The Future of the Mac After Lion | The Mac Observer(macobserver.com)
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The Future of the Mac After Lion | The Mac Observer
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/the_future_of_the_mac_after_lion/
36 comments
I would agree, except when such ease of use comes at the expense of your standard (or more experienced than standard) techie.
It's my opinion that the Mac platform has been able to succeed because of its developers, and its developers flocked to the platform because it made coding so fun (and full of Unix goodness). (For more thoughts along those lines, see The Art of Unix Programming.)
Hiding the Library & System folders isn't terrible, because it's easy for me to undo. However, requiring me to type in my password every time I move an application tells me that Apple is going in the wrong direction here, a direction that only hurts developers and, by extension, its own platform.
It's my opinion that the Mac platform has been able to succeed because of its developers, and its developers flocked to the platform because it made coding so fun (and full of Unix goodness). (For more thoughts along those lines, see The Art of Unix Programming.)
Hiding the Library & System folders isn't terrible, because it's easy for me to undo. However, requiring me to type in my password every time I move an application tells me that Apple is going in the wrong direction here, a direction that only hurts developers and, by extension, its own platform.
How? Protection against something for 99% of users causes inconvenience to 1%. Maybe. But it makes the platform more useful for those 99% who make up the economic ecosystem for the 1% using osx for profit.
Protection of the apps folder is great.
Protection of the apps folder is great.
As I say, taking steps that make life harder for engineers & techies will eventually drive us away. I'm pretty sure that Apple has been successful because it's fostered a developer community, and if it stops fostering that, it's success could be a very reversible phenomenon.
But again: how is it driving you away? Apple dogfoods everything they do internally and evidence points to their 5000+ engineers being more picky than anyone. Marble (Xcode 4) is evidence of this.
If anything, making an Os more suited for the average user is better for the dev community at large. Not worse.
If anything, making an Os more suited for the average user is better for the dev community at large. Not worse.
This makes a lot of sense. Well, the author makes a lot of sense. I suppose this is a more consumer-friendly way for Apple.
As someone who lives in Emacs and the Terminal, I'm not sure I'm happy about this. I like my MBP with Snow Leopard. The Apple OSX Experience rocks my socks off - today. But I sure don't like the iOS experience... at all. It's not geek friendly.
I'm afraid that the Apple train is leaving me behind, and I regret that - I like having a reliable & professional operating system that isn't weird^H^H^H^H^H Windows.
As someone who lives in Emacs and the Terminal, I'm not sure I'm happy about this. I like my MBP with Snow Leopard. The Apple OSX Experience rocks my socks off - today. But I sure don't like the iOS experience... at all. It's not geek friendly.
I'm afraid that the Apple train is leaving me behind, and I regret that - I like having a reliable & professional operating system that isn't weird^H^H^H^H^H Windows.
For the typical consumer, it makes a lot of sense.
But like you, I feel left out of the OSX for "power users". I use it all day, every day. I know what sequence of keys I need to use and so I want to do it quickly. This has become a problem for me in Lion.
If anyone was a serious Spaces user; the new Mission Control/Spaces replacement changed just enough to be really annoying and hurt 'productivity'. The "delay" in moving to the next space is horrible; and while you're changing, you can't do any other commands with the keyboard. You must wait until the space is moved and loaded. Not to mention there's no wrap around for spaces anymore (going from #1 to #8 now requires 7 clicks or swipes whereas it used to require 1. (I use mouse buttons for spaces; or if you use a trackpad).
As someone who knows their way around OS X; Lion really hurt me in terms of getting around the OS quickly/easily.
But like you, I feel left out of the OSX for "power users". I use it all day, every day. I know what sequence of keys I need to use and so I want to do it quickly. This has become a problem for me in Lion.
If anyone was a serious Spaces user; the new Mission Control/Spaces replacement changed just enough to be really annoying and hurt 'productivity'. The "delay" in moving to the next space is horrible; and while you're changing, you can't do any other commands with the keyboard. You must wait until the space is moved and loaded. Not to mention there's no wrap around for spaces anymore (going from #1 to #8 now requires 7 clicks or swipes whereas it used to require 1. (I use mouse buttons for spaces; or if you use a trackpad).
As someone who knows their way around OS X; Lion really hurt me in terms of getting around the OS quickly/easily.
None of his changes affect Terminal. Who needs a GUI for these tasks anyway? Not us.
I have had Lion for a few months and I haven't seen felt limited by any iOS-like features.
Maybe the Mac Pro will go away, but with Thunderbolt allowing additional monitors on the iMac, I bet most pro users don't even mind.
I have had Lion for a few months and I haven't seen felt limited by any iOS-like features.
Maybe the Mac Pro will go away, but with Thunderbolt allowing additional monitors on the iMac, I bet most pro users don't even mind.
I would think that the MacPro isn't so much about more monitors, though it can do that, but about sheer horsepower.
Running Photoshop filters, rendering. Stuff that needs 12 cores isn't going to run so well on an iMac.
Running Photoshop filters, rendering. Stuff that needs 12 cores isn't going to run so well on an iMac.
I'm a little concerned as well - I really enjoy Mac OS X as it is - in Snow Leopard - with the Macbook Pro hardware and I really like Xcode.
If the release after Lion ends up being iOS on a Mac, I'm gonna have to just install windows on my Macbook Pro ( hey, it'll still be the best laptop on the market even if it's not running OSX)
If the release after Lion ends up being iOS on a Mac, I'm gonna have to just install windows on my Macbook Pro ( hey, it'll still be the best laptop on the market even if it's not running OSX)
Why jump to Windows instead of some other Unix based OS?
It has been my experience that Unix-based OS's besides OSX make for acceptable desktops, but rather poor laptops.
My experience has been the opposite. The main problem for me is that people in real life expect me to read and manipulate MS office documents.
One observation that really bugged me:
> The burden is now on technically-skilled users to find out how to get where they want to go. It’s hard to argue with this logic.
There should be no burden. Good UI should be scalable to let the 95% in to do their thing with no thought and no worries, but "expert mode" should follow that same mindset while exposing details.
> The burden is now on technically-skilled users to find out how to get where they want to go. It’s hard to argue with this logic.
There should be no burden. Good UI should be scalable to let the 95% in to do their thing with no thought and no worries, but "expert mode" should follow that same mindset while exposing details.
I agree with that, but I don't understand how e.g. hiding the Library folder puts too much of a burden on those few who really need to access it. They're probably at home on the command line anyway.
Sure, simplifications can go too far some times, but I'd say most self-declared "power users" don't really need what they think they need.
When I saw that the new Safari doesn't display cookie details (like name, expiration date, etc.) in the privacy pane, I at first thought that they took away too much information. But then I came to realize that even though I could understand that information, I've never actually used it or had a need for it. All the information important in the context of privacy settings is available, and much more streamlined than in previous versions. And I shouldn't even really need to worry about any of that, since a good browser should take care of protecting my privacy for me (e.g. by blocking 3rd party and ad cookies by default, which Safari does). The only time I actually needed that cookie information was during web development, and in that context its still available via the Develop menu.
Sure, simplifications can go too far some times, but I'd say most self-declared "power users" don't really need what they think they need.
When I saw that the new Safari doesn't display cookie details (like name, expiration date, etc.) in the privacy pane, I at first thought that they took away too much information. But then I came to realize that even though I could understand that information, I've never actually used it or had a need for it. All the information important in the context of privacy settings is available, and much more streamlined than in previous versions. And I shouldn't even really need to worry about any of that, since a good browser should take care of protecting my privacy for me (e.g. by blocking 3rd party and ad cookies by default, which Safari does). The only time I actually needed that cookie information was during web development, and in that context its still available via the Develop menu.
The potential problem here is that the mere existence of details sometimes trips up the 95%. A friend's spouse apparently likes to keep their home directory clean, and once deleted the Library folder because they hadn't put it there, and didn't think they needed it.
When I upgrade to Lion, I know I'm going to try to figure out how to make ~/Library visible, but I think Apple may have made the right choice in making it invisible by default.
When I upgrade to Lion, I know I'm going to try to figure out how to make ~/Library visible, but I think Apple may have made the right choice in making it invisible by default.
For those who want to have ~/Library where it always has been on Finder:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
chflags nohidden ~/Library
An alternative is to use the SetFile command, which can alter all kinds of file attributes on HFS+ and non-HFS+ volumes.
I have the following in my bash profile:
I have the following in my bash profile:
alias see='SetFile -a v'
alias hide='SetFile -a V'I understand certain pro users being skeptical on the whole 'Back to Mac' iOS-ification of OSX, me included but i'm already loving the Lion terminal. Nice implementation of full screen, 256 colors , no distractions and just one swipe away from all the 'consumer' things I want to do. There's a lot of fluff in this release, but the new Terminal alone made the $30 upgrade worth it for me. As for the Mac Pro disappearing, I couldn't care less. I would think this would impact high res image/video guys more since that seems like the Pro's target market. Developers seem fine on laptops with an external display.
As a Windows user, I get more tempted to switch with each new hardware release from Apple. But Apple's historical and maybe just now truly culminating priveleging of 'consumers' over power users scares me off in equal proportion. I'm very conflicted. It seems more and more likely that I'll just break down and get an Air and maybe run Windows on boot camp.
Edit: Any veteran Mac users have misgivings about the issue? If not, what gives you confidence about the future of power users on Apple platforms?
Edit: Any veteran Mac users have misgivings about the issue? If not, what gives you confidence about the future of power users on Apple platforms?
I was a Mac user in the late 90s, been a Mac user again since 2007 or so, although as an "adder," not a straight up switcher.
Speaking for myself, I have had misgivings off and on but ignored/glossed over them earlier this year to buy a new 15" MBP. Unfortunately, the last few months (and especially after installing Lion) those misgivings have been growing stronger, and I'm definitely uncomfortable with what seems to be their increasing indifference to pro users. I don't object to making things easier by hiding features, but I do object to doing so by removing features entirely -- for example, the way Expose and Spaces were gimped in favor of Mission Control in Lion. It's easier for the average user, but it's really messed with the way I manage windows and applications, and I quite honestly Do Not Like It. Anecdotally, from talking to a few friends who are also power user types, they hate it as well.
At any rate, I've been thinking more and more lately about switching back to an all-Windows environment. My day job is web development on the .NET platform, and I generally love C# and ASP.NET MVC -- they are just a fantastic environment to work in. Since I already have all the tools, there'd be no real burden to switching back to all-Windows. Lately, I've really been thinking about using my MSDN sub to bootcamp the MBP, or maybe just selling off the MBP entirely for a T420 or Samsung Series 9. I do really like the MBP's hardware and especially the trackpad, but now that we're finally seeing Clickpad-equipped laptops coming out that's much less of an issue for me.
Mind you, this is all just my opinion. Others may disagree, and I'm sure they will. :)
Speaking for myself, I have had misgivings off and on but ignored/glossed over them earlier this year to buy a new 15" MBP. Unfortunately, the last few months (and especially after installing Lion) those misgivings have been growing stronger, and I'm definitely uncomfortable with what seems to be their increasing indifference to pro users. I don't object to making things easier by hiding features, but I do object to doing so by removing features entirely -- for example, the way Expose and Spaces were gimped in favor of Mission Control in Lion. It's easier for the average user, but it's really messed with the way I manage windows and applications, and I quite honestly Do Not Like It. Anecdotally, from talking to a few friends who are also power user types, they hate it as well.
At any rate, I've been thinking more and more lately about switching back to an all-Windows environment. My day job is web development on the .NET platform, and I generally love C# and ASP.NET MVC -- they are just a fantastic environment to work in. Since I already have all the tools, there'd be no real burden to switching back to all-Windows. Lately, I've really been thinking about using my MSDN sub to bootcamp the MBP, or maybe just selling off the MBP entirely for a T420 or Samsung Series 9. I do really like the MBP's hardware and especially the trackpad, but now that we're finally seeing Clickpad-equipped laptops coming out that's much less of an issue for me.
Mind you, this is all just my opinion. Others may disagree, and I'm sure they will. :)
As a longtime Mac user I'm concerned about this as well as what appears to be a waning interest at Apple in supporting the professional creative market. However, Windows is much less friendly still to the command-line user and none of the apps I depend on are available on Linux so I'm not sure what to do.
Windows on the desktop, Linux on the server in your basement
I.e. go back to 1998? No thanks.
You have a better solution?
Well, having used Lion for the past few months, I can say that Terminal is unaffected by the changes they are talking about. Running open source development stacks hasn't been affected. So, I don't think a solution is needed.
I still believe that no one makes better hardware than Apple and their OS is the best possible system for a developer that also needs to run things like MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc.
Do you have needs that are not met by Lion?
I still believe that no one makes better hardware than Apple and their OS is the best possible system for a developer that also needs to run things like MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc.
Do you have needs that are not met by Lion?
Closed-source development tools, which are non-negotiable.
What changed in Lion? Are we talking about tools that worked on Snow Leopard and these changes to Lion break them? Or are you just not able to use Mac OS?
Well reasoned article that follows along with the current trend (stop selling xserve, FCPX, Lion).
I wonder what this implies for Apple if they've not only ditched the server and compute-farms, but are now ditching professional A/V as well (or at least pushing towards enthusiasts and "prosumers")... not sure I am convinced they are going to go that far and ditch the MacPro.
I wonder what this implies for Apple if they've not only ditched the server and compute-farms, but are now ditching professional A/V as well (or at least pushing towards enthusiasts and "prosumers")... not sure I am convinced they are going to go that far and ditch the MacPro.
I had minor problems since using Developer Preview 4 of it, and since I moved to GM, I haven't seen any significant.
There is something strange with NVIDIA's CUDA driver (keep asking me to update).
There was an issue with MacPorts due to Mono.Framework installed (might've been not related to Lion at all, MacPorts is now at 2.00, so who knows).
I'm aquamacs (emacs clone) user, and it works pretty good.
There is something strange with NVIDIA's CUDA driver (keep asking me to update).
There was an issue with MacPorts due to Mono.Framework installed (might've been not related to Lion at all, MacPorts is now at 2.00, so who knows).
I'm aquamacs (emacs clone) user, and it works pretty good.
Lion is the same OS X with some interface changes. Everything for the power user is still there...
Today I learned "power user" means someone who changes the Finder preferences and knows some shortcut keys.
Today I learned "power user" means someone who changes the Finder preferences and knows some shortcut keys.
I think that's actually a pretty apt, if trite, description of a power user.
I think you may be confusing power users with developers (one is a very small subset of the other).
I think you may be confusing power users with developers (one is a very small subset of the other).
Do you know what - in my house I have a number of machines. They do things like cleaning clothes and dishes and making food hotter. They all have microprocessors in them and can do quite sophisticated stuff - but their interface - almost always a single dial. And that's great because I don't actually care how they do it I just want the job done. Yes I am technically capable of getting in their and reprograming the chips but why would I?
And this is the thing - there is no reason why half the things on my computer should be hard. When I am working with documents (text , video , music , etc) then I just want to easily open the document and work on it. I want backups to be trivial etc. etc. And what is more 99% of users want this and only this.
But the great thing about the mac is that if you look at the SDKs there is ever more sophistiation and "cool" stuff for us developers. Terminal had a lot of love this time round, Xcode might not have the greatest UI but it also gets a lot of attention - Apple take developers seriously
It doesn't bother me that my computer is powerful and easy to use. I don't think this is a bad thing and I also think all the people reading into this "oh the mac is going to just be for idiots" are idiots themselves: go and download the SDKs and XCode and then tell me that Apple are dumbing down
I do think that Apple are moving away from the "pro" market BTW - they have their sights on something much more interesting - the pervasive computing future when most of our computing needs are met by a cloud of little machines. I already love that I can walk into a room in my house and flick up stuff from my phone or ipad onto my TV or walk into another room and make music appear from said phone or iPad. There will come a day when your "computer" is a coming together of screen , processor unit and keyboard and when you get up taking the processor with you that computer is no longer physically there until next time you come past. We are going to see this in the video game world too - we aren't far from an ipad or iphone that is your portable gaming device and when you are near your TV is your console and when you are with your mates is your lan party (with or without screens and speakers) - and if Microsoft and Sony aren't paying attention they will loose the entire market overnight
And this is the thing - there is no reason why half the things on my computer should be hard. When I am working with documents (text , video , music , etc) then I just want to easily open the document and work on it. I want backups to be trivial etc. etc. And what is more 99% of users want this and only this.
But the great thing about the mac is that if you look at the SDKs there is ever more sophistiation and "cool" stuff for us developers. Terminal had a lot of love this time round, Xcode might not have the greatest UI but it also gets a lot of attention - Apple take developers seriously
It doesn't bother me that my computer is powerful and easy to use. I don't think this is a bad thing and I also think all the people reading into this "oh the mac is going to just be for idiots" are idiots themselves: go and download the SDKs and XCode and then tell me that Apple are dumbing down
I do think that Apple are moving away from the "pro" market BTW - they have their sights on something much more interesting - the pervasive computing future when most of our computing needs are met by a cloud of little machines. I already love that I can walk into a room in my house and flick up stuff from my phone or ipad onto my TV or walk into another room and make music appear from said phone or iPad. There will come a day when your "computer" is a coming together of screen , processor unit and keyboard and when you get up taking the processor with you that computer is no longer physically there until next time you come past. We are going to see this in the video game world too - we aren't far from an ipad or iphone that is your portable gaming device and when you are near your TV is your console and when you are with your mates is your lan party (with or without screens and speakers) - and if Microsoft and Sony aren't paying attention they will loose the entire market overnight
The gap between turning a simple dial and having to code something up (even a bash script - and are the Mac APIs bash accessible?) is very deep, though, and lots of people don't have neither the time nor inclination to cross that gap. And frankly, why should them?
On the other hand, my washing machine does have about twenty buttons, so I may be the wrong person to talk about that.
On the other hand, my washing machine does have about twenty buttons, so I may be the wrong person to talk about that.
I've used Lion for a bit over a month now (in beta and release), and beyond some changes for the better in terms of my workflow (gestures for spaces, etc), nothing really changed. Ruby runs fine, autotest, Spork, git, etc.
The things that are great, like Spaces and Mission Control (nearly) have made things easier. The system is a bit faster than it was before, and I don't have to install a bunch of mods to get rid of Aqua.
But really, nothing got dumber or smarter. It changed, and mostly for the better. My wife likes it better, as do my parents. It makes more sense to them. My dad for instance never got the hang of the Applications folder, so he loves Launchpad.
Until you can write iOS apps on an iOS device, OSX as we know it and use it isn't going anywhere, but I welcome it getting easier on the surface for others.