Another thing which OSX has done for a long time that I really liked is that everything syncs to vertical refresh. It doesn't actually speed anything up, but it gives the perception that things are smoother and more responsive. You don't see the 'tearing' effect that you often see on other systems when you drag windows around the screen.
UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
31–40 of 51 posts
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#32Speaking of anecdotes, I have always found Windows more responsive than OS X to the point where I have completely switched to Win 7 - mouse handling and screen drawing is definitely superior on Windows. However it is easier on Windows to mess up the experience - install some crappy antivirus or other messy program and it is a piece of cake to make Windows feel laggy.
I agree with this. Subjective opinions etc., but I think the animations on the mac, although they start pretty much instantaneously when you click, take time to finish and so the actual process of clicking -> window coming up / folder opening up take a little more time on the mac
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
regarding #2.. I used Mac for a week and went back to Windows. The jerky scrolling in Windows was driving me crazy. The fact was that before Mac I never realized that (maybe I'm numb to perfection) but it was only using Mac that it occurred how much crap scrolling is in Windows.
I currently have a vm of windows 7 open on my mac with the host file open in notepad. Two lines are selected (as I needed to copy them from time to time). If that window loses focus, the selection stays, but if I click the titlebar to that window, giving it focus again, those two lines are unselected. There are many many quirks like this in Windows that you only notice once you use a different window manager.
Sigh... this is an issue with your VM and not Windows.
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would have to say that my experience is exactly the opposite of yours; the window management experience in Mac Lion is significantly worse than Windows 7. I have to give one caveat, however, I use a non-Apple external keyboard and mouse. The change in responsiveness in the UI when you're no longer using the trackpad is astonishing. It takes me longer to perform tasks on my Mac than it does on my Windows 7 platform…
I find the window management better in OS X (kde, gnome with compiz) simply because it gives you a way to see an instant snapshot of all windows or all application windows with either a hot corner or key press. In Windows you have to mouse over the icon to get a preview that doesnt work all the time (I feel that it breaks if the window's content changes. it then shows the application's icon instead of the preview).
I don't find Expose or Mission Control nearly as useful as the Windows Taskbar.
Unlike OS X where a really good Taskbar implementation cannot exist, I can add something just like Expose to Windows. It's called Switcher and it does pretty much everything Expose does.
The Taskbar is still better though because it's always there and at a glance I can see what's running.
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#35Well there's no denying iOS is the king of responsiveness in the mobile sector, but to be honest, I can't really say the same thing on OS X vs Windows 7. I use both on a daily basis and Win7 is definitely the most rock solid OS Microsoft ever put out. For example, when an application crashes Windows just kills it and everything is fine. On OS X when something crashes, you can usually Force Close, but sometimes the pr…
I can't agree with this enough. I use both daily and my feelings match yours 100%.
I find crashes far more disruptive on OS X - argh...the dreaded spinning beach ball. Windows app crashes (when they happen) rarely cause me any harm beyond restarting that single app and telling Windows I don't want to send a bug report to MS.
I'm always blown away when picking up the iPad just how seamlessly I can fly between different apps, tabs, airplay, etc.
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#36I agree with needing more data but I will give my testimonial. I switched from Windows 7 to Mac Lion several months go and have not looked back. Simple things like responsiveness of the touch pad, gestures, and a better terminal are definitely what got me. Overall I would say the UX is just simply better.
OSX has definite advantages here. 1. The trackpad hardware is great. It's so good that when we were making the Bamboo Touch at Wacom, the Macbook Pro trackpad was the standard we measured ourselves against. 2. True pixel-level scrolling from HID devices. Windows has the concept of "wheel scrolling", but it's only vertical, and lots of apps won't scroll in less than a wheel increment (which is oddly 120 units), so you…
1. Might be an advantage on a mobile device but a mouse is vastly superior for anyone wanting precision and/or performance. Too bad we can't combine gestures and a real mouse well (have been tried but in my opinion all attempts have failed).
2. Wheel scrolling is a feature. Yes, horizontal scrolling sucks but vertical scrolling is working as intended and something I really prefer. Yes, I'd like a good horizontal scroll but the use cases where you need it are extremely rare and often stem from bad UI design in the application - not saying that as an excuse but just that it isn't a big issue. Microsoft have tried scrolling wheels that can go horizontal as well but they were mindbogglingly bad (my opinion).
3. I don't see how that is an issue (in practice) for anything that isn't done for Win95. And if it was made for Win95 I'd rather be able to run it than not. Backwards compatibility at its best. Doesn't bother you when you don't need it but can still handle corner cases as well as can be expected.
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find the window management better in OS X (kde, gnome with compiz) simply because it gives you a way to see an instant snapshot of all windows or all application windows with either a hot corner or key press. In Windows you have to mouse over the icon to get a preview that doesnt work all the time (I feel that it breaks if the window's content changes. it then shows the application's icon instead of the preview).
I don't find Expose or Mission Control nearly as useful as the Windows Taskbar. Unlike OS X where a really good Taskbar implementation cannot exist, I can add something just like Expose to Windows. It's called Switcher and it does pretty much everything Expose does. The Taskbar is still better though because it's always there and at a glance I can see what's running.
Windows' taskbar today === OS X's dock
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#38I agree with needing more data but I will give my testimonial. I switched from Windows 7 to Mac Lion several months go and have not looked back. Simple things like responsiveness of the touch pad, gestures, and a better terminal are definitely what got me. Overall I would say the UX is just simply better.
I would have to say that my experience is exactly the opposite of yours; the window management experience in Mac Lion is significantly worse than Windows 7. I have to give one caveat, however, I use a non-Apple external keyboard and mouse. The change in responsiveness in the UI when you're no longer using the trackpad is astonishing. It takes me longer to perform tasks on my Mac than it does on my Windows 7 platform…
I totally agree about the window management aspect. I switched from Windows to OS X as my primary development machine a year ago and still find it frustrating when I'm working with many windows.
I've tried using Expose and multi desktop setups but they just add complexity to my flow. Expose looks pretty but I avoid it because it randomly lays out the thumbs in some way that has nothing to do with how I've actually arranged them. Command + tab is application based, so I can't switch between windows easily. Command + tilde does that but it works completely differently by switching windows on keydown and keypress instead of showing an overlay. I'm sure next version of the OS X will introduce a new window management tools and obscure short cuts that just adds complexity to the system. The whole thing feels like random band aid solutions built up over the last 10 years.
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#39I don't really have an opinion on Windows vs. OS X, but I have been extremely impressed with iOS's graphical performance. It's not just that they have good framerate - even Android can get good average framerate. The amazing thing about iOS that it gets amazing maximum frame delay, i.e. the space between frames is almost never more than 33ms (~30fps). On Android you frequently run into tiny little hiccups in frame de…
This is why good game hardware (CPU/GPU) benchmarks measure minimum framerate in addition to average. There was some site that measured 99th percentile framerates too, which seemed like a good idea.
edit: Example of better measurements: http://techreport.com/articles.x/22151/6 Notice how Radeons have lower avg fps but the framerate seems more stable.
Re: UI responsiveness: OSX vs. Windows, iOS vs. Android
#40I use both platforms with a MacBook Pro/Lion being my main machine. I have always felt that my Windows 7 machine is snappier in starting apps and generally moving around the desktop. In fact, if Windows 7 were *nix based I would probably switch to it as my primary. The command processor situation feels pretty hopeless to me in Windows.