Panther: Annoyances
Hi all,
This thread is for things that annoy you with Panther. Whether it's a new bug, performance issues vs. previous Mac OS X versions, etc.
I'll start:
I don't like how servers are handled in Panther. I can connect to my other Mac OS X Panther computer via Rendevous, and for some reason, I cannot disconnect from it, it seems. If the other computer gets shut off, the Finder hangs. Of course, I have only played with this new OS for a couple of days, but for non-technical people would be freaked out by the beach ball in the Finder. It turned my Ti867 really hot, both fans were buzzing hard to exhaust the heat, and I ended up doing a hard reboot and all was well.
I don't like how the System Preferences quit when you press the close window widget. I also dislike how System Preferences get pokey changing and selecting when other things are running in the background. They seem to reflect something going on in the background. I thought this wasn't supposed to be the case?
I'm really annoyed that I had to do a clean install to improve performance on my Quicksilver. Granted, I had never done a wipe and install since I received that computer in late January 2002, however, it runs really well now that I have done the clean install. It took me all day to get it close to the way I had it. I'm really worried about loosing files, and this just reinforces that I need to set up a backup program and schedule regular backups.
Lastly, the sidebar. I sometimes get confused with the sidebar and other applications, like iTunes. I guess I'm not used to it totally yet.
This thread is for things that annoy you with Panther. Whether it's a new bug, performance issues vs. previous Mac OS X versions, etc.
I'll start:
I don't like how servers are handled in Panther. I can connect to my other Mac OS X Panther computer via Rendevous, and for some reason, I cannot disconnect from it, it seems. If the other computer gets shut off, the Finder hangs. Of course, I have only played with this new OS for a couple of days, but for non-technical people would be freaked out by the beach ball in the Finder. It turned my Ti867 really hot, both fans were buzzing hard to exhaust the heat, and I ended up doing a hard reboot and all was well.
I don't like how the System Preferences quit when you press the close window widget. I also dislike how System Preferences get pokey changing and selecting when other things are running in the background. They seem to reflect something going on in the background. I thought this wasn't supposed to be the case?
I'm really annoyed that I had to do a clean install to improve performance on my Quicksilver. Granted, I had never done a wipe and install since I received that computer in late January 2002, however, it runs really well now that I have done the clean install. It took me all day to get it close to the way I had it. I'm really worried about loosing files, and this just reinforces that I need to set up a backup program and schedule regular backups.
Lastly, the sidebar. I sometimes get confused with the sidebar and other applications, like iTunes. I guess I'm not used to it totally yet.
Comments
Read two days worth of Panther experiences on MacInTouch. Sounds like our "computer-for-the-rest-of-us" has become the "computer-for-UNIX-geeks" among us. Wait 'till next year.
I've already started a separate thread about Windows file server browsing not working.
Let's see what else I can think of...
* Icon views are too w-i-d-e. I'd like to be able to narrow the spacing of grids of Finder icons. A lot.
* I'm often getting a spinning rainbow cursor for 2-4 seconds when I click on iTunes after iTunes has been in the background.
* When Backup goes off unattended on it's scheduled 2:00 am back-up, I find a dialog waiting for me in the morning saying that I need to sign up for .Mac to back up to my iDisk. However, I already have a valid iDisk and .Mac account, and if I manually do my iDisk back up, there's no problem at all. (I'm now running Backup 2.0 beta because I was told the old Backup didn't work with Panther at all.)
Originally posted by Locomotive
I visited my local Apple store Friday night -- an hour wait outside (quite warm for October). Demoed "fast-user-switching" bogged down on newest eMac (128 MB RAM). Left store empty handed, except for two (2) sets of Panther dog tags!
Read two days worth of Panther experiences on MacInTouch. Sounds like our "computer-for-the-rest-of-us" has become the "computer-for-UNIX-geeks" among us. Wait 'till next year.
Why, do you think Panther is going to go away? They're only going to add more to it, it won't change.
There ain't nothing UNIX about it, Period. In fact it is along ways from BSD of the 70's and 80's.
Originally posted by ryaxnb
Small annoyance: when I use Expose to show all application windows, background apps don't gray out like they're supposed to. If I go All Windows then Applications Windows, the apps do gray out, confusingly! I still ally like Expose. (Please excuse bad spelling in last part, I can't see what I'm typing)
What do you mean?
"when I use Expose to show all application windows, background apps don't gray out like they're supposed to." Why would they? If you are showing all application windows how can there even be any background apps visible at all, "grayed out" or not? You won't see anything except the darkened Finder backgound and all windows reduced and of equal brightness.
Besides it's not graying anything out, it's applying 80% or so translucent black over the colors.
Originally posted by shetline
I'm often getting a spinning rainbow cursor for 2-4 seconds when I click on iTunes after iTunes has been in the background.
iTunes started doing this after the 4.1 update in Jaguar. It's extremely annoying.
Originally posted by DHagan4755
I don't like how servers are handled in Panther. I can connect to my other Mac OS X Panther computer via Rendevous, and for some reason, I cannot disconnect from it, it seems. If the other computer gets shut off, the Finder hangs.
I have no trouble using Rendevous to connect to servers, but I was unable to disconnect from the network properly when I used the Network icon (as opposed to Connect to Server). When I finally physically disconnected the two, I got the neverending beachball of doom. I thought Panther was supposed to implement OS 9-style graceful server disconnect? Anyway, this was somewhat annoying too.
Overall though, I must say that I'm pleased. It seems like a fairly reliable update and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Originally posted by shetline
* Icon views are too w-i-d-e. I'd like to be able to narrow the spacing of grids of Finder icons. A lot.
I second that. I wonder what caused them to extend the spacing...
A few other things:
-- The updater deleted /Users/Shared with no warning at all. Ergh!
-- Printing web pages with frames from Safari doesn't work right: it prints a screen shot of the window (including the scroll bar) instead of the full contents of the frame on the page.
-- In text entry boxes in Safari the cursor sometimes gets a space ahead of the text entry point (like right now).
-- When using spring loaded folders to do drag-and-drop, the second level folder of the drag always seem to revert to Brushed Metal, even if it is normally standard Aqua (i.e. no tool- or side-bar).
Apps crashing without notice, doing the Houdini and then giving the 'Send bug report?' message.. OpenGL playing up a lot. I even did a clean install after zeroing the HD, hehe, now things are still going wrong, just really fast..
Can't complain much though, I love all the new features, and it really is faster..
Jimzip
tibook 500, was running 10.2.8, did an update-install and everything runs fine except the finder: when i have lots of files on the desktop and i want to move them (more than 1) to somwhere else, the finder dispappears. it seems like it's crashing and restarting every time!!
very strange.
anyone else noticed this? maybe a clean-install will help or maybe deleting the finder-prefs?
ah and something funny's going on here too: with PHTiTunes-notifier running, i cannot quit iTunes anymore: apple-Q for quitting and after two seconds iTunes relaunches by itself ...
but I'm still in love with panther! great update.
Originally posted by johnq
What do you mean?
"when I use Expose to show all application windows, background apps don't gray out like they're supposed to." Why would they? If you are showing all application windows how can there even be any background apps visible at all, "grayed out" or not? You won't see anything except the darkened Finder backgound and all windows reduced and of equal brightness.
Besides it's not graying anything out, it's applying 80% or so translucent black over the colors.
Oops, sorry, I meant all windows in the current application.
What shetline said.
If you move the mouse slowly, the cursor will pretty much not move at all. Move the mouse quickly, and the cursor will jump across the screen too fast. This makes gaming and any graphics-intensive work impossible to do well. I wish they would just turn the acceleration OFF by default and gives more true, natural-feeling cursor movement.
Originally posted by eVo
and any graphics-intensive work impossible to do well.
wtf!
Mines on its way in the mail...
Originally posted by kraig911
wait is 7b85 the final version?
Mines on its way in the mail...
Look on the bright side: that's one more sale for Apple, contributing to their sales figures, and you get the nice shiny box and the nice shiny new CDs. All yours, all for you. Mmmmmm... shiny new CDs...