![]() “ sheets” in applespeak) are attached to the title bar of their parent window. This is a smart and unobtrusive feature that proved very useful (I happened to be working with a lot of HTML files this week).Ĭlosing an unsaved document brings up another nice feature Rather than the floating dialog boxes of Windows and previous versions of MacOS, dialog windows (a.k.a. This indicates that if you click the close button, you will be prompted to save or discard your changes. When working on a document that has been changed since last saved, the window-close control (the little red orb), has a dot in the center. I came across a few particularly nice touches in OS X. Everything is smoothly anti-aliased the visual elements (windows, widgets, menus, etc.) gave an impression of depth and integrity. In fact, I found that the GUI had a more solid overall feel than Windows XP (which is quite rough around the edges). I stand by that criticism, but it was not an impediment to using the computer. The software proved more interesting (and is more up-to-date) than the hardware, I’ve criticized OS X for being over-designed. Granted, I would look like a total bad-ass with a 17″ titanium Powerbook or a new 17″ flat-panel iMac. Don’t underestimate this – the dork appearance factor is probably killing sales of the Segway. Having a cute-looking gum-drop computer on my desk caused my co-workers to laugh every time they enter my office/cubby-hole. Those who know me understand that I am one who can rely solely on my physical appearance to get through life. One major problem with the iMac: it made me look like a dork. Otherwise these unfortunate components would be a deal-breaker. Luckily you can easily replace a keyboard and mouse. The keyboard has tiny arrow keys and tiny home/pg-up/pg-dn keys. The mouse is perfectly round, making it difficult to feel which is the front and back – important piece of special knowledge when using a mouse (as it determines the direction of the cursor). ![]() I know Apple has since replaced the puck-mouse, and bashing it is passé, but holy crap is it bad. The little speakers are all right for general use, but you won’t want to throw a party with them (I tried, but only one person showed up). Perhaps there are engineering reasons why more manufacturers don’t do this – but it is great in practice. The slot loading CD drive is a nice touch. An LCD would be nice too – also available (read my initial reaction to the release of the flat-panel iMac). ![]() I tried not to judge too much based on the screen-size, as larger screens are obviously available. The CRT is a great quality, though 15″ & 1024×768 is way too small for me. The hardware is an odd combination of great and crap. ![]() My hand muscles are more confused than they were during puberty, but as I did then, I’m mastering them. It doesn’t help that my ThinkPad has an annoyingly non-standard location for the Ctrl key. For the most part, these differences are innocuous – neither better nor worse on one platform or the other – but a serious hurdle in switching between the two. The Boxing-Glove Effectįirst, it look me a full day to get beyond the simple differences between Windows and OS such as basic key combinations, window/application switching, and the location of the special keys (Control, Alt, and the whatever-the-hell-you-call-that-thing mac key). I’ve often wondered if it was simply due to my familiarity with Windows conventions rather than any difference is quality of design This is my third full-workday on the iMac and my experience has been interesting. Using a mac always felt to me like trying to use a computer with boxing gloves on (much respect to Strong Bad). I’ve always been familiar with macs, but I’ve never spent enough time with one to actually make a fair judgment on their quality and usability. Not the latest and greatest hardware – and it showed – but it was sufficient for most work. It has a 15″ CRT, a 400MHz G3 processor, 192 MB of RAM, and is running OS X 10.2.5. The mac I’ve been using is old graphite iMac we have at work for testing web applications. Most of my time at the computer is spent using a web browser ( Phoenix/Firebird and Internet Explorer 6), reader/writing email Outlook 2002, and doing web development work (PHP/XHTML/CSS via HomeSite and graphics via Photoshop/Illustrator). My primary computer is an IBM ThinkPad T30 laptop running Windows XP. What follows is my review of the experience. A long-time Windows user and armchair graphical user interface critic, I have spent a week working in Mac OS X. I’ve been conducting a user interface experiment with myself as the subject. Acts of Volition A Windows user spends a week with a Mac Apby Steven Garrity in Usability & Design
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