Thanks for the informed reply. I'm happy you're trying to help and some of your suggestions will help me transition to the new system. That said, I have a few comments about your comments.
As of Lion, you sign in with an Apple ID. That is not iTunes, but iTunes also uses this ID. You do not need a credit card number [apple.com] to update your OS.
As soon as I received my computer (from my company) it was asking me to update three programs. One was the OS (I think) the other two were built in apps that required I put in my CC# to update. It did make me create an iTunes account (I have the spam to prove it), if there was a way to opt out of this it wasn't obvious and I looked hard. I think the apps were iphoto and imovie. I canceled out of giving my CC# several times, I didn't want to give it up for no reason, but I couldn't "activate" my account until I did, and until I activated the account I couldn't get rid of the "you need updates!" message. That I even need to create an account at all is pretty lame, that I have to enter a CC# to update other software is super lame.
It sounds like you are using the mini bluetooth wireless keyboard. You would probably prefer the full-size keyboard [apple.com] which has many of the keys you are concerned about.
I have the full sized keyboard. It lacks the keys I mentioned. I use emacs a lot and by using iterm2 I can replace option with alt, but that's hardly the same as having an alt key because it then disables option. It does not have an insert key, scroll lock, num lock, pause etc.. but it does have 19 F keys that have no apparent function. I tried switching to a PC keyboard, but it lacked the command key so that didn't work out very long. I've resolved to just getting used to it. But the lack of these keys is pretty crappy. Especially the insert key.
When you full screen an application, a virtual desktop for that application window is created on the fly. Your other windows are still there on their original desktop. You can still Opt-Tab back to them or use Mission Control/Expose. I don't understand what the issue is here?
The issue is that the button is useless. I don't know why anyone would ever use it given that it hides all the windows on your other screens. I don't much care what it technically does. What it effectively does isn't terribly useful. Seems a little like a crippled maximize button. How exactly is it useful?
This is another one those scenarios where you have to unlearn Microsoft paradigms. The green button is not a maximize button, and no one ever said it was. It is referred to as the "zoom" button [macyourself.com].
So it's called the zoom button, but it doesn't zoom? That really doesn't make any sense, but ok. It really should be optional how you want it to behave if anything. The unpredictable behavior makes me hesitant to use it. For example, on chrome it resizes vertically only (apparently no web pages can benefit from extra width?), but in my IRC client it resizes both. Why? Who knows? It just does. You're going to be flipping a coin on any new program you install as to what this button actually does. That, in my opinion, is bad design. It doesn't have a maximize button? Well it really should, that would be helpful.
It's not perfect or intuitive, but Command+Shift+G will bring up a dialogue to allow you to type in a path.
Which would be halfway good if it showed the path to the folder you were currently in or had tab completion. As it is, Finder really sucks and I'll more often than not just use the console. I don't really like nuCommander either.
If you don't like the Apple Magic Mouse, you aren't forced to use it.
Yeah... I sort of am forced to use it, for now. It's provided by the company I work for. I don't think they'd be upset if I brought my own mouse in, and that's what I'll probably end up doing. The right mouse button thing is really a pain though.
I have to completely disagree with you here. Multi-monitor support is an area that OS X really shines. Windows in a multi-monitor scenario on the other hand is a total frustrating experience.
I'm not sure why we're talking about windows monitor support all of a sudden. The biggest problem I had was that I have to be careful when I close my laptop. If there are other monitors hooked up and the dock is on one of them when I close it, it means time to hard reboot the computer to get anything back.
* Child windows open up on random monitors seperate from their parent. * God forbid you boot up without one of the monitors
That's up to the programmer. You can center the dialog on the parent window, or you can spawn it on the center of the main monitor. If it's doing something wrong that's hardly the OS's fault. To your second point, I use multi monitors in windows quite a lot and that was an issue pre vista, but it has been fixed for a few years now.
Also, since the introduction of the Windows 8 disaster, there's been much discussion as to why a touch-screen on a laptop is generally considered a bad idea.
I thought that touch screen was useless too, then I got one, kinda used it a little then really started using it. I don't use the touch screen features, I just use it instead of the trackpad/mouse. The PC trackpad on the Vizio (ct15tb1) (10 point multitouch with mac-like gestures) isn't bad at all and is quite comparable to the Mac's, but even so it's much faster to use the touch screen. The only down side is fingerprints :(
Also, since the introduction of the Windows 8 disaster...
I like 8 more than 7 just for the minimalist UI. Never liked the start menu - no love lost there. The much improved file copy and task manager are really cool too. Other than metro - which should go rot in hell - win 8 is just like 7 which is just like vista. I don't care for a lot of the extra steps they put in to get to common tasks (get to your network adapter for example). I could write a few paragraphs on "the stupid things in windows" but this isn't a critique of windows. But the popular idea that "Windows 8 [is a] disaster" I think is a little hyperbolic.
However, don't mix personal-preference with "This OS sucks." You seem to be doing that a lot in this rant of yours.
I didn't say "This OS sucks". I actually said I could switch to this OS full time. I was just pointing out some things that can really be improved upon.
No this is not FreeBSD. It's OS X. The userland core it is built upon is its own BSD variant called Darwin. It has roots in Mach, FreeBSD and even NeXTStep/OpenStep. As far as conventions go, care to elaborate? What exactly about the file system layout do you take issue with?
I come from FreeBSD/CentOS systems so I would really like a /home/ directory to store user profiles in. I don't like the capitalization of the directory names either. Not that my opinion matters at all.
In the meantime you always have the option of bootcamp. You don't lose anything by going with Mac. You can always install a Windows partition and enjoy all of the software available to PCs, and boot back into OS X when you're done with your gaming.
Or I could just use windows for everything. I don't really like dual booting. Seems like a waste of precious SSD space. It would be great if I could just play my x86/x64 games on my x86/x64 processor somehow without installing another OS/partition.
Like I said before, it's not a bad OS. Both OSs have their good and bad parts. I could write a critique about a lot of the stupid things that win8 has, but this one was about OSX. I'm not trying to pick a winner here. If I'm wrong about something, like I'm not doing it right, that's one thing, outside of that people will either agree with my criticisms or they won't.
Anyways, this was a good discussion, thanks for the feedback. I'm happy to continue and thanks for being civil in the debate, I know people can get pretty passionate about their OSs.
