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Comment by steverb | Hacker News Reader

Reminds me of my first experience with an OS-X Macbook and how I began to hate Apple. I was creating a web site for the company I was employed by at the time, and being the gung-ho developer I am thought that we should test the site out on one of the new OS-X Macs. Fortunately, one of the techs there had just purchased one and offered to bring it in and leave it on my desk for the day.

So I was poking around the machine (website looked okay), and decided to try out the video playback. I slipped a DVD in, watched whatever the heck it was, and then spent the next thirty minutes trying to figure out how to eject the damned thing since there was no eject button.

If memory serves, there was a paperclip slot for emergency eject. Which is what I ended up doing. Later, the owner came by and showed me the drag to trash thing. I thought (and still do) that not having a physical eject button is a horrible design.

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There are several ways of ejecting. Drag to trash. Select the disk icon and choose File->eject, or hit command-E. Use Disk Utility. Use the command line. If all else fails (such as if the screen is borked and you can't see what you're doing and you can't use the network to get in) the disk will eject if you hold down the mouse/trackpad button when the computer reboots. (Not sure how that works with bluetooth mice/trackpads.)

That said, yeah, stupid to not expose access to the eject button on the DVD mechanism.

Sounds like Linux/Windows. Apple is supposed to have one, consistent way to do something.

I think it's pretty clear someone dropped the ball when they decided that "drag the disk to the trash" was the best metaphor. Even if it reassures you that you know what you're doing at the last second as you hold the disc over the trash can.

For the most part things are consistent. In this case there are a few ways to do the same thing. I think that's a good thing in the case some people don't see one way right away.

I always thought the keyboard eject was pretty obvious. There's also the eject icon next to the disc in the Finder. And then the File menu.

I think people make too big a deal over the eject button. If youre used to something else you might bitch a little (especially if you're one of those who always likes to compare Windows and Mac) but generally its not like it happens all the time and the fix is easily available with a quick Google if you haven't heard of it before. I've had discs get stuck in my iMac before. Oh well, it happens on a rare occasion. I try the different methods and move on. Did they really drop the ball or is this just a petty excuse to imply another OS is better? What else could they do? There's like 5 ways to do it by mouse that I can think of, 3 on the keyboard, and on some Macs, the paper clip slot. Everyone needs to chill. It's not like people are ripping apart their computers on a wide scale to remove stuck discs. The whole post came off as a kind of smarmy way to say "oh, look at this bad thing that happened once to my Mac. Looks like Apple sucks now and other options are better because they have a physical eject button ". Really? Come off it.

If you've got to take apart a SuperDrive t get it out then I really feel for you and I can understand the complaint.

When you begin dragging a mounted disk in OS X now, the trash can image on the dock turns into an eject image, although I'm pretty sure that it hasn't always done that.

That said, I agree. I think the Apple designers could come up with a cool way to include an eject button.

Side note, no Mac (as far as I know) has ever had an eject button. Even the original floppy drives were electronic eject (which was really awesome back in the 80's.)

Fortunately, my Apple II GS (Woz Edition!) had a physical disk eject button.

I understand the dislike of physical buttons, but I don't understand why Apple doesn't at least put a capacitance button on there (like the 360 has).

Because those buttons are terrible, provide zero real feedback tactile or visual, and people hate them?

I think the CD popping out of the slot right next to the button would be enough feedback.

Side note, no Mac (as far as I know) has ever had an eject button

My MacBook Pro and most MacBooks have an eject button on the keyboard right next to F12

My white 2006 iMac also has an eject button at the top right of the keyboard. Every Mac I've used since then has had one too.

I guess I was referring to a physical eject button (i.e. the kind you would find on a PC). The button on the keyboard just triggers the same call that dropping the CD into the trash does.

My original iMac had one. So did my Performa 6112CD.

>the trash can image on the dock turns into an eject image, although I'm pretty sure that it hasn't always done that.

It's always done that in Mac OS X, but not in Mac OS 9 or older

Many did -- e.g. the original G4 Towers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4

The gray oval in the center of the drive door cover is the load of a class 3 lever that pushes the eject button on a relatively commodity optical drive. It was eliminated once the Quicksilver generation came out.

Those early G4s could also be purchased with a ZIP drive, the coverplate to which infuriatingly had a thin section of plastic covering the ZIP eject button, such that you could see the LED in it but not push it. Now that's just mean.

There's also an Eject command in the File menu. But yes, it's different from a PC, where you normally push a physical button on the optical drive.

Did you look in the help? I can't say for sure that it was in there then, but searching the help for "eject" on my Mac today gives several different ways to eject a DVD, and I would think that this would have been available before as well.

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