As a writer I’m fairly easy going when it comes to my working environment. I don’t need much: a computer with an up-to-date version of MSOffice, access to the internet, and a few very minor stationery requirements, and I am well equipped to sit and write all day.
Not too much to ask, you may think – there’s not much there that can particularly go wrong, or make my life more difficult than it needs to be. Well, that’s where you’d be wrong. You see my employer has kitted out our office with Apple Macs, the most un-helpful, un-user-friendly devices imaginable. Whereas on a simple low-spec PC I would be able to do most things a writer needs to do, such as rename files and multi-task between a few Word documents, on a Mac even these simple tasks become a chore.
Now, before I get accused of being a PC fan-boy, this blog is in no way a rant without substance. I work on Macs 5 days a week, and require little more from my workplace Mac than it let me do my job. But even such relatively trivial tasks as taking a screenshot require the average user to dedicate far too much time to browsing internet forums to find solutions to tasks that should be easy.
As much as I have an intrinsic loathing for Apple, and the style-over-substance that its “brand” represents, I would actually shout for joy if I came into work one day and found that my office Mac did the simple things I need it to. Alas, I doubt I will ever see the day Apple sees sense, as far too many people are prepared to spend far too much money on over-hyped products that look nice, but have little in the way of practical application.
So without further ado, here are 25 reasons I hate Macs, and the 3 things I like…
25 reasons to hate Macs
- Cuteness. Personal computers should not be “cute”. Apple Macs don’t have balloons, or popups or message boxes, no, instead they have icons that feel the need to bounce up and down to get your attention in a way that is beyond irritating. Computers are machines, they are not people. I do not want computer icons to have personalities of their own. Apple, you have gone too far.
- File naming. Windows-PCs allow you to batch name files, so if for instance you have 20 photos you want to name ‘Reasons I hate Macs’, they will be renamed quite simply, with numbers appended to the end of the filename for each subsequent file in the group. With Macs, you simply can’t do this. So, if you’re say, dealing with a couple of hundred files, such as in the case where you might be organising photos from a digital camera or other such device, you soon find yourself in difficulty. Heaven help you if you have file name clashes and have to manually rename each individual file…
- No maximise / full screen function. This is a major design flaw in Mac OS. Tell me Apple, why can we not maximise our windows? Also please tell me why – for the love of all that is good – is it so damn hard to arrange two documents side by side?
- No MSPaint or equivalent programme. Want to make a very minor edit to an image? Want to combine two images together quickly and easily without using an expensive photo editing suite? Not possible with a Mac I’m afraid.
- Image resizing issues. Following on from point 4, Apple, in all its infinite wisdom has decided that we are not allowed to be able to resize image by hand. If you are lucky enough to find a half-decent Mac-compatible MSPaint replacement, you will find that you have to know precisely the dimensions you want the image, and are restricted from the long established convention of having a tiny set of diagonal arrows in the bottom right hand corner with which to resize. Seriously Apple… I mean seriously, come on!
- Insidiousness of iTunes. If you’re not a fully signed-up member of the Apple fan club, then the insidiousness of iTunes, and the way Apple forces iTunes down your throat can really start to get on your nerves. I don’t want to have to convert my generic sound file into iTunes format – I just want you to play the damn thing!
- Image preview issues. One of the big selling points of Apple Macs is the fact that they’re (apparently) really good for multimedia-type tasks. However, even in this realm Macs are completely unintuitive and add unnecessary extra steps to tasks that should be simple. Say I have some images on my desktop and want to view them. On a PC, all I do is double-click on one, and then use arrow keys to scroll through all images in that location. On a Mac it’s not so simple. No, with Macs you have to have all the images you want to preview selected beforehand. I don’t think I need to elaborate any more on just how frustrating this can be in a busy working environment, or say, when someone calls and you’re trying to hold a phone to your ear while trying to select the images you need to scroll through…
- Deleting files from portable devices. Typically if you’re a Mac user, you will only make this mistake once, because if you make this mistake more than once it can be quite costly. Basically, if you were say, to delete images from a removable memory card for a camera, you then have to carry out the ‘empty trash’ function, otherwise, though the memory card will appear empty, they will in actual fact, still be considered ‘full’. Turning up at an event with a full memory card in your camera that tells you it’s empty, but has no more space is not fun, and you need to return said memory card to the same Mac you deleted the files from in order to resolve the issue. If this Mac is a long way away, such as say, in another city, you are, what we in the trade call, fucked.
- No right-click to create files. When you have a filing system on your machine that is many, many layers deep, it’s sometimes an awful lot easier to be able to right click in the location you want to create a new file if you happen to have that folder already open. With Macs, you can’t do this. Not only is this grossly inefficient, but it is but one of many ‘right-click’ issues that crop up in this list…
- No right-click to print option. Want to quickly print a document, or a series of documents? I’m sorry dear Mac users, but you will have to manually open each file in turn and click print. But don’t worry; at least your Mac looks nice!
- No right-click to preview. Again, another issue. What is it with Macs and ease-of-use eh? You’d almost think you weren’t paying overinflated prices for this stuff…
- MSWord on Mac just isn’t as good as it is on PCs. I guess you’d understand, given how MSWord is made by Microsoft and all, but this issue goes far deeper than just MSWord, and the needs of a humble writer such as myself. The issue here is that most programmes, in their Mac form, are inferior to their PC cousins. Many lack options on Macs that are readily available in PC form. Another implied issue here is the fact that you’re using MSWord on a Mac at all. Shouldn’t Apple have its own decent office package?
- Compatibility. Following on from point 12 is the issue of compatibility. If you want to use your beloved Mac for anything beyond Photoshop, good luck. If you’re a gamer, then well quite frankly you might as well throw your joystick away. And don’t even get me started on the upgradeability issue!
- Cost. Ok so thankfully I didn’t have to splash out on buying our office Macs, but consider this: the extra money spent on Macs could be spent on buying useful software licenses, or other equipment around the office. And it’s not just the cost of the hardware and fancy peripherals you have to bear in mind here. Also consider the cost of batteries for all these wireless devices, and the cost of finding a half-decent computer support provider that can help you should (heaven forbid) your beloved Macs go wrong.
- Stability is a myth. I can’t believe just how serious some Mac fanboys and fangirls get about the stability argument and that well-worn phrase ‘Macs don’t get viruses’. I’m sorry people, but you’re wrong. I am only a writer, and so I’m not really using ‘resource-heavy’ applications. I use Word, Excel, Outlook, Chrome (the default browser Safari is rubbish, but that’s another story), and of course finder. The thing is, my brand-new Mac doesn’t like it when I have lots of Word documents open. In fact, it detests it. And whatever you do, don’t ever think about opening documents with large tables in, or with… images. On average, my Mac will freeze or crash at least once a week, sometimes more. And it’s not just me either. Search the internet and you will find literally hundreds, if not thousands of similar cases. Let me say it again: Mac stability is a myth!
- No ‘Print Screen’ button. Apparently the reason there’s no Print Screen button on Mac keyboards is to ‘streamline’ the keyboard experience, and reduce needless clutter. Well Apple if this is the case, what the blazes are the extra function keys along the top of the keyboard for? Oh wait, they’re redundant…
- Simple processes made needlessly complicated. So you need to take a quick screenshot, but find there is not Print Screen button to hand. What do you do? You spend hours trawling forums that’s what you do. Why are things made so needlessly complicated? By supposedly ‘improving’ the screenshot function, Apple has actually made it x10 more complicated. So much so every time I want to take a few screenshots I have to look up how to do it! And the thing is I’m quite a tech-savvy person. Goodness knows what the average man or woman on the street does!
- No hash tag (#) key. Where is it, I hear ye ask? Well, according to my very helpful Facebook friend, it’s Alt-3. How on earth is the average user supposed to know this? Why not just have the key marked and assigned on the keyboard? Good luck if you’re a Twitter user.
- Windows getting stuck behind toolbars. I’m sorry Apple, but keeping toolbars pinned to the top of the screen away from the window they are assigned to is not helpful. Actually, I’m not sorry – it’s a fundamental design flaw, and your designers and developers were paid a hell of a lot of money to come up with this rubbish. Try rearranging a few word documents on the screen in front of you, as I have to do on a daily basis, and soon enough your windows will get stuck behind toolbars. The solution? Close some of the toolbars so you can move the window down a bit, and then re-open the toolbar. #whataloadofshit.
- Lack of OK and Cancel buttons in settings dialogue boxes. I admit I didn’t really spot this poor piece of design at first – I thought the lack of ‘Cancel’ and ‘OK’ buttons made things streamlined, and reduced clutter… until I mistakenly clicked a wrong setting and wanted to cancel. Thanks Apple. Thanks a lot.
- Always plays the start-up sound, regardless. Ever wanted to sneak into the office without alerting the attention of colleagues? Well you can’t with Macs! On a serious note though, what is the deal with this? The sound itself is rubbish, and it’s really loud and irksome. Maybe it’s a clever metaphor?
- No option to ‘Cut’ files in Finder, only Copy. Again, what’s the deal with this?
- Ghost programmes. Linking in with the toolbar issues I hinted at in point #19, there’s a strange thing with Macs where programmes can be running, even when there’s no window open. Combine this with the way toolbars aren’t directly connected to windows and you get a situation where often you will find a menu bar for a ‘ghost’ programme on top of other windows. Needless to say this can cause some issues.
- Being helpfully unhelpful. Did you know, unless you tell it otherwise, your Mac will adjust its brightness relative to the light in the room? Nice gimmick Apple, just a shame it’s absolutely useless. Thankfully, after some (guess what), searching on the internet, I found the solution, and disabled this infuriating function. I think what gets me more than anything about this particular gripe of mine is just how symptomatic it is of Apple’s approach to computer design. It’s all style over substance, and at the end of the day, unless a gimmick like this really helps, all it’s doing is making things worse, and when you can’t rename 100 photos without allocating half your working day to the task, then quite frankly Apple I don’t want to know about your stupid ‘helpful’ features. Give me a machine that works dammit!
- At 25 bullet points in I could keep on going, but I’m not going to. Just writing this blog makes me angry, as things could be so simple, but thanks to the Mac I have to use at work, they’re not. To fill point #25 then, I’m going to make a brief comment on perhaps the single most annoying thing about Macs, and it is this: the not-so-humble Mac user. Now I understand how, when you spend a stupid amount of money on a useless lump of well-designed metal, you want to justify your purchase. However, please do not try to justify it around me. I see through you – you’re not going to win me over. So please stop trying, and please stop bragging. I just can’t stand it. I don’t care about how you can seamlessly link your iPhone to your Mac, or use your phone to control your Mac. This doesn’t at the end of the day, make my life any better. If I had an app to control my Mac at work, you know what I’d do with it? I’d turn my Mac off, and walk away.
And 3 (small) reasons to like Macs…
At 2,500 words in, I’ve given you some sort of sense of the frustration I feel at using a Mac on a daily basis. Of course I have been a bit strong in my comments on some occasions, but then, a blog such as this needs a bit of humour. So as not to be accused of having a completely one-sided perspective, there are at least 3 things I do like about Macs and they are:
- Applying colour labels to filenames. So simple, yet so useful. This is actually incredibly helpful for workflow if you have a busy desktop, as you can label files red, yellow and green, and makes the task of organising that little bit easier. If I could have one thing from a Mac on my PC, it would be this.
- The F3 key. Also known as Exposé, some would argue that the F3 key is a waste of time, considering how Macs struggle to multi-task, and I do myself, suffer bugs associated with the F3 key on a regular basis. However, all things said and done, when compared to older versions of Windows, the F3 key is incredibly useful. It’s just a shame it’s not been implanted as well as it could be really, but then, that’s Apple all over…
- Undo function in Finder. I like the ability to ‘undo’ actions in Finder, and I find it quite useful. However, it’s only useful, for the most part, because I’ve made a mistake due to the poor UI. If you’ve successfully navigated your way through the preceding 2,000+ words to this blog, I hope by now you might have some idea as to what some of these UI flaws might be.
So, there you have it, 25 reasons to hate Macs (and 3 reasons to like them). Are you a Mac user? Do you have Macs forced upon you at work? How useful do you find your Mac? Let me know your thoughts below, and please, please don’t flame. Thanks 🙂
Despite your take,i still consider macs more efficent.
Hi, thanks for your comment. May I ask, more efficient in what way?
Thank you for this info. May I ask what os and mac you used?
Hi Razvan. At work I use an iMac running OSX.
Wow, this stuff is so true, I agree with it all. I am 20 year Mac user in the graphics industry. I can’t even begin to tell you the hair pulling frustrations (and hate) I’ve accumulated for Macs in all those years, FAR beyond what you have written here. NONE of those frustrations mind you, have I ever experienced on my Windows computers.
I’ve written similar articles in the past, even taken notes as they happen. But it’s like pis*ing in the wind, nobody cares, not even Apple. So, go straight to hell Apple, I do not need your expensive overrated crap.
Thankfully I no long have to use them, as I no longer have that job. My life is so much less frustrating, just from that alone.
Thanks for a great article, well done.
ESPECIALLY THE FILE COPYING, you get Permision denied. Let’s say it: Unix-based system are thrash and I would even install windows on my mac cuz windows is better than any unix complicated system.
The popular notion that Macs are “better” for graphics doesn’t hold when you actually use one and want to do efficient operations that may involve more than one program, or file renaming, save-as, etc. How did the graphics reputation arise, other than the types who do such work tend to seek a “hip” computer?
I think Macs are truly style over substance, with functions oversimplified to the point of difficulty. When you add the cost, like over $1,700 for an iMac that doesn’t even come with an optical drive, it becomes minimalism without purpose. I’ve never used an iPhone but I’m thinking the same may apply there.
I think Apple did right with the iPhone. It’s easy to use and the iOS works well.
The MAC computers on the other hand aren’t as intuitive. And I think that’s the main complaint I have.
Hi Dan, thanks for your comment. You know, I’m actually thinking I might have to write a follow up article as I just keep finding more issues!
Some interesting points in there, some of which (as a long-time mac user) I hadn’t thought of, but mainly due to the fact that I might approach the task from a different angle.
For instance, point 7, I’ll just use quick look (simply hit ‘space’) and you can preview just about any file without the need to launch software or open any files. REALLY handy for MS Office files (especially excel spreadsheets, which open in a fraction of the time of launching excel itself) You can then use arrow keys to select other files to switch to. Just my opinion, but I think hitting the largest key on the keyboard is easier than right clicking and selecting an option in a list. Works great for audio and video files too, and you have slideshow options for images. May not be for everyone, but give it a crack. I use it multiple times each day as a designer, and it saves me heaps of time.
Also, using Preview can counter some of the arguments about resizing, editing etc. It’s by no means a powerful piece of software (in fact, I despise the way saving files works in it), but can save your skin for some basic editing in a pinch.
22 – Again, simply a different way of doing things. Dragging and dropping works for me, because what would be either 2 keyboard shortcuts (or navigating through menus twice) can be done in one mouse action.
Though, I completely agree with the batch renaming. That would be a pretty handy feature to have. It does come in other software packages that I use for work, but the advantage there is that I’m able to tie the batch rename into complex photoshop batch actions at the same time.
Also, just hoping you could elaborate on point 9 a bit. What kind of file would you want to create through a right click? I know you can create folders through a right click, but because I have little windows experience to compare it to, I was a little lost on this one. Hope you can clear this up a bit for me
Anyway, it was an interesting read – good to see some points I hadn’t considered before. Thanks!
What would you not want to create with a right click?
Scenario: I’m viewing a folder with other text files in it. I want to create a new text file in this folder. I can right-click “new text file” or I can…. tadaaa open bbedit, click “save” and then drill down to the same damn folder I already have open.
I was given a mac for work. Because I’m a nerd and work in vms all day and my windows workstation was giving us fits, my boss talked me into getting a mac. “It’s all unix under the hood, you’ll love it.”
Well I don’t. Because the hood is freaking welded shut. I can work on a command line all day but that does me no good at all when I need to import a vm (hint, you might as well forget about it and just start with a fresh image install). Software is unstable, windows get stuck with that damn spinning rainbow ball, and for some reason my system insists on starting up Word, Excel, and BBedit every goddamn time I reboot.
I’m amazed that mac users find this system friendly. I’m also amazed that linux is still thought of by so many as “not ready for the desktop” when the reality is linux is the desktop OSX wished it could be.
Agree completely. It’s an absolute pain not to be able to right click and create simple files in the location where you want to save them.
Hi Daniel, thanks for your comment. RE: point 9, it’s just the option to create *any* file really. For example, during my everyday work I will have quite a complex folder set up with many folders within folders within folders. It’s a lot easier for me, if I already have a folder open to simply right click and create a Word document in the set location rather than create a new Word document from scratch and then have to navigate my complicated file structure again when I come to save. Of course to get around this you can drag and drop files around if you save on desktop and then drag it into the right location, but when you’re dealing with numerous documents (often at once) this can become quite cumbersome and time consuming. Just my personal opinion of course!
On my mac we are able to go full screen…and the # key is shift and 3
Yeah, but when you go full screen you lose the menu bar at the top. I know it comes back when you hover your mouse at the top but I find this extremely annoying….I wish there was a setting to not hide the menu bar when you go full screen.
I have a short list I can compile from trying to use a mac g4 for 3 hours in chem class
1 – no cut feature – WTF?
2 – no right click – as an avid PC user, I use right-click for almost everything and anything, so instantly this makes them 50% more shitty imho
3 – no maximizing screens – which means you are never really sure which program you are in unless you look at the bar on tip, seems like a minor annoyance but I don’t want to have to worry about clicking outside the active program
4 – SHIT for shortcuts – trying to use excel in apple, there is no shortcut for fill down – seriously?
5 – no real delete button – did Apple not consider that a backspace AND a delete button might be useful?
6 – nothing about the UI seems intuitive to me, never did and never will
7 – you really never get the sense that you are in one program or another as the screen basically looks the same no matter which program is open (save the one word in the top menu bar)
8 – no taskbar – again – makes it difficult to tell which programs are running, which are closed. I NEVER liked this feature about the macs. I don’t even like when windows groups the programs. If I have 10 browsers open, I want to know. If I am doing school or other work on a computer, I might have 3-6 programs or windows that I am using at any given time and I want to know which ones are open, which ones I can switch to, etc. Having this cutesy bar on the bottom that shows some list of programs that may or may not be open NEVER made sense to me.
I think having a MAC, always came down to one thing. Thinking that you were better because you were different. Well you are different, but congrats on buying an expensive and annoying POS that will probably make your efforts to do anything productive take at least 2x as long as on a PC
Congrats MAC, your G4 made my chemistry experience not only unpleasant, but utterly frustrating.
FUCK MACS!
I hated mine macs I bought a imac Macbook the plastic one I G B and it I o ly got them for astromy imaging didn’t work at all it really got me the spinning beach ball and the printing you got to go tbe long way round no right click and my mate said i come round and see you mac at the time I thought they were it’s marking but I glade it’s gone sold mine dad said i got £500 I told dad it’s a name that’s all windows is ok but if you don’t know about computers that’s the market my mate said they the best and wants me to get another expensive overrated rubbish
I use both Windows, and Mac. You make some valid points, but most of them are your fault heres why.
1. If you are going to be looking at something all day why wouldn’t you want it to be fun to look at?
2. Good point
3. I can maximize windows. I don’t know what else I can say to, since this point is completely false. Snapping windows is essentially useless in Windows, since Windows does not allow you to scroll a window that you are not focused on. There are also plenty of ways to implement window snapping on a mac.
4. MSPaint is complete garbage it can’t even handle transparency. Why would you ever use that program on either platform? Especially when there are plenty of free alternatives for both platforms that also happen to be decade ahead of MSPaint.
5. I guess real image editing programs just assume that you know what your doing.
6. I have never had to open iTunes. I would assume that there is probably a pretty simple way to turn that off, but I have no real comment since I have never experienced the throat shoving you speak of.
7. Finder has a built in preview of images that allows you to scroll through and preview all images in a single location.
8. Sounds like a bummer, but you could always format the card. You are in no way fucked.
9. What is the benefit of creating an empty file? I’m assuming that the empty file will at some point contain content. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to write the content of the file and then save it where you want it?
10. Good point
11. You can right click a file, and preview it, and there is a preview window for all files in finder no matter what type. Nothing else to say about this one.
12. They do, and it’s free. Also the issue with programs not being as good on mac would be on the developer, and you also completely ignored that most of the good apps on mac are not even available on windows, and a lot of those apps don’t even have a windows equivalent.
13. Gaming is a waste of time. People don’t buy macs to game and neither should you.
14.
13 in. Mac Book air: $999.00
xCode: Free
Office Suite: Free
Operating System Upgrades: Free
Total: $999.00
Cheapest Windows machine with similar specs: $799.00
Cheapest visual studio: $700.00
Office Suite: $145.00
Operating System Upgrades: $78
Total: $1722.00
Even when you subtract the development software the Mac will still be cheaper.
15. UNIX is by design more stable that Windows. Macs still get viruses theres no getting around it, but how many more viruses will you have to deal with on a Windows machine? It is not a myth that Macs are more stable it is a fact based on the way UNIX handles permissions, and the way UNIX indexes the disk.
16. There are 4 You can take an entire screen shot and save it to your clipboard by pressing command+control+shift+3, which is the only way to take a screen shot on windows. You can also take a screenshot of the entire screen and save it to a file on your desktop by pressing command+shift+3. You can also crop a potion of the screen and save that to your clipboard by pressing command+control+shift+4. You can also crop a portion of the screen and save it to a file on your desktop by pressing command+shift+4, but wait theres more! OSX also makes it really easy for you to change all of your system hotkeys. Personally I prefer to use command+alt+c to crop a portion of my screen onto my clipboard.
17. This point has just shown me that you are not a very tech savvy person. If it takes you hours to find a answer on the internet about how to take a screen shot then you are not a very tech savvy. If you can’t remember how you did it the last five times then you are probably not very tech savvy. This is especially true on a mac, since all you have to do is press command+space, and then start typing ‘screen shot’. Doing so will take you right to the part of system preferences that shows you what all of your keyboard shortcuts are. You can also change them to whatever you want them to be on this page.
18. It’s in the same place as it is on Windows.
19. This is not a problem with the operating system it is instead a problem with the developer. The developer you are complaining about is Microsoft not Apple. Microsoft makes word not Apple, and it is no way Apple’s fault that shitty developers make shitty software for their operating system.
20. You could always just restore your defaults, or undo your pebkac errors.
21. Most computers make start up noises they’re called bios beeps.
22. You can drag files to different locations, and that works just like a cut.
23. Windows will leave tons of programs running in the background the only difference is that Macs are designed to show you what programs are running without have to open up a process manager. This also allows you to actually quit the program without having to open a process manager. The status bar will show you the status of whichever program you are currently focused on, and I do not understand how this is any way a disadvantage. Would you rather have the app running silently in the background?
24. How is this a gimmick it is incredibly useful to have a computer that adjusts the brightness in order to make it easier to see, and if you really don’t like this why not try pressing the key on your keyboard that changes your brightness? I also do not understand how you are having issues finding your system preferences when they are all in the same place! On top of that you could just press command+space and search for any setting that you want to change, and you will be taken directly to the preference that you need to change. Maybe you are just use so use to the search feature being completely useless on Windows that you feel you need to constantly search the internet in order to find your solution.
25. The majority of the reasons that you don’t like mac are your fault. You never actually took the time to learn the differences in the operating systems. If you had walked up to a Windows machine for the first time in your life after using a Mac for 20 years you would not know how to do any of the things that you have just pointed out. Both operating systems are good at doing many things more than the other, and neither are them are bad they are just different. If you don’t take the time to actually understand the differences then that’s your fault, and blaming it on the operating system just makes you look like an idiot.
byrus,
You should change your name to the Grinch. Gaming is a waste of time? Dumbest excuse I’ve ever seen defending Apple. I suppose they should destroy all 8 games that OS X does support, right? Microsoft software on Macs is bad? At least they support Mac hardware. I’d love to see native Apple app support on a non-Mac machine. Yes, taking a screenshot on a Mac is so buried and counterintuitive that Googling is almost a necessity. I AM a tech-savvy person and no tech-savvy person would open Preview, go to File and then down to Take Screenshot just to take a freaking screenshot naturally.
The only one looking like an idiot is the Mac fanboy with some pretty pathetic excuses for why Macs suck.
After thinking about it, iTunes is a good example of Mac software on Windows. It’s so bad that I haven’t installed it on a Windows machine in years, though.
Hi Byrus, thanks for your comment, and sorry for taking a few days to reply – it’s been a long week! I think what your post goes to show is just how emotional many of us get about the devices we use. While I accept you are more than free to have your own opinion, I do think it’s completely unfair of you to suggest that my issues with Macs are ‘my fault’, when they are clearly not. I certainly have taken the time to learn the Mac operating system – why would I not when I had to work on it for the best part of three years? Your post seems to confuse your opinions and your own personal experience with the cold facts of the situation, and then, when my own experiences don’t tally with yours, you accuse me of being an idiot, when ultimately you’re the one who feels insecure enough with your operating system to have to find my blog and call me such.
To address a few of your points…
3. The maximise windows button on Macs does not work. Fact. You haven’t shown my point to be wrong – you’ve just said that ‘you can maximise windows’ yet given no explanation. And, I might add, snapping windows, is incredibly useful, especially when you have to deal with multiple documents even doing such simple tasks such as copying text etc.
4. I’m not sure how much experience you have of working in a corporate environment, but you will find that when the machine you use is not your own, you typically have 0 control over the programs you can put on it. MSPaint can be a useful tool for very minor editing / cropping.
5. Wow, I mean seriously, come on, make a reasoned point. Trolling is uncalled for.
6. Again, here you are confusing your own experience with the situation as I have described. iTunes is completely insidious across all Apple platforms, and is designed to keep you tied in to the Apple brand, buying more Apple products. As a consumer, I am completely opposed to practises such as this.
8. Well actually, it is an issue, and, no, that doesn’t always work as many cameras (especially older digital cameras) ‘think’ that the memory card is empty when it’s not. If you are in a professional working environment in a situation such as I described in my blog, then yes, you are fucked. It’s called being under pressure and having to achieve targets. Try working in the real world.
13. This one really did make me laugh. Gaming a waste of time? I guess in your world movies must also be a waste of time. How about books? Or maybe, you just don’t do anything in your spare time other than troll other people’s blogs?
14. I completely dispute these figures, and have to wonder why on earth you add on development software when this entire blog is about using Macs in general everyday working situations.
15. Well yes it is a myth that Macs are more stable, as many people, including yourself claim that they are, when everyday experience from myself and others tells us that actually, they’re not quite as stable as they make out. You will be pleased to know I am now in a new job working back on a Windows-based machine, and I have not had a single crash in the 3 months I’ve been working in my new job. Compare this to my time working on Macs (doing a similar job with a similar level of multitasking), where my Mac would crash every 2-3 days.
16. Your point here kind of supports what I’m saying. You just provided me with a great long list of complex key combinations which make a simple task, needlessly complex.
17. Clearly, you my friend, have never heard of artistic license.
21. Again, you haven’t read my article properly. I wasn’t talking about bios beeps – I’m talking about the start-up sound.
24. It is a gimmick, and completely symptomatic of the wider problem I have with Macs – that being that they are primarily form over function and charge a ridiculous premium for the ‘privilege’ of using them.
25. Again, trolling is not appreciated. I wasn’t going to publish your post, but then I decided I would give you a chance you took a long time to write it, and well, I was in a good mood. I am more than happy to continue this discussion if you so wish, but I would ask that you stop with this childish ‘you must be an idiot’ line, because, quite frankly, it doesn’t wash.
You forgot one thing: spinning marble of doom
Ah yes, how could I forget!
I use both a Mac and a PC for a very graphics heavy environment. When my back is against the wall and the work HAS to get done correctly, I ALWAYS turn to the PC.
There are so many pointless and frustrating things about Mac OSX that drive me and my co-workers nuts, its amazing.
I feel most Mac lovers started on OSX and that is why they insist it is in some way ‘better’. It is not.
And by the way, MACs DO lock-up, they DO crash, and they DO get infected. Just sayin. And to repair one when things go bad? Forget it.
I’ve been working with Windows (from 3.11 to 8), Linux (from Ubuntu 5.04 to 14.01, also Linux Mint, Mandriva, Suse) and finally Mac. Got laptop from my company with newest Mac laptop, Office and other stuff. The machine is great but.
-> glossy Retina Display just torturing my eyes
-> No compact view in a Finder (hates lists!)
-> hate dock, as I hate program activators and want taskbar
What is good:
-> Linux line terminal
-> workspaces
->overall performance
If you would just learn to use the Mac and stop bemoaning the fact that it doesn’t work EXACTLY like windows you would find that the Mac is capable of doing nearly everything you claim it can’t, and far more. I can write a list twice as long of annoyances with Window, but what’s the point? The two operating systems are similar (until Win8) but have their own ways of accomplishing a task.
IF YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH A MAC THEN LEARN HOW TO USE IT PROPERLY!
I have used DOS, Macs, and Windows since their beginnings and have learned to live with each one’s quirks and shortcomings, however for overall usability, the Mac still wins!
please it can’t even read my sdhc card. who needs this?
Oh – I loved this blog. I share your pain! My work switched to Macs and it’s those little things that drive me nuts every day. Thanks for sharing!
Just reading this blog expresses how I feel about these dumb Macs. In my film class, we are forced to use Macs. But recently I transferred some videos to my flash drive from a Mac. And when I plugged it in to my awesome PC, it was in fact played as a music clip(playing ONLY THE SOUND) rather than a video. IS THERE ANY WAY TO RETREAVE THE ORIGINAL VIDEO CLIPS?
Hi Cat, thanks for your post. Have you tried selecting another software programme to play the film clips? If I were you I’d double check the movie file type (.mov?) and search which programmes can play it.
I totally agree with you! I hate MAC 1200 FOR WHAT?
for a bunch of agrivation!
Just want to express my hate for Mac … my window is stuck in the corner using two monitors. Why the hell MacOs thinks I would like to see opened window in original monitor and place it so, that I can’t move it!?
I never had to think much about the OS… until macs become more popular and I got one. I feel it’s been hindering my work (by really getting to know it). I feel like this PC vs Mac fiasco is really sending us back to the pre-computer era and just hurting our eyes. Apple could’ve done everything the same as Windows, just improved on things, and we’d be all so happy.
I’m an editor for a fairly major website, and I also don’t like macs(though in media many around me do)…same frustrations, I consider myself a power user and it really slows my work flow down…I’m usually in wordpress, word, in design, excel, and photoshop/light room/ file zilla/ email/notepad++/folders etc all day.
mutittasking or doing things quick in batch is definitely slower on a mac, there are just more steps involved, esp when you have 20 windows open. I’m usually working with 3 screens at home and 2 at the office. I’ve had to use mac a few times and it’s really frustrating. I type 130 wpm and can slice and dice photos and layouts really fast…just to give an idea. And I’ve been doing this stuff since the early 90s.
Mac is more enjoyable if you are casually browsing, certainly better eye candy in os plus hardware, but if your on a time crunch I think windows and Linux if you do Dev really speeds things up.
Also, not having terminal isn’t a big deal…there is always cygwin, or can run nix in a vm, or use putty for ssh into a server.
Try an ipad and your list will be at least twice as long! Thank you for venting some frustrations…. I was a fan for many years but the most recent ‘upgrades,’ of all things apple have turned me off to this line of products for good!
The only programs on my mac that don’t work flawlessly is office!
Reading this list actually gave me some anxiety since I was just switched over to a MacBook for my work laptop. I feel your pain and I dread running into every problem you raised above. What makes all this much worse is that I don’t know how giving me a Mac to work on is supposed to make my job easier since I’m neither working in the media nor IT industry… My only conclusion is that people have this false perception that the MacBook offers more “advanced” IT affordances that will support my “tech savviness”. Just because I know how to use windows properly doesn’t mean I can use a Mac to its full potential. 🙁
The thing about the MAC and Apple in general is that it is supposed to be user friendly, but for anyone who uses a computer for more that just fun apps and browsing it is less than friendly. You do need to know all manner of hidden key combinations and quirks to do the simplest of tasks.
Windows and Android would be easier to use if you had no experience of either MAC,WINDOWS or ANDROID because they are more logical. EG why have the ability to copy but not cut? it’s not logical or easier. Searching in finder isn’t location specific. I know some Mac wiz will say , oh you just need to do xy&z, but I shouldn’t need to know that, it should be standard.
Anyway I hope that the world starts to realise that even though they got bored of Windows and the PCs’ old school looks and then convinced ourselves that we needed a Mac, that MACs/Apple are great at design and Marketing but need to accept what Windows does better and incorporate it into OSX. Then you would have the best of both worlds a laptop that looks great, has great battery life and a great OS. Umm, perhaps I should run windows on my MAC!!. umm Nah.
Hating my mac too. I’ve downloaded a lot of photos and videos and can’t sort them and organize them like I can on my PC. When I go into finder I seem to have numerous copies of my huge video files but I can’t really tell if they are in photos and in iphoto or if iphoto has only created a link to the originals and why each time I open an imovie do I end up with yet another “copy” of the imovie in Finder. Does this mean that I actually have numerous copies of the movie which is eating up my disc space and if I delete the ones that appear like duplicates where were they and did I delete the wrong ones …….. I’m tired of having to search the internet to find answers to questions I would never have had in the first place on my PC. I truly love the hardware and yes it is pretty but I can’t stand it anymore!!!!!!! If this post sounds garbled it’s because MAC has fried my brain.
Pretty much everything on your list says “I don’t know what I’m talking about” or “because it isn’t just like Windows”. I have yet to come across a well-reasoned argument against using a Mac. Not hard to find good reasons not to use Windows, beyond aesthetics.
Hi Daniel, thanks for your message. Things is, to me, things like not being able to easily batch rename files is something that makes working with a Mac needlessly difficult. That’s not a case of me not knowing what I’m talking about, but rather a case of Apple not designing a product that is fit for purpose (i.e. the ability to simply and easily perform everyday tasks).
Batch rename in OSX is pretty much the same conceptually as Windows. Select a group of files, right-click, choose “Rename x files”…and so on. It may not be exactly the same, or quite as easy, or perhaps you are just not used to it, but it’s there. But this is a simple task, and though it may not be as intuitive, it’s a minor problem by comparison. Windows has different problems, like security, which IS an everyday concern for EVERYONE. Mac has security concerns, but are very minor by comparison. In neither case should one make the broad statement that either OS is bad. Much of it boils down to preference. I realize your article wasn’t necessarily intended for Power Users, so that group aside, I stick with my initial statement that “different” doesn’t mean “bad”. It’s easy to find similar comments from Mac users who were forced to switch to Windows – it sucks not having a choice. But you are doing your readers a disservice by making false statements backed up by simple anecdotes that only illustrate user ignorance. What’s more, many things about the Mac are not necessarily different from the rest of the world, but come from traditional Unix computing. For example, using a forward slash (“/”) in directory structures is in line with what computers and the internet have been doing for decades. Windows is the exception, and this exception has done a disservice to the computing world. Pay close attention to radio announcements where someone is reading a URL – how often do you hear them say “HTTP backslash backslash…” it happens. Apple has also had a much better track record (especially since OSX) in terms of successful rollouts and overall stability. Remember WindowsME and Vista, Clippy, or MS Bob? I’d rather not, either. Microsoft also has the misfortune of needing to produce a “one size fits all” product, with the ability for any 3rd rate developer to produce software for sale in the supermarket discount bin. While it’s certainly possible to write cruddy software for OSX, the “lowest common denominator” psychology does not apply, so by and large what titles are out there tend to be higher quality (unless they are crappy ports of Windows titles).
…and on and on…
Hi Dan, I am Neo, And I Got F****ed over by my creator.
I’d just like to point out to you that this guy is not saying mac are better or worse than windows, he is just venting his troubles with mac.
Yes, I’ll agree with you, pretty much all you can do in Windows can be done on a Mac.
However, I’ll also agree with you, it is not as intuitive or flowing as on a PC either.
When you have a great load of work and must go more slowly than you should because the Mac does things in a specific way that is not necessarily flowing, you get… cranky.
Security is greater I’ll admit, and it is more efficient than Windows, but user friendly?
Quite frankly I’d use Mac to connect myself to the internet and transfer files and not much more, just because of how frustrating it can be.
It’s not being biased, it’s simply that I often get cut off from my programs because I have a total of four to five open at work and a simple wrong click can bury me in lagging, and without even asking for confirmation, the Warlocks!
Moreover, “lowest common denominator”? You said it yourself, 3rd rate developers can not code on Mac OS, while they can on Windows OS, and it might mean that Mac users tend to have not to filter through BLEEP when searching for a program usable for a specific reason, but most of those will have equivalent under Windows OS, though sometimes not as easy to find., and programs often aren’t simple, or rather easy, to install on Mac OS.
Well, I guess it did turn into a small rant seemingly about Windows, that’s not the intent though, I just wanted to provide a waypoint.
Yes Mac have their problems, but I can’t count the number of viruses I got under Windows OS, something I have been safe from with Macintoshes.
And processes are much more energy-demanding in Windows.
Both OSs have problems, so let’s just agree that this is just a man venting his troubles and not attack him for getting frustrated and angry because he NEEDS to vent.
He could have attacked Mac users, he just attacks Mac, even when commentaries are less than friendly (even you, good sir, end up rather abrasive despite your structured and reasoned arguments).
Respectfully,
Matthew J.
Great post. I would definitely agree that switching from Windows to MAC OS is a painful experience. You have to relearn how to do many of the tasks that were easy to do on Windows. There seems to be a different way to do everything from opening programs, browsing folders, looking at running processes, partitioning disks, installing additional operating systems, etc.
My wife got a MAC Book Air with 256 GB HD and used the MAC OS X for an hour and then had me install windows on it.
As a tip, you should use Bootstrap from the start, don’t mess with trying to partition the disk with Disk Utility. Also, I noticed disk utility tends to not work for partitioning after partitioning the disk with Windows or Bootstrap. Bootstrap will only support the latest Windows versions relative to the laptop.
My wife likes the Apple for its sleek style, look, and light-weight design. It runs fast, but as a Windows user, she preferred to continue using Windows on it. Also, we have alot of Windows software already, but would have to purchase Apple software for the MAC versions.
Her previous laptop was a 17″ PC, but it was a bit too heavy to carry around for her. So being lightweight and portable was one of her big deciding factors on choosing the MacBook Air.
My wife’s sister on the other hand bought a 128GB MACbook Pro thinking the low end MAC would be sufficient. She wanted to use the MAC OS for graphics and fashion design. Unfortunately, she needed a Windows Partition, as well, because there are a lot of programs and web pages that she uses that require Windows or IE.
128 GB turned out to be way to small for two operating systems to run, so I had to figure out how to unpartition the HDs and then use recovery mode (CMD -R when booting) to reinstall the MAC OS. Again, use Bootstrap (NOT DiskUtility) to remove the windows partition before attempting repartition the HD. Otherwise, you’ll have to initiate a new windows install, remove the excess partitions with the windows os installer, go to recovery mode, use the Disk Utility to configure the unused partition space as MAC OS, then restart in recovery mode and reinstall OSX.
I am now returning my sis-in-laws MacBook Pro to get one with more HD space. It’s been a little frustrating working with MacBooks so far. But, I think the ladies still like the sleek, light-weight design of the MAC, and you can still install Windows on them if MAC OS isn’t for them.
Personally, though, I would always go for a more powerful PC laptop that costs less any time. But I suppose some people tend to be more into fashion, style, and looks than hardware specs.
I’m commenting here to let off a bit of steam.
I’m currently a second year graphic design student. When beginning my course, I was horrified to discover that these people did not use PC’s, but instead, these abominations. I’d previously had absolutely nothing to do with Macs, but hey. I thought they couldn’t be too bad, right?
Wrong.
I can relate to everything you’ve said, no cut and paste? What even. Just simply getting back to the desktop was a struggle, and so many useless functions.
So, today I was in my digital media class, creating a website, when the Mac I was on decided it was going to be one of those days in which it decided not to read my external drive. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my drive, as it works on various PC’s, and 90% of the time on these Macs.
After about 40 minutes, it actually decided to work. While waiting for some assistance for creating my website, I decided to perfect my wireframes. I was successfully able to do this, open files off the hard drive and save to it. However, apparently Dreamweaver could not save a file to it, for whatever reason. There was no explanation that came with this, so neither I, nor my tutor were able to come up with a solution.
Then, the Mac froze up and crashed. Great. Upon booting it up, my login was completely messed up, and I was to get the tech support to reboot my login.
After waiting ten minutes, I found out one of the cables at the back was faulty, and had to have it replaced.
Once these issues were finally fixed, I turned the Mac on, and was back where I started again. It could not pick up my hard drive.
The thing that irritates me the most with my design school, is all the tutors seem to diss PC’s. The tutor making a ‘joke’ today about the ‘Mac not liking my hard drive, as it’s been in a “dirty PC”‘. I find myself having to hold my tongue a lot of the time when someone says something like that.
Anyway, there was three quarters of my coding class gone at the cost of the Mac. The soultion, I wound up bringing in my windows laptop just so I could get some work done. I didn’t have a problem after that.
What’s sad is that, if you’re coming from Windows, there’s a bit of a learning curve. They are similar worlds, but they do the same tasks in different ways. EASILY 15 out of the 25 of your reasons are just false. Some of the others are things I’ve never encountered because I’ve had Adobe CS for as long as I’ve had a Mac, so things like resizing images and correcting them haven’t been an issue. Macs just aren’t for you and that’s just fine.
As a graphic designer I work on PC at home, studied at school on MACs and at work they force me to use MACs. My boss and coworkers swears by OSX and to this day and age they still say that PC crashes and has viruses and that OSX is that much better. It’s frustrating to hear their ignorant comments, but I keep my mouth shut. They’re astounded that as a graphic designer I prefer PCs and Windows like it was a sin. Damn Apple fanboys at work think they’re on higher ground ’cause they’re using OSX. I stopped counting the number of times my MAC Pro tower crashed and had graphics glitches at work.
Everything 25 reasons you gave is so true, especially for the maximize button. Unbelievable.
Sure OSX is nice to look at and browsing the web, but to get work done in a productive environment, give me Windows. Actually, not even for browsing the web on OSX, Windows for everything. Thanks.
All I can say is this. I sat down at my Mac mini to take a final exam. Five minutes into it, I get “You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button until it turns off. Then press the Power button again.”
It would not let me out of this. You get one shot at this test. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to retake this test. I have just lost all of my confidence in the MAC reliability claim. When I needed this computer, it completely, utterly failed.
I got my first Mac in 2000 and loved it. The superior design of Windows, with one well-designed GUI, and simple admin (none of those dozens of cryptic text files to edit a la Linux). And after dealing with Windows BSD every few weeks in a previous life, I was delighted that my OS X Macs “just worked”. I agree that there are several stupidities i the default set-up … windows that do not go completely full screen, and that are only adjustable by the bottom right-hand corner, and to give us a Unix machine with no “#” on the keyboard itself is just stupid. But they are minor annoyances, can be fixed by the tech-savvy. I am still using Macs, but no longer recommend them to my friends. At OS X 10.6.8 the Mac was a brilliant system. Stable, reliable, packed with useful productivity tools (e.g. Spaces) and able to run both Intel and PowerPC software. It has been all downhill ever since, as features I liked and used have been taken away, and new features are either irrelevant to me or, if desirable (better security) implemented in an obtrusive and annoying way.
But worst of all, you cannot trust Apple to maintain ways for you to access your old data. Anyone foolish enough to use Apple’s attempts at word processing has seen the applications dropped. Apple then puts the boot in by making it as difficult as possible for you to run your old applications on their latest hardware. You can neither run the old software directly, nor are you permitted to run an older version of the OS in an emulator.
For all of Microsoft’s faults and mistakes I am left with the impression that Microsoft cares more about the needs of its customers and users than does Apple.
I’m a developer of software that should (and does) run on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX.
I agree with everything you wrote down. I also agree with the power users here that they feel in fact restricted due to how the Mac OSX forces you to do things. If you’re a plain regular user that does nothing more then browsing the web, type a document and email you’re fine with your Mac (although you can easily do the same with Linux and Windows).
It even looked like (not only in the Mac but on Windows and on Linux too) that the less you can customize or tweak, the more the OS is being hyped. Fortunately ….. Microsoft tried the same with Windows 8 and saw that they were gone too far. I hope it will be a lesson for OS/GUI designers that they should not ignore experienced/power users by limiting functionality, customization and tweaks.
I love my latest Linux system (Fedora KDE 20) that has all the bells and whistles that you and I miss on our Macs. It comes with all the tools I need, they are free but still from exceptional quality these days. That was much different up to 4 years ago. If you put a Windows user behind my desktop he can find his way. I as a Linux user can find my way on Windows. That is not the case with Mac OSX. I always thought Mac is better, more stable….. until I needed to port my application to the Mac.
One of the things I hate too is that THERE IS NO GOOD virtual environment for the Mac OSX itself. For instance, as a developer I need vanilla Mac OSX installs (Yosemite/El Capitan) to test my software in. On Windows and Linux I just run Virtual Box to virtualise a Linux or Windows environment. I can run virtualized Windows in Windows, virtualized Linux in Windows, virtualized Windows in Linux and virtualized Linux in Linux and they are rock solid these days!
NOT ON THE MAC!!!!! If I try using different versions of Parallels/Virtual Box inside OSX on my development Mac Mini, it is VERY unstable and VERY slow! It hangs/crashes a lot up to the need to reboot or logout/login my Mac again. This is not the case with Microsoft or Linux that have free and good working virtualisation engines on board or installable alternatives.
When I develop and my app (test)crashes inside OSX, I need to reboot (can’t kill, can’t stop using the built in Mac tools or using the command line). If my app crashes (due to development and tests) on Windows or Linux, I just kill it and everything continues to work without any problem.
In my opinion the Mac is not stable for the things I do compared to their Windows and Linux counterparts. They (Apple) also change things overnight (like the way they disabled environmental settings that could be used to start/steer/inform GUI programs). An update of Yosemite to El Capitan is such an example….. All Microsoft Office components for the Mac did not work any more. Problems using older software with the new El Capitan release or even a bit older but still current Yosemite release are also starting to show up increasingly. Mind you… if one of the biggest office suits for the Mac does not work…… you did not test it at all (something with arrogance comes to mind).
The things I really miss/or hate as a developer and user;
1) Good virtualisation tools (like Virtual Box) to run OSX inside OSX.
2) Easy downloadable fully installable bootable ISO images of the Mac OSX OS itself with a clear naming convention and easy to find.
3) A default (and better) treeview of the file systems I have
4) A good text editor to program (like you have on Linux by default and like you have with NotePad++ on Windows).
5) Right mouse click to see the properties (Name, size and location, type) of a file or directory
6) F2 function to rename a file or folder instantly
7) Good/better way to support PC keyboards too (beside the Mac crap layout keyboards)
8) Indeed…. right mouse click to copy/cut and to paste things like files, directories or and/or other types of data.
9) Menu bars inside the program that is running (not in the global menu bar at the top)
10) Faster user experience….. updating an OS is awfully slow compared to Linux and Windows (over the Internet) but starting programs too do take more time then their Linux counterparts.
11) Less minimalism in GUI design. I like modern minimalist buildings and art but not plain ugly boring GUI interfaces that is hyped (like you can find in Windows and Linux too unfortunately but those you can still customize and tweak)
12) I hate the enforcement of iTunes and the enforcement of QuickTime brrrrrrrrr
13) I hate the restrictions they pose upon (us developers) by making the OS idiot proof by disabling functionality
14) Their fokking arrogance towards their users (so many people complain about iTunes) and Apple is ignoring them straight for more then 8 years now.
There is more….. but I’m not in front of my Mac now. When I’m behind my Mac I will do un update of this 😉
I like this blog, and I like the comments. Mostly on similar blogs the replies are not so polite. You have Windows believers and Mac believers in this world.
This summer I changed job and with the job came a MACbook Air 13” I was so happy!! Finally I would have a MAC and as I was convinced by all marketing I was sure this was the best thing that could happen. Now 4 months later I am not that enthusiast anymore. I tried, I really did (since I have to, company policy is MAC.
Let me start with the things that I like:
1)The MACbook looks good, is lightweigted and solid quality
2)The battery is good
3)I like opening the lid and starting to work
4)Never had problems with connecting printers, that worked OOTB
But there are so many little things I simply cannot get used:
1)I had to change my password (company policy) and it was a disaster. The keyvault from apple refused my old and my new password, there was no way to escape the screen, multiple hard restarts were needed to get out
2)Renaming a file is so hard you have to click on the filename, but don’t click too much, but then the file opens
3)I miss multiple keys on the keyboard: Where’s delete (Yeah I now cmd backspace does the same, but not in all programs 🙁 ). Where’s Page Up, Page Down, printscreen…
4)The swipes over the touchpath: 1 finger, 2 fingers 3 finger, 4 fingers, a hand, your nose: whatever: it is all so complicated…
5)Maximizing a window: I was used to doubleclick in the bar above to do so in Windows: Don’t double click on a MAC because in every program it does something else…. I bought an additional tool to have this crucial functionality because….(see 6)
6)For me Mac is Chaotic: When I work, I would like to have 1 thing visible on the screen. I cannot focus with 5 windows open together on the desktop, I really don’t get that the ‘File’ bar remains on top of the page while a window is not maximized?
7)Itunes for large music collections simply doesn’t work
8)Office Suite from Microsoft isn’t as efficient as it is on windows PC. I am used to work in PPT and Word. I don’t feel the need to change that to keynote. Possible that’s a good program, Word is the de facto industry standard…
9)I had several crashes allready on my MAC (some for windows). Saying that it is so stable… I don’t agree
10) No Virus? I installed a tool from the official macstore and in all my browsers startscreen was changed an all settings were set to some irritating search website I didn’t ask for. It was hard to uninstall.
11)When I connect my Bose bluetooth speaker while something is already generating sound. I have to close that application and restart it before sound comes out of my bluetooth speakers.
12)I had a huge fight synchronizing contacts between Icloud, Google and Exchange… I was hoping I could assign 1 master. Unfortunately, that didn’t work that way.. I use Plaxo now.
13)All shortcuts on windows are with CTRL on MAC it’s COMMAND. Was it really to hard to standardize this.
14)Where did Apple hide the function for emptying the recycle bin?????(thanks google)
15)Where’s the cut function behind the right mouse click?
16)Screen resolution: My mac book 13 screen is for me very small. I prefer working with multiple screens, that works fine, but if I connect a TV via HDMI, i get a much higher resolution on my mac screen possible as well. However, when HDMI device is disconnected, you cannot force Mac book to show independently this higher resolution.
17)When impersonating multiple users in Chrome (usefull to give demo’s in my case) in Windows taskbar you see 4 chrome instances, all with different icon it, easy t switch… Try this in MAC…
18)I still don’t get the idea about opening and closing applications: If you close an application with the cross on the left top of the application than it is not closed. It is in a kind of seeping mode and if you click on the dock than it opens again… If you minimize an application than the icon comes on the right side of the dock???? I don’t get the logic about it…
I have probably more examples, but my point is: it is so different than Windows., that if you are used of Windows, changing to a MAC is very hard, especially if you use it for Office applications only. Being stuck on a 13” screen doesn’t help either… Two fully different platforms, but my personal choice goes to Windows after 4 months of a lot of effort….
I hate Macs Because it hate cut function , idm , and games … Windows are beasts. thanks microsoft
This is funny! I bet IBM regrets launching macs into their corporate environment!
Going from 40% of users on windows needing IT support to 5% of mac users needing support. IT jobs at risk!!
i use macs to record music. because well PCS blow and always crash ALWAYS. As you said in your rant you don’t do anything processor heavy. yes, if your simply spitting your nonsense (i.e. your rant) then yes pc is easier. but if you actually want to write music that is still there after 5 tracks. well then mac is the only way
What about having to click to focus on a window THEN click the action. Annoying. And the dodgy capslock key. And the shutdown countdown. JUST SHUT DOWN
A few of these complaints must have been fixed since this was written. I’m a recent buyer and though not quite a convert just yet, I’m liking what I’m seeing. The # key is simply shift and 3 like Windows. A few of these problems, like deleting files but not emptying the trash are because of the switch to a Unix base for MacOS. You will have the same problem on most Linux and *BSD distributions.
I am new to mac. I won’t mind to learn things. I’m so tired of windows upgrades… getting your computer ready… dressing your computer to the ball… 97% … 98%… please restart.. Well I’ve used Linux too but preferred Windows. Now I have on iMac wich I use most for surfing the web, making music, listening to music and multimedia stuff. That is fun! I leave the work at the work. I work with windows 10… it is a good boring system because I now it all. I simply wanted to try something new and I can always get back to the old uncle. But mac is way better for me. All the ugly cables simply gonne away from my desk. All the need to download drivers for this and drivers for that gone! Thanks god I’m not paying one office subscription 70$ year or the entire SO. You can say that you can buy software with the money you have left if you buy a PC.. Well this is ridiculous. You can’t buy a decent PC laptop with a good screen under 1000$ so… If all you want is to play than you’re good. If you like photos or movies forget most of the PC laptops in that price range…
I have the same problem with OS X at work. I found this article after searching how to change the mouse cursor and finding out that it can’t be done (other than resize) without third-party apps. Outside of Terminal (better than Command Prompt), the system feels like a downgrade from every Windows OS after Vista. Our home computers when I was a kid were Macs pre-iMac, and I know the pain of no games and incompatibility. We switched to XP when it came out and never looked back. Apple has sadly not changed from it’s “We only play well with ourselves” stance, and what’s worse is so many people actually buy this overpriced crapware.
The window-snapping issue is truly the worst, a feature Windows has had standard since 2009. I don’t want to switch desktops just to efficiently multitask. Other than disagreeing with some of the first few points (Preview can crop/resize in OS X in 2017, not sure about 2013), yes, Macs make it more complicated. It’s not just a different UI design: it’s simply harder to do. Print Screen, delete keys gone. Rainbow Circle of Death (although to be fair the Windows has the Hourglass of Death). I haven’t had any OS crashes in the few months I’ve used it, but a few app crashes. I think the facts that the Macs I use have 32 gigs of RAM and cost over 5 grand have something to do with that.
I still find OS X better than GNU/Linux, but the difference is mainly due to my experience with Macs being ironically more compatible and stable than GNU/Linux. Truthfully if you want to be productive and do basic tasks like simple image editing, Office document editing, web browsing, video watching, you might try out Chrome OS. It’s very lightweight, fast, and snappy and has Google’s Office suite (although you can log in to Microsoft Online if you wish to use MS Office). I’ve started using Google Docs mainly because you can export to MS Office formats if needed and the cloud storage of Google documents is free/doesn’t count against your allotment.
this is so true, like i downloaded a game and mac was like talking some BS about 64-bit and 32-bit. i wish i bought a windows laptop instead of this trash.
For me the most annoying thing about Mac is the software mouse acceleration that you can’t turn off. It makes any kind of fine Photoshop work really frustrating because the pointer is either moving painfully slowly or way too fast, not relative at all to what your hand is doing.
I had to get a third party piece of software and create my own acceleration curve to counteract the Mac one. In Windows it’s a simple tick box in mouse settings.
One thing I would add to the list of dislikes is the useless red x that doesn’t actually close the window but instead redundantly does the same function as the yellow button next to it.
I know this is old but most of what you are saying is wrong, and many things are about the hardware and not the operating system(there are plenty of crappy windows pcs out there).
You clearly don’t know how to use a Mac. Of course it doesn’t function the same way as Windows, It’s capable of the same things but you have to operate it differently.
Hi, thanks for your comment. You’re right — this is an old blog. In fact, it’s even older than you think, as it was originally published a few years before the publish date, but I had to republish the post when I had some web server issues.
Firstly, let me say, I certainly do know how to use a Mac properly. I worked on them for years. I have also worked (and continue to work), in IT communications, so your comment is not really fair.
To respond to your points… firstly, you say that some of the things I am talking about is hardware, and yes, you’d be right. However, the thing is with this comment is that Apple is also responsible for the hardware of Macs. They are 100% Apple products, and the hardware is designed to work in harmony with the software. Any failure in design of the hardware is just as much an issue as the software with the case of Macs, as is is a complete Apple product. This is a very different situation to Windows, as for the most part, Microsoft don’t build pcs — Microsoft is a software company that just happens to make the odd bit of hardware (Surface and Xbox). In this sense, Microsoft has a much harder task as it has to build software that works with a large number of different hardware configurations. This is simply not the case with Apple, and so therefore, your argument doesn’t really make sense.
Well, I have just been introduced to a MacBook Air (an older version given to me as a ‘quid pro quo’ in return for some work I did last year).
Although Windows is far from perfect (British understatement..!! – I actually also really loathe Windows), when it comes to logic and commonsense (up to a point), Apple need to get their act together.
I’m currently compiling a ‘dummies’ guide’ for myself on how to use the bloody thing; viz, a translation of the different terms used by Apple for the same apps. in Windows. Doing the same thing for LibreOffice vs Windows.
Although I consider myself to be ‘technologically-challenged in certain areas, I am far from stupid (except now and then) and find it VERY frustrating to have to constantly go to my preferred search engine (not Google if I can help it), to ask how to do something. And, as many of us often find out – from the inane responses that result – if we don’t ask a question in EXACTLY the right format, then we’re back to square one – GRRR..!!!
Whoever coined the phrase – or its equivalent – about once you’ve experienced Mac….; all I can say is that it may well depend on how our are individual brains are wired. For me, as a company, Apple suck.
Although I shall persevere with my learning, pro tem, I somehow don’t feel that my next laptop is going to be an Apple..
Thanks for ‘listening’.
Inga Brereton
It is 2020 and I can tell everyone that Windows is still in someways for efficient than Mac. Do keep in mind that I spent a large amount of time with both OS. Mac overall is better for art as Windows exceed in mostly everything else. If there is one thing that still stayed the same is that Apple users are too dame arrogant!