Microsoft Windows XP is the most widely used operating system on personal computers. Soon, Microsoft Windows Vista will take this spot. Because of how popular the software is, as well all know, everyone will jump at the opportunity to point out something wrong with it. This is the same for Web browsers. Firefox advertise that their browser is safer and more secure than Internet Explorer. It would be interesting to see what things would be like if the tables were turned. What if Firefox was the most popular and widely used Web browser? I can only imagine the outcome. Luckily, most people do use Internet Explorer, and I am happy to see more and more upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. It’s a matter of time before IE7 will be more widely used than IE6.

Anyway, a similar situation is found with Apple vs. Microsoft. I am not saying that Windows is better than Apple, I am not saying that Mac is more secure than Windows. What I am saying is that more people use Microsoft Windows as their operating system than Mac OS X. Hackers have more interest trying to tap into Windows systems. More user level problems tend to surface with Windows due to the large amount of people using this brand of software. If Mac OS X was the leading and more popular computer operating system, it would be interesting to see what kind of trouble the operating system would have in large numbers. What would people complain about and what would people publish on their blogs and sites.

Having all that said, lets get to the good stuff. Here is a list of ten things that Apple should change in Mac OS X. The source of this list this to an awesome article I read on Computerworld.

Top 10 Things Apple Should Change In Mac OS X

Scot Finnie and Ken Mingis
December 14, 2006 (Computerworld)
- 15 Things Apple Should Change in Mac OS X

1. Dynamic Finder Refresh. One of the best features about the Mac is that most changes you make take effect immediately and dynamically update all open windows. In many places in the operating system, you don’t have to click “Save” or “OK” or reboot the computer for changes to take effect. The one place we’ve found that not to uniformly be the case is in the Finder, where changes you make (such as file renames) don’t always dynamically update already open Windows. If at all possible, Apple should make the Finder dynamically update 100% of the time. But if the Mac’s maker can’t do that, it should bite the bullet and add a Refresh option to the Finder.
2. Finder’s Hobbled Cut Command. As far as we can tell, there’s no way to Cut a file in Finder. The common usage in Windows is to use Edit > Cut and Edit > Paste to move a file from one location to another. The Finder does make it relatively easy to perform drag-and-drop moves, but there are times when that can be awkward, especially on smaller-screen Macs. In that case, being able to cut a file in one window, navigate to another window, and paste the file there is a handy alternative. While Finder offers the Cut command on its Edit menu, it doesn’t work on files. And if you use keyboard commands instead (Command X and Command V, for example), it leaves the original file in place — or in other words, it becomes a Copy, not a Cut, operation.
3. Managing Finder’s Columns View (Problem #1). The Finder’s “Columns” view, which offers a hierarchical display of successive folders, has many nice touches. For one thing, it’s instantly understandable. It also scrolls to the right automatically as you click into each succeeding level. But there are three annoying aspects. The first is that sometimes the column areas open up too narrow to read their folder and file contents. Apple puts grab points only at the bottom of each column. The entire column separator should be grabbable. At the very least, there should be grab points at the top and bottom
4. Managing Finder’s Columns View (Problem #2). The second problem is that the columns should automatically attempt to open to a size that fully (or more fully) displays the names of the folders and files they contain. If you depress the Option key while you drag one of the grab points left or right, the Finder will expand all of the columns in unison, which is some help, but not ideal.
5. Managing Finder’s Columns View (Problem #3). A third problem can occur when the Column view Finder window opens as part of an application dialog. In this setting, as you tunnel down a deep folder hierarchy, you may find that the left side of the Finder window has been pushed off the screen. That’s because the starting point is anchored by the location of the application dialog box. Sometimes you may find that the button you need to press (like Save, Open, New Folder, whatever) is actually somewhere off-screen once you’ve navigated to the proper location in the folder hierarchy. While this doesn’t happen often, it’s ugly when it does.
6. Laptop Screen Dimming. Yes, you can change the way your screen brightness behaves in the Energy Saver, setting it to dim before the computer goes to sleep. Or you can set it to use a lower brightness when on battery power. (It’s one way to help get more juice from your laptop battery.) Unfortunately, setting that preference doesn’t always “stick,” meaning your screen will dim in about three or four minutes, regardless of how you set it or whether you’re on battery power or AC. So far as we can tell, that automatic-screen dimming behavior is not user configurable. Apple has smartly made the dimming function turn off on its own while you’re, say, watching a DVD on your Mac. But it’s an annoyance that users should be able to defeat.
7. Inconsistent User Interface. Open iTunes, Safari and Mail. All three of these programs are Apple’s own, and they’re among the ones most likely to be used by Mac OS X users. So why do all three of them look different? Safari, like several other Apple-made apps such as the Finder and Address Book, uses a brushed-metal look. iTunes sports a flat gun-metal gray scheme and flat non-shiny scroll bars. Mail is somewhere in between: no brushed metal, lots of gun-metal gray, and the traditional shiny blue scroll bars. Apple is supposed to be the king of good UI, and in many areas, it is. But three widely used apps from the same company with a different look? Sometimes consistency isn’t the hobgoblin of little minds.
8. Printer Setup. The process of configuring printers in OS X is confusing. It’s almost as if Steve Jobs never actually tried this himself, because the way the printer-configuration screens work is quite un-Mac-like. Apple, you can do better than this.
9. Backspace and Delete Keys. The world holds millions and millions of computers that have Backspace (delete left) and Delete (delete right) keys. Most editors and writers who’ve been exposed to Windows notebook keyboards that have both of those keys can tell you that moving to a Mac notebook that has only a Backspace key (called “Delete” on the Mac) can be frustrating. Yes, yes, we know that Fn-Delete performs a delete-right operation. But that’s not a good solution for touch typists.
10. Accessing Applications. The Dock offers a great way to show running applications and the programs you launch most often. But what about those applications you use only once in a while? The way it is now, you can either jam the Dock so full with program icons it’s ridiculous or keep the Dock clean and then open a Finder window and drill down into the Applications folder to launch lesser-used apps. The previous generation Mac OS let you configure program launching on the Apple menu. While there are third-party solutions that give you back a semblance of that functionality, Apple needs to recognize this user need.

Additional Things Apple Should Change In Mac OS X

• Managing Window Size. Window management is tough enough without giving the user only one corner that he can drag to change the window’s size. Microsoft Windows lets you drag any window edge on all four sides, in addition to dragging two sides at once from any of the four corners. There are times when dragging a single window side could eliminate two adjustments on the Mac: a window re size followed by a window move. When you’ve used both operating systems, it becomes clear that Mac window resizing is less convenient. On the other hand, the Windows way of doing things requires precision mouse control, which can also be tiresome.
• Documents and App Instances on the Dock. The Dock does an excellent job of launching and tracking launched applications. Its only weakness is tracking launched document windows and program instances. While it is possible to right-click a running program on the Dock to see and select among open windows associated with that program, that’s the only way you can check this — and some applications don’t support it. We’ll say it again: Context menus should never be the only UI for accessing something. The Dock is elegant in all other regards, and even a little ingenious. But in this one way, it falls down.
• Inconsistent Use of Context Menus. Apple should fully enable context menus in Finder and other Apple software. We’re not saying the Mac should rely solely on context menus in even tiny facets of the user interface — that’s a mistake Windows and third-party developers make on that platform. But context menus are useful process shortcuts for more experienced users. No one is forcing anyone to use them, so there’s really no reason for longtime Mac users to be upset about this change to OS X. To each his own favorite way of working.
• Widgets Can’t Be Placed on the Desktop. The Dashboard is very nice, but its all-or-nothing approach is frustrating. We want to be able to drag and drop individual widgets to the desktop. Granted, we don’t want many widgets on the desktop. We might like more if they weren’t so large. The Dashboard looks great, but while we nip in to use the calculator now and then, it doesn’t get as much use as it might. There are also some readout-type functions (how hot is my Core 2 Duo?) we might like to have that just wouldn’t be all that useful when you have to actively pursue them to see them. Windows Vista’s Sidebar is slightly better than the Dashboard because it can optionally display at all times, or you can put individual Sidebar Gadgets on the desktop.
• No Date Display. For all their convenience features, one of the most obvious data points that neither the Mac nor Windows quite does properly is your basic readout of today’s date. You probably already know today is Thursday or Friday. What you’re more likely to be unsure of is whether today is Dec. 7 or Dec. 8. When you think about it, is there really any more obvious piece of information that people tend to forget than today’s date? Isn’t this an obvious thing a computer should display? We think so.