Two down, one to go
I’ve wanted to want an Apple. You read that correctly. I want to want one.
I had Apple computers from my sophomore year of high school till three years after I graduated college. Yet, I don’t haven’t wanted to purchase a Mac for three reasons:
- They’re expensive. Mac mini has solved that to some extent.
- The mouse has only one button. It looks like that will be taken care of. ..and seriously, the ability to right click is so superior to the one button thing its not even funny. My mouse has 5 buttons and I use them all.
- The menu bar isn’t attached to the window so I never know what applications are running. As far as I know this is still an issue.
They are taking steps in the right direction. They need to get off their high horse about how superior the Mac OS is. It was superior, when you had to deal with Windows 3.11 but it isn’t anymore. I think that attitude has prevented them from making necessary changes.
Now if they can only get game developers to port stuff to the Mac in bigger numbers, they’d be set.
Edit: This is my current mouse. I really like it. I should note that I currently use more Microsoft hardware products than software products. If Real didn’t go so far out of their way to make using their product painful, I’d give up Windows Media Player too.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:14 am
dude. they are not expensive. factor in everything. software, ease of use, downtime and they are less expensive.
on my mac i have a 3 button mouse, drawing tablet and the apple mouse connected all at the same time and use them all. try a command-tab and all running apps are shown. there are other ways to see what else is running too. you are creating problems that are not there. Mac OSX is a no brainer.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:34 am
Yeah, I smell you on wanting to want a Mac. They do such a good job of seeming like all their stuff is integrated and logical, but then you read about the crap they’re doing to iTunes (like disabling/restricting features without telling anyone via upgrades). And the Mac faithful creep me out. I constantly hear about how perfect Macs are, then, when they upgrade, suddenly it’s even MORE perfect!
I miss the Amiga.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:37 am
Yeah, totally… These “myths” have been dispelled over and over again — do a little research, man! If you don’t WANT to us a Mac, then don’t — no one’s making you. If you DO want to use a Mac, there’s really no reason not to anymore, and plenty of reasons to switch from Windoze.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:38 am
Why is it that people are so up in arms about the one button mouse coming standard with a Mac?
Truth is, that five button mouse didn’t come standard with your PC. You can easily go out and buy any mouse and use it natively on a Mac as long as it’s USB.
And your comment about the OS not being superior? You obviously haven’t looked at the OS recently. Win 3.11 and OS 7 or whatever, are long in the past. OS X is a completely different beast. Read the reviews and learn for yourself just how far (and how far Apple has left Microsoft) in the OS game.
http://labs.google.com/googlex/ – Heck, even Google thinks it’s cool…..
March 16th, 2005 at 10:39 am
Oh yeah, and if you check the link for your mouse, you’ll see that it’ll work with Mac OS X.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:44 am
If only…………..
Programs should quit when clicking on the close button
Start button at the bottom to access all programs and files
Anti virus software that bugs you to upgrade or update every time you log in
Manage all programs with a registry
Complete compatibility with Outlook to share trojans and viruses
Wizards that will ask you to click ‘next’ a zillion times to install an application
Remove Java support
Remove support for X11 and all open source programs
Remove all eye candy and replace with drab Os 9 look so as to make everything very snappy.
Improve scrolling so that it is so fast that you will never be able to select text between two pages without reaching the end of the document.
Change Apple APIs with Windows APIs so that it will run 100 word processing programs and 250 image editing programs and 2000 media players
Full support for multiple buttons so that one can use all toes and fingers to cut and paste figures in documents.
Support Windows DRM
Sell computers that are faster than the fastest and greatest PC but still cost less than the least expensive PC found in WalMart or do it yourself PC
Clicking on maximize button should make the windows big enough to cover the entire 30″ Cinema display and if you have multiple displays, the window should span across all those displays. I feel most comfortable when there is only only window to deal with and I hate to see any glimpse of the desktop or things on it.
All windows to have their own menus and right click should allow one to access all options present on menu bar (in a vertical cum horizontal configuration of course).
Replace the Dock with Taskbar
Get rid of the genie or other fancy animations. My computer can’t handle it!
But….but …now it is just like Windows! Duh! I could have stayed with Windows if I knew it was going to become Windows.
Moral: If you want something to behave exactly like Windows stay with Windows! If you want something different then try Linux or Mac.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:45 am
…and a 4th thing. Mac zealots.
Jesus people. I know you can use 3rd party mice with a Mac and I’m not asking for a total rewrite of the Mac OS.
March 16th, 2005 at 10:50 am
I can see life is just not simple enough for you. As to menus in your windows, stick with your PC! You ain’t ever going to have that crap on a Mac OS, period! Apple spent millions in research with real people, not MS drones, to achieve their ease of use and coherence in their graphic interface. Microsoft had to pay, borrow, and steal features with the changes necessitated by Apple’s copyrights or patents. Those changes often made matters less intuitive. But, if you don’t want your habits challenged stick with MS and PCs, period.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:13 am
The mouse supplied with the Mac has one button — and I too hate it. But fortunately, there are many mouse manufacturers. I’ve used a five button Microsoft Intellimouse on the Mac for five-plus years. Works perfectly. There’s even a workaround for right clicking for people silly enough to stick with the one-button mouse: hold the control key down at the same time. Suboptimal, but it works.
Expensive is no longer an issue with the Mac mini. The higher end machines are certainly comparable to higher end machines from Dell, HP, and so on, and they are generally much better designed mechanically.
The operating system is the key. The power of UNIX, the usability of the Mac. A great hacker OS as well as a great user OS. Unlike Linux (great for hackers, not so much fun for non-tinkering users yet–and I say that as a professional Linux systems administrator) or Windows (not much fun for users or hackers, except when it comes to games–that’s all I use my Windows machine for.)
No OS is perfect, but some OSes are more perfect than others.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:23 am
Tell me how many times you over shoot the menu bar in Windoz and you will know why it is at the top of the screen opps i geess the fixed that by adding maximize so you dont overshoot the menu bar. I guess designing something wrong then adding something is a feature not in my book it is just bad design period
March 16th, 2005 at 11:32 am
“The menu bar isn’t attached to the window so I never know what applications are running. As far as I know this is still an issue.”
I have always thought having the menu bar connected to the window was “brain dead” and is one of the most annoying things about using a Windows box. Frustratingly, most of the open source coders have adopted this method as well. I work with lots of windows and applications open at any one time. On a Mac I know where my menus are all the time — right at the top. On a windows machine I have to take care that i don’t accidently click on the wrong menu bar. I know the menu bar is connected to the window I am working in, but when I am concentrating on a complicated edit my mind is on the task at hand. Interupting the process to think about the menu bar causes me to lose concentration. So, without thinking, I click on the closest menu bar. Sometimes its the right one. Other timesits the wrong one and some other window pops to the front. This destroys my train of thought and I have to reorganize everything again. This is one “issue” of windows that makes me glad I use a Mac. I can understand why someone might want a multi-button mouse. But menus attached to individiual windows? Only the “geniuses” from Redmond could have come up with that nonsense.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:41 am
I like menu bars in the window. Personal preference.
97% of computer users are used to it.
It should be an option is all I’m saying. Have a switch where you could toggle it on and off, then everyone is happy.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:51 am
OMG
I’ve finally come to the conclusion that there are only two people (maybe Paul Thurrot and Bill Palmer?) using the internet who admit to actually liking PeeCees/Windoze and that they are probably the source for all the lame articles spreading the same disinformation about expense, one button mice (FFS the mac has been able to use mice with more than one button for at least 7 years!) and claiming that all mac users are baby eating zealots.
Its either that, or all PC users are brainless idiots – That can’t be right can it?
Heh
Trotskiii
BTW I havent eaten a baby in like – ages!
March 16th, 2005 at 12:16 pm
I want to want a BMW … but alas … they’re out of my price range. However I don’t want them to change they’re design approach. I like BMWs because they well-built and well thought-out.
If you want one … do what it takes!
Buy the Mac Mini … it’s inexpensive!
Attach your Microsoft Mouse … it just works!
Adjust your approach … Command-Tab to see active apps or use Expose to see all available open files or just take a look at the Dock … it’s your choice!
Choice is what it’s all about.
One more thing. Ponder this thought: My does Microsoft with all of it’s vast resources not have an Absolutely Killer Operating System. They should, if they could, stomp all over Mac OS X. But they don’t. At best the are equal to Mac OS X.
Why? IMHP … It’s because they have never put their customers first, ahead of their large profits margins. They easily could have provided their customers with the latest and greatest interface but instead choose to serve themselves a larger piece of the pie.
March 16th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
Sorry. I made a typo …
“Why? IMHO … It’s because they have never put their customers first, ahead of their large profits margins. They easily could have provided their customers with the latest and greatest interface but instead choose to serve themselves a larger piece of the pie.”
March 16th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
97% (or so) of computer users have to deal with it, but how do you know any percentage of them LIKE it? Probably close to 100% of Windows users make every window full screen size, but how many would PREFER to have overlapping windows for simpler COPY and PASTE? And, close to 100% of Windows users have to battle some combination of viruses, adware, spyware, and other malware. Becasue of that high statistic, should all other computer users be doomed to the same fate? Numbers are anything you want to make of them. GIve me a consistent user interface so that the WORK, not the TOOL, is my focus.
March 16th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
“Probably close to 100% of Windows users make every window full screen size”
No they don’t. I never do that.
1) Where did you people get a link to this?
2) Why are you so insecure? Its a freaking opearing system. Its not religion. Jesus, I’m not even defending windows. All I said was that I like having the menu bar on each window. I don’t know of anyone that maximized all their windows. I have 2 monitors, one of which is 22″. Why the hell would I want to do that? The only time I’ve ever maximized a window is if I want more room to read or type something.
March 16th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
The menubar at the top of the screen is one of the Mac’s biggest advantages. You always know exactly where it is without having to hunt for it, and because it’s in a consistant location, you can find it easily with the mouse without even having to look. Because it’s at the top of the screen, if you just bring the mouse as far up as it will go, it will stop in the menu bar, which is a lot faster than having to see where the window is and thinking about where the menu is and moving the mouse to that spot with more precision than simply bringing it up to the top.
As for the mouse. I never use Apple mice. I wouldn’t even consider using a mouse without a scroll wheel, and preferrably additional buttons besides the two standard ones. Fortunately, any standard USB and most Bluetooth mice you can buy will work on a Mac.
March 16th, 2005 at 1:38 pm
I forgot to mention, you can tell what application you’re currently running by looking at the name in the menu bar. To see what applications are running, just look at the dock.
March 16th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
Insecure?
What a strange thing to say. Gary … you posted your opinion.
Opinions are like Belly Buttons. Everyone has one and sometimes the stink. Like Belly Buttons, opinions are not very useful. Sure they once had a purpose, but that was long ago.
Now that everyone can show their Belly Buttons so easily we see them for what they are … ugly swirls of non-intelligent matter that never comes to a point. People even put shiny objects them to attract others but in the end, when you get to close … you can still smell them.
Anyone can attract others to read their personal opinion. It’s so easy. But don’t be suprised when they get close and tell you it stinks.
That’s the one thing I despise about blogs. Many bloggers don’t seem to realize that they need to be professional when posting an article or in handling rejections of the stated opinion.
March 16th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
You, uh, see what I mean about the Mac faithful being creepy?
March 16th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
What is there to stink about it? Its a preference. About half of the stuff posted here has absolutly nothing to do with what I said in my orignial post. How can “menu bar on top” or “menu bar in the window” be right or wrong?
I can care less if people agree or disagree with me on the subject of menu bars. It has to be close to the top of trivial issues to get in a huff about.
The only thing I’m really amazed by is that within a matter of hours, somehow, the issue of menu bars on the Mac OS, of all possible things, has generated more traiffic than this site has ever seen.
In a very weak way I grant, my original post was sort of a “good job Apple” post, and people are posting stuff about how “all PC users are brainless idiots”.
In the end, I just want to know how this link got out
March 16th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
I guess you never heard of Fits law.
March 16th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
No I haven’t.
Two seconds on Google got me:
Fitts’s Law: The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.
Which seems reasonable enough.
Question: If I’m doing something with my mouse in a window, wouldn’t to top of the window be closer than the top of the screen?
March 16th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
It amazes me to ever hear anyone complain about Apple’s use of a single menu bar at the top of the screen. It is a work of genius, and was only not duplicated by Microsoft as to avoid an obvious look and feel lawsuit against them. Most if not all interface people agree that it is far superior to the confusion of the attached to each window mess that Windows had to go with.
Sheesh!
March 16th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Flicking a mouse to the top is faster then moving it to the top of the window. You don’t have to think about moving to the top of the screen, you do have to think about moving to the top of the window unless it is full screen.
March 16th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Hey Gary,
I found your link via Macsurfer – how/why it got posted there, can’t say, but at least that answers where some of the posters might be coming from.
I’m a mac zealot myself, but I don’t take too kindly to other mac users who feel the need to abuse someone because of their opinion. However, it should be noted that most mac users are mac users by choice – they’ve used PCs, and for one reason or another have chosen macs. Almost unanimously, we’ve decided “macs are better.” We come to that conclusion understanding BOTH sides of the platform wars. Heck, most of us still HAVE to use PCs in the workplace (I do, I work for a school district – 85% mac, the rest PC). If I had to support strictly PCs, I’d run to my nearest University and re-enroll for a new major, like maybe pottery.
Anyway, the biggest thing I’ve learned from all the hostilities that stem from the PC vs. Mac debate is that it’s never clearly stated that using a mac is DIFFERENT than using a PC. Yes, some things just don’t work the way you’d expect them to after being a long-time PC user. The reason why the mac platform induces such zealotry is that when you do finally learn and understand the processes of using a mac, you can really, really, feel how much better it is. It makes a person wonder how they could ever have done it another why – or even more, why in the world isn’t it this easy in Windows?
Sorry for the long rambling post, but if you ever truly decide to try a mac (the mini is a great start) to be honest with yourself, you’ll need to “forget” how it’s done on a PC and take the time to “discover” the mac way of doing it. It’s a great reward.
March 16th, 2005 at 3:41 pm
Oh. My. Frickin. God.
I now actively don’t ever want a Mac. I now, in fact, actively hope that Bill Gates buys Apple just to kill it.
March 16th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
“The only thing I’m really amazed by is that within a matter of hours, somehow, the issue of menu bars on the Mac OS, of all possible things, has generated more traffic than this site has ever seen.” — Gary
That’s exactly what I mean. The internet is a wide open forum. Throw your somewhat weak (by your own words) opinion out there and watch what happens.
Mac users may be guilty of being overzealous, however they are sincere.
As far as your original posting. Why did you feel you needed to express it? What did you mean by “I want to want one”? I assume that there must some appeal for you. What was it?
March 16th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
“Oh. My. Frickin. God.”
What, aren’t we all “friends” here?
March 16th, 2005 at 5:01 pm
Gary, you’ll have to forgive your readers for coming to the conclusion that you are somewhat dim-witted when you state that your #2 reason for not wanting to buy a Mac is “The mouse has only one button.” and then you point out that you already have in your posession the mouse of your dreams, a five-button mouse which is comatible with any Mac you might choose to buy. Heck, if you bought a Mac Mini, you couldn’t even complain that you were being stuck with a useless one-button mouse, since it doesn’t come with a mouse. In other words, your #2 reason for not wanting to buy a Mac is nonsensical.
Neal.
March 16th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
Gary was quoted as saying:
“They need to get off their high horse about how superior the Mac OS is. It was superior”
I think you’re overreacting to the marketing hype which all companies do.
If you’re into programming, science, and digital lifestyle applications then you will find Mac OS X is perfect. It can’t be more simply put: it has the power of UNIX and the ease of Macintosh.
The abilities in Mac OS X are far ahead of anything Windows can do. Here’s one example of something you can only do in Mac OS X…
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,64129,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
March 16th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Man aren’t we all sick and tired of hearing moronic articles from butt wads like Gary. Hey Gary stop fucking whining and go do a virus scan on your Windows shit box. There is no point correcting these ass holes they are either incapable of learning or too stupid to learn, in any case it isn’t worth any effort.
March 16th, 2005 at 9:56 pm
Jesus Christ.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
LOL. This is hilarious.
March 17th, 2005 at 7:13 am
Gary, I’ve seen this happen too many times. Somebody posts something about anything Mac-related, and the site gets swarmed through MacSurfer. Naturally, the results are both surprising and rather unfavorable in the end since it results in a “religious” war. Sorry, but just take solace in the fact that it really has nothing to do with you.
My eMac is cool, but I can’t upgrade it.
My ThinkPad works well, but it’s ugly inside and out.
I want to stop wanting new computers.
I suppose I should be thankful I don’t have this problem with women.