If this article is any indication, Apple needs to seriously needs to improve it's software. I love my Mac, I love the environment, but there are so many lost and forgotten pieces to their software that it's highly frustrating.
Take iChat, for example. So limited, even the supposed features it has do not work (Bonjour for iChat fails to work to let me and my wife chat via her MBP and my iMac). Indeed, the entire Bonjour system and file sharing is so annoying and cumbersome. Finder can see the other computer, but it can't actually go there, even when they are sitting next to each other.
Then you have iTunes. iTunes loves to create duplicate music files. The best part is, when I tell iTunes "Yes, control the management of my music" I suddenly end up with three copies of every song. Then there is the disappearing devices. Why, my iPhone/iPad/AppleTV where there a minute ago. My iPad/iPhone are still plugged in. Why can't I access them anymore?
Then their is iPhoto. Which controls movies. And photos. Sort of. Movies!? In iPhoto? iMovie uses iPhoto to import movies? And then outputting movies is so confusing. So many different options, and then you can't just have iTunes pick it up, you have to load up iTunes, tell it to import the movie, and going through numerous other steps to get it onto your Apple TV.
But back to iPhoto. You ever create a slide show with iPhoto? I did. iPhoto is the only application I know that showed me a preview of the movie it was going to create, and then the output changed the complete order of the pictures. How does this happen?
Let's not forget the harassment iPhoto inflicts on users by default whenever you plug anything in. It snatches focus away, loads up, just to import. Oh, sure, you can set your iPhone to import quietly, but even having done it, I forget where the setting is buried.
And then there is the default way you install software. Now, I know, it's simple enough, right? No, it's annoying. I have to drag an icon into a folder? And then I have to dig through that folder and find a generic icon just to find the application, and then launch it. Why not just let me click a button to install, and then be like "Hey, you just installed this app, which means, you probably want to run it, well, do you?"
And that's just the beginning. Let's not forget Time Machine randomly barfing because your Time Machine drive suddenly lost power, or not importing pictures as events by default properly, or just countless other problems.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a Mac user. My house hold is filled with Apple products (1 iMac, 1MBP, original AppleTV, iPhones, iPods, iPad). But if Apple wants to compete on the software end, they need to up their game and really focus on finishing their half-complete products.
Edit: To be fair, I think Apple can do it. They don't have to do everything, but what they do, they have to do well. And that means not abandoning projects simply because they lose interest.
And then I have to dig through that folder and find a generic icon just to find the application, and then launch it
Spotlight is your friend. Cmd+Space, first few letters of the app name (first is usually sufficient for new apps) then hit enter. Indexing in OSX is as good as instant, and new apps seem to show up at the top of the results.
Agreed, auto launching with a confirmation dialog would be better, but I find using spotlight preferable to digging about in Applications
I agree. Spotlight is sweet. The problem is, to install the app, I have to use the mouse. Then, I have to come back over and use the keyboard to open up spotlight to load the app I just installed. I mean, it just seems like an absurd number of steps to get to the most likely scenario.
Though, I find that often. I love creating a movie in iMovie for iTunes, and then having to tell iTunes about it. You can't just save the media into the appropriate folder and have iTunes pick it up. At least, it's never worked that way for me.
Good points on most things but I disagree about app installs. I like how it is because I usually don't choose the folder it offers me anyway. I also instinctively shy away from the kind of installers you describe because it brings back memories of windows installers where I have to wonder what's actually happening (though I know the mac installer does more than just copy the files too).
That's a fair point. I'm mostly concerned with the actual drag and drop method anyways. It's cumbersome, and fairly difficult. Each installer has their own special graphical representation, and it's not always clear. Then you get the applications that have multiple files, and I'm sitting here wondering which one I'm supposed to install.
And while you do have a point, I think it could be solved through some other method.
Agreed, it could probably be solved some better way. I can see the reasoning behind doing it this way though. Drag and drop is something the user is presumably already doing, so installing a new program is associated with just copying a file into a folder. My favorite apps on windows were my favorites long before I ever touched a Mac system because they behaved this way (e.g. PuTTY).
I found apps like Putty annoying. I'd have to go put it into Program Files myself, setup the links, just to keep everything organized. If I didn't, I'd forget where I put putty. In truth, Linux is years ahead in the package management area then either Windows or OSX. Look at Ubuntu's new Software Centre. Apple did this with the App store, and the released documents concerning Windows 8 suggest Microsoft will be pushing for something similar.
This isn't to say you are wrong, just idle conversation. =) At the end of the day, I'd prefer the system handle things by default so I don't have to worry about it.
Fair enough. Sounds like we have very different usage patterns. But I absolutely agree about Linux. I've always thought it had the worst desktop of the "big 3" but I love how one manages packages on e.g. Debian or Ubuntu. I agree that it's way on in front on that.
The comparison of the App store and Linux package management (for most distros anyway) is very interesting. Online people groan endlessly about the App store and its "draconian control" but the main fundamental difference I see between it and e.g. debian's package management is that volunteers manage the repo on debian.
Doesn't stop people from groaning about Debian's package management. =)
I've always said I know the Linux, Windows, and OSX well enough to hate them all for specific reasons. =) And, I know I'm fairly picky, probably too much. But I'm only that way because I care enough.
I agree that Apple's attention to the iLife suite isn't on par at all with with the work they do on hardware and the OS. I've had some truly awful experiences with iMovie where you wonder how the thing even shipped. (Activities like changing clip boundaries causes the thumbnails to all disappear, requiring a resize scrub to make them appear again which of course causes you to lose your place in what you were doing, and yes, this is a commonly reported bug. And why won't it export large files!?!?)
I find picasa significantly faster and easier to go through huge swaths of photographs than iPhoto, and it uses a simple directory method of organization, so it's easy to move around and send pictures to others.
The way you organize photos in iPhoto is the best thing about it. Why would the creators of gmail (i.e. they understand the power of tagging) go with a "simple directory method of organization"?
It's not stuck in some opaque iphoto library directory blob, and is significantly more portable (like the plain text of photography). Tagging and all the can be done with a separate library information file, and to be honest, I only organize by import events separated by dates. I don't do much else.
Take iChat, for example. So limited, even the supposed features it has do not work (Bonjour for iChat fails to work to let me and my wife chat via her MBP and my iMac). Indeed, the entire Bonjour system and file sharing is so annoying and cumbersome. Finder can see the other computer, but it can't actually go there, even when they are sitting next to each other.
Then you have iTunes. iTunes loves to create duplicate music files. The best part is, when I tell iTunes "Yes, control the management of my music" I suddenly end up with three copies of every song. Then there is the disappearing devices. Why, my iPhone/iPad/AppleTV where there a minute ago. My iPad/iPhone are still plugged in. Why can't I access them anymore?
Then their is iPhoto. Which controls movies. And photos. Sort of. Movies!? In iPhoto? iMovie uses iPhoto to import movies? And then outputting movies is so confusing. So many different options, and then you can't just have iTunes pick it up, you have to load up iTunes, tell it to import the movie, and going through numerous other steps to get it onto your Apple TV.
But back to iPhoto. You ever create a slide show with iPhoto? I did. iPhoto is the only application I know that showed me a preview of the movie it was going to create, and then the output changed the complete order of the pictures. How does this happen?
Let's not forget the harassment iPhoto inflicts on users by default whenever you plug anything in. It snatches focus away, loads up, just to import. Oh, sure, you can set your iPhone to import quietly, but even having done it, I forget where the setting is buried.
And then there is the default way you install software. Now, I know, it's simple enough, right? No, it's annoying. I have to drag an icon into a folder? And then I have to dig through that folder and find a generic icon just to find the application, and then launch it. Why not just let me click a button to install, and then be like "Hey, you just installed this app, which means, you probably want to run it, well, do you?"
And that's just the beginning. Let's not forget Time Machine randomly barfing because your Time Machine drive suddenly lost power, or not importing pictures as events by default properly, or just countless other problems.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a Mac user. My house hold is filled with Apple products (1 iMac, 1MBP, original AppleTV, iPhones, iPods, iPad). But if Apple wants to compete on the software end, they need to up their game and really focus on finishing their half-complete products.
Edit: To be fair, I think Apple can do it. They don't have to do everything, but what they do, they have to do well. And that means not abandoning projects simply because they lose interest.