What OS X Could Learn From Windows
Okay.
Hard hat? Check.
Flak jacket? Check.
Flame proof vest? Check.
White flag? Check.
Deep breath? Check.
Windows has some features OS X could do with.
There, I said it. Nice and quick and up front. No beating around the bush. So what now? Duck!!!
Is it safe to come out yet? I’ve been burnt before daring to suggest this. But here I am again, sucker for punishment.
1) Compatible control keys. Switching between Mac and Windows this drives me nuts. I have to consciously think “command-C or control-C?” It shouldn’t have to be that way. And if you’re running RDC or VPC and copying and pasting between OS X and Windows!! Sheesh!
The problem isn’t the labeling, it’s the location of the keys used. I had to use a Windows PC today and I kept pressing Alt-C to copy. This is why it’s a problem. If it was simply a matter of labeling, no worries, mate. Apple - and the zealotry - need to concede that this battle is lost.
Implementing this would rock many people’s boats, so if Apple did make this change it’d have some serious domino affect on other keystrokes and applications that use them, but maybe it could be done with the switch to Intel, just to ease the pain slightly.
2) Save button on toolbars. I don’t think any of the Apple software ever gives you the option to include a Save button. Print button yes, Save button no. A little test - raise your hand if you save your work more often than you print it? Ah, so I’m not alone. Good. You can put your hands down. Thank you.
3) A multi button mouse. And you thought I’d say two. Why stop at two? Especially with things like Exposé, Dashboard and Spotlight. They’re just crying out for single click activation from a mouse. Ok. So this isn’t a Windows feature per sé, but still is needed.
4) Only show relevant file types in open and save dialogs. For those who like seeing every file that’s every existed in their Documents folder, give them a checkbox to show all files. But personally, if I am opening a Pages file, I don’t want to see all my iMovie, Excel, iDVD etc files. And OS X already knows which are which because non-related ones are greyed out.
5) Sort folders to top of directory listings I know that we don’t go folder mining as much since we got Spotlight, so I won’t labor on about this one.
6) More context sensitive help. I notice since I first raised this two years ago, more of it has crept into OS X. So I guess at least I can’t be flamed for this one!
Now why is it that I can list all the features I want Leopard to have and as long as none of them are from Windows, its cool? But dare suggest OS X needs a feature already in Windows and the world comes down on you. We can admit that OS X is not perfect, but not that Windows is better in some ways.
But Apple have admitted it in the past. Here’s just a couple of things I’ve seen Windows do that Apple has added:
- Command-tab switching
- Existing files selectable in Save dialog
Last week I suggested changes to the iPod and more people than not, disagreed. And I reckon this week it’ll be a lot worse. But if I added to this list “Change to Intel CPU’s"… two months ago I would have been burned at the stake. Now it seems we all think that change is logical. So before you get the flame thrower out remember, we know Apple make changes, they borrow from Windows and borrow from their 3rd party developers.
Also, I know I’m going to get flamed for this being a “tired old argument that has been done to death”. Sorry if you feel that way. just pretend I didn’t say these features already existed in Windows and that they are new and revolutionary. If we stop asking, Apple may think we don’t want them anymore. Microsoft copied so much from Mac OS, why can’t Apple do a little copying back?
And if you can take the heat, what would you like to see Apple borrow from Windows?
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1) NO NO NO NO No No No No no no no no!!!
The reason the Command key is SO MUCH BETTER than the Control key is location, location, location!
The control key is WAY outside the average handspan of a user since it’s on the far left and/or right. It requires movement off the home keys for touch typists. The command key is *right next to* the space bar. With either hand I can do a thumb to pinky stretch (if needed) for *any* keyboard command. Try that with the Control key… ** It can’t be done. ** They’re too far from the center of the keyboard. Moving to the Control key would make the user experience WORSE. The Mac OS is about doing it the “right way”, not doing what everyone else does.
Also, Windows didn’t start using the control key as a keyboard shortcut until *way* after the Mac had standardized command key sequences. Remember how you used to have to push Alt-F4-X to quit a program in Windows? MS got it wrong. Don’t punish us for their crappy keyboard shortcuts.
By the way, who uses that “Windows” key anyway? Why not have Windows change to that one instead since its proximity to the rest of the keyboard is better than the Control key? (which would be the better usability solution)
And lastly, the Control key is used for very specific functions when using the Unix command line. You need to have the Control key separate from the Command key if you have a Unix-based operating system… especially if you want to use GUI command keys along side command line control keys.
Again, I say… Windows got it wrong. It’s not up to us to relearn our keystrokes using the terrible key placement of the Control key. Suck it up and learn to do it THE RIGHT WAY.
2) This is an application issue, not an OS X issue.
3) Unlike what Angry Hamster said, two buttons DOES cause confusion. My mom still hasn’t figured out what button does what and she pushes BOTH until the computer does what she wants (more by accident than anything else). There *is* a user-confusion issue with more than one button and it DOES result in the computer not working intuitively for people like my mom. Angry Hampster’s assertions are way off.
4) Ok, make it a user preference.
5) Here too. Make it a user preference.
6) Perhaps you didn’t mean for it to sound this way, but your wording in #6 appears to imply that your articles are a reason more help is now present in the OS. I’m going to assume that it was bad phrasing and not incredible hubris on your part… although after the hurbis of suggestion #1, I’m not so sure.
*I* am *not* going to relearn my keystrokes to make your switch easier… epecially if the change negatively impacts the overall user interface. I’ve been a loyal Apple customer for years… It’s time for *you* to learn to “type different”.
Even more irritating is a web site that allows you to enter comments, lets you click the submit button, tells you that you need to register (no problem, so far) and then has the audacity to *refresh* the page, obliterating the long, reasoned, well-thought out post you just created.
To add insult to injury, it does the same thing when you go to register. What’s that? You have a typo in your registration? Bzzzzzzt. Type the whole dang thing over again.
Sheesh. I haven’t seen a web site act that maliciously since the last millennium.
As a recent Mac switcher who loves her Powerbook, I completely agree with you.
Keyboard short-cuts—I’m finally getting used to hitting the Command key, but it wasn’t pretty at first. I can see how that would be true for others if either the Control key or the Command key was made the standard shortcut key… I think a whole lot of people on whichever side ‘lost’ would make a lot of fuss, but it honestly is not that difficult after a while. (As a further example, I grew up in the UK, where our keyboards are laid out to have the “ symbol over the 2 and the @ symbol over the ‘—they’re switched around. At first when I was typing on the standard US layout, I’d get email addresses with inverted commas in the middle all the time, but now I can use either lay-out comfortably. Your body learns it.)
I don’t know that I necessarily support standardising the two systems, but it would be a good-faith gesture on Apple’s part if it maybe put out a plain-English manual for switchers and included it in the box with the computer and said: okay, this is what you used to do. Here’s how you do it on a Mac. Even if they included it on the OS as a help file or tutorial, I think it would help out a lot of people.
They could even give you an option when you boot your new machine up for the first time to use a standard Mac keyboard layout with the Command key as the shortcut key, etc. or to use a WIndows layout with the substition of the Apple key for the Windows key.
Two-button mice—again, I’m used to the one button on my Powerbook now. I was working on a Windows laptop yesterday and I kept trying to left-click with the right button. But I think the two-button mouse is better, because I loathe having to Ctrl-click to bring up the right-click menu. All of the arguments against it as a good keyboard shortcut key (it’s too far outside the centre of the screen, for example) are, I think, even more valid for it being a modifier key. I have to break off whatever I am doing to make sure I time the mouse-click and the key-push together, whereas my fingers can reach as far as Ctrl-N (new document) so I can do it one-handed. But with the two buttons I can just right-click—and it does it without me having to think about it. (I prefer keyboard shortcuts over the right-click menu, btw—at least one Windows user who does.)
Other features I’d like to see in OS X:
1. Image thumbnailing—I fully agree. I realise I should use iPhoto for all my viewing needs, and while it’s a very nicely-implemented piece of software, I am not going to fire it up every single time I want a preview of a folder of images I’m already at in the Finder.
2. System Restore. I’ve used it a couple of times on my Windows PC, and even when I haven’t used it it was nice to know I could make a back-up point as a piece of software was downloading, just in case. Maybe I’m paranoid after obsessively clearing out for spyware for years on Windows, but it would be nice if the Mac had some sort of fail-safe for users hellbent on screwing up their computers.
3. Highlighting a file and pressing enter should open it. I want a rename option in the right-click menu. I want it to open when I press enter. This is one of the more frustrating things for me, since I use the keyboard a lot. I don’t like switching between it and the mouse if I can avoid it.
4. When I’m typing into a form, e.g. logging on to this site, I type my user name, hit tab, type my password, hit tab, and then on Windows I hit tab again and press enter to check the box saying “remember me.” I then hit tab and press enter once more to submit the form. Why am I forced to click on the Mac?
Other than that, I’m very happy with OS X and my Powerbook. I think Apple has done an excellent job of making the Mac as pleasant as possible for switchers, and the things listed above are all fixable and implementable. They’re little things—I think that if I were answering the question, “what should Longhorn borrow from Tiger?” my list would be longer, much more difficult to incorporate, and more depressing.
So Apple’s definitely on the right track, and they have made most of the experience very pleasant for me.
matters, YES! The page also jumps to the foreground whenever it is refreshed, not to mention the totally annoying background that makes me feel as if I am about to develop epileptic fits. Nevertheless the writing is good, mostly sane (xept for today) & the commenters keep a certain level of quality, something becoming quite rare as it seems.
vb baysider, yes, Yes, and YES to your idea about the position of the command key. And: Just the same thing with my mother. I tired to introduce her to the right-click for years, no go. Does she control-click? No. She uses shortcuts and menues. She does use the scrollwheel though.
Therefore
AngryHamster, you have a point when you say everyone has their own preferences. In fact I would assume Apple could come up with a device that is satisfying to all. A mouse that has two buttons & a scrolling device (no need for a wheel as we have them, maybe a touch-area, something more ergonomic) with a switch underneath that will lock both buttons to work as one button. Out of the box set for one-button experienced users will unlock it straight away, novice users when they dare to explore what the mouse has to offer (or someone helps them).
This is something which should receive more attention: Novice users often have inhibitions to actually explore the computer and what the interface has on offer in fear of breaking something (suspicious buttons add to the fear-factor, say what you want). Apple should offer a novice-tour app. that would autostart after a fresh install. It could have two levels, novice & advanced, with the advanced program starting by “you may want to turn over your mouse & try the 2-button function”.
My first thought after reading this article was, “is that it?” I mean, if that’s all, then that ain’t much. None of this stuff is a major deal.
1) Compatible control keys.
As someone above said, Apple got this right. The Command key can be used in a one-hand stretch. The...WHATEVER IT IS key (Alt? Ctrl?) on a Wintel keyboard requires two hands for many key commands. And I do love me some key commands.
2) Save button on toolbars.
Pointless. Cmd-S is easier than mousing to a button. It’s the first key command most folks learn. It’s up to the developers to put save buttons in anyway.
3) A multi-button mouse.
No thank you. Funny, I’ve been using a one-button mouse for 20 years and never felt I needed more buttons. I keep telling myself I’m gonna go drop $30 and see if I like two buttons, but it’s just not worth it. And for computer illiterates, two buttons is just twice as confusing. Again, Apple has this right. Why cave in to retarded group-think now?
4) Only show relevant file types in open and save dialogs.
No, no, no. I often need to see everything in my folder, in order to name something correctly.
5) Sort folders to top of directory listings
Who cares?
6) More context sensitive help.
Huh?
Matters and Bad Beaver,
thanks for the feedback on the site. Of course I want to make the site as good as it can be for everyone not just in terms of the content, but also the design and usability.
I’ll take your feedback into account when doing further design tweaks, and if anyone else has any site feedback feel free to drop me a line at
Nice article, Chris! And I agree that Apple could take some cures from Windows. After all, disagreements aside they are both GUI interfaces.
Even more irritating is a web site that ... has the audacity to *refresh* the page, obliterating the long, reasoned, well-thought out post you just created.
Hear, hear. Perhaps the website shouldn’t offer surfers a box to put comments in until **after** they’ve logged in! Basically the way it is now, the box is completely useless before you’ve logged in, because the website isn’t smart enough to take you back to your original spot after you login.
With the mouse, i think they could perhaps have an opt-out, to save a few quid on the purchase price for people who are never going to use it.
Open/Save, I’d go with keeping it as it is. I’m sure I click on the greyed out filenames fairly frequently while saving in order to copy that name into the edit field. Then it gets tweaked and saved. It saves a lot of typing where there are files of different types, but similar names. Might be an Omnigraffle document saved as a JPG or something.
I have suffered loss of comments when I though I was logged in but wasn’t. I like Daver’s sugesting that maybe the comments box is not visible if you’re not logged in.
Ok. I switched to Mac and as I have used my Mac more and more I have grown to hate using windows more and more, but there are 2 features that I wish my mac had.
1. Folder Replacement Options. In windows when I dragged a folder over a folder with the same name, it would not totally replace the old folder with the new. It would merge the contents and ask about replacing files. My mac cannot do this. Why does this matter you ask? Well I keep a copy of my music library on an external hard drive, but the external hard drive copy has music on it that my PB hard drive doesn’t, so when I get new music on my PB, I can just drag my whole music folder over and let my machine do the sorting for me. Instead I have to pay $30 for a file syncing program to do it.
2. Keyboard menu and web browser functionality. When a dialog box pops up in windows, all i have to do is keyboard over to ok or cancel. Can’t do this in Mac. I also can’t tab into checkboxes or any other non-text entry field in my web browser...what’s up with that
20 years without a two button mouse? Frankly you don’t know what you are missing.
Just came across this
http://securityawareness.blogspot.com/2005/07/one-button-mouse-syndrome.html
Another bit in the never ending call for a two button mouse. Has nothign to do with “groupthink”, to think it does is crazy.
If I was a victim of groupthink I would still be a full time Windows user. There are too mnay benefits to using a two button veruses one, which is why this debate will never end.
Many of the Windows features you listed were reasons why I switched to Mac OS X.
1) I prefer the command key next to the space bar. It’s easer to use and Keyboards shortcuts are more consistent on OS X than Windows. I’m not going back.
2) Are you referring to applications created by Apple, third party developers or ???
The Apple HIG (Human Interface Guide) does not require applications to use toolbars. However, all applications are required to use the standard menu layout, which includes items and shortcut keys for Save, Save As, etc.
If there are standards for Windows applications, few developers use them. Most Windows applications have cluttered user interfaces, menus and toolbars. No thanks.
3) I still have to tell my mother exactly which mouse button to click. Every time. She’s had her Windows system for over 4 years. A Mac Mini will be showing up under my parents tree this year with a *single button* mouse.
4) Hiding files was a pet peeve of mine under Windows. Make it a preference option, but don’t turn it on by not by default. However, Mac OS 9 prevented you from selecting existing files when saving documents. This was a GOOD Windows feature that made it to Mac OS X.
5) Why should the type of an item change it’s sort order? Coming from Windows, you may expect this strange behavior, but not everyone does. Make it a preferences option, but leave it off by default.
6) While Apple did revamp the system in OS X, there is always more room for improvement. However, I don’t see this as a feature that’s specific to Windows.
Note: If you want to see preview thumbnails, change the finder to icon view, select “View > View Options” from the menu and check “Show preview icons” from the inspector. This can be set on a window by window basis or globally for all windows.
Angryhamster, I admire your efforts but it’s like trying to discuss psychology with Tom Cruise.
I’ve had actual conversations that went something like this:
ME: “I wish the Mac came with a two-button mouse.”
FANATIC: “It’s confusing. The average user wouldn’t know what to do with another button. Plus, it goes against the whole Apple philosophy of simplicity.”
ME: “A right button confuses people?”
FANATIC: “Plus, you can’t operate a two button mouse with your feet.”
ME: “Um, when would you…
FANATIC: “Think different.”
ME: “Okay. Then why I can’t I do something as simple as sharing a folder across a network that isn’t in my User folder.”
FANATIC: “You can do that. And it works better than Windows.”
ME: “No. It doesn’t work at all. In Windows I just right-click on a folder and click Share.”
FANATIC: “It’s so much simpler in OSX. Just download and install the third party program called SharePoints.”
ME: “A third party app? You mean it doesn’t support this natively?”
FANATIC: “It’s simple, trust me. You download SharePoints, open it, then click BROWSE. Browse through the folders until you find the one you want to share. Click on SHARE NAME and name the shared folder. Then click CREATE NEW SHARE. Voila. Simple.”
ME: “Do I need a two button mouse to do this?”
FANATIC: “No. Those are too confusing.”
At work I literally have a Mac laptop, a Linux desktop, and a Windows desktop. Three machines. I develop java software.
About (1)… Let’s agree that Apple did it right. The control key is interpretted by Mac, Linux, and Windows to create the control characters in ASCII. Open a command line window on Mac, Linux, and Windows. Hit control-h. All of them do backspace which is what control-h is in ASCII.
control-c is suppose to send a process an interrupt. Works exactly right on a Mac in a terminal. Works right on Windows in a terminal. Works right on Linux in a terminal. Not look at other applications. Macs don’t reuse the command. Copy is command-c. Control-c is ignored. On Windows it means something totally different. Control-c now copies. Linux like lemmings tried to have it the Windows way so control-c copies unless your in a terminal window and then to copy you’ve got to do control-shift-copy. I have no problem going from Mac to Windows. Takes a little getting used to but they are self-consistent. Linux which tried to do it the Windows way creates a problem.
(5) I hate on Windows having to decide whether what I’m looking for is a file or a directory. Alphabetical is a nice system. Don’t have to keep wondering whether what I remember to look for was the directory name or the name of the file.
The feature I’d like to see is being able to tab between buttons (in dialog windows, in Safari, etc.). Keyboard shortcuts for these buttons would be nice, too.