Given my recent concerns about security, I have pushed myself and my associates to switch to the Mac OS for our desktop systems (hey, Google did it!). Aside from the standard problems all Windows users will experience in the transition like learning new keyboard shortcuts, I have come to the surprising realization that Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6.6) really is inferior to Windows 7 in several ways:

  1. Finder – Compared to the Windows Explorer, Finder is terrible for managing files. Lack of a proper tree view and inflexible sorting are just two of my primary complaints. I have tried working around this using the outstanding shareware muCommander. But that is only a partial fix, mu is just a Java app and isn’t deeply integrated.
  2. Gretchen points out the relatively crippled “Open File” or “Save File” dialog boxes in the Mac OS. In Windows, these dialogs are full-fledged Explorer windows that allow any action to be taken on any file (renaming, deleting, moving, etc.). In Mac OS, no file actions can be taken on other files at all without a $30 add-on.
  3. Maximize windows – I understand that some people might want a maximize that allows you to still see the desktop (for dragging and dropping?), but it is annoying that there is no shortcut to properly maximize a window to the entire screen. (though I read this might be fixed in Lion.)

Then there are all the nice gestures and shortcuts that I miss from Windows 7 such as bumping a window against the top of the screen to maximize, or right clicking on the taskbar to launch another instance of a running app.

I had always assumed that the Mac OS was pretty much as usable as Windows, but now I am not so sure. Oh well at least I don’t have to worry about malware anymore…or DO I?.