Dude… you are completely free to think what you want; like or dislike OS X. Nobody will force you to buy and use one. And of course, absolutely no OS is perfect and we would always like some ameliorations.

i.e., In Finder, I would like an additional type of Arrangement, because I like my habits of having the folder first in alphanumerical order and then the files…. but that’s surely because I’m a old Windows user.

Of course, there’s some trick and the other type of order that are also very interesting in some way, but it would be great to have this mode and have a button to switch quickly during the browsing.

So, yes… as you can see, I don’t think Finder is perfect… but I also want to mention we all need to plainly understand how a system work before to give an opinion. Finder is one of the base of OS X, (as Explorer is for Windows), then it’s crucial to forgot some of the habit of one system to work the way we should with the other one.

The Tree for example is available in some way. There’s the Path View (already mentioned), but also the List View. There’s the little arrow in front of each folder you can expand and then go deeper and deeper in the ‘tree’. BTW, it’s exactly the same design used in Vista tree.
The only difference? In Windows there’s 2 splited window… one for the tree only and one for the ‘result’. In Finder, the left side isn’t for the tree. But it doesn’t mean you don’t have it in the right, which contain both tree and result if you are in List or CoverFlow View.

In OS X the left side is used for the “sources”, such the devices, places, etc… To be honest, after some times with, I like it better. It makes senses and that’s pretty fast and easy to access to what I’m looking at.

Regarding the Task Manager: OS X is a user focus system, where Window is a machine focus system.

What that means?

That means in Windows you will have a Task Manager with all of your process (even if you don’t know what they are used for, or even if an application use more than 1 process to run). And that’s how you have over 80 process, exe, dll, etc… listed in the task manager.

In OS X, there’s a different approach which is User focus… that means, focus on what an User (even the dumbiest user) could understand. That’s why only the applications are listed in the “Task Manager”. A OS X User doesn’t care to know there’s 1 or more than 1 process to run an application he wants to use. The “Task Manager” in OS X is the “Force Quit Application”, which is accessible with CMD+OPTION+ESC. I admit this window is very simple and doesn’t have all information such (CPU use, memory use, etc…)… Honestly, I never need it so far, even thought it would be great to be able to have something a bit complete (at least for the CPU and memory use).

Regarding the Task Bar now… as explain, it’s the dock. Ok, you probably don’t like the dock… OK, but that’s the way Apple choose to show in OS X. Do you know you can customize the dock a lot? First you just have to drag an icon out of the dock to remove it and then remove everything useless… or even have a complete empty dock (such the Windows Taskbar). Then, you can build your own stacks (such one with your all Application, and called it: START). It would be a bit silly to do that… but it would work fine.

The Stacks are useful to have lot of icons and save some spaces in your dock… On my “little” 13.3″ screen, I already have 25 icons spaces in the dock… 25 apps in the Windows Taskbar won’t be better anyway. And if you have a look on the Windows 7 Taskbar, it’s just a Windows version of the Dock.

Don’t get me wrong, everybody knows each company copy what an other company does well. It’s true for Windows, OS X, Linux, etc… Apple also did copy Microsoft for few things in the past… and vice versa.

Regarding the Delete command… I know you will perhaps not like this reply, but you don’t delete file on OS X. You move them to the trash. So, there’s some logic somewhere why “Del” key doesn’t make sense to move a file… even thought, to move it on the trash.

And now the last thing (and not the least)… Regarding the reply from Mac Users.

You know what? Honestly I don’t care because I’ve been a PC Users for over 20 years (including Linux and FreeBSD for my servers, Solaris for my sun rack, QNX and BeOS to test for fun) and a Mac User for few months only. I don’t care what people (both Mac or PC Users) think because I talk on my own. I became a Mac User lately and seriously don’t regret because it’s the first time I enjoy really using a computer and not having to deal with all-day-long. But I’m not a Apple Fanboy and anti-MS or anti-Windows neither…

The only thing I ever notice is:

It’s always the same thing… you said Mac guys react always the same way, but let me tell you: Win Guys too! Win Guys always complain about how apple product are expensive, and how great windows is too and how they don’t like OS X…

So what? Fine… Who cares then? Just don’t buy Apple Product, don’t use Mac OS X and stay with Windows…. period! Do I go to a Windows Forum or Blog to complain how many time I lost my work when my Windows unit crashed, or how many times I lost to try to make it work, and how great OS X is?

I understand you probably don’t like the reply from Sam, from me or other people. But the fact is, we just explain you how it works and how it is conceived to be used. A system is complex and nobody can claim to know every single trick, tips, command, shortcut, etc… Then, if you don’t like the reply, don’t kill the messenger. Do what you think is great for you. If you don’t like the way Finder works, you can still try some alternative and 3rd party “File Manager” application…. and if nothing works as you wish, just stop using OS X… It’s your right as any consumer.

But there’s no reason to try to convince someone else to follow a choice you do for yourself… The best way is to know how each system works and choose the one which makes more sense for us… that’s it!

my 2 cents,
Spid

One more thing I’d like to say: A tree view is not pointless – “none is needed in the vase majority of cases” – this is quite honestly a ridiculous statement (misspellings aside). And the funny thing is, if Snow Leopard’s Finder is redesigned to include a tree view, I would bet the mac community would go berserk and praise this wonderful “new” feature (20 years too late).

Also a taskbar is extremely useful and is not an “archaic notion” – every single OS I can think of uses one, from Solaris to Gnome and KDE – you think that all of those companies are wrong? The dock is a huge waste of space and doesn’t actually do a very good job. Again, try minimizing 10 apps in the dock. Sorry but a taskbar is superior in every way, except looks perhaps. Incidentally all the OSes I mentioned above also have a tree view explorer.

I am sure after spending so much money on your mac you will want to defend it no matter what- even to the point where any feature or aspect of Mac OS is beyond criticism. This is what I dislike about the mac community so much – comments like your one, Sam – where you cannot think a bad thing about the OS. If I think Finder is useless, I am wrong. If I dislike the dock, I am stupid or I don’t know how to use the system.

I can give you an example: when I first got my mac I wanted to know how to delete files with a keyboard shortcut, and I wrote in a forum that I thought it was strange that the “Delete” key does not actually delete files, like in Windows, Solaris, and every other OS. One commenter wrote back to me: “delete doesn’t delete an item, it’s command-delete. Deleting items with the delete key makes no sense to me”. Yes I am not joking, the guy thought that the key labeled “Del” makes no sense as the shortcut for deleting files. I was just wrong to assume the delete key would delete a file.

Another example: I had a problem with cutting and pasting and i found this comment by one mac user about the buggy behaviour of cutting and pasting in Mac OS “avoiding this bug in the Leopard Finder should be easy: Never move a file.” I am not joking, that is a direct quote. Use Google and you’ll find the original post. It is quite hilarious.

I can’t blame Apple for its users, or its fans. But comments like Sam’s are the main reason I’ll stop using Apple computers.

I was a PC user since decades (start on DOS on a 8086) and grow up with all Microsoft OS. The last month, I finally bought a new macbook and switch to OS X.

Except few tiny little things (some PC habits), I switched VERY VERY quickly to OS X…. and I like it better once I learned the philosophy and trick (shortcut, etc…)

Spotlight is really awesome and ever great fine to me. For whom wants to search by date, etc… you can easily Option+Cmd+Space bar and then do a spotlight search in Finder and then precise any kind of criteria you want (date of creation, type of search, etc…etc…). And it’s as fast than doing a CMD+space bar to open spotlight on the top right corner.

For the Tree View? Who the hell still want that one you get OS X? Anyway, you can show the path bar…. or even have it on the top bar with after apply a command line describe here:

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/05/terminal-tips-enable-path-view-in-finder/

The Task Manager… Again? Who cares to control the background process and all DLL, etc… All we need is something that runs… period! And if you want to know what is open, there’s a little blue shadow on the dock which means the application is open. Also, it’s pretty easy to add or remove application in the auto-start by CMD+Clic on the icon in the dock and check/uncheck the “Open in Login” thing.

Start Menu? For who like the start menu to find application, you can easily drag and drop your Application folder in your Dock and show it as a List. I currently have 170+ apps (yeah, I install everything I wanted and needed to work) and everything is reachable in two clicks only.

And there’s also a tons of trick and shortcut very practical to help to use OS X very quickly and easily. Once we know better the philosophy behind OS X, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this OS or Finder.

My only concerned was the Maximizing window and double click on the top barre to be honest… I finally install Glims which provide a nice CMD+Shift+M to maximize my Safari windows when I need. (and even some great feature such re-open a window or tab you accidently close), expand the search engine, etc…

But, of course, there’s always some thing we would like to see better… and that’s what I would like with Spotlight and the fact to be able to expand a category…

Let’s say I search pictures from my last travel in “New-York”; I will have a lot of result from my email, document and website I consulted before my travel… and I will have few pictures only… I would like a way to Shift or Option + Click on a category to expand it and have more result for this category only.

Bottom Line? Stop thinking Windows…. and start learning OS X is you bought a Mac!

Bye,
Spid

First of all, Finder is not bad in anyway (obviously there are faults as with everything, but on the whole it is great) and neither is it outdated / obsolete. Why should it sort folders before files? It is giving you a choice, if I tell it to sort in alphabetical order I expect it to do just that regardless of whether it is sorting folders or files. It just makes sense. If you want folders before files, tell it to sort by kind… As to it having icons on top of each other… well this is another preference (that is turned off by default) that is there to give the user the choice to arrange icons anyway they like. Oh, and yes it has no obvious folder tree because none is needed in the vase majority of cases… and if you do need it it is two clicks away (view -> show path bar) – terribly hard to find I know… And actually it is there anyway, all you have to do is right click on the name of the folder in the title bar, or enable the icon that does it. As to up one folder… either press cmd + up arrow, or use the folder path tree thing. In other words it has all the features the above poster thinks it’s missing, not to mention extra ones like quicklook and the much more functional sidebar.

And anyway, why does it need a taskbar… that is an archaic notion really. The dock achieves the same thing in much greater style. Use stacks to launch any apps you don’t keep in the dock. Just so you know most other OSs use a similar idea to OS X, in the way of having a bar at the top and some form of dock. Infact, did you know that the next version of Windows, Windows 7, is basically changing the taskbar into a rip off of the dock in OS X. Doesn’t that say something? As to alt + tab… well that isn’t right. Cmd + tab switches between apps, cmd + ` switches between windows, so it has both :P

So really at the end of the day, Mac OS X has every feature that the above thinks it doesn’t (plus so many more), he just obviously never took to time to learn how to effectively use it. Just wanted to clear that up.