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... but the implementation is not very good (yet).

It basically attempts to implement something like QuickSilver but comes out being much more like the much simpler Katapult. It's curious then why they aren't copying stuff like the activation keys, etc. QuickSilver and Katapult share the same basic keystrokes and they're pretty comfortable too.

I like the idea of the spell-check feature. I was always curious why this isn't the default behavior for text boxes in Windows as it is in Linux/KDE (where it's automatic) or on the Mac (where sometimes you have to hit a key-combo). I've been fiddling around with Vista a bit and am still surprised about how many little UI niceties that MS hasn't lifted from their competition. There's some good stuff out there, and I can't believe that they aren't aware of it. I haven't done much coding for Windows in a while, but I can see how under pre-Vista versions of Windows these things might be a little tricky to implement (perhaps that explains the large size of this app, about 10x that of QuickSilver or Katapult).

Launchy (http://www.launchy.net/) is my favorite Quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/) clone for Windows

This does remind me a lot of Quicksivler http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/. I hope they shrink it down a little bit, because I'd definitely use it. I love quicksilver on the mac, and I can't tell you how often I'll go to hit ctrl+space on my Windows box to open something quickly without realizing I was on the wrong machine for that. I also think it would be nice if they eliminated the need for hilighting things. I'd rather punch 4*2.99 into the app and get a result, rather then hiliting something and then starting to type "Calculate." That's me tough.

(what's quicksilver, btw?)

I will wholeheartedly second, or third, or whatever, the suggestion of Quicksilver. It has revolutionized the way I interface with my computer. WAY better than a Start Menu. It's first an application launcher, but once you start using it, you will discover that it is also so much more.

Here's a link: Quicksilver. It's free. Get it. Use it. Love it.

Two things I did find lacking were a virtual desktop manager (now using VirtueDesktop; it has some stability issues and b/c it's a hack, doesn't work as well as virtual desktops in X, but it's usable)

Yeah VirtueDesktop is probably the current best, and Apple's take on virtual desktops is coming with Leopard (which should be released within 3 months or so).

and after a week I still think a Start menu would be a good thing to have.

Well first of all if you really want a "start" menu, just drag your Applications folder to your dock and right click / ctrl-click on it, it'll behave as some kind of Start menu.

But i'd advise against doing that, and for installing QuickSilver (here's a tutorial to get you started), it's basically a Spotlight on Steroids, just CMD-SPC, type the first letters of whatever you want to launch (Camino, Fugu, Parallels, Mail, iTunes, CyberDuck, works with everything including bookmarks and regular files if you check the plugins), type enter, you're done. Plus it's adaptative: the more you call a software, the earlier QS will find it (for example I only need "C" for camino, "S" for safari, "P" for Parallels, "O" for Opera, "M" for Mail, "F" for Firefox and "Fu" for Fugu, "Cy" for CyberDuck, etc...)

QS works so well and is so fast that I don't actually put shortcuts in the dock: just calling apps from QS is faster.

He's right in a sense, though. When you want to upgrade the software on your Mac, you'll often need the latest version of OS X as well. That goes for even relatively simple utilities like WriteRoom and Quicksilver. And, when you want to upgrade OS X, Apple will make sure you can't run it if your computer is considered too old. Then you have to go with XPostFacto, and an OS install that may break when you get a new security patch (happens rarely). There's no good reason for this -- Panther is faster than Jaguar on any computer that can run the latter -- other than that Apple want you to buy a new computer.

Microsoft? Well, they force you to buy to Vista if you want DX10, which demands a fairly hefty computer to begin with. Office users need to use the same version for perfect interoperability. When it comes to forced upgrades, Apple's hardware-software integration is much, much more expensive, and much more prevalent than with Windows.

All UIs bow before the might that is Quicksilver. (OS X only.)

Not that it isn't somewhat valid to critique OS X usability based solely on Apple's offering, but it's a bit disingenuous to criticise OS X for things that become incredibly simple when you install Quicksilver.

The rare application example is made incredibly simple in Quicksilver. I've basically removed everything from my dock because I can launch applications through Quicksilver. This allows me to use the dock similarly to manage only applications that are currently running.

Similarly, people often criticize OS X because you can only switch between open applications, not directly to individual windows of a running application. But Witch makes this task trivial.

There's a ton of these little utility programs that don't have Windows equivalents that contributing to making the OS X experience more enjoyable. I wish some of these critique articles considered the entire Mac experience with these commonly installed utilities rather than just the stock OS X install.

For finding stuff, applications in particular, try installing Quicksilver.

Or, better yet: Quicksilver. It's basically a better version of Spotlight, with the additional power of performing actions, like moving files, displaying contacts' phone numbers in large type, controlling your iTunes, a calculator function, and much more (and there are tons of plugins to do even more). Your whole machine is just a ctrl+space away! (Seriously. I know I sound like a %*^&#$ commercial, but it's really that good. Once you get to know it, you'll be addicted. Trust me.)

did you try quicksilver? http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
just hit ctrl space and most of your problems are gone

For finding stuff, applications in particular, try installing Quicksilver.

Well obviously you need Quicksilver That's save you like five keystrokes in your reply to mail scenario. control-space, m, enter.

Image compositing? I can think of plenty of applications on Windows that do that...in fact, here's one that only does image compositing just for you...and it's free...
http://www.topshareware.com/Image-Inc.-download-44 355.htm

Er, yeah, it's kind of like that, except it does movies, CG effects, and is actually used by professionals in the field it was written for. You didn't read GP's link, did you?

Anyway, I use Mac regularly, and I think that Quicksilver and Adium are the killer apps. iChat AV is pretty nice too if you want to video chat (granted, it sucks for AIM but that's what Adium is for), and the UNIX subsystem is nice for running POSIX-based OSS (I'm a CS student, so I do a lot of work with OSS). I also think that the interface is, on average, more polished than Linux or Windows. Finder looks terrible with brushed metal, but hey, why use Finder when you can use Quicksilver.

I'm not sure it's worth it, though. Those apps are really nice, and Apple's support is really good. On the other hand, their hardware is mediocre (one button, heavy for its size, runs hot and whiny, mediocre battery life) and slightly more expensive than the competition (at least in what I was looking for). For my next laptop, I might just get a Dell/Toshiba/HP/Sony/Lenovo/whatever and slap Linux on it.

Anything in particular you're looking for as far as a music player goes? I was a die-hard Winamp user since right before we were grumbling about version 3 ;).

I'm using iTunes combined with QuickSilver as a music player right now. I find the combination works well. You can play most common combinations of music (album, artist, genre, etc.) with a few keystrokes, and you can also run playlists if you've set them up beforehand.

For ripping, I use Max. It can simultaneously rip to FLAC, OGG, MP3, and others I'm sure I'm missing. The metadata comes from MusicBrainz. You can also pull metadata from the iTunes Store (for free) with a little AppleScript. I've almost got my particularly picky ripping process completely automated - insert CD, and 10 minutes later, the FLAC files are on my home server and backup drive, and the MP3s are imported into iTunes.

Not the same, but QuickSilver is an awesome search and run utility. Although I have started to think of it as Start -> Run on steroids rather than a search tool.

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

For OSS Mac stuff, a good guide is OpenSourceMac.

I've got search shortcuts set up for google, wikipedia, google image search, and imdb with Quicksilver on my mac. If I'm looking for information on a person or thing I'm unfamiliar with, I go to wikipedia. I go to google when I'm looking for a particular site (Belgium Dog Quarantine) or a lot of sites ("Getting things Done"). IMDB is pretty much only for TV and movies.

Using Quicksilver means I never have to relearn habits. Let's say "Ask.com" becomes better than google. I can just change the shortcut and now "goo foo" will bring up the relevant ask results. I really miss it on my windows box.

"In the end, Quicksilver has one very important effect: the effort of frequent tasks fades into the background and you are able to act without thinking."

Welcome to the world of OS X.
Do yourself a huge favor and download Quicksilver.
Improve your efficiency and impress your friends at the same time.
Bind it to something like Cmd-Cmd and install the built in flashlight interface.

Trust me, and read some reviews and 10-minute tutorials.

There's a fix for your OS X navigation issues... Just install quicksilver

I used to know where stuff was on my mac and how to find stuff, then I started using Quicksilver. The other day I was trying to do something on my wife's machine nad I ended up having to install quicksilver first. It's so slick and simple to use that it makes me lazy :)

I have none at all. If I want the root, I use cmd-shift-c. If I want anything else, I used Quicksilver.

I'm posting this from a Macbook myself. I've been a mac user for 3 years now, but I'm still primarily a BSD/Linux user who deals with Windows at work most of the time. I haven't bothered to upgrade my older iBook since it doesn't get much use anyway, but I'm a bit surprised about how swiftly mac developers drop support for older versions. Even freeware and O.S. software has this tendency to drop support for older versions in just a couple of months. I'm afraid I will have to upgrade not for the features, but because some pieces of software that are important to me keep on supporting the latest iteration of OSX only. Quicksilver comes to mind. http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

I used to use spotlight to launch apps before I found quicksilver, which does it much better + have hundreds of other nice features (like global hotkeys, clipboard history etc). Try it! You'll like it...(it's free!)

If you haven't done so already, you may want to check out Quicksilver. It's technically an app-launcher, but it has by-and-large replaced Finder for me. You can use it for all your file operations: open, move, unmount/eject, move to Trash, etc.

If you think that Spotlight on OS X is useful for opening applications you obviously have not seen Quicksilver which sounds very similar to Katapult. It is so simple and convenient that I have stopped using the launcher.

It's hard to describe the wonder of Quicksilver. Just try it.

I'm always finding new capabilites with Quicksilver. It transforms the way you work with your Mac, and it is beautiful in its minimalism and polish. This is a tool that does so much, and actually does so while not only staying out of your way, but also by removing obstacles to flow. Quicksilver gets my vote for #1.

Forget LaunchBar, check out Quicksilver.

QuickSilver. LaunchBar is for has-beens. :)

Seriously though, after using LaunchBar for many moons I switched to QuickSilver after giving it a whirl. It's much more elegant, and on a personal level it fits my workflow habits better. Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you haven't tried it, do. Very tasty.

GUI functions like virtual desktops

I've done virtual desktops, but personally, I found them less productive than productive. It always annoyed me that when I wanted to do a DND on something or that window was "all the way over there", and I had to either go and make it "omni-present" or scoot it over to where the other app is or whatnot. I find multiple real screens better than virtual desktops. Also, there are 3rd party things you can get for OS X to add virtual desktops to the system. http://www.codetek.com/ has one, and there are many others. For most users, they are a source of confusion and loss of productivity, but they have been around for many years, so get one if you want one.

window shading

I like window shading as well. Its more handy and intuitive than minimizing a window, so I bought Window Shade X, and it works like a charm.

a dock that doesn't try to be everything else too, or failing that, will at least go away

The dock is OK, but I'm happier when I can't see it or just don't use it. I only have a couple of icons in it and only use it to launch a handful of apps when I reboot or login or something. I much prefer Quicksilver for launching apps. To start up X11, I hit Apple-space, type x, hit return. I don't know of a faster or easier way to launch an app than that.

a theme that doesn't include stupid glowing gumdrops everywhere

Yeah, the gumdrops are silly. I'll admit. That is why I paid for ShapeShifter. Personally, I use a brushed metal theme so that all apps look the same, and no gumdrops required. I find it very aesthetically pleasing.

file manager that doesn't INSIST on blocking up with a spinning beach ball while it calls the server EVERY SINGLE TIME the cursor rests on a video file quicktime doesn't have a codec for

Yes, the Finder sucks at times. It is essentially unusable in Tiger when viewing files in list view, which is almost exclusively how I view files because I have so many in each folder. Fortunately, I don't use it that much, and would like for a better alternative. Suggestions?? Quicktime is bullshit, and I wish it would die a silent death and never come back to life. I'm going to get flamed for this, but I have never worked with such a resource hog, nagware by default player, non-codec supporting, unable to stream worth a shit... I could go on. I've tried to ignore Quicktime for years but it keeps coming back.

It's a step up from Windows, but then again, anything is. It's an obvious step backwards from either OS9 or a decently configured X11 system.

Yes, its about 10 years ahead of Windows. I could not use OS 7, 8, or 9 because the underlying OS was too unstable, so I never got to appreciate the GUI. I used X exclusively for years, and it was OK for the time. I used OpenLook, TWM, FVWM, AfterStep (how I found chips-n-dips -> slashdot :), and then settled with WindowMaker. I hacked WindowMaker (or is it two words now), to add functionality that I missed from either AfterStep or FVWM. KDE and Gnome simply do not cut it. If I wanted a less than functional Windows knockoff, I would just settle for Windows. I'm a UNIX/Linux admin, and support both Solaris and Linux systems with CDE, KDE, and Gnome. KDE seems to be the better of the mix, but Gnome has its perks, but neither are something I would want to spend more than 1/2 an hour in front of, if that. Even though X support on Macs is not the best, its still better for me than any exclusive X desktop.

http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/overview

it's a launcher, but.. so much more

it's very difficult to explain how much it speeds things up, you have to try it to understand

http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quic ksilver what is quicksilver "This topic does not exist yet" they've certainly opened the floodgates of information here haven't they!?!!!!

Quicksilver. 'nuff said.

It's just QuickSilver with a more Spotlight-like interface.

I agree that it's nifty to have an app like that on Linux, but I wouldn't wave the "Innovation in Linux" flag just yet...

It seems like most of the innovation that happens for Linux is fairly low-level stuff, like new kernel features &c.

For instance,Adium is, in my opinion, a far superior multi-protocol chat client to Trillian.

I use Quicksilver almost constantly at home. I've got nothing like that at work.

There still isn't a good Exposé solution for Windows. I've tried the knock-offs and they're all pretty pathetic attempts.

There's nothing like Growl that I know of. Each application has to implement its own alert system. This would be great for letting me know when a source control sync or a compile is finished.

The one great app that I've found for Windows is Slickedit, which has pretty decent Emacs emulation, but does the whole intellisense thing better than I've been able to get Emacs to do (yes, I've tried Semantic and ECB).

Since the only game I play these days is WoW, my Mac is fantastic on its own. Bootcamp holds no pull for me. If I want more games, I'll buy a console. For the work that I do, there's nothing that I can do on a Windows PC that my Mac can't do better. (I'm not saying that this is true for everyone, just me.)

So if someone can point me in the direction of apps that are as good as the ones that I mentioned for Windows, I'd actually appreciate that. I'm sick of trying to hit Command-Space and not getting Quicksilver.

or better yet, get Quicksilver http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/, and do more than just search/find. In fact, add Desktop Manager http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/ and use virtual desktops to keep your clutter clean. But what do these have to do with the thread? I find they both simplify and enhance the OS. Quicksilver is so much faster at finding files, applications, contact, music than any of the other built in methods within OS X no matter which cat you use (Panther or Tiger). Additionally, Quicksilver can start up your applications much faster than going into the Applications folder in finder (yes, I am aware that there is a dock at the bottom of my screen but I try to minimize the number of icons in there to conserve screen space.) Speaking of Screen Space, Desktop Manager is a program for Mac that gives you virtual desktops similiar to the manner of Linux. Keystrokes or a page allows you to switch desktops, and you can move applications from one to the other, and if you like the eyecandy there are some nice effects for switching as well, I turn them off most of the time, cause I just like to change desktops not have a Broadway show everytime I want to change from doing Graphic Design to Web Browsing.

Agreed. I don't know how I survived prior to discovering Quicksilver years ago :)

Here's a link for the less initiated: http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Note that there are a number of plugins that you'll want to look at and probably install, including the Spotlight-inspired interface, the calculator (handy for quick calcs), email, chat and others. Look in the preferences to download and install them.

Really? Windows has excellent development tools (almost all 3rd party tools run on Windows, and Visual Studio is usually considered one of the best if not the best IDE for development).

*cough* Ok, I'm not going to get into a debate about VS with you. It's been about two yearsa since I used it and it may have changed. But my residual opinion of it is vastly different from yours.

Having said that, I don't think Windows is a good development environment for the very non-scientific, non-quantifiable reason that I feel more productive under OS X. Yes, you can get many of the same tools that come with OS X for Windows, such as GNU Screen, vim, and others.

But like the author of the article in question, I started out with MS operating systems back on DOS 3.0. I used MS OS's for almost 20 years before I switched to OS X, and I was amazed at the cohesiveness of that OS. I get more done because of things both small and large.

• The application menu is always at the top of the screen, so (a) with a glance I can tell what app is foremost and (b) my eyes dont have to jump around to find it
• QuickSilver. An app launcher on steroids. With this the whole "one button mouse" joke becomes irrelevant because my hands don't need to leave the keyboard.
• Alt-Tab vs. Cmd-Tab. On Windows, when you hit Alt-Tab you can only go one way in the list of apps that pop up: left to right. Cmd-Tab is much more robust: Shift-Cmd-Tab takes you to the left, and the arrow keys work as well. You can also quit an app by Cmd-Tabbing to it and hitting Q. i.e. Cmd-Tab-Tab-Q. I use this a lot.
• Terminal.app is just far superior to the command window.
• Spotlight. I have the JavaDocs for my company's entire application setup to be searchable through Spotlight, as well as the J2EE JavaDocs and others. Finding documentation involves the following: Ctrl-Space first few characters of class name. The end.
• PDF integration. I deal with a lot of documentation, and since Word is still the de facto standard they tend to be in Word format. Since that's resource hog when dealing with large documents, I save them as PDFs, something that you can natively do in OS X. Much less troublesome that way, plus then THEY can be searched with Spotlight.

And so forth. None of these things are killers in and of themselves, but taken together they tend to make your development efforts far less time intensive.

If anyone has ever seen the next big thing, Bill Gates certainly would be a candidate.

The only credit Billy gets from me is for keeping BASIC alive, FWIW.

BillG was late to the internet. Late to the modern desktop environment. Late to "DOS". Late to search technology.

He is just in time to sell crap to people, and yes, he is the richest person in the world because of that.

Remember that Microsoft got started when they went to IBM and sold them "DOS" before they had DOS. They then rushed to buy it from some guy, and he said, "Why do you want to pay this much money for this junk?"

Back on topic, no there is no big thing left, and actually, there has not been for 10 to 15 years now, and that is basically the way its going to be.

I'm a BIG fan of the scientific method, but what really is left to learn "on the cutting edge" of science? We can see to the subatomic particle level. We can put people in space all the way to the moon. We have received signals from our spacecraft outside of our solar system (or close). We know absolute zero. We know nothing goes faster than light. We know that most of the universe is void or nothingness.

Now, we are in the convenience/creature feature generation. We have a very short attention span today. Very few if any projects done today take more than a lifetime. Its easy to throw something into the microwave or just pick it up on the way somewhere to eat. No building a fire or acquiring fuel necessary.

Progress can be made however. I see progress into the efficiency of electronics/motor vehicles etc, as being valuable. I really welcome learning software. Google's "Did you mean ____?" is learned. Not dictionary based. Google search appliances learn company acronyms and proper names and their misspellings via context and use, just like people do. I would love for my cellphone to not store the damn names alphabetically, but rather alphabetically _by frequency of use_. Meaning, when I hit J, and I call "Jim" more than I call "Jane", Jim would be the first J, not Jane. Predictive memory management and scheduling will be cool things of the future. Stuff like Apple's SpotLight, Google's Desktop search, and even QuickSilver are all excellent.

I think its cool that my DVR works basically like a FIFO. I have about a week or so worth of programs instantly, and that changes every day. Its a cache of stuff I'm interested in watching.

But no, I don't think there is any big thing left. We have mastered controlling our environment in terms of housing and food production and personal climate control (clothes). What more is there that we need?

Many OS X applications are document based (one application handles several documents e.g. a web browser, photo editor, text editor/word processor, , etc.) The x at the top of the window closes the window (the document). It wouldn't make sense to quit an entire program when you only want to close a document. Minimize keeps a document in the dock, out of the desktop space, but still open. Closing a document closes it, and saves it if you so choose. For a lot of non document based applications, x is not all that different from hide or minimize. It irritates me when applications do close when the x in the window is clicked.

I have my dock on the left (less space than the bottom), and it has 22 easily identifiable applications. Most users don't use more than 5-10 applications regularly. You can try using spotlight (command-spacebar) and typing the first few letters of an application name. Or you can download Quicksilver , use ^spacebar, and type the few letters. It will gradually learn which applications you use more with certain letters and it is nicer than spotlight as an application launcher. If you want a list, put your applications folder in your Dock, and right click it (you can also use control click or click and hold). A list of all of your applications will pop up. Launching applications from the Finder isn't all that hard, though. Click the Finder dock icon once, click the Application folder in the sidebar, and launch the application(s).

I've never noticed the difference in text.

Dude, learn to use Google.

As a side note, Apple invented (for all intents and purposes, etc.) the concept of subpixel rendering back in the '80s, and it's been included in the OS since at least Jaguar.

What's the deal with the "x" button not exiting the application? What is making it different than "_" minimize in most cases? Why on earth is "x" different than file->exit? Thats one thing I can't get used to.

I switched to a Mac at home a year ago and this took me a while to get used to, but now I like it better. For example, when I close the last tab in $WEBBROWSER I don't usually want the whole application to close, I just want to close the last tab and I'll open a new tab later. Same with an application like Photoshop -- I might be closing the current document, but I'm going to open another one after.

Next, why is there no good launch bar mechanism? Am I missing some feature that is there?

I find the Applications folder more useful than the Start Menu because it's easier to navigate inside one folder than through layers of menus (Start Menu->Company Name->Application Name->Application). In the Applications folder you can type the first couple letters to get to the application you want, recognize it more easily because the icon is not small and blurry and then start it by pressing cmd-down_arrow -- all without using the mouse. Quicksilver allows you to do it even easier.
And lastly, what is with the insane anti-aliasing?
I guess this is personal preference, but I happen to find that Windows fonts look awfully blocky most of the time, particularly Times and MS Sans Serif. If you really don't like the a-a, I believe you can turn it off in System Preferences.

KDE centralizes these features so you don't have to be in a web browser to use them.

KDE: When you're in any application press ALT+F2, type gg:foo, press ENTER
Firefox: Start or switch to Firefox, CTRL+K, type foo, press ENTER -or- Start or switch to Firefox, CTRL+L, type "searchkeyword foo", press ENTER

Of course on the Mac there's LaunchBar and Butler and Qu1K$iLv3r to automate searches as well.

iTunes 6 embeds a DRM hash to any files that it encodes from CD. So while your rebuttal was true with previous versions, the original statement is now true. iTunes is "DRM Ridden".

However, if you use an external encoder, like the iTunes LAME, that hash is not embedded.

You'll want to install quicksilver. It's pretty much the best Mac application in history.

Everything I've ever encoded with iTunes is an MP3, so what are you on about being "locked into the iPod forever" ?! On G4/G5 Macs, it's the fastest encoder out there, plus if you want LAME, there's a LAME plug-in: http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/

QS is a great app for OS X. One of it's many functions is as a launcher.
Say I want to start inkscape. I press apple-space,i,n,k. by that point, qs has figured out that i want inkscape and has displayed it's icon, then i press enter and inkscape launches.

or say i want Jack Johnson's phone number. I press apple-space,j,c,k,j,n,s,n. his contact icon pops up, i press the left arrow and his phone number is highlighted, then i press enter and the number fills the screen on a transparent window.

it saves me a whack of time, and i'd love to see a free program with this functionality
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

I've recently made the switch to OS X, and this is one of the few aspects of Windows that I miss.

Not *quite* the same thing, but if you go to the Keyboard & Mouse System Preference, then to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, you'll find at the bottom "Full Keyboard Access" -- change that to All Controls and you'll be able to tab to most controls. In that same Preference tab you'll find a metric crapload of navigation shortcuts for moving keyboard focus among windows, Dock, menus, etc.

Also, there are a ton of sometimes poorly documented Mac UI keyboard shortcuts that even long-time users don't know about, but which will speed your usage tremendously. There are various places to learn about them -- the Help menu in the Finder is a start, but also see http://www.macosxhints.com/ for the occasional gem.

And finally, as I mention elsewhere in this story, if you haven't tried http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/ you haven't experienced Macintosh. :)

Apparently, I also can't survive without putting the protocol in the URL: http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/