RE: Questions

[Stephen Yates <sjy999 totalise co uk>]

>===== Original Message From <jwhtie gaeldesign com> =====
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org
>> [mailto:gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org]On Behalf Of Guillermo S. Romero
>> / Familia Romero
>

>OK, I know this is off-topic at this point, but I just want to say that I
>strongly disagree with any "pointless eye candy" accusations concerning 
Mac
>OS X. What's pointless about having ultra-readable text, widgets that you
>can actually pick out from a window, and icons that magnify so you can see
>what the heck they are?

I like anti-aliased text (although there should be the option of turning it 
off), and I don't have a problem with colourful widgets.  But personally I 
think that magnification highlights some of the limitations of the Dock.  If 
it was more versatile and well designed then the user wouldn't need to 
sweep the mouse over the Dock's icons to see what they are.

 Sure, Mac OS X may not bring much new to the
>interface table, but it's hands down one of the best WIMP-based GUIs around
>at the moment.

That's arguable, I consider the OS X GUI to be better than Windows and 
KDE/GNOME.  But I find it less flexible and elegant than older GUIs such as 
Mac OS 8/9, NeXTSTEP and RISC OS.  Many of the things that I liked about 
Mac OS 8/9 are missing, and many of the useful features of NeXTSTEP haven't 
been added.  Overall I find it a big disappointment, especially when I 
consider how good it potentially could have been.

 The only "eye candy" thing I might agree is a bit
>over-the-top is the Genie effet, but the whole animation only takes less
>than one second on a 500Mhz G4 PowerBook. Big deal.

Not everyone has a 500Mhz G4.  On a 300Mhz G3 the OS X GUI feels quite slow 
to me, which is strange when you consider that NeXTSTEP ran quite well on a 
25Mhz 68040.  I think that it's likely that some of the slowness is caused 
by the eye candy.  I don't mind it being on by default, but I would like 
the option of turning it off.

>I've been using Mac OS X quite a lot for almost a month now, and I find the
>eye candy refreshing, not distracting. It's about time computer interfaces
>looked like they were designed by artists in Photoshop, instead of looking
>like they were slapped together in ten minutes by someone with MS Paint.

Personally I don't consider the look of the GUI to be important, it 
wouldn't bother me if OS X looked like the Apple LISA GUI.  The main things 
that I care about in a GUI are usability and speed.  At the moment I find 
Mac OS X less usable and slower than the OSes it replaced.  Maybe if Apple 
had put as much effort into refining the usability of the GUI as they did 
into making the GUI look good, it wouldn't be so badly flawed.

Steve


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