What can Apple learn from Windows 7?
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From: Steve Firth on 16 Nov 2009 06:20 zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> wrote: > I know a few of you have had a reasonable play with Windows 7, and I'm > curious... What stuff has Microsoft done with it that Apple could really > learn from for the next version of OSX? I thought the access controls would be useful, but any competent teenager (i.e. one who can program a PVR[1]) could work around that in a few seconds. [1] All of them.
From: zoara on 16 Nov 2009 07:01 Rob <patchoulianREMOVE(a)gmail.com> wrote: > SteveH wrote: [snip: the "throw a window on each side of the screen and have them take up exactly half the space" feature] > > The only time I ever use that feature is when I'm working in Excel, > > which has had it for years anyway. > > > > Suppose it's a 'nice to have', but it's not essential. > > Indeed - I often work with Word and a web page, or web editor and a > text > doc, etc. It's not exactly taxing to manually resize. That kind of attitude is what gave us Windows in the first place, though. It may not be taxing, but it's still fiddlier and slower than throwing the two windows you want to compare onto the edges of the screen. And - presumably - has the benefit that when you undock them from the edges, they return to the same place they were originally. There may not be a huge difference in time or effort, but there *is* a difference, and making the little things easier is what separates a decent OS from an excellent one. Done right, I think this feature is a winner. -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 16 Nov 2009 07:01 David Empson <dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz> wrote: > zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> wrote: > > > I know a few of you have had a reasonable play with Windows 7, and > > I'm > > curious... What stuff has Microsoft done with it that Apple could > > really > > learn from for the next version of OSX? > > > > At first I thought I liked the feature where hovering over an app in > > the > > taskbar gave you previews of all the app's open windows, but now I'm > > not > > so sure; rolling my mouse over the dock would give me a headache, > > and I > > have loads of windows open in some apps, which would make the > > previews > > very small. > > Snow Leopard already does something similar: Dock Exposé. Uh huh - I use that all the time, and that's why I thought that the alternative method that Windows uses might be better - you can quickly skim through all your open windows by simply rolling the mouse over the taskbar; no click-and-hold delays. But then I thought maybe this would be headache inducing (do I want a flicker of previews every time my mouse rolls over the dock?) and thought maybe Apple had the best implementation all along. Not something I can really know without using, of course, but I wondered whether anyone else -who had used both - had any perspective on which is better. -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 16 Nov 2009 07:01 Rob <patchoulianREMOVE(a)gmail.com> wrote: > zoara wrote: > > I know a few of you have had a reasonable play with Windows 7, and > > I'm > > curious... What stuff has Microsoft done with it that Apple could > > really > > learn from for the next version of OSX? > > > > At first I thought I liked the feature where hovering over an app in > > the > > taskbar gave you previews of all the app's open windows, but now I'm > > not > > so sure; rolling my mouse over the dock would give me a headache, > > and I > > have loads of windows open in some apps, which would make the > > previews > > very small. > > > > The "throw a window on each side of the screen and have them take up > > exactly half the space" feature seems useful, in that you can > > quickly > > set up two windows to be visible rather than spending (slightly) > > more > > time arranging them manually to avoid overlap. Is it useful in > > practice? > > > > I saw this done on an ad and thought it'd be very useful on SL. Got it > > to work to a point with TwoUp, but alas that baulks on certain apps. > Someone kindly replied to my original query about this, and advised > Applescript - but rather beyond my limited abilities. I have a feeling that I might have suggested that. I could probably do it, but it would probably be *less* reliable than TwoUp. -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: zoara on 16 Nov 2009 07:01
Ben Shimmin <bas(a)llamaselector.com> wrote: > zoara <me18(a)privacy.net>: > > [...] > > > I'd be interested in hearing the "highlights" from a Mac user's > > perspective... > > I've played around with it a fair bit now, so here are the highlights > from my perspective: > > > > b. Heh. That good, huh? -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm |