Users Hack Aqua to Make It More Usable

edibleplastic writes: "Wired is running an article about how many beta testers of Aqua are hacking the software in order to return it somewhat to its previous appearance. From the article: '"The most distressing part is feeling like a complete novice again." McIntyre said. "I've been using and programming Macs for ten years, and now I'm sitting in front of it going 'What? Huh? How do I launch an application? Where did my icons go?' Talk about disorientation."' Among the hacks are a desktop trash bin and the OpenStrip, an Open Source version of the Control Strip."

Comments

three types of os x pb user

[mr_burns]

I've been using os x pb for a while now as my primary OS. I've also been a mac user since before they were shipping to customers, and a linux user since kernel 2.0. What I have to say about reaction to the gui is it depends on what kind of user you are. I won't go back to the old GUI...even though I love it so....I get things done so much faster, smoother, and I find that i actually enjoy computing a whole lot more with aqua...i call it the "whistle while you work" factor. The thing is that it takes a few weeks to hit your stride with the interface, and a lot of people are willing to deride and hack at it before they get a rtrue feeling for what it does for them.

There are three types of os X PB user.

first week of usage:
Unix guy: "Hey, the filesystem looks all funky, how come editing half the stuff in /etc does nothing? Neat ssh and sshd are installed alraedy"

Mac - Linux guy: "Where's the chooser? Where am I? screw it...cd ../ what happens if I nmap this box?"

Mac guy: "Where's my damned tabbed folder...where's the chooser?"

Week 3:

Unix guy: "Cool...NetInfo does all the etc stuff...not to self, do not give anyone UID 500"

Mac - Linux guy "Sweet...got X-windows apps running in aqua, screw classic environment to run pshop...I've got gimp. Macos 9 gui is butt ugly compared to aqua"

Mac guy: "Ok...I can put an alias on the desktop, that'll be kinda like tabbed folders. I can get to the fileserver through the go menu. Internet Explorer is a piece of crap that doesn't know how to save files...classic is slow"

Week 5:

Unix guy "holy crap...if I type >console at login, I get a console....sweet"

mac - linux guy "cool, I can customize the desktop and GUI to my liking at the prompt....this is WAY better than ResEdit...I can get all the things I mis....wait, I don't miss the finder at all"

mac guy "I think I can work with this"

What's so controversial about this?

[AntiPasto]

This can be summed up very easily. People prefer familiarity in GUI, and change only gradually, and when they see benefits.

Just like when Windows 95 users ran progman.exe to get their old folders and icons back, and those who run X just to have multiple X terms... some eventually change, and others just stay for whatever reasons: ease of use, no desire to learn new ways, or just to get things done without having to worry about changing the way you work.

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No big deal

[Auckerman]

Classic MacOS users have been hacking thier OS to make it more "useable" for years. I remember installing Aaron to make MacOS 7.5 look like what became MacOS 8. Speed Doubler, Launcher bars, Now Menus (tm), and even NeXt like docks are all available. This is not news.

What is news, is the fact that Apple has provided simple commands to change almost every aspect of how your desktop looks. Want a semi-transparent terminal? How about the trash on the desktop? Maybe you want that useless Apple in the middle of the Menu bar to actually do something, I'm sure you can do it. What's also cool is that "$man netinfo" pulls up a nice manual (read book) on the database for system settings, or that "$man perl" pulls up a damn BOOK on how to code Perl. OS X has the first functional man pages I've seen in my life (that is, they aren't written in geek speak for coders).

some ppl use Macs not for the interface

[myc]

John Siracusa, a programmer who has written reviews of Mac OS X for Ars Technica, said that while the new system is more powerful, no one uses the Mac for technical reasons, they use it because of the interface.

Not entirely true. Do Macs not have superior color calibration capabilities, and thus is the preferred platform for graphics designers? Furthermore, some of use Macs because the PHB uses them (lots of PHBs in academia use Macs).


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Santa Claus: "Ho ho ho!"

Re:some ppl use Macs not for the interface

[tbo]

John Siracusa, a programmer who has written reviews of Mac OS X for Ars Technica, said that while the new system is more powerful, no one uses the Mac for technical reasons, they use it because of the interface.

It may be true that no one uses MacOS 8/9 for technical reasons, except graphics designers. If so, it's also true that nobody uses Windows for any good reason, except that everyone else does. :-)

From a technical standpoint, Mac OS X is on par with or superior to Linux in many ways. Take a look at IOKit or Quartz or the capability for stackable file systems. Cocoa is also a sweet framework, and Project Builder is a very nice IDE, with all the standard unix tools (gcc, gdb...) in the backend. Why do I say it's technically superior in some ways? Because BSD is technically superior to Linux in some ways, and MacOS X inherits from BSD. Apple has also added some nice extras, as I mentioned earlier.

Linux zealots: yes, go ahead and flame. "There's no way Apple could ever match the holy power of the Penguin," yada yada... Keep in mind OS X isn't the dark side any more--a lot of it is Open Source. Hell, you should even be able to run Linux binaries...

Hard core hackers

[Zico]

I'm glad they rectified the problem. I just don't feel like an elite, hard core, down-to-the-metal hacker unless I have on my computer desktop a group of pixels in the shape of a garbage can.

Cheers,

Re:Not true- many mac users customize

[Mr. Barky]

Many user interface studies have shown that it is significantly faster to have the menu on the top than on the top of Windows. Why? The menu height is infinite so there is much less need for fine motor control - you just jam the mouse to the top of the screen. The reason people don't think it is faster is that when accessing a menu on the top of a Window, users are using that fine motor control and lose track of the time it is taking. In other words, you may perceive it to be faster, but if you use a stop watch, it is actually slower. The orignal Macintosh user-interface designers studied this very carefully when they made the decision to put it on top.

See this article on AskTog (go to question #5)