My First WWDC as a Switcher
Well, today I am attending WWDC 2007. It is quite an eye opener. Many of the folks are very kind and have been very friendly (including helping me get out of a jam after I installed the Safari 3 beta).
First, let’s talk about the announcements. From a Switcher’s point of view, it is nice to see an all-new desktop and Finder coming. I have been frustrated with the current Finder (it is not as flexible with file management as Windows Explorer) and the new one looks to be impressive.
I like the new Coverflow view, combined with the Quick Look capabilities. Being able to quickly find/read documents is very useful. Managing information is already difficult with computers today. Anything to make that better is a good thing.
In regard to Spaces, well, I guess this is all about personal workflow. I have tried VirtueDesktops and haven’t found it to be as useful as those who live by it. Still, I will need to play with this capability more to see if it helps me work better. I just wonder if the whole command-tab (AKA alt-tab from Winders) functionality will go the way of the dodo.
Safari 3—well—I tried it. It broke some other betas I was testing (yes, I am stupid like that too). I liked some of the features (drag-n-drop tabs, speed), although I don’t see how it is so much better than v2. Am I missing something?
Also, building Safari for Windows makes no sense to me. Yes, it will help folks test their web apps, and it gives users more choice. Although to compete with Firefox makes little sense, and it is a joke to try to compete with Internet Explorer. Yes, I like Apple, but that is just silly business.
So, given my propensity for stupidity (we all know how I deleted my USR folder), I don’t think it would be a good idea to install the Leopard developer preview. I do have an extra machine to play with, although I don’t believe I can trust myself. 
I must say, as a fan of user experience, it is nice to see the unified look in Leopard. I am really bored with the funky changes between aqua, brushed metal, and the iLife apps. The improvement of windowing (active/inactive apps) is crucial. I am glad that Apple responded to the community. Hopefully, they will also update the User Experience guidelines so that we get consistent apps across the board.
Of course, they also introduced Time Machine which doesn’t match a unified UI at all. Nevertheless, the app is unique. So, we’ll see how folks respond to the inconsistent look and feel for the enhanced functionality.
I look forward to the next few days to see how the rest of the community discusses the functionality, user experience, and overall capabilities of Leopard. I just can’t wait until October of this year. I think many of the users out there are also just as impatient.
I am more curious to see if any of the other switchers out there are concerned and/or excited about this new OS X release. Will we adjust to the new UI changes? Will we try the new workflow apps (Spaces, Quick Look, etc.)? Let me know your thoughts....
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I was very underwhelmed.
GUI changes...yay........I hate the dock as it is anyway (I use Cleardock), now it wants to take up more room?
......One more thing was Safari for Windows? Thanks Steve…
I do like stacks, however I am a freak with a clean desktop all organised :D
E
Safari for Windows is about iPhone, not trying to directly compete with the other browsers (though that will be one result of this).
This WWDC did seem a bit underwhelming, but like past presentations, it seemed that Steve had intended to show us things that simply weren’t ready to show. By October, they likely will be-- in which case, we’re all going to be pleasantly surprised. I have always thought that the delay to an October release was less to do with iPhone and more to do with some big stuff only being half-baked. We’ll see come October. Steve promised something big and didn’t fully deliver that. He’s fully aware of that, too. I’d bet that he still plans to deliver something big, but will need more time to do it right.
I for one will gladly give Apple some slack. They’ve been running full speed ahead for nearly ten years now.
Hey, Matthew, if you’re not using that Leopard beta, send it on down! I’m crazy enough to run it in production! :D (I also keep good backups.
)
Actually, if you’ve got a spare partition, either on your internal disk or an external one, you can install it there and boot from it to test it out. Just need to make sure the disk uses a GUID partition table if you’re on an Intel Mac, lest you won’t be able to boot from it. (Apple Partition Table if you’re on PowerPC Mac)
Leopard was everything I expected - i.e. nothing worth making a “top secret feature”. Quicklook is sensational, Cover Flow wows and harks of things to come (iLife, more touchy-feely interface devices), but there was nothing to scare Microsoft - except they are still a generation behind.
Rick, it’d be nice if you’re right - esp more improvements to Finder - but Apple did say it was a feature complete version of Leopard.
And yeah, they have done some amazing things in the last ten years. Possibly more than any other tech company, including Google.
John Gruber:
Apparently, these secret features consist of the new unified window theme and the Cover Flow view in Finder. This is sort of like saying you’re adding a secret new player to your baseball team and then revealing that it’s one of the existing players wearing a new jersey.
Here are my comments from the other thread:
New Desktop - nice stuff. Aero-like translucent menus. smile I like Aero, so that’s a good thing. The “3D” Dock seems kind of bogus as a feature as does the Download folder (uh, can’t you do that already?), but I do like Stacks. Seems cool.
Finder - about time. I hope it’s a real improvement and not just eye-candy, but I like what I see so far.
Quicklook - excellent.
Time Machine - we already knew about this one of course. I’d like to see the specs on what kind of drives it needs. Luckily drive prices are coming down.
Spaces - I never use Expose or any of the kind of super duper features that are supposed to make you more productive. None of those things really help me all that much. Maybe Spaces will be different.
iChat - it would be really nice if I personally knew anyone, anyone at all, that actually used it.
Dashboard - a movie widget? Okay. Big deal. The widget maker seems alright, but I think we’ve seen this before.
Core Animation - other than the Finder improvement, this was my favorite demo. That was teh hot. Let’s hope developers take advantage of it.
Boot Camp - it’s included. Other than that, not much different than Tiger.
Safari in Windows - I use Firefox. When it comes out of beta, I might try it on my Vista machine, but I don’t even use it on the Mac.
Hmmm, well Leopard looks like it has some kewl things. Pushing MS even further behind.
The Safari on Win thing is interesting. Personally I welcome it. I am a Safari believer. FF is a stinkin piece of ugly pooh, I hate it and only use it for testing. I see FF users like Linux users. Just going against the status quo. Whatev. I think it is a good sign because IE blows and blows hard. I don’t care if it has 70+ percent market share it is an awful browser. We have more probs on IE6/7 here than all other browsers put together. I welcome a browser that has a chance to be decent.
I see FF users like Linux users. Just going against the status quo.
Well that’s certainly a stupid generalization.
I am a Safari believer.
I am a believer in anything that supports web standards.
Bring on Firefox, Safari, you name it I’ll recommend it. The day we rid the planet of the pestilence that is IE cannot come soon enough.
Please God can someone speed Firefox up though - and MAKE IT PRETTY, CURSE YOU!
Ben, the quick, Mac-like version of Firefox is called Camino
I am back to Safari though. Camino kept annoying me with small inconveniences, especially lack of proper autofill and lack of dictionary tie-in. It also has serious issues with Quicktime content. Yet it *is* fast, and I would love to see this sort of site-specific cookie management in Safari, that is very convenient.
Did anyone notice that the stacks funtionality is highly interesting in regard to finger/pen based input?
All in all, as “boring” as the whole shebang might appear to us who can never be satisfied, I have indentified the single coolest feature in Leopard, and that is the Star Wars Hologram effect in iChat, complete with interference.
LOL