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10 Things I hate about OS X

post #1 of 78
6/21/06 at 5:03pm
Thread Starter 
I've read a couple of Letterman-top-ten-like articles listing things that people hate about OS X.
http://www.informit.com/articles/art...&seqNum=1&rl=1
www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=6183

These articles sometimes list "flaws" which are wholly based on personal preferences or the author complains about a "missing" functionally which is not actually missing but they are not aware of (see this for a perfect example
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...hreadid=64140.

What do you hate about OS X?

I really don't "hate" anything about OS X ("best operating system ever"), but here are two things I dislike:

1. Finder view: when you change view to list, column, or icon in one location the preference does not carry over to other folders (ie, choose list view in the desktop and the documents folder does not change to list view). I have dozens of folders and the view for each one is different. Is there any way to make the finder stick to one option across all folders once you change it (so that if I choose Icon view on the desktop all other folders will also be displayed in Icon view)?

2. 10.4.6 and the spinning beach ball: I didn't think it was possible, but since updating to 10.4.6 the beach ball has gotten more annoying (Powerbook 1.67ghz). Sometimes the beachball stops spinning and freezes (maybe the beachball needs its own beachball with this update). Lovely. Can't wait to get that MacBook in October.

Also, sometimes the menus for two different applications are displayed at the same time on the menu bar (this never happened before this update).
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post #2 of 78
6/21/06 at 5:35pm
I hate the following things about OS X:

1) Lable don't shade folders like they use to in classic.
2) I find the dock useless. I wish Apple (or some 3rd party developer) would add a feature similar to taskmenubar. I'd much prefer switching (or switching-hiding) between apps using one hand and one or two clicks of the mouse.
3) I wish there was a way for OS X to tell you when someone has entered your computer via one of its ports (or by some other network connection).
4) I also wish you could see and examine what your computer was sending out via a modem or other network connection.

I have a few other things I wish were different but these are the ones that annoy me the most.

- Mark

- Mark

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/index.html
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- Mark

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/index.html
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post #3 of 78
6/21/06 at 6:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by sc_markt
I hate the following things about OS X:

4) I also wish you could see and examine what your computer was sending out via a modem or other network connection.

I have a few other things I wish were different but these are the ones that annoy me the most.

- Mark

Try Little Snitch. Some people swear by it.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17642
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post #4 of 78
6/21/06 at 6:59pm
OS X is by no means perfect, but I can think of over 100,000 reasons I hate Windows and they all fall under one category.
Tsunami Steve
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Tsunami Steve
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post #5 of 78
6/21/06 at 8:27pm
I hate the Dock.

Mac mini 2.53 GHz, 4 GB, NVidia's 9400M.
13" MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz, 8 GB, NVidia's 320M.
OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8

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Mac mini 2.53 GHz, 4 GB, NVidia's 9400M.
13" MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz, 8 GB, NVidia's 320M.
OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8

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post #6 of 78
6/21/06 at 8:33pm
The Finder. It's general slowness. The perceived slowness and the little animations that are supposed to entertain me while there's a process in the background that is being executed.

The Finder. The slow file navigation. The piss-poor USB driver. The piss-piss-poor FireWire support. The fact that I can't turn off the so-called eye candy.

The Finder. Did I mention the Finder?
'L'enfer, c'est les autres' - JPS
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'L'enfer, c'est les autres' - JPS
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post #7 of 78
6/21/06 at 9:57pm
I hate the Apple Menu. Please give me a coustomizable native hierarchical menu folder in the OS, without haxies!

I wish folders in the Dock acted like OS9 popup folders.
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post #8 of 78
6/21/06 at 10:01pm
Not being able to boot from USB drives.
What is Faith? When your good deed pleases you and your evil deed grieves you, you are a believer. What is Sin? When a thing disturbs the peace of your heart, give it up - Prophet Muhammad
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What is Faith? When your good deed pleases you and your evil deed grieves you, you are a believer. What is Sin? When a thing disturbs the peace of your heart, give it up - Prophet Muhammad
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post #9 of 78
6/21/06 at 10:17pm
Quote:
Originally posted by sc_markt
I hate the following things about OS X:

1) Lable don't shade folders like they use to in classic.


- Mark

this little doo-dad adds said functionality:

http://bronsonbeta.com/heyfolders/
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post #10 of 78
6/22/06 at 3:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by ipodandimac
OS X is by no means perfect, but I can think of over 100,000 reasons I hate Windows and they all fall under one category.

Me too. OS X has some minor things I dislike, but I would NEVER go back to Windows XP. Never.
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post #11 of 78
6/22/06 at 9:27am
I mentioned this in another thread:

One small thing that annoys me about OS X is the Aqua task bar. The way it animates looks really pretty but its tricky too. Sometimes - just as an optical illusion - when it is actually standing still, it looks like its slowly moving forward.

A few times I've held my cursor there for a minute to see if it had moved.
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post #12 of 78
6/22/06 at 9:39am
Quote:
Originally posted by Danosaur
One small thing that annoys me about OS X is the Aqua task bar. The way it animates looks really pretty but its tricky too. Sometimes - just as an optical illusion - when it is actually standing still, it looks like its slowly moving forward.

The what?

The Dock doesn't animate. The menu bar doesn't any made. Scroll bars don't animate.

I can only assume that you mean progress bars, but that doesn't seem to make sense?
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post #13 of 78
6/22/06 at 9:51am
Quote:
Originally posted by Danosaur
I mentioned this in another thread:

One small thing that annoys me about OS X is the Aqua task bar. The way it animates looks really pretty but its tricky too. Sometimes - just as an optical illusion - when it is actually standing still, it looks like its slowly moving forward.

A few times I've held my cursor there for a minute to see if it had moved.

What's a task bar?
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post #14 of 78
6/22/06 at 9:53am
I do have one "peeve".

Example: You have two apps open side by side...say, Safari and iPhoto. To navigate a link on the web you single click. In iPhoto, to change from one album to another, you single click. Now you have both apps open side by side. But if you are on iPhoto (active app) and you click a link in Safari (inactive app), the click doesn't navigate to the link, it makes Safari the active app. You then have to click a second time to navigate the link.....and vice versa. From my (very limited) experience with the Mac, this seems consistent with all the apps. You have to click once to make an open app active, then a second click to do what you wanted to do.

-DJ
"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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post #15 of 78
6/22/06 at 9:55am
Quote:
Originally posted by dac0nvu
I do have one "peeve".

Example: You have two apps open side by side...say, Safari and iPhoto. To navigate a link on the web you single click. In iPhoto, to change from one album to another, you single click. Now you have both apps open side by side. But if you are on iPhoto (active app) and you click a link in Safari (inactive app), the click doesn't navigate to the link, it makes Safari the active app. You then have to click a second time to navigate the link.....and vice versa. From my (very limited) experience with the Mac, this seems consistent with all the apps. You have to click once to make an open app active, then a second click to do what you wanted to do.

-DJ

The behaviour you want is called click-through. John Gruber wrote about it extensively not once, but twice.
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post #16 of 78
6/22/06 at 10:20am
And in most cases, such as with Safari open behind an active Finder window, you can CMD-click or right click and select from contextual menu and links will open in New Tabs in Safari without making it the foreground app. Works fine.

So a variant of click-through does work. Just not with single or left click.
"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them" -Isaac Asimov
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"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them" -Isaac Asimov
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post #17 of 78
6/22/06 at 10:39am
Thanks for the articles and suggestions. Can't say I agree with the articles, but it does explain things.
"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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post #18 of 78
6/22/06 at 10:52am
Quote:
Originally posted by dac0nvu
Thanks for the articles and suggestions. Can't say I agree with the articles, but it does explain things.

What if you accidently clicked on a "blow computer up" button within an inactive window? Would you agree with the article then?

I think the thing that makes me cry the most is the window elements (edit: used the word widget earlier but to remove any confusion, I'm gonna use 'window elements') that do allow click-throughs...such as the close button...and the apps that don't at least warn you that there are tabs or partially filled forms (yes, I'm looking at you, Safari).

Perhaps a balanced solution would be the ability for developers to tag elements inside windows as 'destructive' and 'non-destructive'...and the 'destructive' elements would not allow click-throughs. That would be pretty sweet but it's not ever gonna happen in the next 4 years. But if it does, I'll give you all 5000 bucks. Sweet deal, eh?
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post #19 of 78
6/22/06 at 11:18am
Quote:
Originally posted by kim kap sol
What if you accidently clicked on a "blow computer up" button within an inactive window? Would you agree with the article then?

Um, no.

Because, being *used* to click-through, I know that what I click on will work. I'm not talking about willy-nilly thowing the mouse around and clicking, I'm talking about heading for a background widget/control/whatever and clicking on it. My meaning was, (coming from all my life as a PC user and finally making the switch to a Mac), that I find it a little frustrating not having this "feature"...frustrating, just like it seems to longtime Mac users when they click on a background app and it actually *does* click-through.

Whether it's due to inconsistent behaviour in an OS or totally switching from one OS to another, the frustration comes from things not working as you expected. I'm all for having click-through as a configurable option.

I *love* my brand new, first Mac. And I'm surely not about to go back to a PC just because of a little thing (aka, "peeve") like click-though.
"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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post #20 of 78
6/22/06 at 11:40am
Quote:
Originally posted by Chucker
The what?

The Dock doesn't animate. The menu bar doesn't any made. Scroll bars don't animate.


He probably means the magnifications of icons and/or the bouncing of icons when launched or when they want the users attention.
'L'enfer, c'est les autres' - JPS
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'L'enfer, c'est les autres' - JPS
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post #21 of 78
6/22/06 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Gene Clean
He probably means the magnifications of icons and/or the bouncing of icons when launched or when they want the users attention.

Oh.

But then, how does:
Quote:
Sometimes - just as an optical illusion - when it is actually standing still, it looks like its slowly moving forward.

Fit in?
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post #22 of 78
6/22/06 at 1:27pm
1. You can't move or rename files in Save dialogue boxes.
2. Dragging a file into a Save or Open dialogue box to move the view to that folder works inconsistently.
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post #23 of 78
6/22/06 at 1:57pm
Thread Starter 
Here's another one:

The computer goes to sleep or logs out when ever I'm doing something which takes a long time, thereby interrupting what I'm doing. Examples: downloading large files or rendering Final Cut Pro projects (I usually leave the computer for awhile and come back). This happens even though I've turned off the screesaver, set the "put computer to sleep" and "put screen to sleep" to never. Is pressing the keyboard keys the only way the OS knows that the computer is being used? I know that there are always processes running even when nothing is being done by a user, but why can't the OS tell that you are rendering or downloading so that the the computer is not shut down or put to sleep after long periods without keystrokes?

Don't know if this something peculiar to my machine or if this is an OS X thing, but I don't remember this happening with XP.
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post #24 of 78
6/22/06 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Chucker
Oh.

But then, how does:


Fit in?

Don't know - he probably has an optical illusion himself
'L'enfer, c'est les autres' - JPS
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'L'enfer, c'est les autres' - JPS
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post #25 of 78
6/22/06 at 3:37pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Neruda
Here's another one:

The computer goes to sleep or logs out when ever I'm doing something which takes a long time, thereby interrupting what I'm doing. Examples: downloading large files or rendering Final Cut Pro projects (I usually leave the computer for awhile and come back). This happens even though I've turned off the screesaver, set the "put computer to sleep" and "put screen to sleep" to never. Is pressing the keyboard keys the only way the OS knows that the computer is being used? I know that there are always processes running even when nothing is being done by a user, but why can't the OS tell that you are rendering or downloading so that the the computer is not shut down or put to sleep after long periods without keystrokes?

Don't know if this something peculiar to my machine or if this is an OS X thing, but I don't remember this happening with XP.

I believe this is particular to your computer, my powerbook stays on just fine. You could always try having itunes play songs mute in the background, that should keep it going.
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post #26 of 78
6/22/06 at 3:37pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Neruda
Here's another one:

The computer goes to sleep or logs out when ever I'm doing something which takes a long time, thereby interrupting what I'm doing. Examples: downloading large files or rendering Final Cut Pro projects (I usually leave the computer for awhile and come back). This happens even though I've turned off the screesaver, set the "put computer to sleep" and "put screen to sleep" to never. Is pressing the keyboard keys the only way the OS knows that the computer is being used?

Is this on battery?

On AC power, the computer shouldn't go to sleep if you have "put computer to sleep" turned off, regardless. I can leave my computer running overnight even when it's doing absolutely nothing.

Quote:
I know that there are always processes running even when nothing is being done by a user, but why can't the OS tell that you are rendering or downloading so that the the computer is not shut down or put to sleep after long periods without keystrokes?

The application needs to modify the system that what it's doing is significant enough to keep the computer from sleeping.
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post #27 of 78
6/22/06 at 6:00pm
My computers have never done that before after I set everything to "never". I've left my iBook, MacBook, and eMac on all night and they still don't go to sleep or log out. Perhaps it's a machine error?
If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
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If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
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post #28 of 78
6/23/06 at 4:42am
Quote:
Originally posted by Chucker
The behaviour you want is called click-through. John Gruber wrote about it extensively not once, but twice.

It's stupid, requires more clicks to do the same thing. And confuses the hell out of people who don't fully understand window focus like my mom's friend that I'm teaching.
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post #29 of 78
6/23/06 at 4:47am
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
It's stupid, requires more clicks to do the same thing. And confuses the hell out of people who don't fully understand window focus like my mom's friend that I'm teaching.

And prevents data loss.
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post #30 of 78
6/23/06 at 5:50am
Quote:
Originally posted by Danosaur
I mentioned this in another thread:

One small thing that annoys me about OS X is the Aqua task bar. The way it animates looks really pretty but its tricky too. Sometimes - just as an optical illusion - when it is actually standing still, it looks like its slowly moving forward.

A few times I've held my cursor there for a minute to see if it had moved.

I'm sorry I meant progress bar.

It animates and it can sometimes look as though it is crawling along slowly when in fact it is frozen.
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post #31 of 78
6/23/06 at 6:36am
Quote:
Originally posted by Chucker
And prevents data loss.

How's that? You can still close windows that are in the background, how is this not inconsistent?
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post #32 of 78
6/23/06 at 6:39am
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
How's that? You can still close windows that are in the background, how is this not inconsistent?

If Mail.app let you push the delete toolbar button while the mailbox window is not frontmost, you could accidentally click it.

So, at the very least, destructive actions should never allow click-through.
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post #33 of 78
6/23/06 at 6:45am
But it would occur if the window was at the front and you accidentally clicked it.
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post #34 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:00am
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
But it would occur if the window was at the front and you accidentally clicked it.

Of course, but I'm talking strictly of cases where the control in question (which allows click-through) is not immediately obvious, e.g. not entirely visible.

For example, assume a toolbar button is 90% covered by another window, which is frontmost. In that window, there's a control near the left edge that you want to click. Since you frequently need to click it, you don't really think much about whether you're hitting it right: you almost always do. But this time, you accidentally hit 10 pixels to the left. No problem, you think, and click the control again.

It's not until much later that you discover, if at all, that when you missed the first time, you actually invoked another function (that of the nearly entirely hidden toolbar button) which oh, I dunno, let's say it cleared your browser history. Perhaps you don't realize at all that this was your doing, but even if you do, it won't help you any.
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post #35 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:09am
If such simple actions have such severe causes, there's something wrong. Therefore the problem is not in the lack of click-through, but in the developers of the application failing at usability, and not providing an Are You Sure? dialogue box?
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post #36 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:17am
Quote:
Originally posted by Chucker
Since you frequently need to click it, you don't really think much about whether you're hitting it right: you almost always do.

Ah, but that's one of the things I was talking about. It matters what you're used to. I *do* think about where my cursor is when I click because of the exact situation you talk about.

Quote:
It's not until much later that you discover, if at all, that when you missed the first time, you actually invoked another function...

Sorry, maybe I don't fully understand your scenario. But when you clicked the first time, didn't the backgroud app jump to the front? You wouldn't notice that?
"Gawd, even white trash feel sorry for me."
"That's true, that's very very true."
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"That's true, that's very very true."
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post #37 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:20am
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
... and not providing an Are You Sure? dialogue box?

Do you like Are You Sure? dialog boxes? They drive me up the wall. I would bet dollars to donuts that they encourage the very bad habit of blindly clicking until the job is done without bothering to actually take note of what is happening at the moment.
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post #38 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:44am
Personally, I love click-through, because it decreases the amount of aim I have to command to bring a window to the front. But I'm just saying, there are tons of aspects of the operating system, all operating systems, that have been along for god knows how long for no particularly definite reason that we take for granted. Sometimes it's worthwhile thinking about why things are how they are, because sometimes they shouldn't be that way. Why are applications in your applications folder double-click and the ones in your applications folder single-click? Why do contextual menus close when you click? Why do buttons activate upon letting your mouse up, not clicking down?
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post #39 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by Chucker
Is this on battery?

Haven't paid attention if this has hapenned on AC, but it definitely has happned on battery power, but not because the battery power ran out. The last time it happened there was still 60% power when I came back to the machine. There was a dialogue box which said something to the effect "Application has prevented log out", but I didn't tell the machine to log me out when I left it running.

Two more UI gripes. I work in a Mac computer lab and most of the kids have Windows XP at home and these are two common complaints that I hear from OS X noobs: 1) When hou tell them to click on the Apple Menu, they have no idea what the apple menu is. How is someone completely new to OS X supposed to know that the little Apple is actually a menu? The Start menu is pretty self-explanaatory and obvious in that respect.

2) the application icons (close, maximize, ect) are too small. This doesn't bother me, but I keep hearing it over and over.

And my personal pet-peeve: Speed. Maybe it is just me, but XP seems generally faster to me (the UI and tasks such as burning/encoding DVDs, ect). The new Intel MacBooks iMacs we've purchased for the lab are incredibly faster, but the OS (as mentioned hear before, particularly the Finder) is still not as fast as it could be.

Can we expect an exponential improvement in speed with Leopard, or just the usual incremental speed increases that we've seen from 10.2> 10.3 > 10.4?
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post #40 of 78
6/23/06 at 7:53am
Quote:
Originally posted by Placebo
If such simple actions have such severe causes, there's something wrong. Therefore the problem is not in the lack of click-through, but in the developers of the application failing at usability

And click-through isn't about usability?

Quote:
and not providing an Are You Sure? dialogue box?

"Are you sure?" Oh, you mean that terrible Microsoft-introduced idea pissing people off and causing the precise opposite of its intention? Namely, that people get so used to seeing "are you sure?" alerts everywhere that they start ignoring what they actually refer to, effectively making the destructive action more (not less!) likely to be performed accidentally?

Sounds like a brilliant replacement, yes.
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