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Fear of looking like a copycat
Microsoft knows that the best place to put widgets would be a Mac OSX-like lightbox window that overlays on top of your screen whenever you hit the dashboard button.
Apple knows that the best way to redesign Finder would be to implement a tree structure like Windows Explorer does.
However, none of these solutions are ever going to be implemented. There is a fear of looking like a copycat, and the interface suffers.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
October 29th, 2008 at 1:43 ∞And I blame the Apple fanbois.
2nd attempt in English ;)
Another one in that categorie: Why do MacBook’s have just 1 trackpad button, and not 2… (or 0 instead of 2 in their new models)
(Besides that, i love my MacBook Pro and iPhone, so call me a semi-apple-fanboi ;) )
October 29th, 2008 at 2:29 ∞I wouldn’t be so sure of that.
Looks like Microsoft is going to implement some ui-elements in Windows 7 that have great resemblance with their Mac OS X counterparts (Dock, Dashboard).
Which isn’t a bad thing .
http://windows7news.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/win7_m3_ms_04.jpg
October 29th, 2008 at 2:34 ∞Hmm, to be honest, I never liked the tree-structure in the Windows Explorer window. It is simply not an intuitive way of working for me. The same thing goes for my e-mails. I prefer great search functionality and labels to navigate through my files, folders and e-mails.
Besides: if you prefer the tree-structure: the tree-structure Os X uses isn’t that much different from the one in Windows, or am my mistaken? (I don’t use it enough to know the differences, but I am eager to know :))
October 29th, 2008 at 2:34 ∞@Tom Deleu: Activate ‘Tap trackpad using two fingers for seconary click’ in your mouse options or buy an external mouse with two buttons (e.g. Apple’s own Mighty Mouse, which I do not recommend).
@Bram: That screenshot sparked this blog post; it is a bad idea to put widgets right on the desktop instead of in it’s own designated space. This looks good on the mock ups but will be instant chaos on most people’s desktops.
@Xavez: Windows explorer: tree on the left, current folder on the right, current folder is highlighted in the tree. The Mac OSX tree is just a tree, there is no detail view of what the folder contents are (e.g. decent sized thumbnails); unless you go to another view.
October 29th, 2008 at 2:53 ∞Not so fast with your “best way to redesign the Finder”. As an Apple user since system 6 — I don’t want to brag, it’s just true :) — I’m a big fan of the spatial finder. Every folder in a new window, no column view and no sidebar. What I would very much like is that Apple will keep on providing that same customization freedom in the Finder. Keep everybody happy.
My only nag is that hiding the sidebar isn’t a global setting, so I have to do this for every new folder.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:05 ∞@wolfr Windows seperates folders and files logically, and MacOSX doesn’t. This manifests itself in several ways:
1 - Explorer has a seperate view to display the folder tree, Finder has only one view, which is hierarchical.
2 - Explorer always sorts folders seperately from files (you’ll find these either at the top of the detail list or the bottom, depending on the column you’re sorting). In Finder files and folders are mixed.
I personally like the Windows way better. It always takes me longer to find stuff in a tree using Finder than using Explorer (without resorting to search, maybe I’m oldfashioned that way). The best of both worlds would be awesome (although I think the Finder can learn more from Explorer than the other way around).
October 29th, 2008 at 3:08 ∞Added clarity: by Windows Explorer I mean the XP version ;)
October 29th, 2008 at 7:32 ∞The three windows thing sucks! The finder also sucks.
I think an apple version of pathfinder would be nice!
November 16th, 2008 at 2:12 ∞