Leopard Disappointments
I’m psyched about Leopard. I’ve been using it since WWDC 2006 (nearly full time since WWDC 2007), and it is the real deal. However, I’d be lying if I said it was perfect. Apple did an amazing job with Leopard, but there are still a few areas where I can’t help but be let down. Here they are, in no particular order.
1. No Finder Tabs. Safari’s had them from the start. iChat and the Terminal got them in Leopard. But still no tabs for the Finder. All of the other improvements to the Finder are welcomed, but the lack of tabs has me disappointed. Did Apple (or Steve) feel that tabs would confuse some people in the Finder? Why not make it an optional setting, like it is in all three apps that currently have tabs?
2. Still no frickin’ FTP from the Finder. Sure, you can mount an FTP share and browse it. But you can’t write to it. This bug (or feature, depending upon who you ask) has been present in Mac OS X since the beginning. I’ve filed a bug on it for every major OS release. Each time, some one makes like it is the first time they’ve heard about it. My guess is that Apple intentionally cripples FTP in the Finder, making .Mac seem all that more attractive. Sorry Apple, I’m not buying it (.Mac) anymore.
3. No ZFS read/write support. I guess Leopard is getting ZFS read support, but not write support.
4. Finder Icons. Someone in the UI department must have successfully pleaded their case that creating a unique, full color icon for each Finder item was way too time consuming. Badging icons with a single color, embossed icon clearly reduces the time it takes to produce the icon. It also reduces readability and is a big step backwards from the icons in Tiger. Thank god for CandyBar.
5. Appearance, Desktop and Screen Saver. Two separate items in the System Preferences, yet they all deal with Appearance. Consolidate them in to one item (with three tabs). Again, something that should have been done 5 years ago.
6. Sound effects. We’ve been using the same system alert sound effects since 10.0. They are in desperate need of an update.
7. The Dock. I have to say, I actually like the 3D look of the Dock. However, it does not work when positioned on the left and right hand sides of the screen. Additionally, it would be nice to have a few extra options for the Dock, like the ability to change the color of the highlight dot, or to revert to the previous, plain jane Dock, for those who aren’t fans of the 3D shelf look. Update: Apple apparently has fixed this in the GM build of Leopard. Go Apple!
8. Mail, and the lack of a formatting bar when composing an email. We don’t need anything fancy, but for those composing RTF emails, it would be nice to have RTF formatting options front and center. Give us the same formatting bar that you get inside TextEdit (styles, alignment, spacing, lists) and all will be forgiven.
9. iChat. I have a couple of issues with the updated iChat. First off, while it was nice to gain GTalk support, it would have been just as nice to get Yahoo! Messenger support. MSN would have been a bonus (although I can understand Apple wanting to leave it out).
Additionally, iChat’s interface when using multiple accounts is ridiculous. I’m forced to have completely separate lists of users for each account? So, if I have AIM, .Mac, GTalk, and Jabber (which I do), I have four Windows open of buddy lists. Why can’t this be consolidated to one Window, ala Adium?
10. iChat/PhotoBooth/ScreenSavers. The WWDC 2007 build of Leopard featured some really cool effects for iChat/PhotoBooth/ScreenSavers that were removed form later builds. For example, there was a Star Wars-esque “hologram” effect that was super cool for iChat/PhotoBooth. There was a “security” screen saver that took pics from your iSight while you were away from your computer. I was sad to see them go, especially the hologram effect, as it was one of the main ones we used at WWDC.
Category: News
