Your MAC, what does it need from Windows/Linux/etc

[richiebee]

Could we maybe focus a little bit on what parts of OS X and the Mac
you really prefer and like vs. Windows? Just a little?

For what its worth, I thought your other post in this thread was constructive and informational. This one just shows you to be oversensitive, and paranoid.

There's nothing wrong with discussing negative aspects of your chosen OS. It's just a machine, it probably won't even cry about it.

It would be useless to post this in the Windows forum... ask the people who use it, not those who base their opinions on third hand information.

 

[Steven Noyes]

What things do you miss if you are a Windows to Mac new guy?

There might be easy workarounds to my problems but so far after 3 mo
of MacBook I have not succeeded. I am sort of happy but... I thought
that with Mac I would not have to use any manual tricks but that is
not the case, I have to use scripts, many windows, rotating and
renaming software etc.

I miss easy lossless rotation of JPGs. ACDSee Classic was very easy

Check out Curator. The company is defunct (they both went to work for Apple. One is an active member of the forums) but Curator is a nice image browser and includes lossless JPEG rotation:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=graphicssoft&cdn=compute&tm=7&f=10&su=p284.8.150.ip_&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.caffeinesoft.com/

PixelEnhance is a cute tool and TIFFany III is simply great. I don't even own PS and use TIFFany III almost exclusively.

I don't know the downloaded state of Curator, but I think it has some of the features you are looking for.

I miss Windows Explorer and its always visible directory tree
structure, it was effortless to move files from a folder to another.

Use the multi-selector and select a tree view. I personally find the browser view much more powerful and useful than the tree view. But that is me. I do miss the shelf though:-(

I find, even in windows, to do any effective moving of files I have to use two windows unless the files are in a close branch. In that case, a single window move works equally well in both.

With OSX I see only one folder and its path at a time unless I open
another Finder window.

Play with the Folder view and Browser views.

OSX's system font is too big and I always end up scrolling.

I have big monitors. So to me, they are about right.

Take a look at TinkerTools. It used to allow you to change the System Font.
http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html

I can't find autosorting of folder icons/thumbnails anywhere, when I
move some files the rest are left in their place so they scattered
all over the folder window unless I go and manually select organize
after every move.

??? I never select organize and they are always sorted? Can't help you here.

I miss number of files in properties, with OSX info I only get
gigabytes. Sometimes it would be useful to see how many files you
have in a folder especially when copying files from several locations.

Only help I can offer is:
ls -R ~ grep -i .jpg ~ wc -l

Remember you can drag a folder into the folder and it will type it for you. Much like Windows and Command.com

Steven

--
---
Fall 2007:
http://www.pbase.com/snoyes/images_fall_2007_downtown_chicago

2006 White Sands and Bisti Workshop
http://www.pbase.com/snoyes/white_sands_and_bisti

 

[richiebee]

I wish I could maximize my windows with a single click, and I wish images showed as thumbnails in my folders.... and if you can do both these things, I hope someone will tell me how.

I also hate the dock, though I think I'd like it more if you could position it at the top of the screen.

R.

 

[Mitch Evans]

Wow, you STILL organize your music yourself huh? Do you do it with your pictures as well?

iTunes organizes your music into LOGICAL folders based on Artists and Albums. There is not one reason why people need to organize their own music and photos instead of letting iTunes and iPhoto do it. Not one.

I would love to hear your reason though.

 

[uwe_r]

Well, cannot help with all issues, but:

Have a look at PathFinder ( http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/ ) - it does not have a tree view, but it has a shelf, will always show you the full current path (and you can jump to any point), it can open the current folder in Terminal, it has a "drop stack" for parking files to be moved/copied, it has Tabs(!) - so you can drag and drop in one Window without problems, and (my favourite feature - even if it is simple) it has fully working "Copy to..." and "Move to..." commands. It is very reasonably priced, IMHO.

You might have a look at http://www.eternalstorms.at/gimmesometune/ (Donationware). It finds most album art well and even most lyrics. Like it a lot.

Cheers,
Uwe

 

[Mitch Evans]

Another opinion.

I'll take Finder over Windows Explorer ANYDAY.

 

[Mitch Evans]

Nothing. And I've been using both side-by-side, 8 hrs a day, for over 4 years.

 

[jack1000]

there are a few things which would be really nice to have running for OS X -- e.g. S+, ChemOffice (only partial functionality).

OK, I admit, not exactly relevant to photography though.

(and before anyone suggests I just run them under Windows, I'm using a G5.)

jack

 

[gaussian blur]

I miss Windows Explorer and its always visible directory tree
structure, it was effortless to move files from a folder to another.
With OSX I see only one folder and its path at a time unless I open
another Finder window.

In List view, you can see multiple folders at a time, with some open and others closed.

I can't find autosorting of folder icons/thumbnails anywhere, when I
move some files the rest are left in their place so they scattered
all over the folder window unless I go and manually select organize
after every move.

In Finder, from the View menu, pick Show View Options, click 'Keep arranged by' and then pick how you want them to be sorted.

I miss number of files in properties, with OSX info I only get
gigabytes. Sometimes it would be useful to see how many files you
have in a folder especially when copying files from several locations.

Yes, this is annoying, but the only reason I can think of is that the user could do a Get Info on a folder which contains folders that do not have read permission and therefore, all of the items can't be counted. Instead of displaying an incorrect count, it is not displayed at all.

I miss Mediamonkey's integrated customizable file relocate option,
one could have their music in which ever folder order e.g.
genre-year-artist-album or year-genre-artist, iTunes has a script for
that but that leaves the original emptied folders undeleted.

You can put music in whatever folder you want in iTunes too. In iTunes preferences, under the Advanced panel in the General tab, uncheck 'Keep iTunes Music folder organized.' Also, if you uncheck 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library,' then iTunes will reference wherever the music is when you add it. If the music moves, iTunes will try to find it, but it might not succeed. That's why it's an option.

 

[richiebee]

Wow, you STILL organize your music yourself huh? Do you do it with
your pictures as well?

iTunes organizes your music into LOGICAL folders based on Artists and
Albums. There is not one reason why people need to organize their own
music and photos instead of letting iTunes and iPhoto do it. Not one.

I would love to hear your reason though.

Its nice that your life is so simple, but that's no reason to think everyone has the same needs as you.

Even if you only make a digital "mix tape", you have a reason to do your own organizing.

There are other reasons too - like people who write their own music, or any music that isn't registered through Gracenote (eg, indie stuff).

 

[Paul Barnard]

Maximize is the green dot at the top of the window. Minimize is the yellow one next to it. Maximise is a little different on the Mac as it will only change the width to the maximum for the content of the window rather than filling the whole screen.

The dock can go left, right or bottom unfortunately not the top. It doesn't go at the top because that is where the menu bar lives.

 

[Paul Barnard]

Just run it under windows ;-) I had Virtual PC on my G5 for quite a while. It sucked for performance... Its a different story on Core Duo. Since that innovation there is nothing that my Mac can't do.

 

[Alpha Doug]

Actually, I don't think I'm oversensitive, and I'm certainly not paranoid. I guess I shouldn't actually have read this thread and posted at all, because I don't find anything very constructive in deconstructing anything. A thread that talked about specific functions that an operating system doesn't have and why your would want those capabilities would be good.

For instance. Other posters have lamented the lack of the Windows Explorer type of tree stucture. In OS X, if you bring up a Finder window, and you change to "List" view, you can get a pretty good approximation of the Explorer staggered tree view, just by clicking the little reveal arrows at the left. Then you can see the contents of multiple folders at once. And there are a couple of shareware file browsers that do similar things. Someone else lamented the lack of a utility to rename folders in specific ways. There is a shareware program called "A Better Finder Rename" that does a great job of that.
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

 

[richiebee]

Maximize is the green dot at the top of the window. Minimize is the
yellow one next to it. Maximise is a little different on the Mac as
it will only change the width to the maximum for the content of the
window rather than filling the whole screen.

Yeah, that to me isn't maximizing. I prefer the way windows does it. It makes it easy to concentrate on what you're working on without background distraction.

The dock can go left, right or bottom unfortunately not the top. It
doesn't go at the top because that is where the menu bar lives.

Still don't like it. I can either make the dock so small that I can't see it, or so big that it takes up valuable real estate. Turn on "hide" or the magnifier, and it always gets in the way, popping up just when you really wish it wouldn't.

 

[_timo_]

and I wish
images showed as thumbnails in my folders....

Try this: Finder -> View -> Show View Options -> Show Icon Preview

Some also wanted to modify the system font size; that option is here too.

 

[gaussian blur]

Maximize is the green dot at the top of the window. Minimize is the
yellow one next to it. Maximise is a little different on the Mac as
it will only change the width to the maximum for the content of the
window rather than filling the whole screen.

Yeah, that to me isn't maximizing. I prefer the way windows does it.
It makes it easy to concentrate on what you're working on without
background distraction.

What OS X (and earlier versions of Mac OS) do is zoom, not maximize. Zoom toggles between two different window sizes, generally one that can wholly contain the content and a user defined size. Some applications try to be smart about the second size if the user didn't adjust it on their own.

There's very little reason for a window to take up the entire screen (especially on something like a 24" or 30" screen) if it is going to display just a page of text or a few icons. If you don't want background distraction, pick Hide Others from the application menu, or press Command-Option-H.

The dock can go left, right or bottom unfortunately not the top. It
doesn't go at the top because that is where the menu bar lives.

Still don't like it. I can either make the dock so small that I
can't see it, or so big that it takes up valuable real estate. Turn
on "hide" or the magnifier, and it always gets in the way, popping up
just when you really wish it wouldn't.

Agreed, the dock is annoying. However, it can be permanently hidden and a third party replacement, such as DragThing used instead.

 

[Alpha Doug]

So. You hate the task bar in Windows also? And if you go to view change your folder view to icons, all of your pictures will show up as thumbnails.

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

 

[idr]

Whoa thanks folks, I will have to dig into your suggestions when I get back home.

Alpha Doug, first poster asked "What things do you miss if you are a Windows to Mac new guy?" One could ask the other way round in a different thread since there are always at least two ways to look at it.

With mp3s I let iTunes keep my music organized and that works for me at least for now. I just thought Mediamonkey did the same thing as easy but structure was customizable if needed. And I hate iTunes uses only song name for file name. Of course, there are scripts but with Mac i wanted to get rid of the extra work. For now I let iTunes do what it does, maybe I will forget about it altogether.

iPhoto got better with events since events reflect to the folder level too (as did film rolls).

I am very willing to let Mac organize my stuff but just yesterday iPhoto for no reason (apparent to me at least) changed the dates of my .avi clips when I reimported them to a new library. This would have never happened with Windows. So I am not all too convinced that Mac will keep my data safe... Of course after few months or years I know the tricks but for starters there are quite a few turnoffs I was not expecting no matter how open I tried to be. But I have not installed Boot Camp etc. so I am trying...

 

[idr]

Albums. There is not one reason why people need to organize their own
music and photos instead of letting iTunes and iPhoto do it. Not one.

Well something came in mind,

with iPhoto I hate that it respects my originals so much that if a portrait JPG pic needs rotating it creates a rotated duplicate in Modifieds meaning my pics take 30-50 % more space compared to a lossless rotation (I am starting to be annoying since this is not the first time I say this, I know). And now I have the video date issue. Please iPhoto, keep my files organized, please. I will let you do it if you can. I know I can. But not if you change the dates so I have no idea what the original date was.

 

[richiebee]

For instance. Other posters have lamented the lack of the Windows
Explorer type of tree stucture. In OS X, if you bring up a Finder
window, and you change to "List" view, you can get a pretty good
approximation of the Explorer staggered tree view, just by clicking
the little reveal arrows at the left. Then you can see the contents
of multiple folders at once. And there are a couple of shareware
file browsers that do similar things. Someone else lamented the lack
of a utility to rename folders in specific ways. There is a
shareware program called "A Better Finder Rename" that does a great
job of that.

You, yourself have been constructive in responding to people's negatives... isn't that a good thing?

We all know that no computer system is perfect - if it was, that'd be the end of it. No more development, no more OS'es. It's pointless talking about the positives - they work. There's nothing to change. Talking about the negatives can be constructive, and help people to turn them to at least neutral's if not positives.

R.