Mac OS X is not perfect. I can agree with that. I was showing it to Kris on Friday. He wanted to see if it's any good and he's thinking of getting it. Now Kris is more of a Unix/Linux guy who puts up with Windows. Luckily he's more of a DBA at Oracle so he mostly works with Unix. My arguments basically boiled down to this: Mac OS X has the standard applications that he's used to (Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Mail, BSD layer), it requires a lot of memory, and it won't seem as fast as Windows NT. Java mostly works, though not totally with our applications. I still use Windows NT for compiling C++ code and running our servers. It's a big switch and I don't like recommending people spend $3000 to switch to another way of life. Maybe he will try it out and maybe not.

Which brings me to my second topic. An editorial piece by Andrew Orlowski that is rather anti-Mac OS X. Mostly he has a problem with the "User Experience". Now, the user experience varies from person to person. What one person thinks is slow another thinks is fine, especially with different machines and environments. Andrew is not alone in not liking various things, but then again there is a whole other side to the argument. So here are some of my rebuttals.

1. It's Sticky. This appears to be three sub-points. One, it can be a three- stage operation to move an item from the desktop to a subfolder. Err, this was pretty much the same in Mac OS 9. Ameliorated by spring-loaded folders. But really, it's hard to improve the way it is now. Leave some windows open, have drop folders on the desktop. A non-issue to me.

Second subpoint is the Dock. He doesn't like the always on top feature that obscures hot points beneath them (like a window resize box). Valid opinion. Move the Dock. I have it vertically on the upper-right corner of my screen, much like I had the Task Bar in Mac OS 9. Since I never use the "full window" mode of maximizing a document, I have no problem with the dock being there. At works I'd just move the anchor point to center instead of start. I see no problem here.

The third subpoint is the blue scroll bars which he thinks are harder to use compared to Mac OS 9. Huh? You can still click on the arrows or grey areas or drag the bar just like always. Other than being blue it behaves the same way so I don't see what he's talking about.

2. It's Slow! Switch to Mac OS 9, see how much faster it is. Even with lots of memory he has problems playing MP3 files. Hmm, can't argue with that. Let's all go back to Mac OS 6.07 which is so much faster than any later Mac OS. The Mac OS has always been about "speed is relative". Sure it's slower, but for real world applications most people won't notice. Give Mac OS X lots of real RAM, don't use Classic, get a recent computer and you won't notice that it's slower. For the record, I've never had any skipping problems with MP3s nor movies, only with DVD playback and only if I start doing mouse things. Then again, I have a relatively good machine.

3. It's Patronising. The icons and text is too large. This is very subjective since I think the size is fine. Internet Explorer does render some web sites with large text, but other than that everything else looks fine to me. Maybe I've just adjusted everything to the right size. Yes, Finder folders are quite space-using for no good reason. But, if you stop using the Finder like how you used it in Mac OS 9, you'll be fine.

4. Obey the Steve. He doesn't like it that Jobs has a vision and Apple is squashing anything that allows you to modify the Mac OS X User Interface, neither of which is related to the other. Apple Legal has to do its job. Jobs has a vision for the OS and it's natural that he'd rather have his engineers work on something else rather than putting UI hooks into Quartz. Andrew also didn't like that keyboard task switching is not alphabetical, but based on icon order in the Dock. Funny, I don't have a problem with that. And I do occasionally switch tasks with the keyboard.

5. When Metaphors Roamed The Earth. And about that Dock -- it shouldn't be used for both launching applications and switching between open applications. Here's one that I truly agree with. I don't use the Dock as an app launcher, that's what I use X-Assist for. The Dock is great as a Task Bar, just like in Mac OS 9.

6. The Dock Must Go. Most of the above leads Andrew to his conclusion. Hey, I like the Dock as a Task Bar. I don't want to see it go. You can turn it off you know, though I think that requires disabling the Dock extension.

When you get right down to it, a User Interface is a matter of personal preference. I don't know why I hate using Windows, all I know is that when I do use it I'm always thinking "this UI sucks". Different people have different tastes. The problem is that people want to make other people see that their sense of taste is The Right One. And it's just not true. I'll keep using Macs because I have fun when I use them and I don't when I use other OSes. It's that simple for me.