Comment by teek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by teek | Hacker News Reader

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What's good about windows:

* Explorer is better than Finder.

* Right click that works

* Start menu + Win7 taskbar is better than OSX Dock/Launchpad (can't comment on Win8 metro but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it)

* Maximize

* clicking the clock gives you a calendar

I'm not exactly pro-windows but I believe the GP's point is that OSX is not flawless (neither is windows by far) but there's a lot of dumb things in OSX that should've been fixed but weren't because MS did it therefore it is not elegant by definition.

I've been able to make OSX work for me only because I get my real work done on the command line. Finder is nothing but a source of frustration. Also I ought to be able to right-click the volume icon on the menu bar and get the same menu as option-click but I don't...probably because that would be too windows-like.

Hey, I'm not trying to say OSX is flawless. That would be silly. What we're both saying is that we feel like we have to make the opposite OS work and that it's an unsatisfying exercise in frustration whichever way you go. It's about the pain of learning different conventions and the unwillingness of OS vendors (both of them) to copy each other's good bits.

Neat about the calendar. I have to disagree about the dock because it can force quit things, the Windows taskbar won't auto-hide, and some of the ugliest UI hacks in Windows all live in the tray (2 finger scroll, task manager, etc).

I disagree about explorer, mostly because I can't figure out how to get it to sort in alphabetical order (instead of folders and files sorted separately), a feature that's crucial for keyboard navigation and extracting files after download without scrolling through the entire downloads folder.

> there's a lot of dumb things in OSX that should've been fixed but weren't because MS did it therefore it is not elegant by definition.

Yeah I think that sorta sums up lots of the issues I see. Over a few OS X revision you'll see Apple circling around the solution, which was solved in Windows decades ago, but refusing to do it because it's solved in Windows. The result is a hodgepodge of conflicting half-ideas that doesn't create an elegant or productive computing experience.

For evidence look at the grueling 20 year battle Apple has had with Maximizing/minimizing a window/app.

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