I don't think I'll ever adjust to how terrible window management is in OS X.<p>- one menu bar for active applications: if you have many windows/applications open side-by-side you can't access (or even see) their menus until you switch to them. It's bad on a MacBook, I can't image the pain it is on a 27" or 30". If you're using Adium on a 30" monitor and you have it in the lower right-hand corner, the app's menu is 2 freaking feet away from the app!<p>-cmd+tab switches apps, not windows. you have to either use expose (slow) or cmd+tab, cmd+~. Minimized windows also don't cycle, so you can alt-tab to an app and still not get any windows, just the menu bar. Getting to a particular window shouldn't be so damned hard.<p>The windows/linux way - where each window is independent, equal and self-contained is much better IMO.
Cmd+delete is not the equivalent of shift+delete on Windows. On Windows, that key combination permanently deletes an item. In OS X, this key combination moves the item to the trash.<p>This seems like a silly gripe. The cmd+delete sequence is operable with a single hand. In Windows, the operation requires either the use of the keyboard, then the mouse, or two keyboard operations:<p>delete, click yes<p>or<p>delete, enter<p>Both serve the purpose of preventing you from accidentally deleting the file. In OS X, this is accomplished by requiring a key combination, rather than a single key.<p>Based on the authors perspective, anything that is different is "annoying".
I might be misunderstanding this complaint--<p>The way Finder is designed, you often can't simply drag some files from one location to another (e.g. moving to the subdirectory of another directory). You need two Finder windows open in order to accomplish this, whereas Windows Explorer, whose left pane has the directory structure and right pane has the contents of the currently selected directory, lets you do this effortlessly using only one window.<p>--but I think that it is possible to do this on a Mac by opening Finder, clicking to the file you want to move, and then making sure that the third of the four display modes available (it looks like three vertical bars) is chosen. (These icons are right of the forward/backward buttons on the left of a Finder window.) This changes the display to a directory mode and allows you to drag and drop files from any subfolder to any other. Hovering over a folder's name while dragging a file will open that folder in the rightmost column and allow you to move the file to any subfolder.
<i>The way Finder is designed, you often can't simply drag some files from one location to another (e.g. moving to the subdirectory of another directory)</i><p>There are some things that are just different. The folder tree in an exploring window is a semi-separate display from the objects within the current directory. There isn't a direct Mac OS X equivalent, but the same use is supported with one window using "spring-loaded folders." Dragging a file over the icons in the left-hand toolbar temporarily opens them and you can open any sub-directory by hovering similarly.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finder_(software)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finder_(software)</a>
I've recently started using a Mac laptop, and one thing that I've found frustrating is how much harder it is to access menu items from the keyboard.<p>In Windows, you can just press the alt key -- either one, and you don't even need to release it -- and then each menu/item is (usually) a single keystroke. For instance, alt-e-a-s is firmly in my muscle memory... a quick four-key sequence on the right hand to activate Photoshop's Edit | Transform | Scale menu item. There's probably about a dozen menu items in Photoshop that I access regularly this way.<p>These keystroke combos are sometimes even easier than the menu item's hot keys; for example, I find alt-f-x (File | Exit) a less-contorting sequence to hit with one hand than alt-F4, the standard application-closing shortcut.<p>On the Mac laptop, by default you need to hit Ctrl-Fn-F2 to access the menus by keyboard -- an awkward three-key combination that takes two hands, and moves at least one hand off the home row. And from there the navigation is lexographic, which means multiple keystrokes per navigation step.<p>Does anyone know if there is a better way to navigate via keyboard that I'm missing?
The biggest thing I still cannot get over with in OS X:<p>THERE IS NO CUT!!!<p>If you want to move a file to somewhere else, you have to either copy&paste, or use mouse to drag (which sometimes is really difficult if the two locations are not reachable in one window/screen).
Good list. Some of it's true, although I now cannot live in Windows because of the same keyboard issues: I'm so used to Control+A and E for home/end that I don't know what to do without it.<p>Here's some awesome things that make up for the switch:<p>* If you have a File dialog open (file upload to a website, open file in any application, etc.) you can drag a file icon into it. The dialog will switch to the folder that file lives in, and highlight it.<p>* The little File icon at the top of file windows (say, TextEdit)? Those are so-called "proxy" file icons. Take that icon and drag it to an email to attach it, to the desktop to copy/move it, etc. Or drag it into a File dialog as described above!<p>* Command+Space opens Spotlight. Launch programs, search for documents, or do simple calculations. (quick, what's 2567/180 ?)<p>* Easily rebind your Caps Lock key to something useful from the Keyboard System Preferences pane. Lots of old UNIX geeks like to make it Control. It makes the Control+A/E <i>exceedingly</i> easy.<p>* Growl. It's not a Mac OS X builtin, but it's a must-install. I describe it to PC users this way: "Those little popups that Outlook does when you get new mail? Growl is a system-wide service that gives those to any application that wants them.<p>Those are the easy ones I can think of off the top of my head. After the initial transition period was over, I found I couldn't go back to using Windows.
Biggest gripe about OSX window management is that you can only resize a window if you can grab the lower right hand corner. If, for some reason, a window opens that is taller than you screen resolution, it is impossible to resize it.
i find many of these to be features of Mac that are painfully missing on windows, especially:<p>* enter to rename files, best keyboard shortcut ever. someone please enlighten me on an easy way to rename in windows.<p>* closing last window doesn't quit application. the decluttering effect of this is amazing.<p>* if i press a modifier key and delete, i'm pretty positive that i want to delete something, no need to confirm. that's what the trash can is for. add shift and i empty the trash.<p>* windows NEEDs maximize designed the way it is because all those fancy borders and menus are so full of CLUTTER. macs are more true to the "windows" philosophy, windows should be called "screens" from how i've seen people abuse maximize.<p>* as a follow up, people maximize on windows in order for the menus to comply with Fitt's Law. as noted, not necessary on mac.<p>I do agree with finder being finicky though, but again, macs work well with multiple windows.
I don't miss pgup/pgdn so much, due to the excellent scrollabiity of the trackpad.<p>The big one for me was no home/end keys (unless you buy the extended keyboard, and even then they don't work in some applications). I ended up remapping "right command" to home and "right option" to end.
I think the biggest crime of them all is how there is no where on the keyboard that displays the # symbol, which is commonplace on most standard PC keyboards.<p>To get the symbol to appear you need to hit alt+3. I only found this after a quick journey to google.
A lot of the Finder annoyances that he points out were alleviated for me when I started using QuickSilver.app. IMO it's a great utility for file management, launching programs, etc.
Oh my...this is just the preamble from my own list. I just never understand some of the age old interface issues that still linger on in OSX...small things that a bit of attention to detail would resolve in a patch release. Ugh. So pretty, such a PIA to use.