nolus wrote:I'm a long time PC user, but the other day I had to debug some web pages that didn't display correctly on a mac.
You know, that's actually why apple made safari for windows... it's the same exact rendering engine as on the mac. It's doubtful that safari will take a significant marketshare away from explorer/firefox, but since it is cross-platform now, there should be better compatibility for webpage rendering and webapps on the mac (or so the reasoning goes..)
would it kill them to allow resizing a window from any edge or corner?
Yes. Inside of Steve Jobs' brain is an autokill switch that will go off if the Apple must change the Human Interface Design Guidelines document in such a manner to make logical sense where such sense was previously absent. This is also why you can't rearrange items in the iTunes "Music" view, for instance... you are bound to make a playlist, drag the items you want in there, and rearrange them to your heart's delight. Doing it in the main "Music" view could put an end to poor old Steve!
why is it better to have all windows shareing the same menu bar instead of each having its own? seems like pure bloody mindedness to me.
I actually don't mind this aspect of the Mac UI so much, though it also seemed illogical to me at first. The reasoning is as follows... first, it lets the user more clearly know which application is in the foreground. Second, you basically never need access to the menu contents of two windows at the same time. Third, it saves screen real estate.
How do you quickly get back to a window that gets buried beneath others? like if you have muliple Safari windows open for instance. I am sure there is a way but I could not figure it out.
Command+` (command = the "open apple" key). The 'tick' key may seem like a strange choice, but it's actually rather nice, because Command+Tab flips between applications (just like in windows), and the tick is right above that key, at least on the US-English keyboard.
Or, if you prefer, you can use exposé, which I doubt you would, because...
way too much animated crap for my taste.
You must be rather bitter about the way that Windows has been evolving over the years, especially in Vista?
Anyways, some of this stuff can be easily disabled in system preferences, others of it deeper in OSX with "power-user" apps like Onyx. Either way, the eye candy aspect of OSX is designed to be flashy, but also functional at the same time. Contrast this to the windows sound events for practically everything short of typing, which I'm sure they considered at one point to make Windows more comfortable for old people whose previous experience with computers is seeing them in movies.
No context menus! (ok I know there is a way to enable this, but I didn't have time to find it)
That's a per-application thing. Some apps have a lot; the Apple ones prefer to keep them limited. Blame it on the dumb one-button mouse philosophy (also connected to above mentioned brain-detonation chip).
On balance I think both systems have their share of annoyances, but also both are incredibly well designed full of thought and amazing attention to detail.
Ditto that.
So when you choose between Windows/PC/OSX/Mac. Do it for the right reasons. Get what works for you, runs the apps or supports the hardware you want. Most of all ignore the hype surrounding the issue.
ask yourself, if XP was really as bad as some Mac zealots claim would Microsoft be the most successful software company ever?
Technically you could argue that their success is due in no small part to their exclusive distribution channels to most major PC manufacturers, their brutal business practices, etc. I tend to agree with you, though... Windows isn't perfect, but evidently, it's good enough for ~90% of computer users.
GAFM ***