8 Mac Annoyances
1. Window maximizing. What is the point of that green button on the top of every window? Why does it not maximize the window to fill the screen, like on every other OS out there?
2. The startup chime. Sometimes you want to use your computer discreetly, or without disturbing others, why does the startup chime not have a control panel where you can turn it off?
3. Window resizing. Why can’t you resize a window from any corner? It seems like a very basic thing to be able to do. For a company that prides itself on usability, it’s downright criminal that you STILL can’t do this.
4. One button mouse? C’mon Apple. This is the 21st century. Get with the program.
5. File extensions and associations. I’ve been using a Mac for 8 years now and I still don’t fully understand how this works. For all it’s faults, even Windows gets this right. For example, I want all txt files to open with Textmate, no matter which program created them.
6. Inconsistent UI. While this is better in Leopard than it has been in the past, there are still tons of apps that just don’t look like they’re sharing the same OS. Take Safari & Preview for example, the toolbar buttons don’t even match.
7. The finder. While I’ve gotten used to the finder now, I still don’t find it as straightforward as it could be. Give me Windows Explorer any day (hell, give me File Manager from Windows 3.1).
8. The keyboard. Ok, fine the @ and ” keys are swapped (for a UK user) but some of the other keys on that thing are just plain weird. Perhaps I’m showing my ignorance here, but why do I need a key labelled ‘§’ more than I need one labelled ‘#’. Sorry, I just don’t get it.
There’s a lot of things that Mac does better than Windows (read: most things) but the list above consists of really basic stuff that simply needs fixing to make the Mac experience complete (IMHO, FWIW).