Mac OS X v. Linux (Was: Re: Ubuntu Boot Up Logo)

[Eric Dunbar]

> > On 6/24/05, Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:

> >>I hate the way that alt-tab cycles through ALL the !#$!$%!$ windows
> >>that are open on a system. I tend to have *a lot* of apps and windows
<snip>
> >>different windows within an app). It's much nicer to be able to swap
> >>between three or four apps (which I often do) with a simple
> >>command-tab (alt-tab equivalent) than having to command-tab through
> >>EVERY !@#!% window that's open.
> >
> >
> > Just as a follow-up. I find myself LIMITING the number of apps and
> > windows that I have open in Linux because of the need to cycle through
> > every open window than through apps.
<snip>
> > This also means that I can do less at one time in Windows/Linux. Now
> > that I think about it, this is a pretty major oversight on the part of
> > Linux/Windows OS developers. There's no consistent, system-wide way to
> > cycle through windows.
> 
> I don't know what you're talking about. I'm using KDE (and so not
> Ubuntu), and configure taskbar to show only windows on the current
> desktop. I also run kasbar which has grouped lists of open windows for
> all applications. atm I have only 28 applications open (I often have
> more) on eight desktops (I often have more of those too, on this system
> I have configured 18).
<snip>
> I've been using computers since punched cards wer the input medium of
> choice, and I could punch my own cards. I also have used typewriter
> keyboards, screens on mainframes & such so you should understand I am
> familiar with the use of keyboards.

> I also used OS/2 where I could alt-tab & ^tab to navigate windows.

<aside> A dead and long forgotten OS (like Amiga OS ;-P)</aside>

> AFAICS neither Windows nor OS X offers the functionality I use every day
> in Linux.

Of course, you ain't exactly a normal computer user. Your mode of
operation is one which started long before the mouse was even a blip
on Xerox's screen, and has evolved since then. You developed
(physical) skills that modern computer users will NEVER need to
develop, and, thus, some of the "hacks" and "customisations" that work
for you will not be particularly efficient for modern users.

I'm an odd-ball (as are many Mac users) in that I (we... those who
started in the 80s) are experienced computer users but we learned how
to use a graphical user interface right from the get-go. We didn't
need to develop the kinds of skills the keyboard oriented users did.
There was no need to memorise arcane commands and for developers to
devise "hacks" to accomodate keyboard-based work habits.

What we (early Mac users) experienced in the 1980s is what modern
computer users do and will continue to face until computers are made
even easier to use -- intelligent design of apps to make tools out of
programs rather than having the users be the tools *of* the programs
(i.e. where the user existed solely to provide input to the program,
rather than the program being designed to accept input *from* the
user). There is a marked difference in design philosophies at work.
The one places the developer's needs first, the other the user's.

Linux is still largely a developer-driven operation, and, thus the
user's needs come second (and, you can tell from the attitude of the
more "experienced" crowd that that attitude exists in a certain
segment of the users (many of whom are surely escapees from the DOS to
Windows transition who learned how to compute when Digital was still
in the microcomputer business ;-). It's neither good nor bad, merely
something that inhibits good ideas from spreading (standards are
anathema to the customiser).

But anyway, back to the meat of the discussion (taskbars, switchting
apps & windows and, now, customisation).

For you virtual desktops work, but for ME (and most! people) they
don't. THats the reason neither Apple nor Microsoft ever adapted their
working environment to virtual desktops (VD). VDs are simply NOT
efficient ways of working without lots of training and/or experience
and/or need since they're hold-overs from an era when multitasking was
used in the same breath as threads, not from the modern (user point of
view) definition where multitasking means focussing on and switching
between multiple applications (tasks) at once <phfew... breath>.

And, the issue of cusomisation has been discussed to death. People
don't change defaults, even experienced users, and, as such, defaults
need to be effective and as useful as possible for as many people as
possible. Virtual desktops can be transparently overlaid with normal
operations.

Likewise, having a system-wide solution for cycling trhough windows in
ONE app (as opposed to between apps) can easily be added. Ctrl or
Alt-tilde (~) is a solution that works well on Apple, and has now been
standardised throughout the OS.

Window cycling appeared in Mac apps (independent of the OS) in the
late 90s and resulted in ctrl-tilde being chosen by popular demand
after a variety of experiments: ctrl-~, ctrl-1, ctrl-tab, ctrl-alt-1,
ctrl-pageup/down (I'm speaking in Linux modifiers since Mac modifiers
are slightly different (and more useful... I still don't know how to
access international characters on Windows or Linux whilst on Mac it's
easy to write éèïÿçø, etc by combing option-` followed by e for
e-accentgrave or option-e e for e-accentegue for e.g.)).

Anyway, these other combos didn't prove particularly popular
(ctrl-pageup/down was the worst implementation I saw (it requires two
hands) and ctrl-tab was my least favourite in an app i used
regularly). ctrl-~(or`) was handy b/c it did two things. 1. made use
of a key rarely used ~/` and 2. allowed one to EASILY cycle through
the windows for one app with one hand.

But, it's dinner time so ttfn.
Eric.