Mac OS X, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

Posted in Mac

I’ve been using Mac OS X for a almost two years. I like it, I really do. But there are a lot of things that drive me crazy. At least in the native/default configuration:

  1. You cannot rename/move/copy files in a save dialog. And you cannot open the enclosing folder to do so. You must open Finder yourself and look for that folder. This should be useful if you just want to replace a file but maintain the original in a different name.
  2. On that same file dialog, you can’t paste a web URL (http), which means, that if you want to open a file from web you must first download the it and then open it manually.
  3. You can’t delete a single file from trash. What happens if you just want to destroy evidence of something?
  4. Sometimes (e.g. in Chrome), when I mark text, it forgets where I started to mark from and where I ended. If I change the mark using Shift+Arrow/Shift+Click elsewhere, it either enlarges the selection when I wanted to subtract, or vice-versa. It should always proceed from the place the last mark was stopped at.
  5. When multiple windows of the same application are opened, a click on the dock icon brings them all to front. Same for cmd+tab menu. To me, it seems it happens because of poor window management. When I have a lot of Finder windows it’s very annoying. Partial solutions: HyperDock (for dock) and Witch (for alt+tab between all windows, not apps)
  6. You can’t cut & paste files. As time goes by I see how I really need it. Imagine you wouldn’t be able to cut & paste text, but only copy-paste-delete. Solution: TotalFinder
  7. You can’t merge folders. Drag / copy&paste of a folder named A, onto a folder which contains another folder named A, will totally remove the second A and replace it by the first one. The only way to merge is to use Terminal or an external tool.
  8. If your Finder window with Details view is packed with files, you can’t create a new folder with the right click menu unless you either enlarge the window, to get space below the files where a right click have New Folder command or use shortcut/main menu. On Windows – right click would work after the last column because a files don’t spread over an entire line.
  9. In details view, with a tree of files opened (great feature!), when pasting a file it’ll paste it to the top most directory you’re in, and not the one you marked.
  10. In native apps, if a text field is disabled, you can’t select the text in it at all.
  11. Several applications require you to right click on their dock icon in order to open them. For example, Adium: when the contact list is closed and there’s a conversation opened. True, it’s also Adium’s fault, but it’s more a window management UI issue.
  12. Deleting a file on the Finder (cmd+Backspace) clears the selected file. If you want to go to the next file with the down arrow – it’ll start from the first file on the top of the list. It should remember the location of the last deleted file and focus on the one that was next to it (or previous if it’s the last file).
  13. You must use Terminal for lots of advanced configurations. They don’t appear on System Preferences. Things like “Show hidden files” and more.
  14. No editable address bar in finder. ‘Go to Folder’ doesn’t count. It would, if it was showing the full current address of a window, but it shows only the last accessed path. Again, only terminal can make things easier.
  15. The Preview application won’t let you navigate through files in the same directory, unless they were all opened together initially.
  16. Weird and inconsistent Home & End buttons. I want it to go to the beginning/end of a line and not the top of the document. Several applications use the first approach and others use the second one. Solution: KeyFixer
  17. No Right-Click+Dragging (used for copy/move/extract etc.)
  18. Cmd+N in a Finder window opens the home directory. But most of the times I used it, I meant to duplicate the same window. Solution: TotalFinder
  19. Windows are resizable only from one corner. That means, that if a window is “stuck” on a size that is bigger than the screen, it cannot be resized, and you’re probably doomed, because most apps remember their size/location. It happend to me more than once after plugging off an external screen. Solution: Divvy

I guess that most of the users don’t need all of these, but I’m sure I’m not the only one complaining about them. Apple might want to protect the general users, and their approach seems like “We are way smarter than you”. But why don’t they create “Advanced Mode” for developers and advanced users?

I still use it because of the full native support for Ruby on Rails, Apache, iPhone development and such, but sometimes, I miss Windows 7.

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Elad Ossadon
January 15th, 2011
6 Comments »

  • http://twitter.com/arikfr Arik

    While I agree that some of these are annoying, some of them are the result of being used to doing things the “Windows way”.

    For example, once I got used to OS/X’s way of navigating in text files (CMD+arrows), I no longer have issues with home/end buttons. In fact, their correct behavior is to jump to beginning/end of file.

  • http://devign.me/ Elad Ossadon

    @Arik,
    The problem is the inconsistency in programs.
    For example, Adium cmd+arrow = next/prev chat, and IIRC Home/End in Open Office/MS Office act as in Windows.

  • http://twitter.com/adamtal Adam

    Great post!

    I believe some of these are indeed designed to protect basic users, which is what makes Mac OS so much better than windows. I don’t think apple will bother making an advanced mode, as there’s no business logic to it, however, I’m surprised there isn’t an app that takes care of all of this for power users.

    I do believe some of these are going to be fixed in future versions, as apple tends to take stuff that makes sense from windows, like right-clicking, and maximize to full screen (will be available in the next version of osx).

    As far as inconsistency in applications, I think most of the blame is on developers, and thanks to Apples extensive docs (specifically the “HIG”), the osx environment is *much* more consistent than windows. But thts a whole other topic.

  • http://ronnyo.com Ronny

    I hear you, brother.
    I’ve used Mac at work exclusively for two months, then got back to Windows 7. These aren’t minor annoyances – They stumble you over and over again through your workday, and show Apple’s way of doing things.

    You don’t imagine that attitude. Apple champions it, but it’s the same with jResig/jQuery, Doug Crockford and hell, even RoR and 37signals.

    Being authoritative and giving your audience easy, simple tools that just work, apparently works. It makes you look cool. “Convention over Configuration” works great in Rails, but Apple almost always just shuts down configuration.

    This is why I, and tons of others, have a love/hate relationship with all of the above. Their products are decent if not magnificent, overall. But it’s the blatant attitude and the walls you run into, I just can’t take it for too much time. Read your post again – You’ve recommended 6 programs just to make basic OS things work as expected, and some other things which bother you can’t be fixed.

    Maybe a UCD-based Linux distribution might work, some day. Great, intuitive UX for most users, along with power tools for su. Eventually, that’s Windows with a command line and without Microsoft ;-)

  • http://twitter.com/arikfr Arik

    @Elad,
    The problem is with the developers and not with the system. Imagine, if someone developed an app for Windows that used the Mac conventions. Would you blame Windows for that?

  • http://lucid.co.il Sagi

    So very true. I’ve already discussed the majority of these issues with my Windows-2-Mac friends. The most annoying parts, in my view, are being unable to cut-paste files, have a custom location bar on the finder, and having grouped application windows hiding. I hope this post will meet the right people.

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