Dec 16, 2004 Technology:
First impressions
I’ve been a happy Mac owner for a day now. I got the system booted yesterday and had the first feelings of it.
Likes:
- Sleek appearance.
- No need to set up the OS and wait eternity to get the computer in usable shape.
- UNIX internals.
- Preinstalled SSH.
Dislikes:
- Weight.
- USB ports are on the left side. My Microsoft laptop mouse (how ironic setup) has too short cord to rest on the correct place next to the laptop.
- Mac’s application centric way of working with windows feels old-fashioned. Not having proper Alt-Tab style functionality is a big minus. I don’t usually have a clue what programs are currently running.
- Small screws at the memory upgrade door. I couldn’t find a suitable screwdriver, had to continue search tomorrow. Update Dec 17th. After calling to 20+ stores in the capital region, I finally found one place that had these screwdrivers in stock. Local Apple reseller was also willing to lend their screwdriver, if I couldn’t find any. Now I have an excellent set of small screwdrivers.
- Mac OS X configured my wireless network totally wrong. I had to set up the IP addresses by hand. This may due to Windows box providing DHCP service, but this is a lapse from Apple.
- The user interface is not configurable, both in OS and applications. It seems that Think Different slogan holds only to the point where you make the switch. After that it’s time to Think Uniformly.
I’m personally surprised that the dislikes section has more items currently. Some of this may be due to long exposure of Windows, but in some aspects Mac OS X just sucks more than Windows…
1. Visa — Thursday, Dec 16 2004
I don’t know what you mean with “proper Alt-Tab style functionality”, but have you tried Cmd-Tab? It sure is enough at least for me.
2. Janne — Thursday, Dec 16 2004
The problem with Cmd-Tab is that it cycles through applications, not through application windows. If I have two windows open in Safari, I can’t access the ‘lower’ one with Cmd-Tab. I should press Cmd-~ (or Cmd-’), but I seemingly cannot find the correct key in Finnish keyboard… I could use also Ctrl+F4 to cycle through windows, but it doesn’t help with hidden Windows.
I prefer to work with documents, not applications, so this is quite key thing for me. I’ve tried to find a program that would cycle me through windows properly, but failed.
3. Visa — Friday, Dec 17 2004
You can browse through windows in almost all applications with Cmd-< and Cmd-> when you are in that application.
4. Janne — Friday, Dec 17 2004
Thanks, I have to try that at home… Unfortunately it doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of not being able to cycle through all open windows. I started to study OS X internals a bit to get hold of the problem, maybe I could solve it with scripting :)
5. Andy Budd — Sunday, Dec 19 2004
If you alt tab within expose you’ll be able to get to any window you want.
6. Janne — Monday, Dec 20 2004
Andy, I tried to alt-tab while pressing F9 or F10, but couldn’t see any difference? Did you mean this or something else?
Yesterday, I continued my escapades learning Mac OS X internals, and I’m really dumbfounded about the bad quality of the Apple programming manuals. All hints for good developer (documentation) sites are warmly welcome.