It's another concept from the classic Mas OS. It didn't support file extensions (as it didn't need them) and uses a file type code to determine which application opens a specific kind of file. OS X added file extension support as it's Unix/NEXTSTEP derived. There's also an additional creator code to indicate which application and version created a particular file, which Mac OS will use if it's available.
Why do people think OSX is so great?
- Thread starter NathanE
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It's another concept from the classic Mas OS. It didn't support file extensions (as it didn't need them) and uses a file type code to determine which application opens a specific kind of file. OS X added file extension support as it's Unix/NEXTSTEP derived. There's also an additional creator code to indicate which application and version created a particular file, which Mac OS will use if it's available.
It's like most things, it's got good and bad just the Apple mantra of "it just works" gets taken a bit too literally. I had to make a new partition on Win 7 yesterday and it seemed such a clunky process compared to a Mac, the tool to do it is nowhere obvious, it needs to assess how much space the volume can be reduced by, then you have to type in the size you want it to be, then format the unallocated space to assign a drive letter etc etc, etc. Aero snap, window management and plenty of other thing are better in Win 7 so no fanboi allegiance to Apple from me.
Bottom line is that unless you build your own OS from scratch you're using someone else's take on how they think things should be done, take the good and work around the bad.
Bottom line is that unless you build your own OS from scratch you're using someone else's take on how they think things should be done, take the good and work around the bad.
I understand that but surely now when file extensions are important, it should support type sorting?
The ridiculous thing is you *can* do it, if you Arrange by None, and sort by Kind.
I don't understand why that works, but it does.
Which is just utter madness.
It is very common to get a directly with the same kinds of files (e.g. images) but different types so you want to sort it by extension, jpg/png/gif/etc.
I've never had a need to sort files by kind, but sorting by type is almost a daily occurrence.
I would love to stand corrected....but for me I have always struggled doing file management efficiently within OSX compared to Windows down to one simple thing....CUT
Why is there no damn CUT?!?!
Exactly, it i just not intuitive in the slightest and required me to Google for the answer. Any UI that requires a google search to find out how to use should be thrown out and redeveloped form scratch.
Same with getting a slide show. Something that is incredibly common for people to do - they want to show off their photos to friends. Why does that require some obscure key combination without any assistance?
And the whole minimize/close window icons still confuse the heck out of me. If I click on a red cross I assume the window will be closed and that program shutdown freeing up resources. But it doesn't, I click the red cross on mail and it is still using ab astronomical 300MB of memory. OS then what is the difference between the minimize and and close if they both basically minimize the window? Why can't I just close the window with the red cross? On what planet does this make any sense?
This is a good explanation for the above close v minimise:
http://superuser.com/questions/1306...en-minimize-in-the-minimize-bar-and-in-the-ba
I have to admit it took me a while to get used to it but now it's not a problem.
There is. But you have to copy it with cmd-c as usual, and then press command-option-v.
Alternatively, right click, press option, and paste will change to 'move item here'.
I can understand that this is simply a different way of thinking; in Windows you have two different 'start' commands; copy and cut, and one final command, paste, whereas in OSX you have one 'start' command, copy, and two final commands, paste, and move.
Putting move under an option key command is *not* intuitive however. Key modifiers are not user friendly.
well then OSX is not a modern OS because it becomes unusable if I have 2 VMs pen (16Gb RAM here)- I regular have to bring up a terminal and kill a load of process like mail, firefox, finder that are using a load of memory in order to get a responsive OS back again.
I think OSX is pretty garbage, just functional.
I have a MBA for the battery life, touchpad and the size of the machine itself, I can get by with the OS 9 times out of 10, I use VMWare workstation for anything that requires windows.
I honestly don't see what the big deal is with it, its not intuitive at all IMO.
I have a MBA for the battery life, touchpad and the size of the machine itself, I can get by with the OS 9 times out of 10, I use VMWare workstation for anything that requires windows.
I honestly don't see what the big deal is with it, its not intuitive at all IMO.
I'm on the fence, both Windows and OSX obviously have their merits, but equally they also have their annoying annoyances 
I use OSX at home and Windows at work. I don't find the keyboard 'issues' a problem as such, its just a case of getting used to two different systems, so to speak. It's also much easier to use a Mac keyboard on a Mac
I use OSX at home and Windows at work. I don't find the keyboard 'issues' a problem as such, its just a case of getting used to two different systems, so to speak. It's also much easier to use a Mac keyboard on a Mac
I reguarly use 4 VM's on my 2011 MBP with 16GB RAM. I do not get the issues you describe. I did find that using Fusion for Linux VM's seems to be more responsive than the equivalent VM in Parallels. Are you sure you're not seeing issues with applications rather than the OSX itself?
But that explanation does nothing to resolve the very real usability problem which is that "close" on some apps will actually close it, but on others it merely enters a sort of state of hibernation that is seemingly no different to simply minimising the app.
Yeah exactly. I don't think anyone would begrudge OSX for having a single Copy command and two different types of Paste. That's fine. But hiding away the "alternate" Paste (i.e. Move) is stupid UX design. But I suppose "it's been like that since the 80s" right?
Fixed. (in bold)
It's not a dodgy machine. The software is dodgy, that's the problem.
It's 16GB. Though my Windows VM has 8GB of that. Don't tell me that OSX needs more than 8GB to run a few Chrome tabs, iTunes, Skype, Transmission and a Xamarin iOS Build Host? Because those are literally the only user processes I have running on OSX.
Don't care if you're some IT guy with a meaningless paper certification. I've found some pretty serious bugs with this OS and I happen to know a thing or two about this subject shall we say. Probably the most annoying right now is all the bugs in its USB support. Just this morning I had to reboot because the touchpad and keyboard in the machine stopped responding whilst my external USB mouse and keyboard were working fine. And plugging in my Nexus 4 phone to charge it will instantly crash the USB controller and prevents use of the touchpad and keyboard. The only way to recover from that is to hold down the Power button. The OS doesn't even seem to do a file system integrity check when it boots back up. I've Google'd these issues are they are all well-known, so not something that can just be blamed on my machine.
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