10 Things I hate About Mac
To be perfectly clear, I am a Mac user and I love my choice of OS. I’ve used Windows, I’ve used Linux and I’ve used Mac. In fact, I own at least one computer with each OS. However, my main computer is a Mac and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
That being said, there is no reason to believe that Mac is perfect and I cringe at the fan boys that seem to think that it is. Being the best among these three systems is a bit like winning a three-legged race. Sure, you won, but you could have gotten across the line a lot faster without cousin Ralph tied to your right leg.
Even though I love my Mac there are still a lot things about it that irk me. So, in celebration of thinking different (I know, it’s an old slogan), I present to you my top ten pet peeves about Mac.
10. The “Plus” Button
Even though I have been using a Mac for some time, I can not say with any clarity what exactly the plus button does.
For the record, the plus button is the one at the top of most windows, to the right of the close and minimize buttons.
Logic would indicate that it would work like the “maximize” button in Windows and Linux, making the Window fit the screen. In some cases, it does. In both Firefox and Marsedit, pressing the button makes the window fill the screen (though in Marsedit, pressing it again does not make it return, making me resize it by hand).
Yet, if you press it in iTunes it shrinks the player, reducing the full iTunes player to a mini-version with just the controls.
So here we have a button that is available in all programs but, in at least two of them, it has the exact opposite effect. Makes one wonder how Mac got its reputation for great user interface…
9. Lack of Free Software
Once you’ve got your bright, shiny new Mac, you’re likely going to go searching for some new software for it. However, as you do so, be prepared to pay. While there are a lot of great applications for the Mac, most of them require at least some money.
This isn’t to say that there is no good free software for the Mac, just that it is more limited than it is on Windows, which has a large library of great freeware, and Linux, which is comprised totally of freeware.
Though you can get great deals through sites such as Macheist and Maczot. When you find yourself paying for software you can get free on another OS, it still hurts.
8. No Significantly Better Apps
If you are like most Mac users, once you’ve got your computer set up, you are going to find yourself downloading Firefox, Thunderbird and/or OpenOffice (or Neooffice). The problem is that you can get all of these applications on any other OS, including Linux.
Even if you prefer Safari or iTunes, Apple has been kind enough to port second-rate versions of those programs to Windows.
In short, no matter what application you work the most in, odds are you’ll be able to use it easily in another, cheaper, operating system.
7. No Application Launcher
Apple does a pretty good job keeping your most-used applications at your fingertips. It’s dock is a pretty neat way to both switch between running apps and quickly launch ones that you use regularly.
But what happens when you need to run an app that you haven’t needed in a while? In Windows and Linux you both go to the start menu but OSX is strangely devoid of such a menu. The Apple menu at the top only shows your most recent apps and documents and to launch an application not either there or in your dock, you need to open up your applications folder, sort through it and open it like it’s a Word file.
Great.
This problem is why Quicksilver is a virtual requirement for all Mac users. It and other launchers are the only way to quickly open any application on your system, regardless of how much or how little you care about it.
Granted, the Windows start menu is a mess that’s no better than looking for the file, but after using the new start menu from KDE 4, I have to wonder why the Linux guys are now beating Mac ones in usability. That thing is incredible.
6. Dashboard
It takes a very special kind of fail to come up with something as useless as the dashboard.
So let me see if I understand how this is supposed to work. I hit F12 on my keyboard, the screen grays out and I get greeted with a series of “widgets” that I can customize and reposition at my will.
Sounds really cool and all, but I challenge anyone to come up with three widgets that would make me want to switch to this regularly. Most of the widgets are completely useless gimmicks and can be replaced by either Firefox extensions or other applications.
However, even if there were widgets I wanted to use, why can’t they sit on my Desktop like in KDE or, dare I say it, Windows Vista.
When you’re getting your lunch eaten in usability by Windows Vista, it is time to seriously re-think your direction in life. Perhaps this UI thing isn’t for you.
5. Opening Trashed Items
Quickly, if you have something in your Mac trash, try to open it. You can’t.
With a Mac, you can’t open files that are in your trash can, you have to first restore them, then open, then decide they’re junk after all and then re-trash them.
It’s annoying, especially when Windows doesn’t do that and the Linux distros I’ve used haven’t done it to me either.
Opening a trashed item is not an optional activity. The whole idea of a trash can is to keep you from accidentally deleting important documents permanently. However, it can’t provide that function if you can’t see what it is you’re deleting.
End result: You’d be better off with a real trash can.
4. Gaming
Games on the Mac have never been a high priority for me, or most other Mac users I’d guess, but it would be nice if, every once in a while, we were thrown a bone and got a decent game to play.
Actually, the only reason this burns as bad as it does is because Halo was originally supposed to be a Mac game, that is, until Microsoft saw it and bought Bungie Studios to make the game an XBox/Windows exclusive.
The bitter truth is that Macs don’t get that much gaming love and probably won’t for a very long time. With PC gaming already on the ropes, there isn’t that much to motivate game developers to spend all of that money to port their games over to a system with only a fraction of the users.
3. Brushed Metal Overdose
I get it guys, Steve Jobs really loves brushed metal. I understand. But is it really necessary to cram it down my throat at every turn? Seriously?
To make matters worse, I can’t even change the color of the metal in question. Where Windows and most Linux desktops come with a wide variety of colors and appearance setting, my Mac gives me two, “Blue or Graphite”.
In the spirit of Apple, I’ll soon be offering this site in a choice of two colors: Black and Gunmetal. Enjoy.
2. The Pinwheel
Call it what you want, the pinwheel, the beach ball, the circular rainbow or the Skittle, it’s annoying. It’s the Mac equivalent of the hourglass on any other system and, though it is bright and colorful, that doesn’t make me any less likely to hurl my monitor into a trash can (The only thing that stops me is a strange fear of not being able to open it).
What is strange though is that the pinwheel seems to come at completely random times, not just when I’ve put the system under heavy load.
Sure, the system moves great when I try to compress my latest screencast, but if I try to pull up CNN in Safari I’ll be taking a coffee break.
It would be much less annoying to have someone randomly break into my office and spin my monitor around for fifteen seconds at a time than put up with that pinwheel whenever it feels like showing up.
At least the other way I’d have someone to talk to and yell at without seeming crazy.
1. Price
I have some very bad news for the people that do Mac marketing, a $600 Mac Mini is not “economical”. Pound for pound, it isn’t even average.
When you can get an EeePC for under $300, Dell desktops for $280 and full laptops for under $500, your “budget” computer seems like a rip off.
Sure, Mac users understand that the price is worth it, but explain that to your parents when trying to sell them on a Mac or, even better, tell it to your office manager when your company starts looking to upgrade its computers.
Simply put, Macs are more expensive and, compared to their Windows counterparts, are less powerful. Granted, Macs get that horsepower back by not running Windows Vista, but the magic numbers on the box tell a different story.
If Macs could get a real desktop in a price range that is reasonable to those of us who do not make six figures a year, I would certainly have a lot more love for the little white box.
Conclusions
The reputation that Mac has such a refined operating system has nothing to do with it actually having a refined operating system. Rather, it has to do with the fact that the others are such a kludge that Mac looks great.
Mac needs to watch out though. The Linux guys are getting their act together and KDE is tacking on both an easier interface and more brushed metal. If those guys can finally resolve all of the pesky hardware issues (Mac gets to cheat by only running on systems it wants to run on), it could easily become more Mac-like than, well, Mac.
Something to think about the next time you see the Macbook Air commercial…
