Comments on: Computer World’s Wishlist of OS X Changes

By: swissreplica2

swissreplica2 — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:53:32 +0000

hello. it’s a nice day for your ideas and our money…

…

By: Dom

Dom — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:13:25 +0000

I’ve used Macs since ’88 and in all honesty I’ve never felt the need for a second mouse button. I ocassionally use contextual menus but pressing the CTRL key us hardly a strain. Less is more as the old saying goes. There a world of difference between something being simple and something being simplistic. The one button mouse was a deliberate design choice, the motive being that it compelled the GUI designers to apply a lot more finesse to the way in which one interacts with the UI. If Macs had two buttons from the outset, drag and drop might never have happened.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:01:52 +0000

While a second button (right-click) on the mouse can be very useful, there are still several other modifier keys that I need to use frequently or in combination (command-option-or-shift-click). So it’s not such a big deal to add the Control key to that list since my hand is already there.

Personally, I think that if you use more keyboard shortcuts in general rather than mousing to every menu choice, your efficiency goes way up.

By: Phil Bowell

Phil Bowell — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:13:17 +0000

I too like the one button of my iBook. It seems much more intuitive than the two button configurations I have come across, I always find the right clicks annoying as you have to move your whole hand to uncover it and press it with your thumb. The only way I can se Apple having to buttons on a trackpad would be to keep the one long one across the bottom and place another long one across the top of the trackpad, I can see that wokring well.

By: Lordmike

Lordmike — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 08:40:19 +0000

I was a bit buggered about the one button thing on my first mac, which was a macbook pro 2ghz. I use it mainly to game world of warcraft, watch movies, videos, listen to music, fix photos on my daughter in ipohoto etc. All that works great using just one mouse button and trackpad. I tried using a normal mouse this weekend on my mac (still use mouse on my windows and linux computers) and it was hell to use.
So I will never ever buy a mighty mouse (even though they look cool) for my laptop.

At work I use contour rollermouse, works great too and I can no longer use a normal mouse which is as comfortable as rollermouse.

By: C8

C8 — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 08:28:40 +0000

#3 – why does everything have to revolve around the Windows way of thinking. Linux doesnt need to know about the windows button cause its not windows! There are other ways of thinking than the windows way. Thats what I find the hardest when teaching people OSX, they are all like “wheres the start button?”.
I like my one button trackpad. The two finger trackpad click is a really good idea, which I use alot now but before ctrl + click was fine with me.

By: C Foss

C Foss — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:19:57 +0000

I have to agree with above. I bought my first Mac laptop (err.. notebook) a few months ago. Once you get used to control clicking it’s very natural. I find myself doing it on my desktop all the time.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:57:37 +0000

“Number 14 takes issues with the inability to put Dashboard Widgets on the desktop. This is a personal preference thing. I like them out of the way – I like my Desktop clean. So keeping them on the Dashboard is preferable for me. If you’re in agreement with Computer World, then you can use the Dashboard Debug mode through the Terminal. Again, freely available, and part of the Operating System.”

MacPilot (and I believe Onyx and Tinker Tool as well) allow you turn this on without the Terminal stuff, however the one thing that I found is that Dashboard widgets will sit on top of all of your windows. I use Yahoo! Widget Engine and keep a few widgets down in the corner pinned to the desktop.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:13:56 +0000

One button trackpads are the only way to go. I use a five button mouse constantly, but on the road, the way the apple laptops are now is perfect. It’s just difficult to work with a laptop the way PC trackpads are set up. Maybe it would work if instead of putting the second button to the side, they put it below the first button and made it very small, but I think it’s perfect the way it is.

By: alf

alf — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 03:23:31 +0000

The one thing that has stopped me from getting a Macbook any earlier (still haven’t got one, waiting until March/April, you know, for Leopard and the fabled Macbook Pro Thin) is the one button.

I’ve been using Windows since 95 and have used every version released since then (except 2003). Since 1995 I have been using mice with at least two buttons (and eventually a scroll wheel… those were the days). It seems absolutely stupid to me to now go backwards and use anything with less than two buttons.

Apple likes their products being easy to use and intuitive, which is why I don’t understand why they will force someone to press a button with one hand and click with the other, when all of this can be achieved with the thumb. It’s as absurd as IBM laptops which didn’t have a Windows key (hello, how do you Windows+M when the boss is walking past?), or Linux distros which pretend that the Windows key doesn’t exist (it should bring up the menu straight out of the box, I don’t want to tinker with settings).

/end rant