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How to Turn Your PC into a Mac
An anonymous reader writes "CNet is running a Mac fanboy's idea of a nightmare feature entitled 'Mock OS X: Five ways to make your PC more like a Mac'. While the idea of turning my PC into a Mac-like machine does get my juices flowing, I'm not sure the user experience would be exactly the same but I'm going to spend this afternoon trying it out anyway. "To borrow a metaphor from Spartacus, some people like oysters and some people like snails. Except what if there was a way to make your snail do some of the cool things oysters can do, like make pearls? And what if you could make your PC do some of the cool stuff that Macs do so well?"" Seems to me that this would be a lot easier if step one was install linux...
I haven't RTFA, but by any chance does this involve giving the retailer twice what it's worth for the system and then using a screwdriver to prise off a mouse button or two?
this is pretty dumb. i dont have a tolerance for this right now, im way too hung over
One man's wet dream is other man's nightmare.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
It's a Trap!
I'm so embarrassed. I wish everybody else was dead. -Bender
Perl, not Pearl, now get off my lawn!
Next time I see tripe like this on the firehose I'm going to throw a negative on it, instead of just ignoring it. Get stardock and window blinds? I mean seriously ...
DeskSpace has a much flashier spinning-cube effect for the Apple 'wow' factor, as you can see from the manufacturer's screenshot above.
The thing that I like about most Apple 'wow' factors is they're non-intrusive. Flipping between screens I don't want a 1 second visualization. I do it constantly and it'd get annoying and in my way. When I switch users. I don't mind that extra second because I do it once and it's nice to show that I'm actually switching users.
Or, instead of just replicating the look, you can put some real work into it and get the real thing- OSx86. Of course, apparently it's illegal in some countries- at least it's not in mine.
OSx86 FTW
Antoninus: Yes.
C: Snails?
A: No.
C: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral and the eating of snails to be immoral?
A: No, master.
C: Of course not. Its all a matter of taste, isnt it?
A: Yes, master.
C: And taste is not the same as appetite and therefore not a question of morals, is it?
A: It could be argured so, master.
C: Um, thatll do. My robe, Antoninus. Ah, my taste includes both oysters and snails.
Or how sexual preferences can become a topic in a Mac / PC comparison...
Way #6: Install Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. It includes most of this stuff right out of the box and the rest can be added right from Synaptic.
My blog
...is add some flashy stuff without much functionality. Mac-skins? Little gadget-things that eat extra memory just to display the time? No thanks, I'll just install linux*. Not that I want to look like a mac, mind you, as I can't stand the interface; I just want the extra security and all.
*If I can ever get my hard drive compacted to one end so I can partition it.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
It's always been resistant toward going to the middle-low and low-end market in terms of price. In the 90s, they experimented with licensing out their software and letting generic makers market hardware bundled with it -- but it cannabalized their own sales.
I wonder if they could make it work differently today -- if they stipulate that the manufacturers couldn't make any hardware over $500 or so. Just to catch the low-end market for marketshare but not having the support headaches and losses that cheap manufacturers often bring.
Even in the PC market there are higher-end manufacturers (Lenovo/IBM laptops) so why not apple? With the price ceiling in the contract, I can't imagine the other manufacturers will put out a pretty package that will compete with Apple directly but one for budget conscious consumers that Apple could never have hoped to catch anyway.
My father just bought my mother a 17" Macbook because he couldn't find a laptop he wanted to buy for her that didn't require you to buy Vista and then downgrade to XP later.
My mother despises MacOS and can't "figure anything out." Now while I don't care for MacOS myself I tried to explain some things over the phone to her so that she would at least be able to use it for the time being until my well-meaning father can figure out what to do to fix things for her. She pretty much was being unreasonable about the whole thing and said over and over, "I'm 57 years old, I don't want to learn something else."
My question for all of you is how, when I'm there at Christmas, do I make MacOS X more like Windows so that she's more comfortable with using the OS?
Seems to me that this would be a lot easier if step one was install linux...
It would be simpler to install what MacOSX is based on - FreeBSD or Darwin.
I didn't RTFA (I must not be new here) but people don't choose Macs because of any of the Apple's features. People choose Macs for stability and freedom from viruses and other shitware (the reasons we wipe Windows and install Linux) and because some high end graphics programs either aren't ported to Windows or are ported badly.
The best way to make your Windows more "like a Mac" is to install Linux for its stability and freedom from shitware. That said, if I ever buy another whole computer (which I haven't done since 1987, I just upgrade parts as needed) It will be a Mac.
I'm amused by the car commercial where they're touting its bluetooth, "powered by Microsoft". No way in hell I'd buy one, just because it's "(under)powered by Microsoft." ! I've been using Microsoft's OSes and programs for a quarter of a century, and they used to be the best quality out there. The quality has been declining for all that time, IMO right now Microsoft's OSes and programs are by far the very worst either on or off the market.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
UI enhancements like this scare me. There were a couple of computers that came in to the shop when i worked for a college campus RESNET that flat out refused to work with Cisco's network access software. Apparently the UI enchancement replaced a key OS DLL file that the Cisco stuff needed and wasn't compatable with the Cisco stuff. In order for that person to use their computer on our network we had to uninstall their UI software. Be careful what you purchase for UI enhancements.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Legality is an issue in many places, but FTS didn't mention Hackintosh or OSx86
Does anybody remember those fake plastic/fiberglass car bodies that you could put on top of various chassis? IIRC, there was a ferrari body for a VW frame. This reminds me of exactly that. It has a similar look, but where it counts, it is still a disaster.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
These ideas have been around for a while, yet no or few mods are around to emulate that Windows feel Wonder why :)
Hurm...slightly ridiculous hyperbole given Apple's pathetic market share.
What makes Mac OS X special is not the glitz and glamour on the surface, it's what's underneath. The Cocoa framework for Objective C is head and shoulders above the MFC/Win32 programming approach. it's built on BSD and Mach and is now officially a Unix certified OS. It's built in a logical and elegant way. You can run Linux/Unix apps on it. X11 is included, although an optional install. OpenGl and Aqua make it beautiful to look at. There are literally hundreds of reasons why I prefer it, but won't go into them here.
Simply skinning XP with an' aqua' style skin and adding a dock does not make it anything like OS X. Any more than putting a Ferrari shell on top of a ford doesn't make it a Ferrari.
Some jokes never get old. This isn't one of them.
Every Mac desktop now comes standard with a Mighty Mouse. It has two regular mouse buttons, plus the ability to squeeze the sides of the mouse for a 3rd button. It also has a mini trackball on top that allows the user to scroll in two directions and click it for a 4th button. Every button on the Mighty Mouse is fully configurable within Mac OS X.
In addition, even before multi-button mice were standard issue, it's not as if they were ever really needed in Mac OS. Right-clicking is just not all that common. Mac OS is just not designed around the right-click the way Windows is.
Even further... if you didn't want a Mighty Mouse, or if you have a Mac that didn't come with one, any standard USB mouse will work on a Mac, so you can have as many buttons and wheels as you want.
There is nothing wrong with either XP's or Vista's look and feel. Why the hell would you want to make it look like OS X? It seems that if you absolutely love the look of OS X that the best way of obtaining it is to buy a Mac.
Or Linux can do it for free.
gDesklets (for the old school method) or others to put in a docker, Slight Mac top-bar look with Gnome defaults, loads of various OS X cloned themes for Metacity ("Tish" comes to mind, but there are pinstripe, graphite and all other styles), Compiz to give you the 'wow' of desktop cubes (which you can crank up to 32x32 if you want) and fancy hidable widget layers etc. You can even move the buttons to the other side of the title bar quite easily.
And then after a month or so you decide it's just stupid to make it look like a Mac when it isn't a Mac and go for something more normal.
Nuff said.
You could just use Apple's OSX on your x86 hardware directly. There are loads of tutorials online:
Leopard on SS3-enabled processor
Leopard on SS2-enabled processors
If neither of those work, then Google "jas 10.4.8 sse2 sse3" for the version that works on most people's systems. It's pretty easy stuff and both of the forums about have ample amounts of do-it-yourself help.
Not really. The true technological ground breakers in any industry often don't have near the market share of the lower end brands. BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes. Of course, we could look at Apple Inc. as an OEM rather then an OS vendor and in that case they're the 3rd largest in the world.
first i thought, "Every PC is ugly as Meg."
So subby first trolls about getting his juices flowing turning his PC into a Mac, and then Taco trolls about just installing linux.
Dude - if you want a Mac, just buy one. Taco, demand another from your corporate pimps.
Pagehits here we come!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Turn PC into MAC? im sry i only see Make it look like a MAC... Still feels like XP/Vista for sure.
.. windows blinds and stardock is asking for more problems in performance
"You are about to give access to the net to lol.exe. Cancel or Allow?" Is this some mac behavior?
Also
This is actually an advertisement for Stardock disguised as Apple fanboyism. The only paid product really indicated is the miserable dock application of the same company, which has much better and completely free alternatives. With the exception of Expose and Spaces, I'm pretty sure the author's entire range of features can be delivered by Stardock software.
I also like how they avoid mentioning that you could just crack uxtheme.dll yourself, which is what FlyAKiteOS does, and theme to your heart's content, instead opting to plug WindowBlinds, which is again inferior due to sluggishness. (The author doesn't even mention WB's one user-attracting point, which is that it themes every control, even the stuff that XP themes don't touch.)
quite ironic considering your signature
It still seem a weird thing to do, but actually, the difference between the price of a mac and the price of a medium level PC is a great gap, so in this sense I can see a point. But the whole idea is still weird.
Apple iProduct. Non importa cosa sia, lo comprerete!
The selective delusion of you people continues to astound me. The laptops do not come with a second button. The "right-click" functionality is replaced by a "hold down a meta key and click" functionality. Hell, I just now figured out how to empty the trash by holding down the mouse button for X number of seconds. Oh, that was intuitive. That action doesn't do squat for folders or other objects.
WTF is a RESNET and what does that funny looking acronym stand for? Not everybody at /. is a college kid. It't been almost 30 years since I graduated.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I for one do not welcome our metaphor-mangling CNET overlords.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
ObjectDock is garbage, Konfabulator sucks up system resources, and DeskSpaces looks no different than YDOM, which made my system thrash like no tomorrow. (Granted, I don't have a 3D card) I wonder how much StarDock paid to get top billing...
Perfect, just what I always wanted on top of a Windows Vista installation, more sprawling masses of additional software slowing down my user experience! Add dock-like software, expose replacement, a dashboard (COOL!), spaces and the almighty Mac look & feel (be still my beating heart). I fail to see how this makes my PC 'more like a Mac', beyond eye-candy graphics .
I don't get it. What will you end up with at the end of these hacks? Realistically, you'll end up with a rip-off variant on OSX that looks vaguely like it and runs the risk of being less stable than Windows usually is. I don't get it.
OK, I'm a Mac user. Honestly, I tried to make my old Linux laptop more Mac-like even though it was not a very powerful laptop. It worked... and it worked quite well for my needs, but honestly it was problematic. After I finally replaced it with a Macbook Pro I discovered that my Mac-Like desktop was really just a second-rate imitation that required a little too much "care and feeding" in order to run decently and really wasn't all that good. I'm not saying I couldn't have done better, but it still remains that I'm MUCH more efficient with my Mac than I ever was with that Linux desktop.
OK, so all of these products are about making Windows more Mac-Like. Fair enough... I understand some people use Windows who dislike some of the way it works and I'm all for customization. However, the problems with Windows aren't just the Windows shell; they're application and API problems that either kill usability or cause issues and inconsistencies that will render this "Mac Like Experience" more like Windows XP/Vista with a fresh coat of paint. Nothing more.
The strength of OSX is not in the "shiny" stuff, nor is it in the look and feel. The key strength of OSX is the foundations upon which the OS is based. The APIs are nice and well documented, the UNIX core gives you incredible flexibility, and the fact that Apple as a company is not afraid to make tough decisions about their APIs but still provide reasonable paths to migrate to new API sets. They will even continue to provide an API long past its theoretical sell-by date, but do so in such a way that a clear migration path is mapped out and even simple to port to.
Yes, the shiny stuff is cool for all of about 5 minutes. It gets old... I have most of the visual effects turned off on my Mac, I just want to get work done. How does any of this increase the efficiency of working with the OS?
Oh, and by the time you've paid for your Windows box, Windows license and the shareware fees for each of these applications (no, ripping them off does not count), you may as well have gone out and at least bought a Mac Mini or iMac. Hell, if you're in laptop-land you may as well have bought a Macbook.
The Rolls Royce radiator on Chong's Volkswagon at the beginning of Up In Smoke (before it goes up in smoke)
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Thanks to the nice folks over at kde and at beryl, I've already been there and done that - my PC is more like the Mac-like ideal than OS X has achieved. I have a 3D desktop, alpha blending support, smooth FAST scaling (infinitely variable zoom), object-oriented desktop and on top of all that I have a seven-button mouse which is fully supported by the desktop environment.
This has all been possible for a PC for at least a couple of years now. Windows isn't the be-all-end-all of the PC world, even as much as Microsoft would love you to believe that were so.
Best of all? It's all open source AND free as in beer if you don't feel like buying a commercial distro.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Apt is in k?ubuntu, not windows (well, not yet).
To right click, just tap two fingers on the touchpad. It's not that hard.
Holding down the mouse button does in fact do squat for all the icons in the dock, not only the trashbin.
I understand that moderation in /. must be neutral... Parent has a point, there is no need to moderate it flamebait or troll just because you like Macs. There are a LOT of us who don't, and our opinion is just as valid as yours.
Oh, great and wise Apple guru, what other objects does that action work on? Because so far, I've only found it on the Dock.
And how is my mother supposed to learn this? Right-click is non-destructive (unlike several meta-click combinations on the Mac) and it takes seconds to discover.
You can configure touchpad to recognize 2-finger tap as "right click" (btw, you can scroll with two fingers anywhere on touchpad, very useful).
Also if you have one-button mouse (or touchpad for that matter) - "right-click" can be done by Command-Clicking it.
[quote]Seems to me that this would be a lot easier if step one was install linux...[/quote] Yeah, because reformatting, installing (and learning) a new OS as well as finding replacements for all of your commonly used programs is soooo much easier than installing five programs. :P
You can't polish a turd.
Yes, the UI of the Mac is very shiny compared to Windows. But all these applications do is layer crap on top of the Windows UI. They don't actually address what makes OS X so exciting to me, a recent switcher (coming up on 1 month).
It's the architecture of the OS and the services it, and the applications it comes with, provides. It's Spotlight. It's the integration of my apps and data. It's Delicious Library starting up for the first time, checking my address book, and automatically finding everyone whose last name I share to add them as a "borrower" in my library because they're assumed to be family. It's adding a contact to Address Book and having them appear automatically in iChat. It's the drop-dead easy application installation, management and uninstallation.
Yes, there are some things in the Mac UI I don't like (or don't yet understand), and there are parts of the system which may not be quite "right", but thus far Leopard at 1 month old is a lot more impressive than XP ever was for me.
Go ahead, make Windows "look" like a Mac. It won't "turn your PC into a Mac", it won't even make your PC work anything like a Mac.
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=72493 and watch the video i made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7mziP0Jdk
"And what if you could make your PC do some of the cool stuff that Macs do so well?"
Uhhhhh... it already does everything a Mac does and runs all the useful apps and games that a Mac simply can't... are Mac users on drugs all the time? Or just too dumb to work an input device with more than one button? I'm baffled by these people.
I know it's gonna sound weird but the only feature I envy to the Mac OS X interface is desktop icons starting from the right side of the desktop instead of the left, well this and seeing drives mounted on the desktop.
For some reason it makes the whole difference to me, yet of all the customisation utilities I've tried, some would allow you to "save" the icon placement on the desktop, but none would allow you to have them automatically places to the right..
You just got troll'd!
Ask her if your dad got her a new top of the line mercedes if she could "figure out" how to drive it.
She sounds like she just wants to run some applications and *not* an OS. Which is what most people do. Just show her how to run the probably few applications she needs, after that there isn't any need to "figure out" anything. You see this all the time really, business or personal, people learn a few applications and that's it, the rest of the machine never gets used (like bloated linux DVD distros, who the hell uses 5,000 applications??? I defy anyone to actually admit to running that many applications, I'll call em a liar to their face. I load up a new distro then start paring it down, even just the full CD distros have way too much crap on them for most people)
With that said, I have run into folks who really can't "figure" stuff out, it just isn't in their skill set, by the time they are in their 20s, that's it, their brain shuts off and they go into maintenance mode. It is neither bad nor good, just is, so no sense fighting it.. Just is is all, you'll have to determine based on other examples if your mom falls into that category. I happen to know another lady of your mother's (mine also) age group, just a little bit older, who has an imac she got and can't figure it out either, point her to user guides and forums, etc, no dice, nothing works, just can't garner any computer mindset.
It does too much stuff!!!
And that's whats wrong with computers, and apple, and windows, and "desktop linux", all of them, and why there needs to be computing appliances, not that they do stuff, they do too much stuff! It's turned into one size fits nobody!
And here's another example of how a lot of computer makers don't get it, people want an appliance for the most part, but computers are designed and built and sold by computer enthusiasts. There needs to be just a modular computer appliance for the other 99.999% of the population, the potential customer gets a checklist of normal apps with descriptions, "surf the web" chat with friends" "watch movies" play games", a "what would you like to do?" thing, that gets checked off and only that is what the appliance "does" with big fat buttons that work with one mash and that's it, even directly on the keyboard or better yet just a blank machine with plug in applications as hardware modules. A little strip that took some sort of bog standard usb things that are preloaded, something like that, plug right into the side of the keyboard say. And don't over burden it, more than half a dozen things would fall back into general computer usage, but for those who can get buy with half a dozen or under major apps-an appliance would be loads better, especially if loaded a ram disk image and was instantly clean and new after every fresh boot. Eliminate that trojan malware crapola.
The only reason internet appliances never caught on was because they were underpowered over priced junk and they did stupid stuff like "no mouse included" like webtv. I honestly think there is a market for such a device as long as nerds didn't design all the aspects of it. Underneath, yes, out on the surface where the customer touches it, get them nerds away! Not even *close* to their skills.
I should actually make these things thinking about it, huge untapped market because previous efforts were dumbed down near computers, a real appliance would be just as powerful as a regular computer (really should have 5 times the RAM though standard, each plug in module gets its own gig 0 ram say), just designed as an appliance. I have no idea why some smart guys haven't bingoed to this yet, except that they are all geeks so they think everyone wants to be a geek or something. Even Jobs doesn't get it because he's a geek. He almost gets it, but too far gone into it now, can't step back and walk in a non geeks shoes any longer.
Saw the same thing with cellphones and the amazing shrinking screens and buttons while the population ages and gets shakier fingers and crappier ey
Anyone got the printer friendly version?? I *HATE* with passion those sparmticles where the content is split in lots of pages just to put more adds...
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Hackintosh would have been the way to go with this rather than the turd polishing recommended in TFA.
G4 Hackintosh
you could also just go into the system files and delete anything that might be related to explorer. that would make it just as functional as mac's finder. between work and home i use both pretty constantly and explorer has always been more powerful and made my files easier to manage.
When I can insert a commercial Mac DVD or download a Mac .DMG installer disk, run the installer, and run the apps, then I'll have a PC that looks and feels like a Mac.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
As others have pointed out, use of two-finger tap or simply any usb mouse with 2 buttons solves this. OTOH, It SHOULD NOT take a third party app to cut and paste files. Really.
A modern Ubuntu install should be able to defrag your hard drive as needed to resize it. If not from the GUI installer, then with a little utility called ntfsresize. If it's not on the livecd, then
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs
Not entirely user-friendly, but pretty safe.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I still think the start button/task bar combination is a more logic division of "new things to do" and "things I'm working on now" than the Dock.
And "install Linux"? Please. At work we run Linux desktops, Red Hat w/ Gnome. How much research would it take to find out why I can't copy and paste image data as well as text? How many decades has Mac and Windows been having clipboards that handled both seamlessly? (Ever since The Unix Haters Handbook pointed out how the clipboard does a fair chunk of what I'd otherwise do with pipes and files, (albeit in a less automatable way...) Anyway, having not being able to have "cut and paste graphics" on my "something I can take for granted list" is a loss.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Thats soooo original man. When was the last time you honestly used a Mac? Multi button support has been there since OS9, and machines have shipped with two button mice for a very long time.
I really don't understand the obsession of making your non-mac desktop look like a mac. On any site you go to that has themes for Windows, KDE, or GNOME, half of them are Mac-OS lookalikes. My first thought is always to go for something unique. If I had a mac, I would probably try to find a way to give it a different skin, like I do with Windows/KDE/GNOME.
But whatever, it is just a matter of preference I suppose.
Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices. -Theodor Adorno
1. Sell PC .....
2. Buy Mac
3.
4. Happy and productive
5. Profit!
Where are the second and third mouse buttons on the Macbooks? Am I supposed to squeeze its sides?
You can get a Mac mini for 600 bucks. If you wait a month and spend 1100 bucks, you can get a MacBook, and for a 100 bucks more, a very nice iMac.
Apple Store Online
Unfortunately many Windows apps expect the taskbar to be at the bottom and will open (depending on prefs) either under the taskbar so they can't be dragged away or over the taskbar obscuring it. I picked the latter pref and deal with the nuisance of dragging newly opened apps down, but that is a small price to pay for less wrist stress.
It occurred to me that the classic Mac interface has always put the taskbar at the top of the screen by default, so in a sense I have resolved my RSI problem by making my computer more Mac-like. I wonder why MS put it at the bottom - was it just to be different from the Mac?
I stopped reading the article right there.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Where are they on ANY notebook?
Pretty much all of the flashy whiz-bang functionality can be had on any operating system, which means that the slick MacOS features (most of which have been available for various Linux distros for some time) are no longer a reason to go with MacOS over Windows over Linux.
On any of these systems, I basically want the following functionality:
- multiple workspaces
- useful desktop widgets
- perl / bash scripting of some sort
- nifty tools like grep, gawk, and sed
- the usual web browser/mail client/music library manager/etc.
You can get those on any platform. So, for the average user, what's left? I know it's important that these features come ready out of the box, but what else?
Just put OSX on your PC!
-S
I have an unlocked US iPhone on O2 and my house mate and one of my colleagues have a locked UK iPhone on O2. I definitely get better reception and EDGE coverage than both of them. No idea why, but hints that it's the hardware or possibly firmware. I'm on Firmware 1.0.2
The few older people I've guided through the OS are having severe usability problems, some of which are stuff which is actually done better in Windows. For example, OS X doesn't have a way to lock the Dock from accidental drags by default. I dislike the Start Bar but at least there Joe Average won't accidentally remove his apps by one misguided click'n'drag.
I'm happy to deal with these issues though. The relatives who insist on Windows without bothering about security upgrades are much harder. Maybe you could ask your mom whether she'd prefer to have to do her own support for updates and virus protection or have you help her with the mac?
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
If you want the look and feel of the UI of OS X, Baghira is currently the best option.
Thank bloody God! No one in their right mind would WANT to copy that mess.
Three Squirrels
Oh dear. Wrong thread.
I've tried to Mac-ify a Windows PC on a couple of occasions -- both times it resulted in nothing more than a slow, poorly running PC.
In fact, the best thing you can do for yer PC is run it in "classic" windows mode, with no visual interface effects whatsoever. You'd be amazed at how much faster it runs with all that crap turned off.
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
This is like intentionally trying to become gay.
Don't you love how Apple can create national commercials dripping with sarcasm, but to the fanboy legitimate criticisms are Flamebait on Slashdot?
Perhaps they didn't like my confrontational in your face attitude. I thought that was hip in marketing circles these days.
The Mighty Mouse doesn't come with a second button, it comes with a capacitance sensor, and operates on the assumption that every person removes their left finger from the mouse when right-clicking. This is completely inane, considering how easy and cheap it would have been to just add a second freaking button.
Yeah, in Windows, you absolutely need to right-click. That's why it's so hard for Windows-trained users think it's so vital. In Windows, it pretty much is.
The design of the Mac UI did not rely on there ever being a right-click. Think you absolutely need to right-click in Mac OS? You're wrong. You might be missing or ignoring the other way to do it. Give it a chance, it might even be a better way to do it. If you disagree, get another mouse, they're plentiful and cheap. The OS supports a crazy amount of buttons.
The extra buttons on the mouse are for more awesome for things like Expose anyway.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
My index finger rests on the left side of the Mighty Mouse all of the time and I've never had any trouble right-clicking with it.
On my MacBook Pro, I can right click either by holding control and clicking, or by resting two fingers on the trackpad while I click. I can also scroll in two dimensions by moving two fingers on the pad instead of one. I have been using laptops for over a decade and my MBP is the only one in which I never accidentally right click when I mean to left click, or vice versa.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Unlike OSX, running all that crap on Vista or XP (stardock, "myexpose", etc) will significantly slow windows down. You can't bolt on a load of [poorly designed] third party apps and say its more like OSX.
Linux can run IE, that doesn't make it "more like windows."
To be honest, I've been thinking about buying a mac, but then I had the opportunity to play around with my sisters macbook while trying to get it to install our shared windows printer (haven't gotten it working yet), and I gotta say that I'm still not impressed. I for one find that I use the right button a lot. It took me about 6 minutes to say heck with this and grab the logitec mouse from my computer. Apple is still trying to force users into their "preferred user mold" instead of letting me use the machine they way I want to. The OS can handle a second button, why not give the option of putting one on the touchpad? Or make the touchpad button have a left and right side...
Make her use it for a week. It's easier to use than Windows once you get used to a few minor changes. It's certainly no harder to switch from XP to OS X than it is to switch from XP to Vista. Older people shouldn't act stupid and lazy - it's really annoying. Don't they have pride? I can't believe how some people act about the need to think.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
TFA clearly shows why MS and everyone of the same mindset will never copy Apple: They focus on the entirely wrong things.
Sure, Expose is nice, and the dock is better than the stupid taskbar (hey, what isn't?). But that isn't the point.
The really good things about OS X, that you can't emulate with a couple shareware tools, or choosing an OS X like skin/theme. What sold me on OS X is that things just work. It really is that simple. Plug in some USB device, it just works. No annoying "looky, hardware!" wizard. You need something, anything (text, picture, diagram) from one app in another - drag & drop. Just works. On windos, it sometimes does, sometimes doesn't and the rest of the time gives you something you didn't expect (like the URL of the picture, or weirdly formatted text).
The list goes on pretty much endless, and it all boils down to the computer doing what you want and expect it to do, instead of being a fairly accurate simulation of a wild beast that needs taming before you can use it, and where you should still never let your guard down.
And that is the point, the nice GUI and useful additions are just icing on the cake.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
"Don't forget to remove functionality to make your PC more like a Mac, like that 'other' mouse button."
And you are still stuck with One dimensional scrolling while on the Mac you get multiple buttons too plus you get two-dimensional scrolling.
That's the version of Vista they left out - the "Vista Professional" version, go back and take a second look at Windows 2000, leave out the XP theme and Aero eye candy, leave out all the RIAA-friendly performance-killing DRM, and only include a stripped down version of Windows Media Player without the themes... something that just plays unencrypted files with a standard Windows look-and-feel like the WMP 2 I miss from Windows 2000. Include Interix and the full Active Directory support, of course, and if you have time strip down the control panel applets so they run without using the MS HTML control... that's not a huge problem, but I have had a couple of users I had to reinstall Windows on because some slugware messed up HTML and broke Add/Remove programs.
Or, alternatively, bring back Windows 2000 Professional and update the drivers. Maybe toss in the crippled version of Citrix you added to XP. Because, now I think of it, once you get rid of the DRM and chrome what's left of Vista... or even XP? The only things an actual professional needs from Windows that Windows 2000 doesn't provide are remote desktop and the Microsoft bluetooth stack.
I don't think the use of "Gay-Bar" to describe the Dock is a legitimate criticism.
Also, your post wasn't criticism so much as calling to replace certain features and interfaces in OS X with those in Windows without any explanation as to why it would be more advantageous to do so.
But yeah, I'm sure you'd get the same modding if you opened your critique of Vista referring to the Taskbar as the "Gay-Bar" as well.
As someone who has worked in usability testing let me assure you, a regular two button mouse or trackpad is one of the most common sources of usability problems. Power users learn whatever hardware they have. Novice users don't know when to right click or when to left click or which they've done in the past. A significant number of users always click both buttons at once when clicking and hence have no idea why every tenth time or so it behaves differently. Many, many users never, ever, ever find functions accessible by right-clicking and just forego all uses that require it.
Apple did something very smart with the virtual second button. They took advantage of the ease of multiple user accounts on the Mac and made a system that accomodates both novices and experts using the same hardware by changing the functionality in software. For users of shared machines, this is a huge win. For the computer in the living room that four different people use, the geek in the family no longer has to unplug the simple mouse and plug in the 4 button mouse, they just change some settings in their user preferences. And grandma is not confused and just has one button that works for everything.
The "mighty mouse" is not perfect. Personally, I always use trackballs. But for a versatile all around mouse where one size fits all, it is a real improvement on the current state of the art.
My Mac can run Aperture, and Final Cut Pro. No matter what I do to my Windows or Linux systems they will never run those applications.
Applications are the ONLY reason to run an OS.
Look at what apps you need to run then pick an OS. If you mostly use a computer as a video game console then you need Windows. If you are developing software or running a server then Linux or Solaris is good. If you are creating what we call "Digital Content" go get a Mac.
LG3D
'nuff said.
It's an optimality problem. Right-clicking brings up a context menu. The point of a context menu is to enumerate either all things or the most common things (application preference) which can be done with the widget, and place that enumeration as close to the widget as possible to minimze pointer travel.
Good UI design dictates that things which are done most often should be done with the least effort. The Mac menu bar always sits at the top of the screen. Great for Fitt's Law compliance, but bad for prioritizing functionality. Without a context menu, everything you can do with a widget requires one of the following: double or triple clicking (for just one or two default actions), moving far away from the widget to access the menu, learning a key combination specific to the desired action, or learning the behaviors of different click'n'drag targets until one matches what you need.
I don't disagree with the original HIG developers' reasons against emphasizing context menus (principle of "don't unnecessarily hide functionality"), but their solution is the wrong one. The correct solution has always been to encourage developers to put everything that can be done in a context menu into the regular menu bar. Forcing users to go back to the menu, or to click'n'hold or hold a button and then click to access the context menu, unfairly slows them down. This is IMO one thing that Windows got correct, in defining the hierarchy of input actions on a widget: double-click (default), right-click (common), click elsewhere (all). I think that people coming from the Windows world get used to the convenience, and want to see that same kind of convenience when coming over to the Mac.
I just mentally file it under humor and enjoy the ride.
Quack, quack.
I'm a hardcore mac user, and I feel the same exact way.
I though tfa was about putting osx on your pc, however, is just about crap programs you can use to make windows more mac-like, bs article and very misleading slashdot
no wonder digg and other reader voted sites are doing so well. and this is chosen by cmdr taco and his editors?! ...i thought it was a osX86 article howto, that's why i clicked it, even tho it came from slash"bot"...
Yes, that's right. My previous job provided me with a macbook pro for the 6 months I was there. I had to give it back when I took a much better job that provided me with a windows (vista..) notebook.
I hadn't used a mac in many years. I used to be an Amiga guy. So I really wanted to be alternative pc guy again. I really wanted to be convinced to switch to mac. I wasn't. Maybe my brain has just turned to mush from the years of being mainstream pc-clone guy.
What I liked about mac: the hardware is simply a work of modern art. Its a fabulously engineered machine. If I could afford it, I might buy one just for that reason and run windows on it. Unfortunately I cannot. Macos is, obviously, at its core, a superior OS. Sure its based on UNIX which was invented what, a whole decade before windows? So for what it does, it does extremely well. I love the near instant ON stand by mode, even though it runs the battery down it can last days. Dashboard is kinda cool, but I rarely used it, same thing for expose. Installing apps is great, usually just copying a folder into applications. Nice. Parallels is genious, especially coherance mode. Why can't the windows and linux versions do that?
Fortunately for the mac, parallels is the only thing that made the mac bearable. Strangely, windows seemed to run better in parallels that it did directly on a pc (starting up faster, etc). Maybe that is just a testament to the apple hardware. But I simply couldn't do without some windows software I have grown used to, not to mention just having a much wider selection of things when I go looking for new software. I hate the finder, its worse than windows built in file manager, which also sucks, so I use directory opus (so I am making my pc more Amiga-like). This is huge for me.
What I like about windows: the task bar. Sorry but I just cannot get used to the all-iconic mac ways. The dock or whatever its called is just confusing to me. I hate it. I like the textual windows task bar. I like the window previews in vista. I like the start menu even though it requires constant management to keep it from becoming cluttered by every program installing stuff on it. I like the menus on the windows not at the top of the screen (I've always hated that on the mac). windows runs on cheap hardware.
Summary:
Mac pros: what it does do, it does better. Parallels. Easy application install. Standby that works. Smooth but otherwise useless bling. Beautiful hardware. More secure.
Mac cons: expen$ive, feels like a toy with limited options to protect me from myself, limited software selection
Windows pros: task bar, cheap, more software, doesn't limit your options, directory opus file manager
Windows cons: grossly inefficient design, buggy, ugly, standby is worthless, insecure, too long between major updates.
* note: vista is largely excluded for me. It's total F*cking crap and I am about to revert to xp. I admire the concept behind the new composited desktop (an Idea I thought of years ago, and apparently isn't that hard to implement since linux and mac both have it). In theory, readyboost is neat idea. Doesn't seem to help though. If I had the choice between only Vista and Macos, I might choose macos, but only because I can run XP in parallels on the mac.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
Oh well...
Seems to me that this would be a lot easier if step one was to chuck the old PC, or wipe the HD and install Ubuntu, then put the old machine to good use (as a home server perhaps?) or donate it to charity. And get a new computer with Mac OS X preinstalled...
There's nothing wrong with Linux, but it isn't anything like Mac OS X, and it probably never will be, unless someone really makes it take a giant leap forward, since everything that makes OS X so great is patented and owned by Apple, except the core and other foundations of the OS.
And regarding Windows: you can install all the skins and themes you want, but will still be buggy old Windows bit-rotting underneath. Just like putting lipstick on a piggy won't make it any prettier. Windows is a third rate product from a greedy company with no absolutely sense of style, a company that still, after all this time, really doesn't know how users work, and it will be just that for quite a few years into the future. So it must be easier to just go out and get what you need now.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
Are you seriously telling me you do not have any spare screens, keyboards and mice? And you're visiting /.? And even if you add all those things, you're still under the US$ 900 GP has suggested aren't enough for a Mac.
Also, I couldn't possibly care less about how much an Inspirion costs. GP claimed you could not buy a Mac for 900 bucks, and I replied to him. How does Dell even enter the equation here? Has Dell started selling them with Mac OS X or something? Are they paying you to pimp their crappy hardware?
#6: Install Mac OS X using PC_EFI.
/System/Library/Extensions (mostly supporting your own hardware), but with PC_EFI, the kernel is one less thing to worry about.
The latest versions of PC_EFI let you install a relatively untouched (ie, stock kernel from Apple) OS X system on a supported (Core 1/2 Duo) motherboard. It's basically just a patched Darwin bootloader for most other x86 systems, but it passes the data Mac OS X expects from EFI to the kernel in such a way that it "emulates" a standard Mac EFI implementation of a Mac Pro.
This means that you can easily upgrade to 10.5.x with no worries about "your kernel not working"- since it's just stock, anyways. The only thing that you DO have to worry about is a few important kext's in
Frankly, I'm running it on a $800 dream Mini Mac. Why? Because it cost me $800 to build a machine twice as powerful as a Mini, with PCI slots, in a Lian Li SFF case, as opposed to $1K if you go Apple's way with their RAM (only because opening a Mini is no easy task), which just gets you a cute little white box with absolutely zero expandability.
-SC
Install KDE, KXDocker, and the Baghira theme. Instant Mac. Free, too, in terms of software.
~Eien no Inori wo Sasagete~ Searching for my Hatsumi...
Show me something in Windows which will get me a decent Miller-column Filebrowser and Services and multi-layer windowing (so that all windows for an app aren't in a single layer).
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
I know it's an unpopular preference, but I like the Dock.
I really like the Dock. It shows me the apps I'm running and the apps I need. What more do I want?
'Course, even I killed the 10.5 glass dock. That just plain sucked.
still you wouldn't want to kiss it.
Hell, I just now figured out how to empty the trash by holding down the mouse button for X number of seconds
Ooh - nice tip!
I don't really like the mighty mouse much. The behavior of the right button seems odd. If my finger is resting on the left button, the right button does left click. Also the side buttons don't have a good tactile click response.
As for not needing the right click in Mac OS... well I've always found (since OS 6) that experienced Mac users tend to use a lot of keyboard shortcuts. The right click menu alleviates some of this and makes trips to the menu bar less frequent. It isn't a must have but it helps.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Step1) Install Ubuntu ...
Step2) Turn on Compiz-Fusion
Step3) Install Avant Window Manager
Step4)
Step5) Profit!!!
Seriously though, to quote Homer Simpson "why would you pay for something you get for free at home?"
These days, I don't really see the difference between a Mac and a PC. Macs now use Intel processors instead of PowerPC, and you can run Windows on a Mac, so how is it not a PC? For that matter, when I switched my Dell laptop to Kubuntu, did it cease to be a PC? And if you were to get OS X working on a PC, would it become a Mac? As far as I can see, a Mac is just a PC that looks nice, costs more and comes with a different OS installed by default.
Who in their right mind would want to make their PC more like a Mac? Where is PC Fanboy and when is he going to release an article on how to make a Mac more like a PC? Seriously man, unless I'm a graphic designer or video editor why would I want a Mac? And even that's becoming a stretch these days with most mainstream video/graphic editing software now available for the PC (ie Windows).
Yeah, in Windows, you absolutely need to right-click.
No you don't. You don't even have to use the mouse at all.
You don't have to hit ALT + Keyboard Shortcut for several menu options either, but you can.
It's shocking that Apple is selling computers with 24" screens with an OS that's still based on decisions about what would be optimal for a 9" screen. It's high time they (and anyone else who cares about UI) started looking for other solutions to the problem of hitting small targets with the mouse. (Menus in windows with edge resistance is one option that springs to mind, though it'd have to be done carefully to make it feel natural. Are there any Linux window managers that implement anything like this?)
I have a mom about the same age who seems to be at about the same level of luddite croniness. Thankfully, in her case, I never tortured her with windows, and made sure she used Macs for years now. =)
She will still complain about any new OS change, though. (Haven't gotten around to Leopard yet...)
All my mom does is email, web browsing, and the occasional gambling and pinball game. All of these icons are easily put in the Dock. (For extra credit, show her where applications live and how to add and remove things from the Dock.) If she is having trouble working with these few programs, then it is a familiarity thing and she should learn to stick it out and get past it. Keeps the mind fresh and all that.
My mom was confounded by tabs in Safari the other day. I explained to her that it was just a way to combine different web browser windows into one window with less clutter, and she seemed to get it. Who knows, though. I only recently managed to convince her that she needs to apply software updates and enter in her password...
A tip: Install LogMeIn.com on the mac and administer it remotely from any Web browser. That will make the support calls go a heck of a lot quicker (as long as her internet connection is up).
They left out my favorite Mac-equivalent Windows program: Launchy, which is a QuickSilver-like program (to the extent that, like me, you only use 1% of QuickSilver's feature set). Indexes whatever folders you like, sorts apps based on how often you use them, and binds to a keystroke.
And if you're a big fan of QS's clipboard cache, you can get an even nicer, more powerful version of that on the PC with ClipCache:
http://www.xrayz.co.uk/clipcache/
As for MyExpose, I remember trying it, and deciding I liked TopDesk (http://www.otakusoftware.com/topdesk/) better, although it hasn't been updated in a while. The biggest problem is that these types of functions aren't (apparently) low-level accelerated in XP the way they are in OS X, so it's just not as seamless - just like "show contents when dragging" still gives you window trails.
Weird thing is, when I'm on a PC, I just don't feel like using TopDesk - just like, when I'm in Microsoft Office, I don't feel like using highlight-and-middle-click to copy text. I guess my brain is modal.
This reminds me of those kits to make a Pontiac Fiero look sorta like a Ferrari. At the end of it all you're still driving a Fiero... But to each their own I guess.
Now, where's the "some of my best friends are Mac users" snark?
Seriously, the only unhappy Mac user I've ever met was one who was given a new OSX machine to replace a pre-arc Win3.1 box. With no training.
This is the issue - no training. Everything your mother knows about computers is now worthless - you've just devalued her. Naturally, she's pissed.
As the family IT dude I can only re-iterate that I've never met an unhappy Mac user. Sometimes the transition from Win32 is a little painful (my MIL is doing that now) but once it's done I get basically zero "can you have a look" calls from the Mac users. It just works.
-- Butlerian Jihad NOW!
Windows NT has always supported multiple desktops under the hood, and MS has had a powertoy that exposes this for ages.
There's many other third-party virtual desktop managers around, if you look, even for Vista.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Except what if there was a way to make your snail do some of the cool things oysters can do, like make pearls
Q: Now, can you imagine a beowulf cluster of Oysters!?
A: Yeah, pearl necklace as eye candy.
my blog
Apple did something very smart with the virtual second button. They took advantage of the ease of multiple user accounts on the Mac and made a system that accomodates both novices and experts using the same hardware by changing the functionality in software. For users of shared machines, this is a huge win. For the computer in the living room that four different people use, the geek in the family no longer has to unplug the simple mouse and plug in the 4 button mouse, they just change some settings in their user preferences. And grandma is not confused and just has one button that works for everything.
Or they could have just shipped a normal multibutton mouse and mapped the right-click to the left-click by default (which is essentially what they do with the Mighty Mouse). Same result, less expensive hardware and zero chance of misidentified clicks (which happen to me regularly when I'm using my mum's iMac).
Incidentally, on every Mighty Mouse I've used (probably a dozen of them by now) the side buttons have always struck me as an RSI timebomb. They're awkward to maneuver fingers to and require a relatively large amount of pressure to activate. I've come to the conclusion that the Mighty Mouse is another Apple triumph of form over function - it's got The Steve's fingerprints all over it.
Yeah, in Windows, you absolutely need to right-click. That's why it's so hard for Windows-trained users think it's so vital. In Windows, it pretty much is.
Rubbish. Hell, in Windows you can get by quite well without having a mouse at all.
The point of context menus in Windows - like OS X - for quick access to frequently used functions relevant to whatever object it is you might have right clicked. Windows just does a vastly better job of it than OS X does.
How does WindowBlinds slow things down? It replaces the Windows skin with a different one. That's like saying a red wallpaper is faster than a blue one.
How does ObjectDock slow down the system? It uses no CPU other than when you use it.
Just because Apple bundles stuff doesn't make it better. For years, the Mac was much slower than a similarly priced PC. Not that Mac users would admit it -- remember how fast the PowerPC supposedly was right up until the day before Apple announced the switch to the "bloated" and "primitive" Intel processor.
MacOS X is a great operating system, but there is also a lot of great software for Windows too.
-Brad Wardell (works at Stardock)
That "explanation" of why Linux (and Macs, ans Solaris, and BSD, etc) are more secure only because they are "smaller" targets is ludicrous.
Macs are now between 5% and 10% of desktop computers depending on locality and who you wish to believe, Linux are around 1%. But in the server arena Linux and Solaris are big. There are obbvious vectors of attack since they are the gateways to full networks (of dumber securitywise Windows machines).
Linux (and Macs and Solaris and all the rest) machines are not more secure because there are fewer of them. They are more secure because several early design decisions of those OSes make implementing security easier.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I've decided to modify the script a bit and annoy a co-worker. His download folder shall be more secure than ever!
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving addedItems
repeat with anItem in addedItems
tell application "Finder"
set moveTheItem to false
if not (the folder "quarantine" of home exists) then
try
make new folder at home with properties {name:"quarantine"}
end try
end if
set alert1 to display dialog "Are you sure you want to proceed with this potentially harmful action?" with icon stop with title "Windows Vista Security" buttons ["Allow", "Deny"] default button (random number (1)) + 1
if button returned of alert1 is "Deny" then
set moveTheItem to true
else
set alert2 to display alert "Are you not sure you don't not want to do this?" message "I only ask in the name of security." as warning buttons ["No, I'm sure.", "Yes, I'm not sure."] default button (random number (1)) + 1
if button returned of alert2 is "Yes, I'm not sure." then
set moveTheItem to true
end if
end if
if moveTheItem is true then
display alert "Good." message "I will protect you from this danger." as informational buttons "Thanks" default button 1
move anItem to folder "quarantine" of home
else
display alert "Well okay then, know-it-all." message "Don't blame me if your computer gets hacked." as warning buttons "Okay" default button 1
end if
end tell
end repeat
end adding folder items to
If you have any suggestions to improve it, I'm all ears.
± 29 dB
http://rocketdock.com/
It's not perfect (layering issues, amongst other things), but it's good enough for me. Nice to have an empty desktop for a change.
Still none have the multiple workspace feature of Linux. "LLL" "L^3" (Long Live Linux)
Actually, over at Emulators, Inc. [ www.emulators.com ] there have been "Soft Mac" emulators which run quite nicely on the x86 processor for many years. It's been a matter of emulating 68000 opcodes in x86. Now that x86 runs at speeds that weren't anticipated (4 Ghz?!?), the emulator is really quite snappy.
If you want a G3 emulator, it's not that difficult to write; it's incredibly dull and takes endless error checking, though.
No, I don't work for Emulators, Inc.
Thanks,
Dave Small
Comment removed based on user account deletion
No doubt. Someone might find http://www.macattorney.com/ useful - the author has been around the Mac platform for a long time.
Holding down the mouse button does in fact do squat for all the icons in the dock, not only the trashbin.
Click-and-hold on the dock icons (in 10.4 at least) does in fact bring up the contextual menu just like a control-click or a right-click does. This behaviour is also present in man other places of the Finder and other applications (Safari I think, but not Firefox it seems).
Mighty mouse is one of the absolutely worst design decision by Apple, short of the puck mouse.
Why can't they get mice right? It's not really that hard, and they've been doing it for two decades now.
But here you have it, Apple's tendency to try to jam all features into some average package, rather than setting a simple default yet allowing you to alter it. Now, the mouse has a whole bunch of buttons, without the tactile feedback that make them easy to use, and with the added complexity of multiple buttons.
"Just Works?" - not really, just don't give your customers too much and they'll think it just works.
Mac - universal mediocrity.
PC - universal incompetence.
Linux - universal complexity (or mediocrity if you have gnome).
or at least a hackintosh with osx running like i have :D
g
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
I've never got this, ever.
Wanna play games, buy a console!! That's what they are for, duh!
Buy a Mac to do stuff, Buy a PC to install Linux.
Turning a PC into a Mac is nothing. What they really need to come up with is how to turn an IBM 360 into a MacBook Pro.