OS X Vs. Vista — In Spandex

An anonymous reader writes "CNET UK compares Vista Vs. Apple OS X in a Romeo and Juliet, spandex-wearing, Shakespearean English style. Two guys dress up as their favorite operating system and fight with swords, guns, and fists, while a third guy, dressed as a woman, awaits the winner. 'Usability - Act 3, Scene 2: Swords clash, sparks fly and men grunt, but the showdown ends in stalemate ... [Vista] has a far better user interface than XP -- the file and application search facility is vastly improved and the cascading Start menu has been banished, but it only takes a few moments of use to discover pointless idiosyncrasies. Microsoft constantly reminds us of how great Flip 3D is, but this feature doesn't help us find the right application window much faster than Alt-Tab did. It's very time consuming when you have many application windows to flip through, and it's in no way as efficient as OS X's Exposé feature ... We're calling this one a draw. They're just as good as each other, and in some cases just as bad -- a pox upon both your houses! Score: Mac OS X - 2, Windows Vista - 2'"

Comments

Re:erm if you press the delete key

[falcon5768]

I think the point I'm trying to make about XP/Vista is that when you press the delete key, the OS assumes that you are actually trying to delete a file (quite sensibly) and respond to you accordingly.

Except for all those times your not in Windows and you shove off stuff to the trash trying to do something else that the OS or other programs require the del key for that in other OSs dont have that issue. Yet another example of how poorly designed Windows is but how dumbed down computer users now are because of it.

Re:erm if you press the delete key

[stewbacca]

I don't follow you at all. XP/Vista's design are bad because hitting a key called delete prompts for you to answer did you mean to delete the item(S) and if you click yes it does? But to delete under OS X i hold command and delete and that makes more sense?

Yes and yes. In the first case, something accidentally gets moved to the recycle bin, ESPECIALLY since users are prone to just click OK when faced with too many prompts. In the Mac case, the user had to go out of their way to invoke the action. With such a specific key combo, there is virtually no chance that the user was trying to do anything OTHER than move the file to the trash, so there is no need to prompt the user.

Re:erm if you press the delete key

[gordo3000]

I guess you missed the point completely, but its ok, most mac fans do.

the point is, there is no keyboard shortcut by default to permanently delete a single item.

alot of the times I want to clear memory immediately so that in as few strokes as possible I can begin a new install of a piece of software, download something, etc. if a movie or 1 large file is eating up space, I'd like a built in keyboard shortcut that can permanently remove it to free up space. apple doesn't offer one. its even worse UI guidelines to simply say, "if you want it, do it yourself".

I have changed those settings. it doesn't make it a usable or unusable system by default, just one that carries a ton of misnomers. windows has lots as well, but hey, that is how it is. but as deleting files goes, windows has a lot more built in functionality that does it a lot quicker and cleaner.

I guess you've never used your trash can as a limited term deposit (as a just in case) and a permanent delete for files you know you don't want. worse, you don't seem to realize sometimes people only want to delete one file at a time permanently while leaving other stuff in the recycle bin.