Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

wozniak.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 531 posts

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#471

Post by [deleted] »

catern wrote: post #332
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Cygwin on a regular basis. It's basically indispensible, because it's the only thing that does what it does. But I get the strong impression that it was designed to punish Windows users. Just off the top of my head: * It has no idea about Windows file system conventions. IIRC, the default install directory is "C:\Cygwin". * The "default" install is super bare-bones, and missing a lot of pretty basic Unix utils.…

So? Who cares about Windows conventions? You're using Cygwin to escape Windows.

[deleted]

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#472

Post by PhasmaFelis »

catern wrote: post #332
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Cygwin on a regular basis. It's basically indispensible, because it's the only thing that does what it does. But I get the strong impression that it was designed to punish Windows users. Just off the top of my head: * It has no idea about Windows file system conventions. IIRC, the default install directory is "C:\Cygwin". * The "default" install is super bare-bones, and missing a lot of pretty basic Unix utils.…

So? Who cares about Windows conventions? You're using Cygwin to escape Windows.

Did you stop reading after the third sentence? I addressed that specifically later on. A lot of Cygwin's behavior is no more acceptable in Unix than in Windows.

And no, I don't use Cygwin to "escape" Windows. Windows is a perfectly functional GUI for casual daily use. I use Cygwin because it provides useful tools and utilities that aren't available in Windows.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#473

Post by vram22 »

brianstorms wrote: post #101

I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure do resonate. Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things, shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be, for no other reason than, "Beauty.…

>That's the problem in a nutshell: OS X changes because there's new management that wants to put its stamp on things, regardless of whether it improves the productivity of the user or not.

I'm not an OS X user, but that's a solid observation, that at least partly accounts for the issues, based on my experience of other OS's and software. I've seen the same happen, from the inside, in large companies where I've worked, and also, from the outside, a lot, as a user of various software packages and OS's, that seems to be the case, many times. Of course there are other reasons too.

I was just talking to a non-tech [1] friend yesterday who was complaining about the OS problems he was having (Ubuntu, in his case), and who said, essentially, that things are too difficult - upgrades screwing things up, etc. etc. My reply to him: the state of the art in software (in general) is still below what it should be - or words to that effect.

[1] Of course, part of the reason for his problems is that he is not tech-savvy (though he actually is more so than the average layman), but that raises the question of why software in general cannot be more user-friendly and easier to use. Difficult question, I know, since the field is so complex, and compounded by the existence of so many different versions of hardware, operating systems, and applications, all (mis)interacting with each other. Reminds me of my erstwhile system engineer days: customer has a problem (in a specific app situation) with this model of that computer that we sell and support? check the OS version: is it Ver. x.y.z? ah, that's not compatible with BIOS (or motherboard) Ver. a.b.c - only when using that particular RDBMS / compiler / whatever; upgrade the BIOS (or motherboard or OS or problematic software) to Ver. p.q.r ...... :) (which point was sometimes learnt after system / hardware engineers had spent a lot of time trying to solve the problem on their own, before escalating it to head office)

It was good fun and learning, but frustrating too at times, and must have been for some customers too ...

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#474

Post by tach4n »

acdha wrote: post #454
tach4n wrote: post #242

I'm convinced there is a real productivity loss due to OSX's limited notifications system. On OSX you get a tiny little bubble in the upper right from your chat program and if you miss it, too bad. I've seen people resorting to shouting or tapping on shoulders because of this. Trying to do something as simple as change the font size was difficult or impossible. On linux I get nice big notifications. If I miss or choo…

1. As others have pointed out, you can change the style to alert 2. The system notification center (the icon on the upper right corner or a two-finger swipe from the right on a trackpad) lists every notification you haven't cancelled: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q0o7gq7ndcbokin/Screenshot%202015-...

As I said many hours before your comment; these solutions are clunky and limited compared to what's available to me on linux...

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#475

Post by kordless »

yourad_io wrote: post #294
kordless wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fuck off, Apple. Log off, user.

I took it personally because my vendor condescendingly told me that the fact that I can't use my environment (multi-monitor) the way I wanted (full-screening applications) was actually a feature. Apple was telling me to STFU or GTFO. So I did the latter :)

All you can do is seek your own joy. Expecting others to do that for you is setting expectations. Not sure why I got the downvotes, but I'm happy you got free of OSX. I'm still hanging in there...for now.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#476

Post by thrill »

greghendershott wrote: post #465
mattkrea wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The librem 15 is what I'm going to as a free software laptop to replace my air

Although I'm not a fan of the left-offset main keyboard and trackpad (I'd prefer leaving out the numeric keypad section), it looks really nice otherwise.

Indeed. I corresponded with the CEO about offering a non-offset keyboard and centered trackpad and he declined to consider it. I used an offset Dell for a couple of years and never could learn to love it.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#477

Post by pwthornton »

From a usability perspective, I consider OS 10.10 the best version of OS X ever (and I manage development and UX work in my day job). It's the reliability and QA that has really been slipping with OS X in recent versions. There are a lot of bugs, many features take several patches to work properly, and with the yearly release schedule, a new version of OS X doesn't really become stable until a new version is announced.

I've been using OS X since 10.1, and the reliability of OS X has taken a dive ever since 10.7 launched. 10.6 was certainly the high water mark for reliability in OS X, and probably the best traditional version of OS X (and a version that I'd recommend a lot of people and companies stick with if it were still patched).

Feature wise, I really like 10.10. It makes me more productive, the software is easy on the eyes, and the iOS and iCloud integration is pretty great. I like all of that. But I really wish Apple would stop trying to push out new OS versions so fast and concentrate more on QA. Even iOS has been seen some bug creep lately.

I get pushing iOS, since the mobile space is so new, but do I really need a new desktop OS every year built on a paradigm from 30 years ago?

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#478

Post by Ologn »

ebiester wrote: post #441
Ologn wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a System76 laptop this summer, to replace one I bought in 2012. Both worked great for me. My Ubuntu 14.10 upgrade went off without a hitch, and the 2012 laptop has upgraded without problems as well.

How is the build quality? How is the keyboard these days?

I do seem to have to bang hard on the space bar. It has not been enough of a problem for me to see if I can tune spacebar sensitivity in software.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#479

Post by wwweston »

brianstorms wrote: post #101

I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure do resonate. Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things, shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be, for no other reason than, "Beauty.…

Given how common sentiments like this are (I certainly share them enthusiastically), I'm kindof surprised there hasn't been more support for projects that attempt to address this somewhat by taking OS X compatibility beyond OS X:

   https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/203272607/gnustep-project
   http://www.gnu.org/software/gnustep/
   http://www.darlinghq.org/

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#480

Post by stouset »

overgard wrote: post #462
stouset wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but switching the scroll direction was completely justified. It takes literally five minutes to adjust to, and unifies the scrolling direction between touchscreen and non-touchscreen devices. It's not like, in lieu of this reason, there's some massively compelling argument to prefer one way or the other. If not for touch screens, the direction would be completely arbitrary. It didn't end up that way, so they'v…

Why would I ever need it "unified"? Mouse interaction and touch interaction are night and day, I'm in entirely different mental modes when I use either of those devices. What is confusing is when suddenly, up is down. That's legit confusing. Admittedly I use an actual mouse with actual buttons. I tossed the "magic" mouse into a drawer after a week because it was annoying. Cute, but a pain when you're trying to get ac…

Apple prepares their moves well in advance, like a positional chess player. Can you really not see a future in which, for example, there's a display on a MBP trackpad?

And it's not "suddenly". You toggle a checkbox. For about five minutes, you get scrolling backwards. Your brain adapts, and then you move on with your life. Seriously, this is a total non-issue, regardless of whatever "different mental mode" nonsense you toss out. You are literally griping about a five minute period of confusion, and I'm guessing have spent years avoiding it.

Post reply on HN