Why OSX Sucks*

I’ve been using a Mac at work now for nearly 3 months and, having never used one for development before, it’s really not the Holy Grail I’d heard it made out to be.

So here’s why Windows (7) is better.

1. No Cut and Paste?!

Seriously now, why not? Why can’t I cut a folder, navigate to a new folder, and paste it? I’ve heard some great reasons, like it’s a “feature to protect the user”. Rubbish

2. Unresponsive Window Swapping

When dragging a file over an item on the taskbar, I want the window to pop up after a second so I can drop the file into it. I don’t want to wait a couple of seconds, have more windows popup, hover over the one I want, wait a few more seconds to select the window, then finally drop the file in. It may only take 5 seconds extra time, but it’s a massive pain.

3. File Renaming

Why is there no dedicated shortcut to rename files?! And before you say “just press enter”, this doesn’t work in programs like Netbeans, where it opens the file. Also, when I select a file in finder, I want enter to enter the file, not edit the name!

4. Window Management

I find window management on OSX to generally be pretty poor. Minimizing a window means it goes from your cmd tab and cmd ~, forcing you to either right click on the dock icon or show every window.

5. Programs Don’t Work As Well As On Windows 7

This will probably infuriate people, but I’ve found some of my more frequently used programs just aren’t as good. Netbeans is one, why can’t I open a file that isn’t in a project again? I can on Windows. The way Skype handles the conversation window compared to Windows is annoying too. Gimp is woeful, constantly double clicking to get the window into focus and select an item (admittedly this probably isn’t all down to the OS, but the developers of the respective programs). Plus FlashDevelop isn’t out for OSX, which makes me sad.

6. No IE

Worst thing about OSX? No IE. Seriously, if web designers and developers think OSX is the best platform to work with, you need IE. Using browsershots and other alternatives is simply not a feasible option, and having a separate machine is annoying if you mainly work locally. Parallels is an ok alternative, but again a pain.

Disclaimer: The majority of the remarks in this post are facetious, I do actually like OSX. I realise I’ve only been using it for 1/4 of a year, so I might not know all of its features/shortcuts, if I’ve got something wrong let me know in the comments. I also realise Windows stole half its features from *nix OSs blah blah blah. I find the Windows 7 implementations to be better.

*Obvious title to get more interest

  • Barry Carlyon

    Terminal and mv to copy paste folders

    This has caught me out a few times tho

    Since it won’t merge folders of the same name just overwrite old folder with new…..

  • http://www.texelate.co.uk/ Tim Bennett

    I was a Windows user of some 10 years but now only really use Macs and Linux so I feel qualified to comment:

    1. You can but it isn’t enabled by default. Put this into the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder AllowCutForItems 1
    2. Never noticed it but you can turn all the ‘eye candy’ off if you want.
    3. That’s more likely down to Java, not OS X. Enter works for everything else that I know of.
    4. In Leopard even minimized windows show in Expose.
    5. I think that’s Java again; I found Netbeans was sluggish anyway so not the best program to use to benchmark something. Apple’s own software is second to none. For example, I use Pages and Numbers every single day and they have never, ever crashed—and they’re really fast. Never liked GIMP on any platform so can’t comment there…
    6. Boot Camp or Parallels will run IE natively. If you went back to Windows purely to test in IE you probably want sectioning.

    I was a bit disorientated when I first switched but once you get used to everything—with a few exceptions—Apple have put a lot of thought into the operating system and (in my opinion) neats Windows hands down. Windows 7 just feels like weak pastiche of an earlier OS X.

  • http://toddish.co.uk Todd

    @Barry True, terminal can be used but it’s frustrating to keep dipping into it. I was actually going to put in the file merge stuff but I forgot, it’s really frustrating!

    @Tim You’re right, a few points are really down the a certain implementation of a program on OS X, so not completely Apple’s fault. Cheers for the tip on the cut and paste, I’ll have to try that.

    The windows swapping doesn’t really have anything to do with eye candy, I have quite a few effects turned off anyway. It’s more how long you have to hover over something to affect it.

  • http://duvelr.org/unprinted/ duvelr

    If your GIMP on Mac OS X need for double click… Enter it in a terminal: “defaults write org.x.X11 wm_click_through -bool true” restart X11 and be happy.

  • Stefan

    After spending a year developing Flash games on Mac and PC using Adobe CS5, I have to agree that OSX simply sucks for any serious Flash development. Most serious of all is that the current suite of Mac versions of Adobe’s software is more buggy than it’s window counterpart. I have a brand new macbook pro with Snow Leopard, and I have seriously given up on doing any critical work done on it. From application crashes, mysterious no-wake scenarios where you have to reboot and lose all work, instability in the finder that can crash all other applications…. the list goes on and on. It makes me think that you really should not believe much of what devoted macheads tell you. I also hate the fact that many of the “tweaks” are only available through obscure terminal commands, never in a 100 years would I “stumble” unto these…. at the end of the day I feel like maybe I’m just too much of a power user to fit into the mac-camp. My new-years present to myself will be a clean install of Windows 7 on my Macbook Pro (since Apple’s bootcamp drivers are also full of serious, file-system corrupting bugs. There, finally said it, go suck on that Steve!

  • http://toddish.co.uk Todd

    Cheers for the comments duvelr and Stefan.

    @duvelr I’ll check that out thanks, looks useful.

    @Stefan I’ve not really used the Adobe Suite much on Mac, I do all my Flash work on my PC. Looks like I might keep it that way if it’s as bad as you say it is!

    I’ve thought of another annoyance. Why can’t you resize windows from all corners/edges?

  • Bytecontinuum

    Um… You just don’t know how to use OSX. None of your bullets above are even remotely true and I develop web, desktop, and mobile apps for multiple platforms including Windows 7 (which I run on my mac along side OSX).

    1. Copy and paste of items works fine for me. (command+c and command+v)
    2. Learn expose for windows swapping.
    3. Just click on the filename and change it. SUPER SIMPLE.
    4. Expose, spaces, or command+tab!
    5. That’s just funny. It’s common knowledge that OSX is far more stable than windows. And, OSX apps rarely crash.
    6. I run IE on my mac all the time, just not under OSX. Oh, and real web devs use Firefox and/or Chrome these days.

    Macs are basically high-end UNIX workstations with a Mac-ish UI laid over the top of the underlying Darwin OS. It’s a different world from Windows and frankly it’s much more robust, evolved and sophisticated. Windows is great too, don’t get me wrong, but to say OSX sucks isn’t fair because I know I’m WAY more productive using OSX than I am using Windows 7.

  • http://twitter.com/toddish Todd Francis

    I agree with most of your comments, but it looks like you didn’t really read the post that well.

    1. I’m on about cut and paste, not copy and paste.
    2. I didn’t know you can drag a file and use expose at the same time, cheers for that.
    3. I don’t want to slow click a file every time I need to rename it, I want to be able to rename it at the press of a button.
    4. Again, you didn’t really read the comment properly. Command tab doesn’t help with minimised windows at all. I don’t see why I should have to expose all the windows I have open (something which I mention anyway) to get the one I want.
    5. It’s already been mentioned that the programs I used as examples aren’t native Mac programs, which is probably the cause of the problem. I didn’t mention anything about the stability of OSX itself, which I’ve found to be great.
    6. I don’t want to run parallels just for IE. And the comment about real web devs using Firefox or Chrome is surely a joke? Presuming that just because I want to run IE to test websites in it’s the only browser I use? Good one.

    Then you clearly missed the section labelled Disclaimer where I let you in on the secret that the majority of the remarks in this post are facetious, I do actually like OSX.

    And claiming that saying OSX sucks isn’t fair because you’re more productive in it isn’t my opinion, it’s yours.

    Cheers for the comment though, I’ll definitely start using expose more when dragging files across windows.