually resetting the things you've changed, if you can remember what they were. Also inconsistent from other apps which have OK/Cancel.
- I've gradually made peace with most aspects of the Dock and app/doc switching, but some annoyances remain. In Windows, the ability to alt-tab between documents is a great timesaver. Only occasionally in tabbed apps did I have to use Ctrl-Tab too. On the Mac, I routinely need Cmd-Tab, Ctrl-Tab and Cmd-\ which really slows me down. Apple would like you to use Expose, but that doesn't use muscle memory (i.e. making the right selection without having to look/read).
- Cmd-Tab is constantly thrown off by the mouse cursor happening to be over the icons
- I see way too much of the Beachball. And the difference between the beachball and the wait cursor (which looks like a survivor from an old OS) is unclear to most users.
- Confusing, overlapping concepts of Hide (Cmd-H), Minimise (amber button) and F11 (show desktop, which temporarily shoves all windows out of the way). Gradually getting used to this.
- In the Finder, I still miss a tree view. Multicolumn browse is excellent, but still does not replace a folder tree + file list for some uses. For example, how do you drag things between folders without having lots of Finder windows open? I looked on the web for a utility that adds a tree view to the Finder, but found none.
- Lacks a "temp" location -- most applications by default abuse the desktop, making it hard to keep clean.
- Lacks an Irfanview-equivalent utility (fast, versatile image viewer with abundant keyboard shortcuts), either bundled or 3rd-party. The bundled Preview utility is woefully inadequate.
- Spotlight is very powerful, but results can be unhelpful. It's hard to see the location of files in results listings, and you can't see a text extract around the matched term.
- Some System Pref dialog boxes are as labyrinthine and confusing as Windows', e.g. Bluetooth.
- Click-drag selections break when the cursor exits the application window. OK, this is not OS X, but too many applications (Firefox, Thunderbird) have this problem. Could this not have been OS-level?
- The most pervasive problem is also the most minor and difficult to explain. Even on a high-spec dual-core Powerbook, the Mac just feels slightly soft/fuzzy compared with Windows. Windows routinely becomes maddeningly laggy, taking many seconds to respond to things that should be instant, which my Mac (so far) doesn't. But it's like there's a "micro-lag" for just about all operations on the Mac, making it feel like walking on a soft or slightly sticky surface. I'm not sure what causes this perception. It may even be a psychological illusion caused by the slightly fuzzy anti-aliased display, and the slightly greater travel distance of the Mighty Mouse button.
OS X likes
Inevitably, I'm going to be a bit unfair and not mention everything that's good, for the pure reason that when things just work you don't notice them as much. For the record, the benefits are sufficient to make me prefer the platform over Windows.
- Menus at top of screen, not on windows. This is one thing Apple got right from the start, and Microsoft have stubbornly refused to concede.
- Good range of OS-level shortcut keys, well explained and configurable in the System Prefs.
- Excellent, OS-level screengrab
- Copying straight from PDFs into Photoshop
- Generally lag-free: most operating system operations are always fast and smooth
- Things I like about the Dock:
- Starting apps in any order thanks to fixed Dock. Good for muscle memory. On Windows I always had to open apps in the same order have a predictable taskbar.
- good not to get overloaded by all installed apps
- good that you can drag stuff to Dock icons, unlike Windows (but I still miss Windows' right-click: Send To)
- good that you can overlay progress and other indicators on Dock icons
- Expose is great. The use of screen hotspots (e.g. corners) is also excellent.
- Wireless just works. On Windows a plethora of crappy devices and utilities, which work one day and not the next.
- Networking that usually "just works", without telling you that it works. E.g. when you plug in Ethernet cable, you're just on the network, that's it. No announcements. The downside is that you don't know what you did to make it work. And if things don't work, troubleshooting can be as difficult as on PC
- Generally much less intrusive than Windows, with fewer confirm dialog boxes and things popping up to tell you things you don't need to know. The Security Apple ad is spot-on.
- Things I like about the Finder:
- Nice instant View buttons on Folder windows (I wish Windows had this)
- Columns view excellent; very quick (but still needs a tree view)
- Keyboard shortcut for New Folder (wish Windows had this)
- Laptop hardware likes:
- excellent power management, suspend, etc
- Two-finger trackpad scrolling, all directions -- unequalled on other laptops
- Things crash somewhat less than Windows, but not much less
- The 3 colour buttons on Finder windows struck me as mystery meat at first, but it makes sense for an OS you use long-term. Good use of reveal on mouseover
Conclusion
It took me almost 3 months before I got comfortable with the Mac, and didn't want to return to Windows. As I said above, I'd now probably stick with a Mac for work purposes. This is probably down to
- fewer (or less serious) annoyances than Windows
- somewhat greater stability
- generally better usability
- performance (it handles everything I throw at it, though how it'd compare with a top-spec Windows machine I couldn't say)
- excellent hardware
- Unix terminal
- Vista. Do not want.
I'm sticking with Tiger, for the time being. There wasn't anything in the Leopard demos I've seen that made me want to upgrade.
For a more rigorous comparison of the two platforms, see xvsxp.com
Before anyone points it out, I know there is a 3rd option: Linux. I owe it a decent comparison as well, but well, switching operating systems while trying to get my work done isn't something I do for fun.