OS X Complaint Thread

[kaldor]

OS X is touted as being the easiest and most straightforward OS ever. While to a large degree I concur, there are some very annoying things about my Mac that drive me nuts. Note: This isn't Apple/Mac bashing.

1) In GNOME/KDE/Windows, there's a "show your desktop" button. This hides all windows and presents your desktop. OS X has similar stuff, but not the same. Note I'm mentioning defaults.

2) The damn zoom button. I love the fact that each application has its own "zoom" features and it isn't just the simple Resize/Maximize thing like on GNOME/KDE/Windows; it resizes the window to best fit the contents or screen space. But, why doesn't it WORK?! It has a mind of its own and is inconsistent. I'll press Zoom on Safari, it'll shrink to a smaller window. Press again, the window grows and moves to the left a little. Press again, nothing happens. Move it a bit, press zoom and it goes back to default. Confusing and annoying.

3) I can't customize anything. I want to change certain UI aspects, but Apple says it's wrong and won't let me.

4) The dock + menubar sometimes takes up way too much screen space on a small, 13-inch MacBook. I can hide the dock, but then when I go too far down on the window, it pops up and obstructs my view. If I need screen space, I always need to disable the dock and then reenable it later when I want it.

5) Icons annoy me to death. They seem to all be PNG files, so if you don't click on the icon itself, it won't register. Try clicking the openarena icon with it's thin black lines :). On top of that, Snow Leopard seems to have an annoying "disappearing icon" glitch. Sometimes icons are not present in Finder, but the text under them is.

6) Clutter!!! when a lot of windows are open, it gets farrr too cluttered! Expose is good for this, but it's just annoying.


Apple does an amazing job presenting the Mac. But some problems exist that everybody else in the competition never deals with. Share your thoughts/opinions.

[Dixon Bainbridge]

The biggest problem with OS X is its speed. Its the slowest most bloated OS I have ever used. Wish there was an option to switch off stuff and just run skinny.

[WinterRain]

My complaint is that I can't get my hands on more apple computers. (they sell quick)
I'm buying 2 G4 desktops today for $17.50 each. And yes, they work.

[juancarlospaco]

You dont understand...
OSX is a program to download and install an Operating System like Ubuntu or Debian.

[pwnst*r]

This thread is going places.

[schauerlich]

#2 annoyed me as well. There are programs (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30591/right-zoom) out there to fix it. But yeah, by default, the green button is kind of really stupid.

Also, just pre-emptively: see the link in my sig.

[tubezninja]

The biggest problem with OS X is its speed. Its the slowest most bloated OS I have ever used. Wish there was an option to switch off stuff and just run skinny.

I'd have to disagree with you on that. But then, I can't really expect positive nor even objective comments regarding OS X in a forum primarily for linux users.

[DeadSuperHero]

In a lot of ways, I think Apple has done a great job with MacOSX. Is it proprietary? Well, yes. But technically speaking, Obj-C and Darwin aren't. Neither is Webkit.

I think it all boils down to a matter of preference. My biggest complaint with MacOS is not the design of the system itself, but the fact that they keep switching up APIs from release to release. This is normally okay, but is of particular note with ShapeShifter, a Windowblinds-like program. It's a real cache-22: you want to be able to have nice, custom themes. But custom theming requires powerful APIs in Coca and whatnot. So the developers constantly try and update their program to be compliant with Apple's APIs.

But their program hasn't worked since before Leopard came out. It's a shame, too, as there are a lot of really, really good MacOS custom themes out there.

[2cute4u]

ok I've been using OS X since my first time using a computer. I love it, and think it is far superior to anything else in many ways, but some things really annoy me.

1. You can only grow a window from the lower left corner.
2. Too many things can cause the dreaded spinning beachball, and you cant stop it without killing the application.
3. The minimize and maximize buttons are on the same side as the close button
4. It doesn't support themes (not such a big problem because the default theme is excellent)
5. it''s a major resource hog, which makes it really slow if you don't have tons of RAM, and a huge hard disk.
6. Because software isn't free, most of my software come from untrusted sources, and could be doing things that compromize my privacy/security.

[TheNessus]

It's a shame, too, as there are a lot of really, really good MacOS custom themes out there.

NO. it will be SILVER gradient and SILVER gradient only. the STEVE JOBS way or the HIGHWAY!


</end rant>

[KiwiNZ]

ok I've been using OS X since my first time using a computer. I love it, and think it is far superior to anything else in many ways, but some things really annoy me.

1. You can only grow a window from the lower left corner.
2. Too many things can cause the dreaded spinning beachball, and you cant stop it without killing the application.
3. The minimize and maximize buttons are on the same side as the close button
4. It doesn't support themes (not such a big problem because the default theme is excellent)
5. it''s a major resource hog, which makes it really slow if you don't have tons of RAM, and a huge hard disk.
6. Because software isn't free, most of my software come from untrusted sources, and could be doing things that compromize my privacy/security.

Numbers 6 ,5 and 2 are most likely related. Install "dodgy" and I am assuming not legal then you can expect issues and really it is not the fault of the OS.

[blueturtl]

While we're complaining, does OS X not have any means to determine hardware failure? I ask because I've already run in to two cases where the software behaved so inexplicably badly that it wasn't even funny. Random stuff like applications not launching, iPod sync not working etc. Both times I misdiagnosed it as "ghosts in the computer" (because that's what I'm used to from the Windows world).

It turned out to be a dying hard drive trashing random data.

When I put an Ubuntu LiveCD in that same Mac it told me up front: your hard disk is dying, BACK UP YOUR DATA NOW. I'm not joking. It actually said something to that effect (probably read the SMART data on the HDD).

Why can't the easiest OS in the world tell when there's something wrong with the hard-drive?

[aysiu]

I'm (pleasantly) shocked that so far the complaints have been legitimate ones instead of just FUD.

[Pogeymanz]

Ah, good. I needed to complain about a few things.

1. The resizing windows only via the bottom right corner is so annoying.

2. Finder is a horrible file manager/browser. It always wants to order my stuff by name. I hate that. I want order by type by default. It also doesn't allow you to "see" the tree structure of the file system. Coming from Linux, it was important for me to know that my usb was mounted at /Volumes/USBNAME, but it was pretty hard for me to figure that out.

2.5 Finder hides all the info for a file from you. I have to open the context menu then click on info before I can see how big the file is. Come on.

3. Spaces has nothing on Linux Workspaces. I can't drag windows between them. It's a big hassle to open two windows of the same application on two different spaces. It's such a big headache that I don't even use it when I'm on a Mac, even though I use the crap out of them on my home computer.

4. Expose is awesome. It even shows minimized windows as separated from the open windows. This is something Compiz Scale plugin can't do and I'd love it to.

5. And no application launcher other than the stupid dock and finder? I don't even know what to say to this, seriously. Do you just put your whole applications directory on your dock, or always have finder open to your applications directory? Either way it's stupid.

You read correctly, #4 is not a complaint.

[KiwiNZ]

Ah, good. I needed to complain about a few things.

1. The resizing windows only via the bottom right corner is so annoying.

2. Finder is a horrible file manager/browser. It always wants to order my stuff by name. I hate that. I want order by type by default. It also doesn't allow you to "see" the tree structure of the file system. Coming from Linux, it was important for me to know that my usb was mounted at /Volumes/USBNAME, but it was pretty hard for me to figure that out.

2.5 Finder hides all the info for a file from you. I have to open the context menu then click on info before I can see how big the file is. Come on.

3. Spaces has nothing on Linux Workspaces. I can't drag windows between them. It's a big hassle to open two windows of the same application on two different spaces. It's such a big headache that I don't even use it when I'm on a Mac, even though I use the crap out of them on my home computer.

4. Expose is awesome. It even shows minimized windows as separated from the open windows. This is something Compiz Scale plugin can't do and I'd love it to.

5. And no application launcher other than the stupid dock and finder? I don't even know what to say to this, seriously. Do you just put your whole applications directory on your dock, or always have finder open to your applications directory? Either way it's stupid.

You read correctly, #4 is not a complaint.

2 and 2.5 ? what version of OSX have you used ? In Snow Leopard none of that is an issue

[23meg]

In the action menu in Finder, "Get info" and "Compress" are listed consecutively.

A typical use case for "Get info" is to use it on a large bunch of files, to check the total size, number of items, etc.

What happens when you misclick (which is typical in long menus initiated through small areas, especially with a touchpad), and hit "Compress" instead of "Get info"? Finder instantly starts compressing your 2120398 files weighing 70.8GB, without a confirmation dialog, and your lovely 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro grinds to a halt, and you're forced to power it down.

This is an example of placing the ejector seat lever next to the cabin lights switch (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/03/the-opposite-of-fitts-law.html): it's all too easy to accidentally trigger a possibly destructive action without a chance to change your mind.

Surely Apple is a major connoisseur of interaction design, surely Macs are the king of integration. That doesn't mean that OS X is the epitome of usability, or that the Mac experience is guaranteed to be problem-free. OS X has plenty of rough edges, just like pretty much every other OS, some of which do hurt badly at times.

[aysiu]

What happens when you misclick (which is typical in long menus initiated through small areas, especially with a touchpad), and hit "Compress" instead of "Get info"? That's why I use Cmd-I

I love the keyboard shortcuts in Mac OS X. I just wish they had more of them. I can't even figure out how to use keyboard shortcuts to choose anything but the default in a dialogue box. If I hit Tab or use the arrow keys, no matter what I do, both Enter and Return just select the default action.

[Dixon Bainbridge]

I'd have to disagree with you on that. But then, I can't really expect positive nor even objective comments regarding OS X in a forum primarily for linux users.

1) I use all three major OS's.
2) Objectivism doesn't exist if a human being is involved.
3) I share my disdain for all operating systems and computers equally.
4) OSX is slow and bloated.

[aysiu]

Both KiwiNZ and I use Mac OS X, so I don't see how this being a Linux forum has anything to do with it.

No OS is perfect. One can like OS X while rightly recognizing its flaws, just as one can like Linux while rightly recognizing its flaws.

OS X is not a slim OS. If you want it to run quickly, you'll should have at least 2.0 GHz and 4 GB of RAM. I pity my poor sister-in-law running it on an old Mac Mini with only 512 MB of RAM. It's slow. Trust me.

[sydbat]

OS X is touted as being the easiest and most straightforward OS ever. While to a large degree I concur, there are some very annoying things about my Mac that drive me nuts. Note: This isn't Apple/Mac bashing.I stopped reading there. Why? Because you named this the OS X Complaint Thread. Basically, what you have done is "Imma not gonna complain about/bash <insert whatever>, but Imma complaining about/bashing it".

Just my $.0003/4 observation.

[aysiu]

I stopped reading there. Why? Because you named this the OS X Complaint Thread. Basically, what you have done is "Imma not gonna complain about/bash <insert whatever>, but Imma complaining about/bashing it".

Just my $.0003/4 observation.
There is a difference between complaining about something and bashing something. So far, most of the complaints in here are very specific and seem to be from people who have actually used Mac OS X.

Complaint example: Cmd-Tab won't restore minimized applications, only hidden ones.

Bashing example: OS X is bloated, overpriced crap.

[sydbat]

There is a difference between complaining about something and bashing something. So far, most of the complaints in here are very specific and seem to be from people who have actually used Mac OS X.

Complaint example: Cmd-Tab won't restore minimized applications, only hidden ones.

Bashing example: OS X is bloated, overpriced crap.I'm sure there have been valid examples, but there are soooo many threads that start like this and end badly. I suppose I could have read through more thoroughly.

[NightwishFan]

Concerning Window Management: Oddly enough what MAKES sense to me is how it is grouped by program instead of by window. I think Gnome does that now. Also the single task based icon in the dock for starting or restoring a program. Clicking the icon sensibly shows the program and not starting a new session of it.

What does not make sense is the forced behavior of the maximize. A program should perhaps have an optimal default size, but not a forced maximum and etc. Just my opinion.

[aysiu]

I'm sure there have been valid examples, but there are soooo many threads that start like this and end badly. I suppose I could have read through more thoroughly. Point taken. I see this going downhill by page 5.

[sandyd]

Point taken. I see this going downhill by page 5.

any bets? anyone?

[KiwiNZ]

My main beef with OSX is its default browser Safari . Many people I know love it , I just dont. However its easily remedied with either Firefox or Chrome. My personal choice is Chrome.

[Merk42]

<troll post>
With purple everywhere, buttons on the left, the very dock like launcher in Unity, and everyone in love with Elementary, Ubuntu will be OS X in no time.
</troll post>

[Pogeymanz]

My main beef with OSX is its default browser Safari . Many people I know love it , I just dont. However its easily remedied with either Firefox or Chrome. My personal choice is Chrome.

At least we can probably all agree it's better than IE. I much rather see Safari with 60% market share. (Or whatever IE has these days)

It's not too bad, but it has nothing on FF or Opera, IMO.

[Sand & Mercury]

Biggest thing that annoyed me with it was its file copying. You cannot merge directories, instead you drag a folder into the same place as another folder of the same name, the original there gets replaced. There is no option to merge, so if that's what you want, you have to go moving files individually over, and over, and over again, until you have accomplished something that Windows and Linux can do instantly.

Also you cannot cut and paste in Finder. If you want to move a file up a directory, you have to drag it out to the desktop, move up a level in finder, and drag it back. WTH, Apple?

OS X is a great OS, but man they have made some weird design decisions with it

[Guitar John]

I don't own a Mac or run OS X so I cannot comment intelligently on either. The only thing I will say is that the physical construction of the Macbook Pro impresses me, and the general styling of most of their computers is nice.

So, perhaps rightly so (or not), they are more costly.

My $0.02

[witeshark17]

The biggest problem with OS X is its speed. Its the slowest most bloated OS I have ever used. Wish there was an option to switch off stuff and just run skinny. Coming from what? A pocket calculator?


Also you cannot cut and paste in Finder. If you want to move a file up a directory, you have to drag it out to the desktop, move up a level in finder, and drag it back. WTH, Apple? Why not open a second Finder window (Apple N) at the higher level and drag directly to that? You can even do that using Expose.

[aysiu]

Why not open a second Finder window (Apple N) at the higher level and drag directly to that? You can even do that using Expose. That's a good workaround.

Is there a special keyboard shortcut to open a window at the next highest level? Or do you just do Cmd-N and then navigate to that directory manually?

[Dr. C]

The biggest negative about OS X is the licensing. One cannot just purchase a license and run it in a virtual machine on top of Ubuntu like one can do with Microsoft Windows. No! One has to purchase a whole new computer system one does not need just to run this OS. Not only is this a completely unnecessary expense but there is also the environmental aspect of having to purchase hardware one does not need.

[witeshark17]

That's a good workaround.

Is there a special keyboard shortcut to open a window at the next highest level? Or do you just do Cmd-N and then navigate to that directory manually? Manually as you said, yup.

[Dharmachakra]

I recently purchased my first MacBook, and while I had used OS X previously, I did not think I would be this impressed with it. My biggest complaint is that I had to go explain to my sister that I felt the Apple tax was justified... after years of complaining about it.

[Shazzam6999]

I actually have no complaints about OS X and I love it on my Dell Mini, which I use to pick up girls in the library (I honestly wish I could say that I've ever used it for any other purpose besides a conversation starter). Most of my problems with OS X actually stem from the fact that I just really dislike Apple as a company ie... you get the point.

Oh God I hate to bring up this cliche... but the lack of decent games and I know there's Steam now... but just look at the featured Mac games compared to Windows games.

Overall though I can't say anything bad about OS X since all my complains are related to external elements.

[chris200x9]

biggest pet peeve, why do you need to "know" the partition type to delete it? It annoyed me to no end back when I had a mac that I had to boot from a liveCD delete my linux partition and then resize my mac partition from within mac os x. I mean I've deleted an ext4 partition with a linux kernel with NO ext4 support.

[2cute4u]

What makes me laugh about these sorts of threads is that some people seem to take it so personally that another person can have an opinion on something. We're dealing with computers and OS's here, not someone's mother.

If my opinion is that OSX is slow and bloated, for me its slow and bloated. Deal with it, and grow up.

Slow and bloated is a relative term. What's slow and bloated, on a 400 MHZ G4 with 256 MB or RAM, might not even be noticable, on a 3 GHZ core2 duo with 4 GB of RAM.

[NightwishFan]

I prefer my software to be conservative in terms of resource usage. Mac Os X seemed to be quite snappy, however I am willing to bet that is some sort of adaptive readahead.

[zekopeko]

I prefer my software to be conservative in terms of resource usage. Mac Os X seemed to be quite snappy, however I am willing to bet that is some sort of adaptive readahead.

They are constantly improving their software. Snow Leopard has per-file compression so that makes apps start faster since the bottleneck in any modern system is the HDD. They also like to re-write their apps from time to time which usually brings speed improvements.

I found OSX app-wise to be quite speedy compared both to Windows and Linux.

[Sand & Mercury]

Coming from what? A pocket calculator?

Why not open a second Finder window (Apple N) at the higher level and drag directly to that? You can even do that using Expose.
Yes, that's fine and you do get used to it, but still my point stands. It's completely nuts to have no cut and paste function -- an entry-level computing practice -- in one of the OS' fundamental programs, where it is present everywhere else.

Which reminds me of another thing that bothers me about OS X - the community attitude at large seems to have a very snobby viewpoint of things like this. I once asked very innocently, "Where is the folder merge function?", and the major response was basically "There is none because that isn't the 'Mac way' (whatever that is). Deal with it".

Now that I've said all of that, I feel like pulling out my Snow Leopard DVD and trying to get this computer hackintoshing it up. I think I need professional help.

[Dixon Bainbridge]

Yes, that's fine and you do get used to it, but still my point stands. It's completely nuts to have no cut and paste function -- an entry-level computing practice -- in one of the OS' fundamental programs, where it is present everywhere else.

Which reminds me of another thing that bothers me about OS X - the community attitude at large seems to have a very snobby viewpoint of things like this. I once asked very innocently, "Where is the folder merge function?", and the major response was basically "There is none because that isn't the 'Mac way' (whatever that is). Deal with it".

Now that I've said all of that, I feel like pulling out my Snow Leopard DVD and trying to get this computer hackintoshing it up. I think I need professional help.

Finder is a waste of space. I use Pathfinder, which is basically what Finder should be if Apple had spent less time high-fiving each other about how great they are more time on actually developing something that people can use.

[2cute4u]

Finder is a waste of space. I use Pathfinder, which is basically what Finder should be if Apple had spent less time high-fiving each other about how great they are more time on actually developing something that people can use.

I think Pathfinder is the best file manager on either platform. I wish that there was something like it for linux. Of course I would be happy enough if Nautilus would adopt the filter bar and drop box features.

[3rdalbum]

Why not open a second Finder window (Apple N) at the higher level and drag directly to that? You can even do that using Expose.

Apple holds a patent on spring-loaded folders, just use them. Drag the file to the hard disk icon, press Space while still holding down the mouse button, and navigate the file system in this manner.

[3rdalbum]

"Imma not gonna complain about/bash <insert whatever>, but Imma complaining about/bashing it"

Who is Imma?

[samalex]

I've always liked Apple and OSX, but honestly I'm not liking the direction it's going with Jobs saying what's best for the industry. It's like he's built up this dominant product line with iPhones, iPods, AppleTV, iPad, etc and now that he has the industry by the you know whats he's using it as a chance to arbitrarily set standards for whatever reason.

I applauded Apple hugely when they moved to a Unix-style OS with OSX, and I still think Apple makes VERY solid operating system and computer. I just wish they would be more open in their decisions and not come across like the school yard bully. Jobs was and will always be a dictator, and though it's gotten the company far I think with society becoming more aware of open source software and the freedom that comes with it, there'll be a huge backlash at some point. Android and hopefully GoogleTV are already proving that consumers want something more open...

Sam

[aysiu]

Apple holds a patent on spring-loaded folders, just use them. Drag the file to the hard disk icon, press Space while still holding down the mouse button, and navigate the file system in this manner.
Not very convenient if you're already several folders deep and just want to move a file up one folder from where it is.

Also not very convenient if you're using keyboard shortcuts. Cmd-C works fine to copy. Why shouldn't Cmd-X work fine to cut?

[swoll1980]

In before "One button mouse! What were they thinking?!

[aysiu]

In before "One button mouse! What were they thinking?!
Actually, I am loving the multi-touch on my wife's old Macbook Pro (which is currently under repair, which I'll probably blog about once the saga is done), and it's even better on her new one (with the four-finger swipe to show the desktop).

[sydbat]

Point taken. I see this going downhill by page 5.


any bets? anyone?Since it is the end of "page 5" (if you only have 10 posts per page set as your view), and the discussion is still relatively stable...


Who is Imma?Steve Jobs mother...

[schauerlich]

Not very convenient if you're already several folders deep and just want to move a file up one folder from where it is.

Also not very convenient if you're using keyboard shortcuts. Cmd-C works fine to copy. Why shouldn't Cmd-X work fine to cut?

1) Hit Cut on your final report
2) switch to another window
3) Accidentally hit Copy instead of Paste
4) ???
5) Hope your Time Machine backup is recent

[aysiu]

1) Hit Cut on your final report
2) switch to another window
3) Accidentally hit Copy instead of Paste
4) ???
5) Hope your Time Machine backup is recent
I don't get it.

[schauerlich]

I don't get it.

When you hit cut, and then hit copy before you paste it somewhere else, you run the risk of deleting the file accidentally.

[2cute4u]

1) Hit Cut on your final report
2) switch to another window
3) Accidentally hit Copy instead of Paste
4) ???
5) Hope your Time Machine backup is recent

4) It's moved to the trash
5) Open the trash folder and move it out

[aysiu]

When you hit cut, and then hit copy before you paste it somewhere else, you run the risk of deleting the file accidentally.
That's just bad design, then.

In both Windows and Gnome, if you cut a file, copy simply does not appear as a context menu item unless you are selecting a different file, in which case the cut files are not longer cut. The only option you have is to paste.

If you are moving the file on the same drive, it shouldn't really actually cut and paste the file, anyway. It's just a matter of keeping the file and changing the index of what location it's in. That's why--when you move a large file to another place on the same drive--you don't see it taking a few minutes to move. It moves instantaneously.

For moving from one drive or partition to another, if you're really worried about data loss, it could just appear to cut and paste and really just copy and then delete the original once the paste has successfully completed (all transparent to the user, of course).