Frustrations with OS X

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phinsman

Registered
Well, first off, let me say that I love my new iMac, my first Mac ever. It's beautiful. I love OS X, for the most part. It's run flawlessly -- I think I've only had to kill an app once in the month or so I've had it. iTunes, iPhoto -- best of their kind. Safari is a really nice browser and I'm trying to choose it over Firefox (but Firefox is tough to beat).

I've used the old TRS-80 CoCo, UNIX, MS-DOS, Windows (of course) for years, and the last couple of years almost exclusively GNU/Linux.

I think my number one frustration right now is that it seems like every piece of software I've been interested in downloading is shareware. Freeware seems to be non-existent, scarce at best. Coming from using GNU/Linux (where everything is Open Source and free), this is a major shock to me.

OS X does run most all of the X apps I'm used to, but they're not really integrated into the operating system; i.e. to start them up, I'll go through the "X" dock icon, and of course they just don't look like Mac apps. They also don't look nearly as good as they did on my Red Hat systems.

An example of what I'm talking about is this: yesterday morning before work, I spent an hour or so trying to find a Mac-equivalent to "TuxCards", which is a Linux notebook-style notes application. I found quite a few, but every single one of them was anywhere from $15 to $30. Really -- this is a notebook app we're talking about here. No way would I pay that much for one. I looked at Xnippets (which I liked best), something from Hog Bay (I think that was the name), and a couple more. I finally am just settling on using TuxCards, which I installed from source after installing QT via Fink, and dealing with the fact that it looks like crap on here.

I'm a programmer for a living, and I've started looking into Cocoa development. So at some point (when I have time!) I can hopefully create some of the apps I'm looking for. But for right now I'm completely annoyed at all of this, to the point where I'm not sure I'd spend the $1500 on this machine if I had it to do over...no matter how nice it is.

My next frustration is the "treatment" of minimized windows. It's like you shouldn't do it or something. Yes, they show up in the lower-right corner of the dock, but Expose completely ignores them, as does CMD-TAB. I think this stinks...at least give me the option to include them in Expose. I've seen add-ons out there that seem to accommodate what I'm wanting, but they do it a little differently; I'd like to see this in Expose.

Let me quickly say that Expose is one of the cooler features I've ever seen on an operating system...I love the way a video can be playing, and you will still see it running amidst all the windows.

I miss using HOME and END to go to the beginning and end of lines...everwhere! I'm trying to get used to using CTRL-A and CTRL-E. That's a minor gripe.

The iCal dock icon -- it stinks that you have to restart it every day to keep the date correct (well, maybe I'm doing something wrong here). I actually removed it from my dock so it wouldn't confuse me.

The Mail app looks good, but it doesn't have the power of Thunderbird or Evolution. No Entourage for me, either.

I guess that's it...I apologize if this offends anyone. Hopefully someone will spot ignorance in my statements somewhere, and tell me how to change/fix whatever I'm whining about.

Dale
 
I noticed you mentioned Home and End missing on OS X. I'm coming from Win XP and almost can't function without it. What keystrokes are you using in place of just Home and End? Command-A is select all for me. Command-E doesn't appear to do anything.

Thanks!
 
You are going to find plenty more to annoy you.

Personally as a Mac user since the Fat Mac, I think the user interface is still very rough and inconsistant even after 5 revisions.

On the other hand you are also going to find many gems, only they will be different and hidden in places you would not expect. A different mix, I guess. Coming from Unix you of course will miss the freeware, but believe me shareware is still cheaper and more freeware is available than on Windows where avarice is God.

I know that that this is not exactly what you are looking for as a notebook, but explore the possibilities of TextEdit. I find it enormously powerful and versatile and heck Apple, gave it to you for free.

The more powerful features TextEdit may lack canbe often had by utilising Services (3rd item down under the TextEdit menu). Hunt on VersionTracker and other DL sites for more services to suit your needs. Just don't be fooled by TextEdit's apparent simplicity, it does an enormous part of what most word processors do without most of the hastles.

One drawback is Apple, for some weird reason, does not allow changes to the print margin, but there is a simple hack that fixes that and that can be your first venture into Xcode programming.
 
I'm using Fn ArrowLeft and Fn ArrowRight. Those keys even have "home" and "end" written on them on my PowerBook. Must admit I'm not sure what the desktop keyboards currently have for that.

About offending anyone: I'm pretty sure you didn't, since you didn't say "Hey, Macs s*ck!", but rather you made your point quite nicely.

I can understand your gripe about the freeware/shareware situation. linux _is_ different here, a different movement altogether. However, I've seen more and more freeware alternatives pop up for any given utility task over the past few years.

I personally use SideNote for notes. It's the greatest, I believe. Handy, useful - and still under active development AFAIK. And hey: It's freeware. Looky! :) http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/sidenote.html
 
phinsman said:
Safari is a really nice browser and I'm trying to choose it over Firefox (but Firefox is tough to beat).
Click to expand...
After using Mac OS X for a while, you'll come to appreciate Cocoa programs much more then any other type (i.e. Carbon, X11, etc). Safari is so much nicer because it gets all the free system enhancements for free - like spelling.

phinsman said:
I think my number one frustration right now is that it seems like every piece of software I've been interested in downloading is shareware. Freeware seems to be non-existent, scarce at best. Coming from using GNU/Linux (where everything is Open Source and free), this is a major shock to me.
Click to expand...
Mac developers have a lot more requirements put on them then any other OS in the world. Why? Because Mac users expect good looking applications with slick UI's. Not all developers can do that and have skills in that. Plus, it requires icons, which 99% of programmers can't make, so they have to hire someone. But if they're going to be making a freeware app, they don't want to spend any more money then necessary on it. Mac users are picky. They don't take just any program that does the job. They want it to look good! I think it's sort of hard to grasp when users come from others OSs, especially Linux, in which the entire OS is open source! Mac OS X is not 100% open source, so why should each individual program be? Open source doesn't make full sense unless the OS is open source. Get my drift? :)

phinsman said:
OS X does run most all of the X apps I'm used to, but they're not really integrated into the operating system; i.e. to start them up, I'll go through the "X" dock icon, and of course they just don't look like Mac apps. They also don't look nearly as good as they did on my Red Hat systems.
Click to expand...
Again, it's the same thing with GUIs. Most Mac OS X users don't care about X11, because there are (usually) far better native alternatives.

phinsman said:
I'm a programmer for a living, and I've started looking into Cocoa development. So at some point (when I have time!) I can hopefully create some of the apps I'm looking for. But for right now I'm completely annoyed at all of this, to the point where I'm not sure I'd spend the $1500 on this machine if I had it to do over...no matter how nice it is.
Click to expand...
Next time I'd suggest you research the topic first, before spending $1500! Don't just assume the Mac is for you, because lots of other people are switching, especially if you're a techy :)

phinsman said:
The iCal dock icon -- it stinks that you have to restart it every day to keep the date correct (well, maybe I'm doing something wrong here). I actually removed it from my dock so it wouldn't confuse me.
Click to expand...
Maybe iCal is meant to stay open? That's how Mac OS X works best. Give it good enough RAM, and leave all your programs open. That's what I do - I have anywhere from 15-25 open at once.

phinsman said:
The Mail app looks good, but it doesn't have the power of Thunderbird or Evolution. No Entourage for me, either.
Click to expand...
What kind of "power" are you referring to? You know, Thunderbird is available for Mac OS X..
 
dbonneville said:
I noticed you mentioned Home and End missing on OS X. I'm coming from Win XP and almost can't function without it. What keystrokes are you using in place of just Home and End? Command-A is select all for me. Command-E doesn't appear to do anything.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


It's actually CONTROL instead of COMMAND for those two...I do believe those are emacs keys, but I'm a vim guy so I wouldn't know. :D

Dale
 
rubaiyat said:
You are going to find plenty more to annoy you.

Personally as a Mac user since the Fat Mac, I think the user interface is still very rough and inconsistant even after 5 revisions.

On the other hand you are also going to find many gems, only they will be different and hidden in places you would not expect. A different mix, I guess. Coming from Unix you of course will miss the freeware, but believe me shareware is still cheaper and more freeware is available than on Windows where avarice is God.

I know that that this is not exactly what you are looking for as a notebook, but explore the possibilities of TextEdit. I find it enormously powerful and versatile and heck Apple, gave it to you for free.

The more powerful features TextEdit may lack canbe often had by utilising Services (3rd item down under the TextEdit menu). Hunt on VersionTracker and other DL sites for more services to suit your needs. Just don't be fooled by TextEdit's apparent simplicity, it does an enormous part of what most word processors do without most of the hastles.

One drawback is Apple, for some weird reason, does not allow changes to the print margin, but there is a simple hack that fixes that and that can be your first venture into Xcode programming.
Click to expand...


OK, thanks for the tip. I will give it a try. I haven't messed with TextEdit enough to know what it's about.

Dale
 
fryke said:
I'm using Fn ArrowLeft and Fn ArrowRight. Those keys even have "home" and "end" written on them on my PowerBook. Must admit I'm not sure what the desktop keyboards currently have for that.

About offending anyone: I'm pretty sure you didn't, since you didn't say "Hey, Macs s*ck!", but rather you made your point quite nicely.

I can understand your gripe about the freeware/shareware situation. linux _is_ different here, a different movement altogether. However, I've seen more and more freeware alternatives pop up for any given utility task over the past few years.

I personally use SideNote for notes. It's the greatest, I believe. Handy, useful - and still under active development AFAIK. And hey: It's freeware. Looky! :) http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/sidenote.html
Click to expand...


SideNote...I will check that out when I get home today! Thanks!

Dale
 
kainjow said:
Mac developers have a lot more requirements put on them then any other OS in the world. Why? Because Mac users expect good looking applications with slick UI's. Not all developers can do that and have skills in that. Plus, it requires icons, which 99% of programmers can't make, so they have to hire someone. But if they're going to be making a freeware app, they don't want to spend any more money then necessary on it. Mac users are picky. They don't take just any program that does the job. They want it to look good! I think it's sort of hard to grasp when users come from others OSs, especially Linux, in which the entire OS is open source! Mac OS X is not 100% open source, so why should each individual program be? Open source doesn't make full sense unless the OS is open source. Get my drift? :)
Click to expand...

I don't agree with most of this. If you're going to make something freeware, most likely you can dig around the Internet and find yourself an icon to "borrow" -- asking permission if necessary. Or use some icon built into the system, as I did with most of the GTK stuff I wrote on my Red Hat machine. Or, better still, take any kind of picture, art, etc., break out The Gimp, and make an icon from that.

I'm not saying everything should be Open Source...I'm just whining about the lack of freeware.

kainjow said:
Again, it's the same thing with GUIs. Most Mac OS X users don't care about X11, because there are (usually) far better native alternatives.
Click to expand...

So far I haven't found that to be the case, unless I break out my credit card.

kainjow said:
Next time I'd suggest you research the topic first, before spending $1500! Don't just assume the Mac is for you, because lots of other people are switching, especially if you're a techy :)
Click to expand...

Now you are dead on here! Haha...I can promise you that I won't be admitting that to my wife.

kainjow said:
Maybe iCal is meant to stay open? That's how Mac OS X works best. Give it good enough RAM, and leave all your programs open. That's what I do - I have anywhere from 15-25 open at once.
Click to expand...

I just feel like if they can put a date on an icon, they should have it be correct whether iCal is open or not. Also, it seemed like it wasn't updating even when I left it open, unless I actively used it. I may be wrong there.

I'm trying to get used to keeping lots of windows open, but that seems very unorganized to me. I go back to my complaints about the lack of support for minimized windows.

kainjow said:
What kind of "power" are you referring to? You know, Thunderbird is available for Mac OS X..
Click to expand...

Poor choice of words by me...not really power, just a feature here and there. Labeling messages with a color, or marking as important a la Evolution. Just minor things; I'm sticking with Mail so far. I did try out Thunderbird on the Mac, but, like most of the other multi-platform apps, it didn't quite seem integrated enough.

Thanks for all the discussion; you made your points well.

Dale
 
home and end is apple+left or +right. start and end of words is alt+left/ +right. much easier than home and end keys when you get used to it. pc's seem silly having a whole extra key for these function now, and it's so out of the way....
 
fryke said:
Oh, Apple hasn't updated that page about SideNote. So here's the link to the developer's homepage, where you'll find version 1.7: http://www.chatelp.org/?s=Sidenote
Click to expand...

Sidenote is great!!! Thanks for the heads-up. I'm still not sure whether I want to use it instead of a notebook app, but for note taking, it's as good as I've ever seen.

Thanks again,
Dale
 
The iCal icon is supposed to update. A lot of people (including me) share the bug that it just... doesn't anymore.


I've NEVER noticed a lack of freeware on OS X. If anything, I've noticed an incredible amount of freeware. I think the problem is the actual applications you want to have. If you post a list of the *functions* you want programs to do, we can point you at the best way to do it.
 
phinsman said:
I'm trying to get used to keeping lots of windows open, but that seems very unorganized to me. I go back to my complaints about the lack of support for minimized windows.
Click to expand...
You can learn to use the Hide <App> in each application's menu to hide all of that program's windows. It works well if you can get used to it.

Also, when command-tabbing around, you can use 'h' to hide an application also. Although AFAIK there is no way to show the application again via command-tab.

phinsman said:
Poor choice of words by me...not really power, just a feature here and there. Labeling messages with a color, or marking as important a la Evolution. Just minor things; I'm sticking with Mail so far. I did try out Thunderbird on the Mac, but, like most of the other multi-platform apps, it didn't quite seem integrated enough.
Click to expand...
You can color messages when you create a rule in Preferences, but it appears you can't just normally. That definitely should be a normal feature. You can also flag messages, and then use that with smart playlists/sorting, etc.
 
"Although AFAIK there is no way to show the application again via command-tab." - Well, if you bring it to the front, of course, but that's it.
 
fryke said:
"Although AFAIK there is no way to show the application again via command-tab." - Well, if you bring it to the front, of course, but that's it.
Click to expand...
But there's no way to do it for select applications at a time. Only one by one.
 
Have you gotten into any Cocoa developement yet?

If you are anything like me that may get you excited. I have only had time to mess with it a little but I had a blast playing around with it, it's just a really cool framework and interface builder is A+ in my book. It's way better than the visual studio environment if you ask me.
 
fryke said:
I'm using Fn ArrowLeft and Fn ArrowRight. Those keys even have "home" and "end" written on them on my PowerBook. Must admit I'm not sure what the desktop keyboards currently have for that.
Click to expand...
The keyboards for desktop models look mostly like standard keyboards and have the Home and End keys in the row above the arrow keys (like my PC keyboard).

fryke said:
I personally use SideNote for notes. It's the greatest, I believe. Handy, useful - and still under active development AFAIK. And hey: It's freeware. Looky! :) http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/sidenote.html
Click to expand...
I have this installed, but I haven't really gotten into it yet. I'm sure it's great for someone who creates snippets of code daily, though. I'll have to start working more with it, now that you're reminded me that it keeps popping up whenever my mouse hits the right edge of the screen.
 
kainjow said:
Also, when command-tabbing around, you can use 'h' to hide an application also. Although AFAIK there is no way to show the application again via command-tab.
Click to expand...
To show an app after you have hidden it, just Command+Tab until you have the app you want to show highlighted and release the Command and Tab keys. The hidden app will show again and be at the front of the stack.
 
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