now, ever since i have had a computer of my own, it has been a mac. yes, it was pricy at the time, and is actually getting old enough to either need to be seriously upgraded (both RAM & hard drive space) or replaced. but i have always liked the operating system first and foremost. it is a very intuitive system i think, and surprisingly customizable if you know what you're doing.
All this being said, i think OSX Lion is the biggest waste of $30 possible. i am extremely disappointed in apple for packaging and selling what they are calling a whole new operating system, when in fact it is just a poorly concealed lazy person's way of changing things around on their already wonderful Snow Leopard system. I will be basing my complaints around what they have been primarily pushing as the "big new features" on their website. i have a response to all of them, and it annoys me that people think that this is a worthwhile update. And for the record, i have not looked at any reviews of the OS, i am just going off of my first thoughts on the system. these things that i point out might prove to be wrong, but from what i have seen on my computer and apple's website, they are all factual. i also apologize if some fancy big-named blog has pointed out these flaws already.
Multi-Touch Gestures
 |
| i do not conform to my own set limitations of space on this blog! |
view mission control is their first thing listed. i will get into how mission control is a useless new title for something that already exists on macs later, but for right now i will simply explain it with the fact that i can go to my own "mission control" by touching the bottom left corner of my screen with the mouse at anytime. it is called expose, and is fully fuctioning. it shows everything i have open in one specific space (spaces to be explained shortly). oh, and if i have other apps open in other spaces? command+tab
swipe between open apps. i have currently 6 spaces available on my computer. they are used to have a clean new desktop page, while still keeping applications such as itunes, iphoto, and my firefox all on at once.
 |
| everything i have open at the moment of writing this blog. 5 total "apps" in 4 spaces |
two finger scroll already exists, along with zoom functions. why anyone would want to tap to zoom as opposed to tap to click is beyond me.
Full Screen Apps
now, admittedly i can see the plus of this for things such as iphoto. however, for any other program such as itunes or safari this seems useless. perhaps it can be useful in a web browser, but both firefox and chrome have had this function for a while, so safari is just playing catch up. one of my bigger problems with the full screen apps is that it literally takes up the whole screen. that means you eliminate this wonderful thing:
 |
| yep, i have norton antivirus on my mac. you're stupid if you don't. |
the top bar on a mac has always been one of their staples of their operating system, much like the start menu on a windows. this tells you everything you need to know about whatever program is running, along with what programs you have running in the background or are just important for you. why anyone would want to eliminate this part of the interface on the mac system is beyond me.
so i have already briefly covered mission control, and my issues with it. i can do this:
 |
| my desktop right now is haunter. damn straight. |
this shows me everything that i have open in my current space, and all i have to do is move the mouse to the bottom left corner (and that is customizable if you hate the left!). also, there is this command+tab which shows all the apps i have open at once. this allows me to select any of them at my leisure and the page immediately switches to it. I'd have a screenshot demonstrating this, but both require keyboard commands, and i can't quite figure out how.
Mac App Store
this was made available to everyone with a mac back in january. it is not news, nor revolutionary for OSX Lion.
Launchpad
"Launchpad gives you instant access to all the apps on your Mac. Just click the Launchpad icon in your Dock."
now, this one bugs me the most, because it really is a good idea. it lets you see everything that is on your mac at once! you can see all apps, and choose the correct one for you! tis amazing. but wait... where i have i seen that before...
 |
| the eve icon is my desktop pictures folder. |
amazingly enough, i have 1 button that shows me all the apps on my computer! how the fuck did that already happen?! it is not hard to do. you can drag any folder of any kind to the dock on the bottom of your screen, and suddenly you have instance access to that folder. i just dragged the applications folder to the dock, and presto! i have the "launchpad" that they are so proud of. moving right along.
Resume
all programs will restart right where you left off before. i can see this as being a problem, considering i usually complete tasks in one sitting, and therefore do not need to see my completed task upon opening the program again. except maybe to get the satisfactory glee associated with seeing my own completed work.
Auto Save & Versions
the only thing i have that even remotely requires an auto-save function is a word processor. microsoft word already auto-saves everything. that was easy...
Air Drop
this seems like a great idea. when i start mingling more with people with macs, i'll get right on sending them files without the use of the internet. until that point happens (gotta get more than 10% of the market share...) this seems neat, but trivial.
Mail
I have no outright problems with their mail upgrades, but that is because i do not use external mail services. my mail is on my firefox, i do not see the point of having a separate program to run just my email...
well, that was fun & exceedingly long. let's do this again sometime.
I don't know much about Apple operating systems, but that gif is amazing.
ReplyDelete