HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL: Things that I miss from Windows

[Hypernate]

Well, actually, there's only REALLY two things that I miss, but once I've had my mac for over a week, I'll get used to it lol!

1. The taskbar. Sure, I know the Dock is kinda like the taskbar, but it doesn't show ever window you have open, like the taskbar does. I mean, on MSN Messenger, I have a nasty habit of just clicking on a different window rather than minimising the chat box. So when the little MSN thing in the dock leaps out from under the screen (So cute with the hidden dock lol!), I click that, and ALL my MSN windows open. So I don't even know which window is active.

2. Full screen maximising. I feel cluttered, even with the high resolution 15inch LCD, I stil feel cluttered. I'm sure it's got to do with not having the application full screen, and having a Taskbar. I'm sure I'll get used to it though! Having said that about feeling cluttered, I do now feel cluttered everytime I use my Mum's Windows XP box. I think it's because it's on a 15inch CRT and M$ bloated the XP taskbar.

Please note: This post does not mean that I think the Apple products suck. Overall, I think that Mac OS is still (in my opinion) a better operating system

As I type this, I have found another thing that I miss.

3. Internet Explorer automatically scrolling down as I type past the bottom of the screen.

Ah well, c'est la vie, and anyway, I wouldn't trade my Mac for anything!

[buc99]

1. The taskbar. Sure, I know the Dock is kinda like the taskbar, but it doesn't show ever window you have open, like the taskbar does. I mean, on MSN Messenger, I have a nasty habit of just clicking on a different window rather than minimising the chat box. So when the little MSN thing in the dock leaps out from under the screen (So cute with the hidden dock lol!), I click that, and ALL my MSN windows open. So I don't even know which window is active.

This is an easy fix. See the little black triangles pointing at the open app icon in the dock? This tells you what apps are currently running. This is more of a visual representation than the word representation the Windows toolbar uses. You can very easily tab through your open apps to pull which ever app you want to the foreground.

2. Full screen maximising. I feel cluttered, even with the high resolution 15inch LCD, I stil feel cluttered. I'm sure it's got to do with not having the application full screen, and having a Taskbar. I'm sure I'll get used to it though! Having said that about feeling cluttered, I do now feel cluttered everytime I use my Mum's Windows XP box. I think it's because it's on a 15inch CRT and M$ bloated the XP taskbar.

First off, you can hide all the open apps you wish or minimze them to the toolbar. Then in the upper left hand corner of the foremost open window click the + button. This will maximize the open window to the maximum size required by the app. If this still not big enough, use the lower right hand corner to open the window as far as you wish. You can also hide the dock so that it does not interfere with that open window. This window will retain it's size if you minimize or hide it. It will revert to normal if the app is shutdown and restarted. (See answer to question 1 for scrolling through open apps.)

3. Internet Explorer automatically scrolling down as I type past the bottom of the screen.

Can't help you much here. This is a microsoft failure not a failure of the OS. However, you can use the arrows keys to move the page down farther. Granted, it's not automatic, but hey, your using the most advanced OS out there on one of the best built computers in the world. Sounds like a minimal price to pay. Also, there are a bunch of browsers out there that smoke internet explorer. Give them a try. You might find something you like more. I currently use Mozzila because I love the "tabbed web pages" feature.

Hope some of this helps.
I personally don't miss anything from my slow %^$ 1Ghz dell at work. I don't even use it most of the time. My Tibook smokes it and it runs UNIX, Mac, and Windbloze apps. Man I got the best of all three worlds.

Before I go off on a tangent here can I get an "Amen" from the crowd. Thank you Mr. Jobs, and especially all the hard working employees at Apple, fot the best darn OS in the world. Keep on trucking.

SA

[chenly]

Amen!

[nkuvu]

Amen!

Why do I feel like I've been recruited into a religion...?

[voice-]

MSN messenger don't cut it at all, and I really don't think MS is gonna update it unless they can make money in doing so.
I want a 3rd party app for MSN like Adium for AIM.
Adium offers tabs in the single-window mode, and it really cleans up the mess I used to have with AIM and multiple windows.
If MSN could have this as well, I'd be content.

[Valrus]

It is a religion.

We got a new iMac in the basement of our campus center. It was a spiritual experience to touch it. I had this cut on my arm and now it's gone. It was so beautiful.

Kidding.

Sort of.

-the valrus

[buc99]

Preach the truth brother

Amen.

[RacerX]

point made by Hypernate
2. Full screen maximising. I feel cluttered, even with the high resolution 15inch LCD, I stil feel cluttered. I'm sure it's got to do with not having the application full screen, and having a Taskbar. I'm sure I'll get used to it though! Having said that about feeling cluttered, I do now feel cluttered everytime I use my Mum's Windows XP box. I think it's because it's on a 15inch CRT and M$ bloated the XP taskbar.

It is funny that you bring that up. I have found that many Windows users want their applications to take over the screen. Which is something that Windows apps do generally. Mac apps are rootless (that is not rooted or nested in a single window) which lets you see the desktop and other non-hidden apps while working on your current app. As I sit here typing into TextEdit for this reply, I can see your post in OmniWeb and also see iTunes and Mail at the same time. When in Photoshop, I can see an open finder window which has all my current images in it, which means I can double click on any of them to open (without using the open command). Windows makes people very task oriented, in fact some users don't even know how to use their systems outside of certain apps because they never see the system running behind their maximized applications. Most Mac users multitask. All of my Mac clients require having a number of apps open at once, and being able to see other apps running in the background helps make them more productive.

Strangely enough I had almost the same reaction that you are having when I first used a Windows system. I started up Photoshop, and to my surprise a gray window completely covered the screen! I thought this was strange because I hadn't even started opening any images yet. So I change the size of the window so I could see the icons of my images on the desktop. Then again, I was surprised to find that all the image windows were trapped inside the primary window!

When I started to do IT work, one of the first things about life long Windows users I noticed was that they would make the file browser windows full screen (even for windows with only a few icons). This meant that they could not see any other directory other than the one they were looking at at that moment, thus drag and drop was something completely foreign to them.

Honestly, Windows was misnamed. The way most users use their systems it should really be call Full Screen.