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Wasted cycles, who cares? But, more importantly, these wasted cycles also take _my time_ for them to render. I find window management more of a chore than necessary already, now I'm supposed to be entertained or something while things flip around in a 2d representation of 3d space?

Why can't companies like Sun focus on things that are important to computing that are real problems. What problem is this 3d stuff solving?

Here is a small list of things people:

- Uniform cut and paste and drag and drop in a windowing environment.
- A way to install software (yes, its 2004 and there is no sane way to install 3rd party software)
- Common APIs for common "desktop" tasks. Wanna "rule the desktop"? How about providing something new? Like a uniform spell checker that you can embed in all apps. Its annoying that I can't spell check this post. I have spell checkers, but I cant just do it. Why is it that I do a search in a web page, and then I spend more time searching the screen for the little highlighted word than it took me to initiate the search? This is broken that it take me more time to find something that the computer has already found. How about a "file centric" GUI instead of a GUI centric GUI? I prefer the commandline, why? Because it allows me to do anything I want to my files that are sitting in front of me. I can say "vi file", or "cp file somewhere", or "cmp file1 file2", "cc file", "ispell file", or even create a new file! etc. In a gui, I have a list of my files, but I can't do anything with them. If I'm in a file browser, what are my options? I can click on something, sort it differently, thats about it. How about something away from the "Apple or Start menu"? Take a look at LaunchBar for the Mac. At any time, all I have to do is hit "applethingy-space" and then start typing what I want to launch. I can launch any app faster than hunting it down and double clicking on it, or meandering through some menu. What about revision management in docs? Why can I find any document on the web in less than 30 secs, but it takes forever, if not impossible to find something on my computer or our LAN? I could go on and on.
- How about software that instead of saying "No such file or directory", or "ls -M
ls: illegal option -- M
usage: ls [-ABCFGHLPRTWabcdfghiklnoqrstu1] [file ...]" I didn't make that up, that is what I cut and pasted from a FreeBSD box. But instead gives the user hints as to what to do. Perl does this to some extend. With its help in finding a runaway bracket or quote instead of saying "parse error".

I find my computing experience lacking day to day, but I never thought, "You know what? I need more eye candy to solve these problems". The WIMP/Desktop interface has pretty much not changed since the Xerox Star came out with it in what 1979.

Look at the iPod for inspiration. No its not perfect, but its significantly different from a slew of other devices that do the same thing, but for some reason people like the iPod better. Look at Apple with Expose and Rendezvous. Again, not perfect, but at least different.

Oh, and btw, Microsoft is actually getting it right with Longhorn. This appears to be a step towards a filecentric OS. Also, Microsoft has added many things to the file manager window such as "common tasks" or whatnot (I'm not a M$ customer, but I've seen these things).

EOR

1) make up your own protocol, say, "gumbi://"
2) before you link to this protocol, make the user download "http://your.ip.address/eraseharddrive.dmg". The user downloads this and mounts it (because most browsers automatically open .dmg files by default)

yep but in case this isn't totally redundant already, this whole boogaloo can be avoided with the Little Snitch. When the diskimage-loader tries to access the net, you WILL be prompted by the SNitch. simply deny the connection and watch as "gumbi" is reported as an unknown protocol, and the whole exploit fails.

[disclaimer:not affiliated with obdev, just a satisfied user]

Anyone surfing without an application sensitive firewall should catch a clue.

The first time Mozilla tried to mount a sample exploit .dmg Little Snitch popped up wanting to know if this should be allowed.

Granted, your run of the mill user would likely click through allowing the mount, but they would probably do the same with Paranoid Android, and LS covers all applications trying to establish external connections, a real plus in todays wired world.

the Snitch seems to block bogus protocol handlers. as long as LS queries you about the "diskimages-handler", the connection can be blocked, and the image fails to mount. camino gives me "malware is not a registered protocol" :) strange tho--in the FA they have the link to the ftp exploit as well. i know very well that ftp is allowed by LS to connect whenever/wherever so i tried that exploit. it didnt work either, not clear why. so with the apple update and Little Snitch, mac users should be safe...
but for how long??

Little Snitch is good for preventing anything from phoning home. Does have slightly annoying behavior unless it's registered, however. Anyone know of an OSS program to do this?

...the best thing to happen to GUIs in years... a command line on steroids. I can barely stand using computers without it anymore.

Wow, that was the second on topic-post... :-)

For myself, running OS X (Panther), it's:

1. LaunchBar
2. Default Folder
3. ASM
4. LiteSwitch (I use Adobe apps and don't want to learn new selection-tool-switching habits)
5. FruitMenu
6. WindowShade
7. Little Snitch
8. Net Monitor
9. Eudora
10. Mozilla


slide

Wow, that was the second on topic-post... :-)

For myself, running OS X (Panther), it's:

1. LaunchBar
2. Default Folder
3. ASM
4. LiteSwitch (I use Adobe apps and don't want to learn new selection-tool-switching habits)
5. FruitMenu
6. WindowShade
7. Little Snitch
8. Net Monitor
9. Eudora
10. Mozilla


slide

I don't install very often because I use a Mac running OSX. When i get a new machine though, here are my top ten:

1) Menu Meters -- I couldn't live without it
2) SQLGrinder -- great DB programming tool
3) SubEthaEdit -- great editor, supports collaborative development via Rendezvous
4) Little Snitch -- lets me know when a program tries to go out on the network on its own.
5) BBEdit -- the ultimate editor. How does anyone ever live without it?
6) Timbuktu -- great for managing all those Macs and PCs remotely.

nobody asked, but that won't stop me from answering :)

For AIM: Adium
For a tweaked OS: Cocktail and TinkerTool
For a better OS: my collection of haxies for Unsanity's Application Enhancer (ClearDock, FruitMenu, Metallifizer, Mighty Mouse, ShapeShifter, SharedMenus, Silk, WindowShade X)
For privacy/security: NetBarrier, PeerVanguard (not because I trade P2P, but because I wear a tinfoil hat), Little Snitch
Helpful apps: Butler, QuickSilver, DragThing
For everything else: VLC, SBook5, Transmit, Path Finder, Apple Dev Tools

it's more than 10, but those are all put almost instantly on every fresh OS X install I touch.

Mostly because of the stability of the code, combined with the uniformity of the interface. And to be clear, I'm hardly a Mac die-hard: I started my computer career on a Commodore Vic-20, moved to a C64, then used some variant of IBM knockoffs running various versions of windows up through XP Pro, before buying my first Mac a year ago.

And yes, it's easier to use. Took a bit of getting used to and the installation of LaunchBar, but I'd say it's the easiest to use machine I've ever had.

complete lack of adware and spyware on the Mac OS platform.

I didn't post above, but I currently use both XP and 2000 daily. Make your own decisions but I also use OS X daily and it's far and away the most pleasant working environment I've encountered to date. That doesn't mean it's perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but that's not the point now, is it.

As for "OS 9," um, who's talking about OS 9?

If you want Unix, install Linux... FreeBSD... SuSE... Debian... Lycoris... Lindows... There are choices in the Windows world.

Well, by the time I've finished clicking through the (Continue) buttons in an OS X install I've managed to install both the entire GUI environment and the entire Unix OS. I can also install other Unix systems on Mac hardware, but frankly I've got everything I need right here.

I don't need to install anything else except Logic Pro 6, Ableton Live, MetaSynth, ArtMatic Pro, MetaTrack, Voyager, VTrack, Absynth, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniDiskSweeper, Studiometry, FileMakerPro, Adobe Creative Suite, LaunchBar, MySQL, Perl 5.8.3, Fink, Plone, Keynote, BBEdit, FastTrack Schedule Pro, Sonasphere, Toast 6, ZBrush, and a few more but I'll get to those tomorrow.

I run all these (plus my email, internet, contacts management, calendaring, etc) in the same operating environment; not an emulation shell, not after dual-booting, but in the very same operating system and simultaneously.

To top it all off OS X comes with a full set of developer tools, documentation and optimization utilities, plus Cocoa+Obj-C is a match made in heaven.

There's no need to pay Apple for a decent Unix experience.

Well, I believe there is. I enjoy the ability to support quality whether it's a film, a restaurant, a music venue, a book, clothing, my neighborhood, an artist, etc. every single day.

The hardware is just a hunk of material until you've discovered/designed an interface with which to use it. Solely on a base consumer level, I'm very happy to pay Apple for what is, in daily practice, a superior computer operating system. From the level of both a technology consultant and a media creator, the solution is very simple.

OS X is a very impressive "Holy Grail" for all my current activities. Strap me in because I'm ready to get to work.

I have not come across any major apps I use on OS X that have a built-in "Spyware", much less have tried to hijack my browser (Safari). There are the occasional free/shareware games etc. that I have downloaded which try to call home when they are launched. Any thing that displays such behaviour is trashed immediately.

A suggestion to OS X users: get a copy of Little Snitch. Any time an "unauthorized" connection is innitiated from your Mac, Little Snitch will "blow the whistle" on the offending app. It is also vey easy to set up a list of un/authorized apps and the port(s) they are not/allowed to talk on.

After I started using it, I was a little surprised at how many junk/spam email I found calling home either to pull in some content or to log which email@address had actually clicked on the spam. Previously, I knew this was going on (email/web-bug), but I was just surprised at how prevalent it had become.

cheers- raga

I was looking for something similar and in the end I came up with the idea of using LaunchBar at home and AppRocket at work.

It's not ideal, but it does mean that I can just shove everything remotely useful in as a bookmark and use them to search my bookmarks (and remember the search terms I use).

(redundant) I gotta agree with you about LaunchBar. For those who don't know, LaunchBar is an amazing utility that gives you keyboard access to all your apps, documents, mp3s, address book entries, bookmarks, etc., and it learns shortcuts based on your typing habits. Hit command-space and then type "saf" to launch Safari, hit command-space and type "sd" to go to Slashdot. The best part is you can drag and drop things onto whatever you've typed, and drag things out too. It's the best of both worlds (GUI and CLI).

Well, that's enough shameless ass-kissing for one day...

yours

LaunchBar for Mac OSX comes pretty close to this, you just have to hit then type some part of the name and there it is. I can no longer work well without it. If anyone knows of a similar thing for Windows, let me know and I'll install it on my 'other' machine.

Sounds like you need OS X and LaunchBar. I used to do what you do with Windows, but you'll probably point out that there's a trade-off. Your method is labor intensive, but you know exactly what's-what, LaunchBar's method is non-labor intensive and makes it easy for different text patterns open the same item, but it requires an annoying disk-crunching search at login. So there's pros and cons. Oh, and your method uses no RAM...besides a tiny symmlink in memory.

1. A lot of users have gone either of two ways for Apps:

a) create a Folder of Aliases to your Apps (you can also do subfolders), then drag that Folder to your Dock; a right-click reveals the hierarchy; downside: manual adding.

b) use a utility like LaunchBar or AnotherLauncher that enables you to get to Apps (or anything else for that matter) with a couple of keys.

2) This is what the new Expose feature in Panther is designed to do. Pretty spiffy.

I've found Sharity to be quite useful. It's "free" for single-server home use too....

While OS X seems relatively secure as far as net vulnerabilities go, there is still a very real risk of a user unknowingly installing something containing hostile code. It might even happen when installing a security utility. It's a bit spooky that Little Snitch, a utility for showing spyware phoning home, has had reports on macupdate.com saying that IT phones home. It gets spookier when one explores the developer's site and finds that they wrote a paper mentioning their kernel extension supporting keyloggers among other things. I'd love to see an open-source GUI-supporting OS X version of tripwire. I believe it'd have to be installed before the hostile code to detect it. I have no idea what'd work after the fact. Perhaps a utility to scan hiding places for data could help. I'd like to check the alpha channel of all TIFF images (including icons) for a start. Perhaps it'd help to examine publicly offered keylogger/spyware utilities with a package manager and see what they're installing.

Exactly. LaunchBar is a great substitute for mousing around in the Finder. I don't really even need to use the Finder much. You just type command-space and some abbreviation of the name of what you want like T for Terminal or IT for iTunes and hit return. If you hate navigating through the Finder, you should definitely check it out.

Get LaunchBar, you won't regret it. I now keep a minimum of things in my dock for the purposes of launching them, but everything's still just a couple keystrokes away no matter how deeply it's buried in subdirectories.

~Philly

I believe the rumour refers to MaxMenus using a hidden AppleScript or somesuch to send personal details (such as your e-mail address) back to Proteron. It's reproted to be an anti-piracy measure. Personally, I don't know if this is true (because I don't own/use MaxMenus or have it on my machines), but there are references to the hidden code on various Mac news and rumour sites.

To test if this is actually happening or not, perhaps someone who has just installed MaxMenus could use Little Snitch to see if there's anything outgoing from their machine to Proteron.

D.

p.s. when they mimic the (incredibly useful) LaunchBar though, things will start to smell a little fishy around here. Just watch and see, it's bound to happen. Way too good of an idea to go unexploited...

Did I mention that Launchbar is the greatest productivity enhancer...I couldn't live without it.

Single-handedly speeds up your OS X computing experience tenfold...which can come in handy for those who feel OS X is ten times slower ;0> 'ba-bum-bum...thank you very much...I'll be here all week...'

LittleSnitch solves this very problem.

It monitors and controls an individual application's access to network resources: in essense, you can write "firewall" rules for individual applications, applying to each one a different measure of trust.

A lot of people below were bemoaning the ipfw-based solutions, since they don't work... which is true :)

LittleSnitch is a Mac OS X application, but, I'm positive GNU/Linux and Windows applications exist to do the same thing.

LittleSnitch solves this very problem.

It monitors and controls an individual application's access to network resources: in essense, you can write "firewall" rules for individual applications, applying to each one a different measure of trust.

A lot of people below were bemoaning the ipfw-based solutions, since they don't work... which is true :)

LittleSnitch is a Mac OS X application, but, I'm positive GNU/Linux and Windows applications exist to do the same thing.

Here's the writeup from this year's innovators contest:

• LaunchBar for Mac OS X uses a powerful, fault-tolerant abbreviation search algorithm and a sophisticated rating system to deliver fast, accurate search results from abbreviations typed on the fly. Intuitive and adaptive, LaunchBar allows a user to enter a range of abbreviations for any term. It analyzes the user's behavior and adapts rating criteria dynamically, so search results become more accurate as LaunchBar "learns" how to serve the user.

I use OS X every day. Every night, too.

The list of things I like about OS X would be far too long to post here.

My favorite OS X tool? Tough one. I love Terminal, of course, but I'd have to say the coolest thing around for OS X is LaunchBar. Every app, url, email address, and file on your system available with a few keystrokes.

The folder method doesn't work for me for two important reasons.

1. Folders in the dock all look alike unless I create custom folders.

2. I have to click hold and drag which is very different than click, click.

In OS 9 I had six labeled tabs each with about 20 items. This gave me two click access to about 120 items. This is the standard I am working against. I'm not saying the dock should emulate this exactly, but fast hierarchical access to a decent number of frequently used items is important for people like me who work with lots of apps.

Truth be told, OS X has two third party apps which ease my pain somewhat:

Launchbar is genius and is my main launching tool these days. It is the perfect geek too. But it doesn't allow me to browse a category... let's say vector graphics apps... in order to "discover" a tool I might use.

Dragthing takes up the rest of the slack providing 90% of the functionality of the old style tabs. My only criticism is that drag thing is not built in and integrated at a core level.

While I love these apps, I believe that Apple could put the same team that came up with Exposé to come up with a fantastic solution to this problem so that all users would benefit.

Sounds a lot like the excellent LaunchBar, except LaunchBar doesn't index content (I don't think, anyway) - although OS X's find utilitie does and it would be trivial to integrate the two I'd imagine.

The single greatest enhancement to OS X is Launchbar--

Find, manipulate, launch anything anywhere on your computer...applications or files. You will not understand how you lived without it.

Not only does OS X have reasonable keyboard navigation options in preferences as others have pointed out, but if you really want power-user keyboard navigation check out this utility launchbar. It pretty much does everything under the sun; I don't use it myself but I played with it and it's insane; for people who like to avoid the mouse at all costs this is the thing for you.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I have found some third party tools can help a lot.

1) Launchbar really helps with launching apps from the keyboard only. Try the demo, once you get used to it, you'll never go back.

2) I use Rhapsodized as my theme. I also hate the pinstripes of OS X and can't stand the gum-drop buttons. Fortunately, I don't have to.

Just a couple of suggestions.

Doesn't seem to break the third-party utils I use (FruitMenu and WindowShade X and LaunchBar). Also doesn't restore my iBook 500 to pre-10.1.5 performance levels, but I need an excuse to get an AlBook anyway...

1. Ogg - You're right, ogg support is weak in iTunes, but most ogg-heads are using unix tools to manipulate them, so I would search there rather than expecting it in iTunes. Ogg is younger than mp3; apple will support it if they think people want to use it, and I imagine they are figuring that out. In the meantime, use whatever unix folks are using to automate CD ripping and ogg encoding; I am certain the tools exist to do this and that they will run on OS X.

2. For keyboard navigation check out launchbar which you'll probably find meets your needs. Me I'm still hoping for menu navigation like OtherMenu used to provide back in the 8.5 days....

3. For graphical ftp, nothing compares to Interarchy, but if you're more comfortable with the windows-style graphical ftp clients like cuteftp you should look elsewhere; interarchy's interface is a lot like the finder.

LaunchBar makes working with OS X as quick and easy as being in the shell.

I type in Apple+Space and then type the first few letters of the application, file or web page I want to open & LaunchBar opens it.

Buying LaunchBar was some of the best money I've ever spent.

Get yourself this >>>> Launchbar

Note: only for OS X.

"aunchBar provides lightning fast access to thousands of files, web-bookmarks, email-addresses and applications just by entering short abbreviations. Type OW to launch OmniWeb, AHN to open the "Apple Hot News" web page, BM to write an email to "Bob Miller" or HP01 to locate a folder named "Holiday Pictures 2001".

The set of items and their corresponding abbreviations don't need to be configured manually. LaunchBar uses a very powerful, adaptive abbreviation search algorithm that allows you to enter any thinkable abbreviation of the searched item.

To ensure a maximum of keyboard control, LaunchBar can be activated very quickly using a system wide hotkey. "

There are a few things that I do to enhance my OS X experience. I work in Linux systems deployment for a software firm, and spend mucho time at the command line. I *do* think that the Apple Terminal application is a bit slow, so I use Eterm under XDarwin/Gnome for my terminal needs. My other suggestion is installing Launchbar. This program makes every command/application/document/etc. available by typing a few characters. It's highly configurable and allows you to keep your hands on the keyboard for just about every task.

These tools, plus the multitasking ability (versus OS 9's inability) allow me to be more efficient on OS X. Speed doesn't really matter as much, since I can still get my work done.

Oh, and here's a nifty screenshot that illustrates that productivity :)

I use Launchbar on OS X and it gives me this functionality plus, without having to have everything on my desktop.

It indexes the contents of my drive including browser bookmarks, email addresses, preference panels, Watson tools, and documents. I can hit a hotkey, type the first few letters of what I'm looking for and am given a list of all the possible matches. I can then select the one I want. It remembers what my selections have been so the next time those selections are at the top of the list.

It can also function as an app switcher and a temporary shelf for moving files. As well I can drag documents to the selected app on the shelf to launch them with that app.

First shareware app I bought with an hour of using it.

Why not make a link so that people can use it easily?

[...] there is no *seamless* sharing system.

Ah, but there is. Last I checked (and that was in 1999) Sharity did almost everything in the Right Way.

You get a single mount point, say /smb/ and in there you have all workgroups as directories. Each of those are filled with directories for each machine in the workgroup and the next level of directories are for each share on the machine.

So you automatically get a directory /smb/workgroup/jukebox/ogg for the ogg share of the machine "jukebox". This hierarchy is updated continuously. Upon access, you get a GUI dialog for entering username and password if those are required. It worked perfectly, even back in 1999.

The one problem, of course, is that it costs a small fortune. It boggles my mind that nobody has done a free implementation of this obvious idea. Rather, you get tools for manually selecting and mounting each single share, basically front-ends for smbmount. This is silly, the network should be a part of the file system, not something you operate on in a special way all the time.

Something a bit more automatic seems to be available here. I have not tested it, though - I have moved on and currently have no need for Windows sharing.

Thrig - thanks MUCH. Just installed LaunchBar, and it rocks. Anyone who's reading this - TRY LAUNCHBAR.

[this was not a paid advertisement.]

I'm kind of surprised OmniOutliner didn't get a nod. Like OmniGraffle, it's an impressive show of what cocoa can do. I'm guessing they just didn't have version 2.0 out in time.

Oh, and LaunchBar. I can't live without that.

I didn't buy it. I got the student license. Take a look at http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/free.html

Has anyone tried sharity? (http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/index.html)? I got a license for it a while back but haven't gotten around to trying it.

No, connecting to a share is not the same as browsing all available shares on the LAN. Currently I use Sharity -- look at a screenshot and you'll see the difference.

something that will let you browse windows shares

I installed Sharity last week. It has a variety of licensing options; I got it free since I'm dot-edu staff. Sharity has excellent SMB browsing.

Unfortunately it still couldn't access the one share I wanted -- maybe unhappy about a space in the share name. I had to use mount_smbfs in Terminal instead.

p.s. a quickie Google search revealed some interesting options. Remember: Google makes all computing simple!