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What Mac OS X Could Learn From Windows

Posted by timothy on from the how-to-humiliate-and-belittle-users dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It is almost unheard of to see something written about what OS X could learn from Windows but this details some good examples. And yes, it includes the right-click mouse." I find about half the suggestions compelling enough to be worth griping over, and the other half off-base, but YMMV.

4 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Control keys? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple - and the zealotry - need to concede that this battle is lost.

    Huh? So Apple are meant to disrupt the muscle memory of practically every Apple user, by dropping a scheme that they have stuck to for decades, to make it slightly easier for a minority of people who use two different systems on a regular basis?

    What complete and utter nonsense. What next? Drop the dock in favour of a taskbar that works like Windows... because "this battle is lost"? After all, if it doesn't work like Windows, then it must be a disaster!

    1. Re:Control keys? by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Using control keys for keyboard shortcuts for menus would be... disastrous, IMHO. Imagine trying to use Terminal if copy were control-C.

      Control keys are valid ASCII characters. Overriding their functionality so they are captured at the GUI level and thus removing the ability to freely use them as characters would be a significant step in the wrong direction.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  2. Two Button Mouse by jpiggot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple has had support for a two button mouse for the better part of twenty years. Just plug one it, and go...simple as that. The fact that most users chose not to spend the extra $30 to do so, tells you that they didn't really miss it.

    --
    StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
  3. Tourist visits another country by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every time I hear about articles like this, even if they have some sort of merit, I feel that the author missed something:

    If I travel to another country, people there have their way of doing things. They have their own culture. Sure things may seem difficult to the foreigner, but to the people living there everything makes sense and for them it is obvious. The only way to deal with it is to learn about that culture and accept things for what they are. Of course that doesn't mean that they are immune to learning different ways of doing things.

    Switching to a different OS is much the same thing. Not everything is going to make sense, but some things might. Over time you learn the way things work there and accept things for what they are, better or worse.

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.