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But after hearing all the fan-boys on this and other sites, and doing a fair bit of research into Mac OSX, I figured it was time to try out a powerbook.

After a few months of using it exclusively, I can't stand working with Windows or even KDE/Gnome now. A stock OSX Tiger install is incredibly useful (Exposé, Spotlight, iLife, Dashboard, and all that BSD goodness through Terminal.app). But after installing a few amazing (and free) utilities, it's the closest to desktop utopia I've ever been:

• QuickSilver - The most useful app I've ever used - hard to describe, but think of it as a command-line interface to the GUI (some use it as just an application launcher, but it's so much more).
• Fink - A BSD Ports implementation for OSX - think of Debian and Gentoo meets OSX - thousands of F/OSS apps just a command away from installing
• XAMPP - Apache/MySQL/PHP/Perl in a simple to install and run package.
• VLC - video watching without having to worry about installing dozens of codecs.

Never thought I'd say it, but I guess I'm one of the fan-boys now.

I still have a Windows box for gaming (although I have to admit there are far more games available for OSX than I imagined), and a few Linux boxes for serving, development, routing, etc. Although I now have all my development stuff running locally on my powerbook, so the linux boxes are less useful these days.

My message to people on the fence about switiching: give it a shot. It's not perfect, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of anything else.

That's a poignant confession. On the Mac, install QuickSilver for an unbelievably enlightening search experience.

(Any effort undertaken to Google search bar to OS X would be done by Sisyphus, indeed.)

Naw way, Quicksilver http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/ is way better than both Finder and Spotlight. Well, good for opening apps; especially if you are a command-line user.

Then you will absolutely LOVE Quicksilver. Invoke QS by typing ^Space and you get a little translucent window in the middle of the screen. Start typing the name of a program, a folder, a Preferences panel, a bookmark, or an action within a program (like "Next Song" for iTunes) and it will immediately try to find a match among those types of resources. Even if you type it a little wrong, like typing "itnes" when you meant "itunes", QS will find it and allow you to launch it.

I realize how non-compelling it sounds... I was not impressed when it was explained to me either. Try it, though; it changes the way you launch programs with the same magnitude as Exposé changes the way you task-switch. Plus, it has a plugin architecture so you only use the stuff you need (for instances, you have to choose the bookmark modules for the browsers you use, and IIRC, the iTunes stuff is a plugin as well). Plugins are downloaded from within the program itself... it's nothing like Firefox plugin management.

"I prefer it over taking my hand from the keyboard and using the mouse..."

You heard of Quicksilver?

e.g. To open Photoshop, I tap ctrl, then hit p, s, return. To open a file in TextEdit, I tap ctrl, t, e, then drag the file onto the TextEdit icon that appears. To google from any application, I tap ctrl, g, space, my query, return. This thing unleashes the power of your keyboard--you can do pretty much anything in just a few keystrokes. I don't know if any such tool exists for Windows or any open-source desktop environment, but I'd be glad to hear if it does.

Currently to append metadata you have to:

1) Save

2a) Mouse into a nested folder to find you just saved file

or

2b) Spotlight to your just saved file

3) Get Info on the just saved file

4) Enter keywords in the Spotlights Comments box and perhaps color code if that's your thing

Hell, for that kind of effort I'll just link my files to my desktop and clean it up after the 9pt file names and 16X16 pix icons become too tedious to see. On this one M$ is dead on point, bolting on Spotlight without metadata authoring is a half-assed solution at best.

P.S. I don't actually clutter my desktop, and I've stopped mousing through scads of psychotically nested folders. I findhttp://quicksilver.blacktree.com/saves time and my wrist.

You can even install LAME as an iTunes import plugin. As for why it's necessary?

I wrote a script to convert a large quantity of files to low-bitrate vorbis (from both high-bitrate vorbis and mp3 sources) because I wanted to put a random selection of music on my Neuros' flash memory unit. I could fit much more by creating a directory full of low-bitrate vorbis files before sync'ing it.

You seem to have made the assumption that I would delete the original files. Not everyone manages their music in the same way.

Five words: Uninstall LaunchBar and Install Quicksilver

Actually they're both pretty solid, but Quicksilver is free and has some nice plugins.

Take a look at Quicksilver: http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

It's truly awesome. Much better than windows Run... And it's free.

It can integrate with spotlight, let you change iTunes tracks etc. etc.

You don't even have to type then full name of an app. To launch photoshop I hit the ± key i have QS binded to and type Ph and it matches.

Previously, I'd use the Option-Tab key command for activating my QuickSilver box. However, after I did the update, I realized the tab key now allows you to key through desktop icons, and, of course, option-tab does it backwards. If this was a previous functionality, it never got in my way before until now. :(

I totally, totally hate the OS X finder. It's a living slap-in-the-face to any oldschool Mac user, driving home the point that this isn't MacOS anymore, it's NeXT. Yay.

I use Quicksilver for application launching, though some friends of mine also use it for document handling, etc.

Finder isn't the only reason that Macs are a mess these days, but it certainly adds to the confusion.

Verily, I miss the Platinum Finder. The Aqua Finder is no improvement.

While OS-X is _VERY_ nice any its pretty i'm not so sure about the keyboard usability. I can use a windows box without a mouse, i can't do that on a mac, maybe thats because i'm just not smart enough to know all the hotkeys.

Try a Mac with Quicksilver installed. It is amazing. If you love Ctrl-Space completion in programming IDEs such as Eclipse or cannot live without tab completion in a shell you'll be blown away with how Quicksilver changes the way you use your Mac.

For example, to open up slashdot in my browser (without the browser currently running) I type `Ctrl-Space sla `. To find my friend Joe's phone number in my address book (once again without the address book app running) I type `Ctrl-Space joe`. Joe's picture pops up and I hit right arrow to display his details. Want to find a document called "Meeting Notes.txt" that lives somewhere on your machine. Type `Ctrl-Space mee` and you'll see it and a list of other files starting with "mee". Hit `tab` and you can choose to open it, print it, trash it, move it, copy it, etc all with a couple more keystrokes.

No mouse required.

I had pretty much the same opinion of Macs as you do before I actually sat down and used one for a while. I think most of my bias came from using pre-OS X machines. With OS 9 and before I found it incredibly difficult to do anything on a Mac without constantly reaching for the mouse.

With OS X + Quicksilver I honestly barely ever touch the mouse and can do much more and more quickly than I have ever been able to on a Windows machine.

BTW, you can open any app quickly using only your keyboard using http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
It will change your life, esp. if you are a command-line junkie. ...just wish I had something similar for my windows computer!

If you want a quality application launcher (that's all you really do with Win+R anyways) you can try Quicksilver. This thing is absolutely wonderful and it's free.

CTRL-Space, type a few letters of the app name, hit enter. Fastest way to launch apps, access bookmarks, do google and dictionary searches.... it's incredible. Very nearly what you're doing now, but smoothed.

Quicksilver

-While not Tiger-specific, Quicksilver doesn't have a calculator plugin.

It does, although it's really basic. Interestingly, it's called "Calculator Module," and serves as a Quicksilver-style frontend for UNIX (or POSIX?) commands bc or dc - you get to choose. It runs in the bezel. Press "." (dot) to enter input mode, write your math, tab to the right quadrant and get your result.

Of course, it uses command line-style syntax, and it outputs to the very basic stdout();.

If you like Spotlight (and a lot of people do), I would strongly advise you to check out QuickSilver. It performs a different but similar task, and is extremely useful.

I find that Spotlight is fantastic when I want to get an overview of things - for example, if I want to type in the name of my latest project and get all the correspondance, documents, and (commented) address book entries about it. I can hit Ctrl-Space, type in "Project Gopher" for example and hit 'All Results' and bring up a window where I can organize and sort through things, arrange data, and such.

QuickSilver, however, serves a different purpose. QS seems to be for finding one thing and doing something with it. For example, I can tap Ctrl, type in "Jake Baked" (or whoever), and as I'm typing, it will (after I've typed enough) show me that it found Jake's address book card. Then I hit Enter and it brings up a new Mail message to him.

That sounds a little complex, so an example: to send a message to Johnathan Boyt, I do "John" and that's it. If I had other Johnathans in my address book I could type 'Boyt' instead, or if I knew other Boyts as well, I could type 'jobo' or 'johnb' or whatever.

Similarly, if I want to launch an application, I can do likewise. I decided to try Automator today, so I just had to do "aut" and that was it - and keep in mind, this is tapping Control, not holding it.

Quicksilver is a lot faster than Spotlight (which is saying a lot, as Spotlight isn't the least bit sluggish), so it's excellent for when you just want to do one thing with one other thing. Spotlight is great when you want to find something in, or do something with, your data as a whole. They work fantastically well together, and when you realize what it is that they each do best, your life will get so much easier.

That's been a constant niggle to me for something like a year and a half. thanks!

wrt the parent:

The stuff that bugged me the most:

The dock is nice eye-candy and all, but a crappy application launcher. Between that and no right-click launch menu on the desktop, trying to run an application sucks. I found a couple different launchers that made this problem bearable:

One is X-10 launch studio, the other newer one is quicksilver. Now, launching an application (say, Transit) is "command-space transit enter". Much faster and easier.

Another one is the cluttery buildup of windows that comes without a decent pager. But I found desktop manager to be an excellent pager with nice eye-candy features, too.

There are other things I use alot, but those are the ones I can't live without.

p.s. If you are using one of the many carbon ports of emacs, might try a different one -- I use emacs hours a day on mine and have never have a crash. It may be as simple as that.

Because they never copy anything.

As for the info display panel, from what I've seen, it seems a lot like Konfabulator (http://www.konfabulator.com/). So, while it's nice to have these things built in, neither one of them are original ideas from either corporation.

Yes, but see, that takes your time. It used to be (and still is, like in the system you describe above) that finding something on a computer required an investment of time: either that time was used beforehand, ensuring proper organization, or at the time of the search - wading through poorly organized folders, duplicates, old files, etc...

But now, the promise of these tools - in theory - is that we can eliminate this investment of time. We can drop file wherever we want to, and the searching is instantaneous, by whatever bit of criteria we happen to need, conceive, or have access to, at the time of search.

It's not perfect, though: I know that my sense of organization has devolved since I started using Quicksilver, and that is sometimes a problem, when I am forced to go manually through folders. Heh, who knows - maybe Apple will release some sort of Spotlight -> Automator transition that allows people to use spotlight queries to actually reorganize their data permanently, not smart folder this and query that, but actually reorganize data in the filesystem based on certain things (kind of like how iTunes manages the folders in its library folder.)

With each OS X update, Apple introduces new APIs and "under the hood" functionality that does very cool things, thus providing a single, optimized solution to serve the functionality needs of all developers, as well as removing time-cost barriers to functionality implementation. And despite Mr. Thurrot's claims, these are no minor updates. Some of them drastically affect what a developer is capable of doing.

• webkit to integrate web interfaces
• cocoa bindings to ease UI development

• core data for data management
• core image and video for GPU-executed image and video effects (filters)
• Spotlight's API for meta-data based fast searching
• pdfkit for easy pdf document creation
• 64-bit processes
• and perhaps others

If developers didn't use these APIs in their apps, you wouldn't need to upgrade to use their apps, but you'd also lose out on all that cool functionality. A good example of this is the Quicksilver app, which is a really great UI that uses searching and a keyboard interface to let you find, open and do other things with your files and apps. Now with Spotlight, Quicksilve will be able to do the things it does, much quicker and it will be a heck of a lot easy to manage and execute the development.

I personally know people who have software ideas, who are simply waiting to get Tiger to implement them, because it will be SO much easier to actually build their app.

So you can stick with Panther or whatever, you just don't get to use the stuff developers will be using to make the stuff you want. Get it?

Whilst I agree with you, when I read that portion of his review I thought to myself that he might in fact be correct. It seems to me that most of the features being included in Tiger are beyond the user's immediate ability to see as they're all behind the scenes.

I don't know about you, but I think I'm more excited about the tools and features being brought to developers through Tiger than anything else. My favorite OS X app, Quick Silver, is requiring Tiger for it's next release. I'm looking forward to playing with these new features and seeing what developers do with them.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

• QuickSilver doesn't take up real estate. It sits in the background waiting for commands from you (mostly via the keyboard, but also via the mouse in some instances)
  
  
• You activate QS with a shortcut key, it pops up with a text field.
  
  
• You begin typing the name of the app or doc that you want to manipulate. Or, typing a command to activate a plugin (like '=' to signify you are typing a calculation)
  
  
• When your selection comes up (usually after two letters or so), you can then choose an action to perform on that object. For example: Launch (for apps), Reveal, Rename, e-mail, move to, delete, etc. (there are a ton of actions - you can make things defaults too)
  
  
• Some actions also have further input you can provide (all without moving your mouse and all without having to navigate anywhere or launch other programs).
  
  For example, if I select a document on my desktop, I can pick "e-mail" then select from my address book who to e-mail (just by typing part of their name) and QS will launch mail, start a new e-mail and attach the file I selected. You can even FTP this way too.
  
  
• It is plug-in based, so you can easily add other functionality. There are plug-ins available to even change the look of QS (I prefer the Spotlight style interface that pops up just under the menu bar). There's also plugins to allow you to control iTunes, iChat, Adium and other apps via the keyboard. There's even a weather and calculator plugin.
  
  
• It is adaptive and learns from how you use it - moving things around in the list so that frequently referenced items are selected more quickly.

I agree that the Finder has its issues. However, install QuickSilver and you won't bitch as much about the Finder anymore.

Most incredible and helpful piece of software ever.

if anyone doesn't believe me, go and look on apple and dell's website. it took me 3 minutes.

Okay, let's talk about lies, and maybe while we're at it we can go over apples and oranges.

I just went to the Dell site and spec'ed out an Inspiron 700m, their 12" offering, with similar specs as my 12" TiBook. $2036. This does not include any software like iLife, which came bundled with my Apple. Sorry bub, but by "maxed out" I meant 1GB RAM, DVD burner, the highest CPU speed, and all the other "maxed out" types of options. For your information, the backlit keyboard does not come on the 12". However, the new ones also have a swank two-finger window scroll function on the trackpad.

Look, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I'm a former MCSE who has been using Microsoft and Intel since DOS 3.1. It's not like I went into this because all the cute girls in my dorm had iBooks. I did a lot of research, and I actually waited until Jaguar came out before I was satisfied that they were onto something. I've had it for a year and there are still a few interface quirks that I'm getting used to, but with a little perseverance (and a liberal helping of Quicksilver) I am unlearning 20 years of Microsoft without having to sacrifice my 10 years of *BSD. I don't know where you get off, but it's apparent you haven't used Macs much.

I switched 3 weeks ago and have been very, very happy

I added a 12" PowerBook in addition to my Athlon desktop last month, and I'll tell you why I did, and why I am glad I did

• QuickSilver - with 5 keystrokes, max, launch any app or bookmark
• Adium, an AIM & MSN (and more) client that I wish were on windows
• Weight: 5 pounds. Very portable. It basically has the length and width of a piece of paper. Still a little taller than one
• Monitor: Very crisp
• 2 finger scrolling: very useful and easy
• $1299 at the local Apple Store, with edu discount

This laptop will probably convince me to buy a Mac desktop next. I keep trying to use Quicksilver on my Windows machine. I keep wishing the software I had on my Mac were available on my PC.

Yes, my iPod helped me become more comfortable with the Apple brand name before I bought my PowerBook. I used an old PowerBook at work before, and that got me hooked too.

I bought the laptop right before I left for the Middle East (Qatar to be specific) and wanted it to store images on. It cost a little bit more than a new, larger memory card. But it's been very, very worth it

While Exposé does improve the productivity in comparison to Windows, it doesn't match multiple desktops, IMO.

Download Quicksilver and use it for a little while. You'll never care about multiple desktops again...

Then after a week or so you get something like Launchbar or Quicksilver so you never have to look at the Dock or think in terms of virtual desktops again. And then a month down the line you pick up something like the Touchstream so you never have to touch your mouse again...

It's the best setup you'll ever use.

Well, I can't help with the focus follows mouse problem but there are a few good applications that I can recommend that might prove useful for you. Witch (http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?thema=witch&sp rache=english) will allow you to maximise from the dock and to switch between open windows. Making use of a good launcher like Butler (http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?thema=butler&s prache=english&kopf=labor), LaunchBar (http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/) or Quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/) to quickly open applications or documents. Another interesting application is GeekTool (http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/) which lets you display text files (i.e. logs), terminal output, or images on your desktop. Finally I recommend that you try out TinkerTool (http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html) for changing some of OS X's less apparent settings.

As a programmer, I am much more productive in Linux because I can tie almost everything I do in Gnome (or KDE) to a key command. I don't use the mouse very much (or at all) while programming in gvim or Eclipse, and it really slows me down when I need to, say, launch a terminal or a browser.

Try Quicksilver

It will let you lots of cool things with hot keys...

To quote the Quicksilver site: "In the end, Quicksilver has one very important effect. , The effort associated with frequent tasks fades into the background and you are able to act without thinking. After an adaptation period, Quicksilver becomes an extension of yourself; the process fades away leaving only the results"

There's a funny thing that goes on with discussions about bloat, eye-candy, and the rest. People talk about how "This feature distracts me, that feature distracts me, I just want to concentrate on the ONE THING."

The problem is, just concentrating on the one box of text, white on black, for hours on end is killer. It's very bad for your body!

The eyes blink less. The back hunches, the brow furrows. The eye muscles don't move. Switching applications replaces the large white square flecked with tiny bits of black with another large white square flecked with tiny bits of black. It's not good.

These moving animations are a good idea. Just as when you're outdoors, you can keep thinking even while the grass moves, while the birds swoop about, while a few people walk by on a path. There's no problem.

Indeed, many people find it easier to concentrate in an environment like this. By letting your eyes follow a person walking across the path, you decouple your mind from what you're seeing. Your brain doesn't look for the answer to the problem you're working on from the person... your eyes just take care of that, and you can move on to abstract thought.

This sort of thing would be *fantastic* for a desktop. Yes, it will probably be overused for flashy bling bling effects. Yes, when teenagers get their hands on this, it'll be a mess.

There will still likely be a lot of decent environments in which you can really get a lot more work done.

You ask "Is this all the future holds?" The question I ask is "What should the future hold?" I think the future should be one in which using a computer is a great deal less unpleasant. The movie Brazil paints a brilliant picture of what our work lives are like today... we squint at glowing tubes and fiddle through endless file folders , sending off thousands of identical documents for who knows what purpose. To figure out what anything *is* in our work world take as good thirty seconds of squinting.

In a world where an ordinary desktop computer can calculate more in a week than the human race did for its first ten thousand years, what else is left but to make working with files less painful and more sane?

Maybe QuickSilver, and whatever predated it on standard Unix.

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, you might find Quicksilver useful. To open Word, for example, I just tap the Command key, type W, and hit return. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Note: I am end user only.

Using OS X for more than a year as my only OS I really don't get one thing.

Why the x86 Linux/BSD people love OS X and not using WindowMaker as their desktop?

If just 3x people use windowmaker as their desktop it will lead to real interesting places in just 1 year.

I used windowmaker for 1 year back on my Linux days, now on OS X , I moved dock to right side, having lots of "dock apps" which are OS X native but still OpenStep (I think?) I really wonder why people doesn't at least try that little window manager and environment...

KDE and Gnome. One uses "K!", other uses "foot", start menu... Ahem, Microsoft does it better if you want a start menu people...

I bet there are start menu like utilities on OS X (launcher?) but really, I am staying away from them. I try some NEW inventions like QuickSilver. Now thats worth trying since its also a NEW approach. As usual, they have Cocoa power at back I guess. Did I say I am only end user?
http://docs.blacktree.com/doku.php?id=quicksilver: what_is_quicksilver

People, its easy to download windowmaker with 56k modem even. If you liked a single screen, aspect of OS X, try it.

OS X doesn't support virtual desktops out of the box, but there are plenty of utilities that do a great job. Desktop Manager is free and probably the best of the bunch.

On the topic of little things OS X is missing, Quicksilver is a great application launcher that makes the dock all but obsolete.

Quicksilver is pretty bad-ass. You forgot to include a link, though.

No offence, but your problem seems to be much more a user issue, than a computer one.

I'm a fairly recent Mac convert (who still works with x86 boxes), but the Mac has done nothing but continue to impress me with both its speed, and with it's depth (Most of the time, if you're still finding new capabilities with an app after 6 months of usage, it's indicative of a poorly designed GUI. With the Mac, there's just so damn many features/capabilities that they're often not evident to the casual user).

The file copying example you refer to could be many things, from software conflicts, to physical issues with the memory. There's just so many variables, it's not really answerable without more details (not that I'm trying to troubleshoot it... Just pointing out that your complaint can be applied just about any PC, dependant upon circumstances.). My guess is that your slow Mac may be running less than the optimal amount of memory (OSX is much more "memory hungy" than any MS OS).

I know that in my case. my Mac often copies small to medium sized files (less than 40mb) so quickly, I'll have to re-verify that the copy actually took place. And this is on a dual 2ghz Mac, with 512mb ram (which really needs to be upped to 2.5gb ASAP - Speed should increase quite a bit just getting it up to 1gb, as right now I've got a lot of disk swappin' going on).

I'm also unsure as to your Mac experience from your posting, but daily use of my Mac continues to improve my efficiency. You seem to be growing more frustrated with your Mac experience (which begs the question of why you're using it - Toss it my way if you'd like, and I'll put it good use!), whereas increased usage continually reassures me that my Mac was money well spent (and believe you me, it took me awhile to finaly take the plunge and buy me a Mac).

It's all been said before, but features which make the Mac great are many: Fast (contrary to your experiences), well thought out GUI and features, it's incredably easy to get to grips with just about any Mac program, and once you're ready, most apps offer a small ton of features which increases their value/longetivity even further.

Then of course, we have its Unix capabilities, Applescript, built in PHP, Perl, Ruby, Java, and all the dev tools one could ask for. All capable of system programming.

Then there's those programs which which make the Mac stand out so much over its competition: Delicious Monsters Library, the very impressive Platypus, and of course the "can't do without" Quicksilver.

I won't turn into a gloating "Mac Fanboy" here, but the Mac is a power users dream. Its power and efficiency continues to amaze me. I only hope that the MacMini allows "John Q. Public" to experience the joy that is OSX first-hand.

Is better than any of these apps....

Check it out .

I've used Google Desktop Search and Copernic, and Quicksilver is lust way ahead...

It's got plugins of practically any type of data and customised actions attached to those data types.

Please, the Mac shareware developers practically invented this genre:

Launchbar (the first)

Quicksilver The current favorite, and free.

Butler About the same as Quicksilver, more features but not as slick.

No need to wait for Tiger... http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/ is nearly perfect. Type ahead find on any file, app, or the contents thereof, then run any number of actions on that object. Run it, pipe it, control iTunes with it, bind keys with it... no need for docks or menus ever again.

Speaking of shareware, it's probably worth mentioning that right now, OS X has an incredible selection of shareware available.

Seriously, there are so many astoundingly good programs out there for free/cheap for solving all those pesky annoyances. Independent developers are pumping out titles rivaling the quality of software produced by big companies. It's really a testament to the APIs put out by Apple.

Just to name a few,
quicksilver - data access tool. one of the most innovative programs i've ever used.
CSSEdit - simplistic stylesheet creator/editor. allows idiots to produce valid CSS
Transmit - wonderful FTP client (my only gripe is that this should've been intergrated into the OS itself)
Acquisition - one of the best p2p clients known to man.
Adium X - the power of gaim + the beauty of OSX = priceless
BBEditBBEdit - so it's a bit more well-known than the others here, but is still a marvelous editor. a bit expensive and out of my budget. I use jEdit instead (which is cross-platform, BTW)

just to name a few..... (feel free to add more)

Could someone tell me how all of these Desktop search tools compare to things like Launchbar, Butler, and Quicksilver?

Thanks.

Uh... CTRL-F2? What's wrong with that keyboard combination to get full menu access? If you don't like it, you can always change the key in keyboard preferences. If it isn't on, hit ctrl-F1 to toggle it.

'll edit a few things to the timeline in premiere with keyb and hit ALT+F->A to save as, type the filename, and alt-f->n with a new project

CMD-SHIFT-S (for save, get it?) is "Save As" in many Mac apps (CMD-S saves in ANY Mac app that needs saving). I prefer pivoting on my thumb to using my pinky for command keys, feels more ergonomic.

The alt-tab addition to OSX is great

WTF? the Mac is getting a new keyboard? There's no alt key. Maybe you mean CMD-tab ;-)

This is still missing though... Some of us like GUI with heavy keyboard shortcuts.

Easy, turn on full keyboard access in the keyboard control panel! You can tab to nearly any user interface element. I have to say, screaming around with the keyboard, especially through directories (CMD-arrowkeys and the first letters of a name), is pretty slick on a mac. Then add Quicksilver, and blow your mind, for some nearly prescient keyboard control. I only use the mouse to draw/shoot things, or for variety when I'm feeling leisurely, or to use the nice drag and drop that actually works across all apps.

In the days of classic mac OS, I used KeyQuencer, a really light, really powerful system-wide macro program, and am hoping that Tiger's new automation will bring back some of that one-keystroke-does-half-a-day's-work-in-multiple-p rograms goodness.

I'd like take this opportunity to post some advice spam to open-source UI designers (especially those affiliated with GNOME) :

QuickSilver for Mac OS X is the most useful new UI concept I have ever encountered. It has a smooth learning curve that's lets novices use it instantly and advanced users [I've been using it for a year] continue to increase it's utility long after most products reach an apex of mastery.

There needs to be an open-source clone of QuickSilver for GNOME or KDE!

I think that this would be an incredible boon to the open-source community, and have every desire to spam slashdot until it happens.