Daring Fireball is still on about the OS 9 Finder vs. the OS X Finder, and his most recent post puts into words what I think people like Macdoc have been trying to say all along.
This is the first time that someone has said it right though, IMO.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>From DaringFireball
The Finder’s evolution from 1.0 through 9.2 demonstrates this well. There were occasional evolutions (like the move from System 6 to System 7, when as MWJ points out this week, the Finder was rewritten), but never a revolution. Major new features were added, but old habits were seldom broken.
But old habits and expectations were shattered with the OS X Finder. We can argue about which Finder metaphor is superior — OS X’s browser, or classic Mac OS’s spatial orientation — because such arguments are subjective. (Admittedly, I would argue until I ran out of breath in favor of spatial orientation.) But you can’t argue with the fact that a clear majority of long-time Mac users are not satisfied with the Mac OS X Finder — and not only because of its abysmal performance and horrid UI discrepancies.
Even if I were to concede, for the sake of argument, that the OS X Finder is on the whole a better design than the classic Finder, that still doesn’t make it acceptable. An upgrade that doesn’t appeal to existing users is never a good idea, no matter how well intentioned the changes.
Defenders of the OS X Finder tend to be highly-proficient computer users with experience using Windows and Unix. And they invariably underestimate just how important the Finder is to traditional Mac users. To most Mac users, the Finder is much more than merely a file manager; it is in fact the interface to their computer as a whole. To them, the Finder is the Mac OS, it encapsulates nearly every aspect of managing the entire system. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
" ...I still prefer using X over 9, but there are a few very valid points made here. ..."
I don't know if it's a preference, it's probably just an indication of how I use the OS, but I find myself moving my mouse to the left side of my screen in OS9 now, looking for the dock to pop out.
It's usually really hard for most of us to remember what it was like to not know how to use a computer, but I found OSX much easier to learn than when I began using Windows (I never liked Win95 but could tolerate Win98); and both were a dream compared to learning to use System 6, because when I had to learn Mac System 6.0.8, I had never used a computer before. All in all, I think System 7.1 to 7.5 was the friendliest OS of them all.
A lot of WinTel users have a bit of a problem moving from Win95/98/Me to XP; I had to set up the girlfriend's PC to dual-boot 98 & XP because she simply refused to use the newer OS (and you can set it up to look almost exactly like Win98).
Then there's the "browser view" in Win98 that apparently is only used by people who think AOL is the greatest.
Anyway, I like OSX, and I think it's ready for prime time. That's a big difference from the old OS; it took a lot of tweaking to get MacOS useable at System 6.0.8. I remember my first week with System 7.1; it was a big change from the old version but was probably the most intuitive OS I've ever used. Of course, it was a big memory hog; you needed between 2.5 and 4 MB to really run it [img]smile.gif[/img]
It may well be that I'm used to some pretty radical changes in the user interface, so I'm not so upset that I may have to do something different in X (I even used to use DOS at work).
And I also think that System7 (OS9 isn't really radically different from 7) is a pretty remarkable OS; every time I pop open the case on the old '030 powerbook I have to ask myself why a Palm OS can't do a tenth as much with 8MB as a System 7.1 Mac can do with 4.
I think the quoted text has some good points, although I would have to raise an eyebrow at " ... you can’t argue with the fact that a clear majority of long-time Mac users are not satisfied ..."
OS X has been a very smooth transition for me.
The loss of the finder hasn't made much difference as I program my keyboard to launch applications and such. The ability to use a computer every day and never crash it in the 6 months of using X is worth the slight learning curve. Quark is on my old PM7300 until a X version comes out AND is proven reliable. (can you say version 5 sucks)
Thats my 2 cents,
Robert
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It has been a smooth transition for me too. I also notice that when I am using 9 my cursor strays to the left to access the dock that isn;t there.
The main two things for me (at first) were that CMD-N became new window and CMD-Shift-N was substituted in for New Folder, and they changed Make Alias from CMD-M to CMD-L.
Of course, it only took me a couple of weeks to adjust because I am willing to make the change.
Now I find that all my X habits dont work in 9, like the dock thing and how annoying it is that CMD-Shift-N doesnt do anything at all!
--PB
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