Peter, I'm going to be getting a new laptop (macbook pro) here soon and I can send you my 12" powerbook (once I have the new computer and all of my files) if you want to at least try OSX. It's quite slow so it won't be able to do some of the things you want it to but you'll at least be able to play around with the OS a bit.
Installing applications on the mac is the easiest thing possible. Drag and drop the application to the Applications folder (or wherever) and it's installed.
Also while you might not like it, I certainly find OSX way more aesthetically pleasing then any iteration of Windows ever created. Some versions of Linux and its misc window managers can match or maybe even best OSX aesthetically.
sorry, I was talking only about the menubar -- I don't know why but the level to which it irks me I think is the core reason I hate the L&F of OSX
as for everything else the only thing that bothers me is the way that drop-downs popup seemingly unrelated to what you clicked on. Honestly, I think Vista's new explorer interface (mouse use is great and I like it, keyboarding around it (which is, of course, how I use a computer) is just a tiny bit different and drives me nuts) annoys me more than most mac L&F.
OS X, by default, makes the *nix file system invisible. Click on "Macintosh HD" (most similar to "My Computer", basically) and you have /System, /Users, /Applications, and /Library.
You do not have /bin, /usr, and so on cluttering up the window.
Each is pretty well named. /System is where the OS is, /Users includes home folders for each user on the machine, /Applications is where applications available to all users go, and /Library contains computer-wide resources.
Application installing is probably one of the best things about OS X. Each application is a bundle (think glorified folder) that contains all the resources that application needs to run under a normal OS X install. Each application, then, is completely self-contained under one icon, the application's.
Simply copying that application bundle to the hard drive "installs" the application. Moving the application to the trash uninstalls the application.
Actually this isn't that big of a difference from what I hear from new OSX users (especially recently). At least on OSX it's consistent. On windows, I never know without having done it before, whether closing a window will quit the application or not. I've had times where I didn't want to application to quit and it did (Outlook). I've also had times were I did want an application to quit and it wouldn't (Firefox). There is no way in Windows to guarantee that a program will quit except through the task manager.
Oh, I'm pretty familiar with the OSX mentality, and it doesn't bother me because I usually think they have the right idea. I rarely see the need to maximize windows. Text gets too hard to read when the lines are that long. I might maximize a terminal window, but only to see more vertically, or because I'll do split-screening inside my editor.
There are other things that do bother me, like the Dock. It really doesn't work that well. They worked around it (by giving you things like Exposé) but the Dock itself is pretty much a failure (except at selling systems).
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Also while you might not like it, I certainly find OSX way more aesthetically pleasing then any iteration of Windows ever created. Some versions of Linux and its misc window managers can match or maybe even best OSX aesthetically.
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as for everything else the only thing that bothers me is the way that drop-downs popup seemingly unrelated to what you clicked on. Honestly, I think Vista's new explorer interface (mouse use is great and I like it, keyboarding around it (which is, of course, how I use a computer) is just a tiny bit different and drives me nuts) annoys me more than most mac L&F.
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You do not have /bin, /usr, and so on cluttering up the window.
Each is pretty well named. /System is where the OS is, /Users includes home folders for each user on the machine, /Applications is where applications available to all users go, and /Library contains computer-wide resources.
Application installing is probably one of the best things about OS X. Each application is a bundle (think glorified folder) that contains all the resources that application needs to run under a normal OS X install. Each application, then, is completely self-contained under one icon, the application's.
Simply copying that application bundle to the hard drive "installs" the application. Moving the application to the trash uninstalls the application.
Directions for installing Adium, a popular IM client: http://blog.grogmaster.com/2007/03/adium-installation-instructions. ( ... )
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There are other things that do bother me, like the Dock. It really doesn't work that well. They worked around it (by giving you things like Exposé) but the Dock itself is pretty much a failure (except at selling systems).
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