10.4 Tiger Feature Request

Virtual desktops are jointly taken care of by Expose and Fast User Switching. I personally have a problem with multiple desktops; I think it breaks the continuity of your workflow and is confusing in general.

The only Expose change I want is for there to be optional sound effects; a la a 'whoooosh!' when you hit F9 and all the windows glide across the screen.

One other UI improvement I want is for there to be a choice to have a system-wide 'professional' theme, like those used in Final Cut/Soundtrack, or the new one used in Motion. Graphite just depresses me.

iChat being compatible with irc and jabber. Finder still feels sluggish at times (most of the times). Improvement in windows networking. Something has to be done to improve the dock performance. Anyhow OS X is still the best OS out there.

Have you used a virtual desktop before. I have in BeOS and I can tell you Fast User Switching is not going to suffice. It's too slow. With a VD you need something that's available immediately, no passwords required.


I'd love to see OSX 10.4 have a framework setup up for multimedia. Making it easy for a developer to add HTPC features.

I'd like to see a DVD player that is optimized for computer screen viewing and NTSC.

I'd like to see the fabled support for Linux apps. That would be a killler feature for the Enterprise to be able to prepare linux code for running on OSX.

I'd like to finally see a working implementation of OpenGL 2.0 and support for a high end card(Quadro or 3Dlabs)

'professional' theme

improved network performance

ftp in the finder that really works, then sftp in the finder

The only thing I can think of is profiles. It's like network Locations, but much more advanced. It's kind of like virtual desktops or multiple users, but different.

I want to be able to set up profiles that can include preferences for all applications and System Prefs. I don't want Mail checking for email every minute when I'm connected via GPRS. I can change the location, but that doesn't have any impact on Mail. I also use my laptop as my alarm clock in conjunction with MP3 Alarm Clock, so when I set my profile to Night, it sets the display to turn off after one minute, set's the volume to maximum, and changes iChat's status to away.

Basically, what I want is for OSX to support dynamic shifting of multiple preference files based on my choices. If that doesn't make any sense I can try and explain it better.

iChat with tabs would make my life so much easier.

HOM, do you mean something similar to profiles on a cell phone? If so i'd have to second that as a useful addition.

More like OS9's Locations then... there were modules that would interact with various system settings or application preferences and change them based on the Location you selected. Been waiting for that in OS X...

I'd buy that for $129.

Yes, but I don't want a set of defined options that can changed like my T616.


I loved the Locations system in Mac OS 9, but if I remember correctly there were some limitations that frustrated me. I can't remember them now because it's been so long since I've used Mac OS 9. Of all the features from Mac OS 9 that I wanted to see make the migration this was it.

I would like manual fan control for my G5. You know, set the temp trigger points lower so it doesn't get too warm in there. Some of us are not bothered by a little noise. Also a fan Rev test could be cool that displays all the fans and their RPM's.

Eye candy 8)

I would like Image capture to support Canon RAW format. Even if it is a Canon proprietary format, it doesn't have to read/build thumbnails, just copy the files without crashing.

The new UPS option in energy saver is good, but my G5 always says "[ ] (unknown)" in the top menu, even after calibrating it. (completely charge/discharge) I would like it to say a estimated battery time is power should happen to fail.

I've had audio problems with iTunes, Quicktime, Unreal tournament 2004, and Audio Hijack. If one of these programs Pans audio (from left speaker to right speaker) sometimes the audio will not reset to it's normal values if you try to undo what you did. The opening animation to UT2K4 always causes a problem. When the Spider jumps up and explodes, it sends the character off the right side of the screen and the audio pans to the right, jumps entirely to the left speaker for a few seconds, and returns to center. Volume has also had problems but not to the same extent. Unreal tournament may have a bug, but the fact that it also happens in apple products leads me to believe it is a bigger problem and the common link is CoreAudio.

That reminds me, can we have system-wide EQ's pretty please?

I would like to see compressor support more video/audio codecs. Perhaps use quicktime (or plugins) to add AVI, OGG, and a bunch of others. All codecs in one easy-to-use interface that integrates into FCP , DVDSP, and all the other apps that use compressor.

And finally if it is possible, a option to reinstall only the core OS software along with the "install and archive" and "restore" options. I would like to keep all my preferences and plugins, without restoring them one by one from the archive.

Oh, there is one more feature I would like to see make it to 10.4. I want the envelope menu from the Newton to migrate to OSX. Get rid of that stupid tool bar button on the far right of the title bar and make it the envelope. Included in the menu would be:
Mail
AIM
Fax
Print
PDF
Bluetooth (Where available)
IR (Where available)

Edit: by this point in my life you'd think I knew the difference between left and right. \

Routing menu. And yes, that'd be slick. I think we'll see things like pop up more often with Services, with a retooling of that concept.

Yep. The OS 9 Location Manager was quite ahead of its time, and I really miss it.

I like that.

I guess this is one of the most sought after features in OS X - and will be for a long time. Since Apple once had something similar, I don't quite understand why they dropped it and why there is no third party developer to change this situation.

Another feature I'd like to see is some kind of admin tool that lets you (in SU-mode) set-up exactly what programms another user should be able to use (already done form what I could see) and that lets you edit the programmes' and system's preferences.

The best way to do this is to have a "preferences framework" - not the messy MS registry approch but maybe all pref files put in one location with a nice GUI. This would also benefit HOM's "advanced locations" idea.

picking up on a tangent with Kickaha's post, I'd like to see robust new services available to all apps. Right now services are mostly text-driven and they're kind of tucked away. Text can be copied and stored to the pasteboard in many formats at the same time -- for text. I'd like the pasteboard to be able to do this sort of thing with other media so drag-n-drop and copy-paste operations were truly pervasive and allowed even more inter-application communication. In general I think services are an untapped opportunity that have languished since the OpenStep days, and I htink there could be a huge upside to this concept.

A central preference to turn on/off the spatial finder.

Further work on the text system would be cool as well... things like support for footnotes/endnotes and headers/footers would be nice, as well as support for more file formats (OOo/Staroffice and Clarisworks would be at the top of the list). Support for slightly more impressive graphics embedding in text documents would be nice too: proper support for text wrapping would be a good start.

OpenGL 2 would be nice

Themes
Speach/Voice
Better Finder
New Dock architecture/system
Combine the strengths of iChat AV and Adium X
Increased resolution in-dependancy, with new high dpi monitors.
Better Disk burning capabilities in Finder
iTunes 5
Fully integrated Linux application support
G5 optimized
Bigger iDisk with more .Mac integration/features
Virtual Desktops
Open GL 2.0
Quicker animations, more Genie-like effects that can be controlled individually
a LOT more options in system preferences. Also could contain links to utilities programs like Disk utilities and Airport admin, making the System prefs the place to go when you want to monitor/tweak your system.(Centralized system level control)

Better speech recognition
Home on iPod

well in a perfect world-
i mean OS sorry my world is my OS everything would be fully customizable but some more "themes" for the 10.4 Merlot NOT TIGER! like Microsoft put in XP would be nice as well as at least a fully customizable dock, sidebar and the top bar that always there(i forget the name right now) needs to go sometime soon but we will see that in 10.4.

All i can think of

PS

A couple things:

-A real location manager would be cool, but I think it needs a better name.

-Open up Menu extras to other developers and have some way to collapse them into a single icon or tab (a la control strip).

-Pay more attention to the Finder's behavior. Like if you eject a disk in column view, it doesn't go back to your default folder, it goes to the computer level, showing hard drives and the network in two places in the same window (the sidebar and the first column).

-Differentiate the browser view and spacial views so their settings are consistent and predictable (it's never too late to fix this).

-Make sure Save and Open dialogs appear the same as they do in the Finder, i.e. same Sidebar settings, toolbar settings, search box, and icon view.

-The Dock needs to either get a lot smarter or needs to be opened up to customization.

-Virtual desktops. Not necessarily desktops per se but window sets. This seems trivial to do, the only tough part is sending windows to certain sets etc. I haven't seen anyone do this in an intuitive way (not those little pushpins on the titlebar).

I want the Key Caps program back, such a pain to use the input menu (and disable it since it is useless for anything else).

Finder ftp, god, it's been too long and we still can't upload. Also ability to remove the dumb warning message when you directly open files from finder ftp.

Make an alias to /System/Library/Components/KeyboardViewer.component/Contents/SharedSupport/KeyboardViewerServer.app and put it anywhere you want. Done.

niiiiiice.. thanks! retro, AND useful..

The ability to sort files by kind or date modified/created in column view.

Being able to mouse-over a window in exposé and cmd-w closing after which exposé remains in state.

Gestures ipodandimac for window control like resizing might be cool. Gestures look really slick, haven't used them though since I don't have a Graphire.

For limited Gesture support, check out CocoaGestures ( http://www.bitart.com/CocoaGestures.html ), which enables mouse gesturing in any Cocoa programs. Mostly use it in Safari myself.

And thanks Kickaha, for the Key Caps trick

Some Finder bits and pieces:

A better Finder window-memory. Right now, too often I have to change the window view from column to 'regular' view (when cmd-clicking a folder), because my root view is in column. You always have to make the window larger too each time. The views sometimes change (larger or smaller icons). Icons sometimes change appearance.

Column view should have the option to dynamically adapt the width of the columns to the longest filename in the folder (no more manual tweaking necessary).

The space between individual icons is often too wide. It can only be changed a bit by changing the icons' font-size. There should be a separate setting that allows you to only change the space between icons.

Why do we have to click on the desktop first before new files appear (i.e. when downloading) ?

Label colors: good to have them back, but we (?) need more and fainter or softer colors, and/or the ability to make custom colors with the Apple Color Picker. I use them a lot, but with the present color range it gives a heavy and overloaded impression in column view.

Folders who are in an opened state, should stay open, like they are when hovering over them when dragging a file.

Fonts should be visible directly in the finder (as in Windows), and without Fontbook.

* Fix the many Finder selecting/dragging 'quirks' that have never been fixed since the Classic to OS X transition. Someone at Apple should get a machine running OS 9 and another machine running OS X side by side and spend an hour simply clicking/dragging/renaming things in both Finders.

* Finder FTP fleshed out.

* Make the icons on the left side of the Finder windows act like real aliases.

* A way to defer items in Software Update. Sometimes updates appear there for apps that I don't use but require a restart. It would be nice to be able to click on a button to stop nagging you, but still check everyday for other updates like security patches.

This is already there. Go to 'Update > Ignore Update'.

Siracusa explains this in his excellent review of Panther.

Cool. Thanks.

Opt-click on the Finder icon in the Dock.

So.... you want to be able to use Photoshop, but have all other windows off-screen... kind of, what's that word... oh yeah, *hidden*.

Hmm. Hidden... Hide... Hide Others... Cmd-Opt-H.



What you really want is a way to switch to another app and hide all others from a single keystroke. Cmd-opt-tab would be a nice way of doing that, or if System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts would access the Scripts Menu, you could write a simple Applescript to do the two steps and assign a keystroke to it.

more "skins" so that all the iLife apps and the finder and Safari will all have the same type of look like they have "Brushed Metal" now.

Ok, one more thing popped into my head.

I would love for applications to have access to a Finder window outside of the Open/Save dialogues. Here's my for instance:

Safari has a download window. I have a download folder. Why can't Safari just use the download folder as the download manager? I would love to be able to drag items out of Safari into folders in the dock without having to go to the Finder. This would be ever more useful with the new internet disk image format where the .dmg file gets erased after it's mounted. I'm left with an application icon so I would like to drag the icon directly out of the Safari window into my Application folder that resides in the dock.

Ok, I know that is more of a Safari request than an OSX request, but it bugs me none the less.

A few other random ramblings:
I want to be able to sort by multiple criteria in List view. So I can sort by date modified an by size or by kind and date created. You get the idea.

I would love to create folder actions like I create rules in Mail.crap and not have to write an Apple Script.

I want the Internet System Pref to return.

I want to be able to close minimized windows in the dock.