MacBook 6- Odds and Ends

Here are a few things that bother me or are really excellent, but never made it in to some of my other posts.

Finder

Address bar?

Finder does not have a editable location bar without pushing Shift+CMD+G; that is only if I want to jump to a new folder, my current location is not in there.  I am constantly copying my current location in Windows and using that in other applications, OS X does not provide an easy way to do this.  What do I do if I want to copy my current location?  No I do not want another plugin to extend the functionality of OS X to make it usable, but I might have to go that route.

Go To Folder (cmd+shift+G)

On the other hand, the option (alt) key does wonders for OS X window management, which solves a lot of the complaints I have.  Option+Close (either cmd+w or clicking the close button) will close all open (Finder in this case) windows.  Nice.  Second, option+move the mouse around will grab the bottom right window corner and allow you to resize windows without having to move your mouse down there to find it.  In addition to that, you can control+move mouse around and it'll move the window with it.

Edit: Turns out some of these functions are features added by the BTT (Better Touch Tool), and not a native function. -1 point for OS X.

Overlapping active windows

One concern that I have (and this might not be Finder, but might just be the window management system) is which window is really active? Sometimes when I click on a window and all it does it bounce the Dock icon at me and doesn't actually switch to the program I wanted.  This happens most frequently when I try to close an unsaved document in the background like the screenshow below.

Window on top of Windows

You can see the TextEdit Dock icon is bouncing, trying to get my attention.  This was right after I moved the mouse cursor from SLES 9 in VMWare to click the close button in TextEdit.  Why doesn't the TextEdit window bring itself to the foreground, especially when I click on it and it is trying to get my attention?  It's behind the VMWare window, which will require me another click to get focus on TextEdit, then another one to save or not save the file.  Very odd behavior and not all programs do this.

Device Manager, System Profiler

The closest thing to the Device Manager (which I spend a fair amount of time in) is the System Profiler; I feel System Profiler is more informational but less powerful.  The Device Manger lets you see every single device currently attached to the computer, and also as an extension lets you see what devices are being installed (if they are new) via the task bar tray.

The first picture is the thing you see right after plugging a new device in, and if you click on the bubble, it'll bring up the second pictures window, which enumerates every device driver that is being installed, in this case a new mouse.

Installing Device Driver

Driver Software Installer Window

System Profiler shows every device attached, but with no way to disable the device, update its driver and also no way to see easily what devices are new and either being installed or have just been installed.  There isn't a system-level way to tell if something that I just plugged in is actually working.  For an example, a USB headset, I would need to open Skype or a similar program and use its testing functionality to see if something worked, since in System Profiler it shows that the device is there, but doesn't say anything about it working or not.

The nice thing about System Profiler vs Device Manager is that the OS X version shows you tons more information, such as how much memory is installed, what brand it is and its speed.  In addition to this hardware info, they also show you software-related information such as all system fonts, what type of universal access (accessibility) options are turned on and what preference panes are active.  To find this information in Windows, you have to dig much deeper through the control panel, use third-party programs like CPU-Z or TweakUI (which I have not found a good replacement for Vista/7, btw).

System Profiler- Memory

Dock

This almost isn't worth its own section, but I view this as a very serious omission.

I have a minimized dock icon, that looks like this:

Minimized Window Dock Icon

Why, when I bring up the context menu for that icon (right-click or ctrl-click) does it show me one measly, worthless option?  It is almost not worth even having!

Minimized Window Dock Icon Context Menu

In Windows when I right-click a minimized window it at least gives me the option to close it, which I do very often.  They would rather me restore the window, then close it.. an extra un-necessary step.  Would it be so hard to add that?  Even after 6 major version of OS X, they still have not gotten basic window management correctly implemented.

Minimized Window Task Bar Context Menu

Automator & AppleScript editor

These two programs are too broad to go in to any amount of depth, but I will say that the inclusion of these two applications in the OS are neat, to say the least.

Automator

Automator does exactly what it sounds like it does:

Automator is an application developed by Apple for Mac OS X that implements point-and-click (or drag-and-drop) creation of workflows for automating repetitive tasks into batches for quicker alteration, thus saving time and effort over human intervention to manually change each file separately. Automator enables the repetition of tasks across a wide variety of programs, including the Finder, the Safari web browser, iCal, Address Book and others. It can also work with third-party applications such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop or Pixelmator.

Wikipedia

Automator Template Selection

AppleScript Editor

The AppleScript editor is a close equivalent to batch file programming in Windows, except you can take AppleScripts and make Applications out of them, just like in Automator, or you can create compiled scripts.  This is a very powerful tool, and just like Automator, can make many repetitive tasks become only as hard as running an application.

AppleScript- Test script

The test script I got from this blog.

That is about all I can say of those two applications, they are very extensive and I don't even think I have even scratched the surface on either of their full functionality.. and I haven't even used Xcode yet.

Final Judgement

OS X is just like an RPN calculator, if you have ever used one you'll know they are crazy hard to get used to.  After a while it isn't so bad, then you don't even realize you are doing things differently than you were before and you'll be able to jump back and forth from an RPN calculator to a normal one without even thinking about it.

OS X and Windows are different but, the same.  They both get things done and that's what is important.  It also makes me realize that I need to pay more attention to the pieces of software that I choose, I need to make certain that they are really cross-platform before investing in them (I'm looking at you Quicken).  I need to ensure that not only are there clients for both platforms, but that the data can be opened and edited by both clients without any trickery.  This is important, especially since OS X market share is on the rise.

On a side note, it will never be the year of the Linux desktop, so stop dreaming, it isn't going to happen.

MacBook 5- Software Part 3, Dashboard, Spaces and Time Machine

Dashboard

Dashboard is a non-essential but cool aspect of OS X.  I would equate it to the Sidebar in Vista or Gadgets in Windows 7.  I wouldn't necessarily say that Windows ripped it off from OS X, but it could be likely.  Maybe Google Desktop and maybe Konfabulator? Who knows.

Dashboard is a graphical overlay that is the home to what are called widgets.  Widgets are little HTML/CSS/JavaScript/Objective C programs that perform a function.  Widgets generally only perform a single function, and are just fine hiding in the background not being seen.  These widgets can also interact with currently running programs, such as the notification program Growl.  Some of the default Widgets that are actually useful are:

• A pansy calculator (pictured)
• Weather
• Google Search
• iTunes controller
• Mini Calendar (pictured)
• A time-zone-changeable clock (pictured with Vancouver, no I don't know anyone that lives there)
• Unit converter
• ... and others

Dashboard with Finder

There are many third-party widgets available, since is all the widgets are made of is mostly HTML and CSS, they can be rapidly deployed by web programmers.  The best repository for third-party widgets is probably apples own dashboard widgets site.  About half of my currently-running widgets are third party, because Apple just didn't see the need, my favorite one is iStat Pro.

Installing widgets is fairly easy, once you download the file (which is a .wdgt btw) you'll double click on it and it will simply ask you if you would like to install the widget (pictured below).  Managing widgets is also pretty easy, and reminds me slightly of the iPhone's Mail/Messages interface (pictured below).  You can't delete built-in widgets, but third-parties are destroyed in a breeze.

Install Widget?

Widget Manager

The Dashboard is activated several ways: by a keyboard hotkey, by a mouse button or by visiting a hot corner.  The way that I am currently doing it is by a hotkey, because I don't see much sense in assigning a perfectly good mouse button to waste or using hot corners, they kind of bug me.  Oh, and Widgets is a stupid name.

Hot Corners (Active Screen Corners)

For those of you not familiar, if you simply move your mouse to a pre-defined corner (all four are free to use) you can make OS X do all sorts of cool things.

Hot corners preferences

Note that this is one of two places to edit the hot corners, the other place is in Desktop and Screen Saver > Hot Corners... button

It is not pictured here because I couldn't get a good screenshot, but the options are:

• Exposé All Windows
• Exposé Current Application Windows
• Show the Desktop
• Bring up the Dashboard
• Show Spaces
• Start the Screen Saver
• Disable the Screen Saver
• Put the Display to Sleep

The real problem I have with hot corners is I accidentally activate them constantly and when it does something annoying like sleep the display; it is very easy to disable that setting and not look back.

Spaces

Spaces are okay.  I enabled them a while back, only to find out that I only ever used on space anyway.

Spaces is OS X's solution to a virtual desktop manager.  I was first introduced to virtual desktops in the Windows XP era with the PowerToy called Virtual Desktop Manager.  This PowerToy allowed you up to four separate spaces that had their own start menu, task bar and desktop.

MSVDM

Spaces is similar in that it has its own desktop for different purposes, there are a few things that I am not okay with.  First: Each new space should have its own new dock, or at least the option to make it so. Second: If you have different documents opened by the same program in different spaces, when you cmd-tab to the application it will switch spaces to the one that has the most recently active document for that program.  The cmd-tab should have different selections for the different spaces even if it is the same program, although I understand that might confuse some people who are accustom to the OS X atmosphere of limited possibilities.

Everything else operates how I expect it should.  Exposé only works on the current space.  You are allowed to drag windows to the edges of the screen to switch that window spaces.  In the overview mode you can drag whole spaces around to switch positions of windows, also, you can grab individual windows and move them from space to space (as pictured, where I am dragging a picture of me and the Girl to the lower left space).  I would say that it is a fairly versatile piece of software, but I only use it with two spaces and have a VM is in full screen on one space and everything else is on the other.

Spaces overview, dragging

Now, on to my favorite topic of today...

Time Machine

This program is literally the coolest part about OS X.  Now, I might have said that before about some other feature in OS X, but this time I mean it.

Time Machine is an automatic backup feature that backs up your computer every hour.  The best part is automatic.  I have it set to back up to my Windows Server box (that was a nightmare to get Time Machine to accept an smb share) and it does a beautiful job.  I can only say that I have actually used Time Machine to restore one file once, but it was still a magical experience.  The best part about Time Machine (to me) is that it backs up your entire computer, programs, settings and all.  This allows you to wipe your machine and restore from a Time Machine backup without any extra work.

Since Apple will say this much better than I can, here is what type of backups (incremental) Time Machine does:

Following the initial backup of your entire Mac, Time Machine automatically makes incremental backups every hour, every day, copying just the files that have changed since your last backup. And it does this all in the background, so you can continue working while Time Machine is busy copying your files. Time Machine saves the hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month. -Time Machine explanation

The Time Machine program allows you to restore previous versions of not just files in Finder, but also in other first-party programs like iWork and iLife applications (although they are currently untested by me since I don't use them).  The interface is slick, once launched it hides all other windows and shows you the current Finder window with a cascade of previous versioned Finder windows slowly disappearing into the animation behind it (see picture).

Time Machine: Desktop folder

The screenshot is showing what my desktop looked like on Monday, Feb 1st.  I could easily restore the folder and its contents, which have been deleted, by selecting the files/folders and hitting the Restore button in the bottom right hand portion of the screen.  Off on the right hand side there are white tick marks that run up the side of the screen from the bottom to the top, this will let you select a specific day in history if you want to restore files from a certain point.  In the picture I have my mouse hovered over the Monday, Jan 25th restore date

I know it didn't get much screen time, but Time Machine is probably the greatest thing for regular users that are worried about losing all their kids pictures and baseball game memories, etc.  Windows has something similar as implemented by Shadow Copy but the interface of Time Machine is very slick.  What they need now is an online backup method (maybe as part of MobileMe?) like Mozy or Carbonite, except Apple.

MacBook 4- Software Part 2, Finder and UI

Finder, for all those who are not totally aware, is a core component to Mac OS X.  This makes it a pretty important program.  I would equate it to Explorer in Windows.  It shows the file system and lets you interact with it.  Finder controls the Trash, lets your access remote locations, removable media and built-in hard disk drives.  This can lead to many problems, because if you don't like Finder, you don't like a major aspect of OS X.  I will probably group things in here that don't necessarily belong to Finder, but are still part of the general UI.

Mouse

It's puny.

OS X mouse cursor

Image from Anil's Technica

You can't customize its colors or size without using some third party program, what gives Apple?  Windows has had this option since at least Windows 95!  Oh and it's still super small.

Windows 95 Mouse pointers

Image from GuideBook gallery

Why isn't this option in OS X?  Maybe Apple just wants complete control over their UI, even if it's extremely limiting.

Not being able to change the cursor really isn't that big of a deal, I guess, I just find that a black cursor gets lost on a screen much easier than a white one.  The thing that really drives me nuts is where OS X considers the "point" of the cursor to be.

OS X cursor, red "point"

Instead of the tip of the cursor being the point of the icon, it drops down a few pixels and drops right a few pixels to where the black actually starts.  This is less precise and leads to many, many missed clicks.  Try it, ctrl+scroll up to zoom in and try to accurately click on something, you'll find that the cursor don't provide as much precision as you would have hoped.

Window Management

I'll admit, the Close, Minimize and Maximize (or zoom) buttons are kinda cool, kinda.  The buttons look different if you are hovering over them, or not and the especially great part is that when the document is unsaved, the close button looks differently to represent that.

Window, neutral state

Window, hovered over

Window, neutral but unsaved state

I think they should be on the right side, but that's just me saying that, coming from a Windows world.  The close button works as expected, the minimize works as expected but the maximize (or zoom) button works like a third grader designed it.  For being so obsessed with having a consistent UI, the zoom button basically does the opposite of that.

In Finder it fits to the contents, which makes sense for some folders but definitely not all.  In Safari it tries to fits to the contents, sometimes... it is janky and doesn't work the same for every web site, try Google Maps, it goes nuts... with multiple clicks, for me, it resized the window for a total of four different sizes, none of which filled the entire screen.  PowerPoint didn't resize the window and all.  Firefox actually maximized the window, but upon a second click in made a little box, which was totally unusable.

Mini Firefox

Thankfully someone came up with a mostly-useful and free program called RightZoom to fix this problem.  It makes most of the dumb zoom problems go away and can be customized to only work for certain programs or so that it will work with all programs with exclusions.

Without this extension, all programs and windows are a pain to force them to fill the entire screen.  You can even manually resize windows so that they will go behind the dock... like that was ever a good idea.

iTunes resized behind the dock

Even if windows are maximized so that they fill the entire screen, it is possible and very easy to accidentally move it out of its position, effectively moving part of the visible window off the screen.  This is because the windows edges are not locked to the edges of the screen, like they should be when maximized.

Why is there only one place on a resizable window to actually re-size it?  The bottom right corner, a very annoying place.  Why can't it be whichever side I want to resize, I can just grab that side and resize it?  Can't use the top, can't use the bottom, can't use either of the sides.  Only one measly corner.  In Windows you can resize 8 different sides, the top, the top right, the right, the bottom right, the bottom, the bottom left, the left and the top left.  What happens if that one magical corner flies off the screen because of a resolution change? How convenient Steve, how convenient.

Corner Resize

While I'm looking down in the corner, take a look at the default setting of the scroll bars. Grouped arrows.  I think Apple likes to make their users work as much as possible, by making you move your mouse to where they think the scroll arrows should be, together.  The logic escapes me of why anyone would want this turned on by default.  What I mean is that if I want to go up in a document the natural instinct is to look towards the top of the document to find some sort of control to force the content to scroll upwards.  Not in the world of OS X, they would rather you look to the most unnatural place, the bottom.

Grouped scroll bar arrows

Thankfully it can be turned off in Preferences>Appearance.

Place scroll arrows: Together

Finder

There are a few things I like about how Finder operates.  First, the four main views can be switched to/from very easily.  Either as CMD+1,2,3,4 or by pressing the buttons in the toolbar.  I'm going to show the same folder of pictures in the four different views to display some of their differences.

Icon view

I don't like icon view and almost never use it, mainly because the icons get moved around too easily and don't automatically align to some sort of grid without explicitly telling that specific folder to act that way.  It is nice for looking at pictures, since it shows thumbnails, and you can easily size the icons to different sizes with the slider in the bottom right corner of the window (or the top right when in mini mode).

Icons gone crazy!

This is my downloads folder about two months ago, why are these icons totally disorganized when I never come into this folder, except through stacks?  Oh well, let's clean it up and make it nice and pretty.

Icons are still pretty crazy..

Pictures in Icon view

List view

List view is my view of choice for pretty much every type of file except pictures.  It allows you to quickly see what is in a subdirectory without much commitment; by using with the tree-like arrows next to every folder (as seen by the indentation on images 0031-0038-1) you can drop down a file structure very fast if you know what you're looking for.  Plus, in list view, icons are not spread all over the place however they feel like arranging themselves that day.  In the various columns it shows pertinent information, such as the modified date, the file size and what type of file it is (if you can't tell by the visible extension, which I have turned on quite recently).

Pictures in List view

Column view

Column view was probably the single coolest thing about OS X, until I actually used it.  It looks neat, it looks functional... but the truth is, it really isn't.  It feels slower than any of the other views and doesn't display any useful information like the other views do; small thumbnails, no file size or modified date makes this view virtually useless to me.

Pictures in Columns view

Cover Flow

Since the Preview.app doesn't have an effective way to show an impromptu slideshow, Coverflow is the best you're going to get with OS X.  Coverflow works in Finder the same way it does in iTunes, it shows big ol' pictures of what you're looking at on the top half and a list of the files on the bottom half.   This is useful for quickly finding a file just by scrolling through the folders contents, but most of all I find it just gimmicky without a whole lot of actual practical use.

Pictures in Cover Flow view

Quick Look

The single most useful thing in a file management program I've ever seen.  Want to look at a picture without opening a picture editor or even Preview.app? Hit the space bar and all your dreams will come true.  Pictures and PDF's are the most useful thing to look at, but they work for a myriad of file types: Pictures, PowerPoint presentations, PDF's, Word documents and others.  It's much faster to find out specific information on a folder or file than going to the context menu and hitting "Get Info".  As a bonus, if you want to view it full screen option(alt)+Space will do the trick.

Quicklook on Siblings dog

Gripes

• The Enter (Return) key does not launch a file/application, instead it initiates a file-rename.  CMD+downarrow launches a file/application.  Even though in iTunes, the Enter key starts the playing of a song.
• Most of the time, my other Windows computers don't show up in the shared section on the sidebar until I CMD+K and smb:// to them.
• Trying to find out information on more than one file at a time is kind of a nightmare, see what happens when you select multiple files and click "Get Info".  Why can't I get one window that has the aggregate information contained in it?

Multiple Information windows

• The fact that items are sorted alphabetically no matter what (folder or not) used to really bother me and now not so much.  Why isn't this an option?  I don't want to have to sort by "Kind" every time I want folders on the top, then files. From the ever springing fountain of knowledge that OS X forums bring:

making os x more like windows SHOULDN'T be doable. nor should anyone want it to be. -edX, from this thread.  How rude.

Sort by...

• Icon transparencies shouldn't be treated as if the icon isn't even there.  For example, in the GarageBand picture, you can see that the cursor is well within the bounds of the icon, yet if you decide to click there (not on a tangible part of the icon) you will simply be clicking on the background. Why why why would you ever want this for any reason? WHY? In Windows (XP, Vista and 7 at least) once you enter the boundaries of the icon, you are fair game to click.

GarageBand icon Fail

VLC icon Win

• This might not be part of Finder, but why isn't there a hotkey to lock the computer like Win+L in Windows?  If you are so concerned about security, Apple, why wouldn't that be a first-party solution?  I don't want to download another third-party application to get OS X functioning the way it should be.  Through the depths of the keyboard shortcuts, I managed to get the hotkey set, but it doesn't respond when I press them.  Oh well, more mouse exercise for me.

Hotkey all set up...

Even shows up here, still no dice

There has got to be many other things that bug me about how OS X inefficiently works...  I'm sure I'll complain about them later.

MacBook 3- Software Part 1

I at first got this idea from Lifehacker, that is, to compare something that I know and love with something fairly new. Since they did not cover that much information, I will try to be a little more comprehensive. I do not really want to set up some of the scenarios that I am going to describe, so I am going to lift pictures (with in-explicit permission) and attribute it to them. I have broken this post into parts so it doesn't get too long, although I fear with all the pictures it will end up being quite lengthy.

The Battle

Well, I don't know if I would call it a battle, more like a comparison. This is the opinion of a Windows lover on a brand new OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) installation. Since I have never really used another version of OS X I can't compare it to anything else but Snow Leopard.

Installation

Since the MacBook came with fresh Leopard install and the Snow Leopard DVD in the box, I was forced to do the install all by myself without any experience, if you subtract my Hackintosh days, which didn't last very long since it was a pain in the neck back when Tiger (10.4) was fresh.

After inserting the Snow Leopard DVD it brought up the second picture, which is pretty self-explanatory. From there it was a simple Next, Next, Next button mashing. I left for about two hours, and when I returned it was done so I'm not really sure how long it took. Although the word on the street is that it doesn't take all that long. I was greeted with a happy "we finished installing your OS now you should do some other things" screen. Windows 7 is almost identically easy, except with better colors.

Leopard before Upgrade

Screen after DVD was Inserted

First Install Screen

First stages of Install

Finished Install Screen

The Verdict: A tie. OS X took one click less; Windows 7 looks prettier. I'll claim a draw.

Software Installation

What the weird. I am fairly accustomed to double-clicking an installer file then pressing- Next, I agree, (Choose Location...) Next, Next, Wait.... Finished. This way I know the terms of which I am installing the program, I can deselect certain unwanted features, choose where I want to have the program go and so forth. The over-simplified process of installing a program is too effortless for me and I don't like it. Fortunately for Apple you only install a program once or twice and forget that you had to go through such a mind-numbing installation.   For those of you are not familiar, the process of installing a program consists of dragging an icon into either the Applications folder or a shortcut to the Applications folder. The Firefox example below shows a shortcut to the Applications folder.

There are a few programs that I've found which still use a "normal" installer, for which I am thankful. It shows that there are still at least a few sane people who prefer options over simplicity.

After you (probably) download the program you are looking to install, you'll notice it has an extension of .dmg which is an Apple Disk Image. These are similar to ZIP files, because they allow for compression and encryption. They differ in the fact that when you execute the .dmg file it will "mount" the image instead of extracting it, which essentially adds a drive which contains the contents of whatever is stored inside the .dmg file.

Mounted Flash Player DMG

Since the image is auto-mounted and the contents are auto-opened you are presented with either the installer or more likely just an icon, such as the case with Firefox.

Firefox Install

Honestly, if I had not seen someone else do this before I would be totally confused.  Since the only directions given are a single arrow.  What you need to do is drag the Firefox icon to the Applications folder shortcut like this:

Firefox Step 1

Once the dragging and dropping is finished, a copy dialogue box appears briefly which copies the contents of the .dmg file to your Applications folder.  Like I said there are a few actual installers I have found, Adobe's Flash was one of them.  My guess is that when you need to install something like a plugin or a program that changes system files or anything else that isn't just an application, you will need to have an installer.

Classic Installation

One thing that people seem to be complaining about with Windows Vista and Windows 7 is the UAC (User Account Control), which is the idea that users run without administrative rights unless a program requests access to perform an administrative action, with which you are asked to either click Continue/Yes or type in an administrators password in order to continue the process. If they don't, the program or action will not be executed.

Windows 7 UAC Prompt from ecj

Picture from E-commerce Journal. While doing "administrative" things is OS X, such as installing a program I was greeted with such a prompt. I am not complaining, because good security is in order here. I just find it silly that Mac lovers are attacking Vista/7 for security-based prompts when their operating system does the exact same thing.

OS X UAC?

The best part about installing a program is that since there really isn't a menu which you can cascade through to find the program you just installed you have to use the Spotlight search to execute your program. The other option is to open the Applications folder and find what you are looking for in there... then for quick access you can drag and drop the icon into your dock... which fills up very fast.

The Verdict: Windows 7 is the winner! Easier to customize, easier to find after installation and don't have to mount anything. Not to mention that Windows has an uninstaller utility, what is Apple thinking? Why would I install something then never uninstall it? That's just plain retarded.

The Dock and Multi-tasking

I've been using Windows 7 since the 10th or 11th of January this year (2009), so I am very accustomed to the new taskbar which is probably the greatest idea added to Windows 7. To spoil the end, the Dock is vastly and frustratingly inferior.

The dock is a icon holder that chills at the bottom of your screen (by default, although it can be moved to the right of left sides). It stores not only applications that you launch frequently, but also the applications you have open. If an application is currently running, it will have a little blueish dot below it.

Dock, nothing opened

Dock, hovering over Firefox icon

Dock with Firefox, VLC and Terminal launched

There are several settings associated with the dock which include the Size of the icons when in a rested state; whether or not you want magnification turned on or off when hovering over it and how much that magnification should be; the position on the screen (left, bottom, right); what type of effect you want when minimizing icons to the dock; whether you want minimization to take place into the applications icon or not; turn on or off the animation associated with launching a program; and finally if you want to auto-hide the dock that's an option too (not stated in the preferences but you can also press CMD+Option+D to hide/unhide the dock from any application).

Dock Preferences

The most useful feature of the dock I've found is the thing called Stacks. Basically it is a quick way to access folders and contents within folders. This feature is not very customizable, but it works for the most part.

Stack in Grid view

Stack in Fan view

Stack in List view

Things are fine and dandy if you only have one program open and one window within that program. When you start wanting to multi-task, that is where things become problematic. I would suggest that multi-tasking on OS X is sub-par at best. I'll try to list a few things that drive me nuts about just the Dock and multi-tasking.

I have three Firefox windows open; I want to switch from window to window. Let's go click on the dock..Which is the most logical place to go since that's what manages my programs and windows, right? Wrong!

If I currently have Firefox launched and I click on the Firefox dock icon in attempts to access another Firefox window hidden behind the currently visible one, this click will get me nowhere. This click is in vain. What is my next reaction? Minimize the current window to get to the one behind it. Inefficient, since now when I want to get back to the first window I have to come down to the dock again to find my minimized window, but this time it's in a different place since the dock does not group icons (minimized and/or maximized) next to anything its related to.

Minimized Firefox icons with VLC between

For whatever reason the minimized icons are put in a separate section of the dock: between the Trash and my Stacks. Not grouped with their original Firefox icon, not even grouped with each other, since it allowed VLC to butt between them.

Next, another experiment- lets right-click on the dock icon. Since right-click requires two fingers or a special section of the trackpad dedicated to just right-clicking, I will ctrl+click the Firefox icon, which is a lot of work if I am trying to quickly switch between windows. This brings up this fantastic little menu which shows the <title> of the page so I can select the window I want. Yay, my heart jumps a little bit because I accomplished my task, even if it took me more clicks that I was willing to sacrifice.

ctrl+click on dock icon menu

Another idea, Exposé! There are three modes of Exposé, All windows, Application windows and Show Desktop which are all accessed through the keyboard or partially through the trackpad.

Exposé settings in Preferences

So, I want to see my entire collection of windows.  Okay, fn+F9 or fn+F10 shows me this gory mess, but at least they are in lines and have titles:

Exposé All Windows

Exposé Application windows

So that's going to cost me pulling my hand off the mouse and pressing fn with on hand and F9/F10 with the other. Inefficient, again, a terribly flawed idea designed by Apple when it comes to multi-tasking. Thankfully the trackpad four finger swipe down will open the Exposé for all windows, it saves me moving my hands around a lot but it still looks like complete trash when I have more than one application open.

Since I am only a user of Snow Leopard, I am not sure if this next part is new or not. The only reason why I know this is because I saw it as a tutorial on a website (meaning the idea is not very intuitive). To activate Exposé for just one application you can go down to the dock and hold-click for about a half second the application icon. Whew, with mouse gestures I am finally able to switch between windows within an application! It only takes me a half second every time I want to do it. Inefficient again! Especially since it is making me click. I sure am being forced to click/tap a whole bunch of buttons in order to get something very easy done.

The only other option left, which I found on accident by pure dumb luck, cmd+` keyboard combination.  This switches blindly between windows in a seemingly random order.

Now let's try to accomplish the same thing in Windows 7:

Windows 7 Taskbar; Firefox 3 windows

Wow, that was intuitive, effective, simple, clean and not to mention pretty.

There is one more treat, in case you are willing to sacrifice a click. The jumplists, when right-clicked they spring up a list of places to go such as folders or things to do such as launch a specific game from Steam.

Windows 7 Jumplist- Explorer

Windows 7 Jumplist- Steam

The Verdict: Windows 7 wins all the way to the bank. If 7 "stole" the idea from Apple, I'm okay with that because they dramatically improved the idea. The dock is clean eye candy but not very functional at all.