What can Apple learn from Windows 7?
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From: zoara on 14 Nov 2009 13:12 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? Everything else I have heard of that seems interesting appears to be a second-rate copy of OSX features. That Exposé "show the desktop" feature (Aero Peek?) seems very badly thought-out; why do they leave the outlines of all the windows onscreen? I'd be interested in hearing the "highlights" from a Mac user's perspective... -zoara- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: Ben Shimmin on 14 Nov 2009 13:18 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. -- <bas(a)bas.me.uk> <URL:http://bas.me.uk/> `Property, marriage, the law; as the bed to the river, so rule and convention to the instinct; and woe to him who tampers with the banks while the flood is flowing.' -- Samuel Butler, _Erewhon_
From: Rob on 14 Nov 2009 13:32 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. Rob
From: SteveH on 14 Nov 2009 16:12 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. 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. -- SteveH
From: David Empson on 14 Nov 2009 19:46
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 Expos�. Click and hold on an icon for the application you want, and it shows previes for all that application's windows. You can mouse over them and hit space bar with QuickLook if you want to see it in greater detail, and click on a preview to open in that window. It also supports drag and drop between applications via Dock Expos�. -- David Empson dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz |