Mac OS X v. Linux (Was: Re: Ubuntu Boot Up Logo)

[Michael Beattie]

> Anyway, your (Michael Beattie) vehement rejection of Expose appears to
> be rooted in lack of experience. It took me years to start to
> appreciate the Dock's finer points and I still hate it. Expose found a
> home in my repertoire of tools IMMEDIATELY. It was brilliant in its
> simplicity.
> 

This may be true but I have used OSX since Jaguar and Panther and
Expose since it was available and I find it lacking in functionality
as I wrote before.  And the dock just takes too long to switch between
multiple windows of different apps.  I would also love to have alt-tab
work correctly instead of alt-tab and then alt-` to get to the right
window.

> This is a false benefit (fixed place in a menu). With taskbars you
> have to (a) click on the application's icon and (b) get it to open up
> the pop-up-list and (c) FIND the right menu from the list (and, if in
> Firefox you have multiple web pages open for the same site chances are
> you have to switch to each one anyway to find out which one you
> wanted) and (d) select it.
> 

Oh come now.  There is only one step which you have listed as (a)
click on the application's icon that is valid.  (Though I would have
written "click on the application's taskbar entry.")  By clicking on
the thing in the taskbar that brings the window corresponding to that
icon to the front.  The popup dialogs are an option which I quickly
turn off always and (d) is just covered by the previous 3 steps.

> The other problem with task bars is that there's little rhyme or
> reason in Linux and/or Windows as to when exactly a pop-up menu will
> appear.

In windows (when I use it) and linux I set it to "never" and the
problem is solved.

> 
> Apple has put a *lot* of good thought into their Dock + Expose system
> and it works fairly well. The Dock is not a perfect solution but
> neither is the task bar. Sometimes I prefer the task bar to the Dock
> but most of the time it's the other way around now. Expose has really
> made working with multiple apps and windows easy.
> 

Yes, Apple put a lot of thought into it.  And their solution *works*. 
But it's far from ideal.

I personally dont agree that the dock/expose combo is faster and
easier and simpler than a taskbar.

> But, anyway, the point of my whole long diatribe is that the
> effectiveness of these tools varies wildly based on your experience,
> way of working and NEEDS. 
>
> I think you'll find a lot of people would really appreciate
> Expose-like functionality (though, I don't know if Apple has a patent
> for that so it might get a little sticky) because people are more
> adept at recognising shapes and pictures quickly than they are text.
>

This, I do agree with.  Different strokes for different folks I guess.