[beez1717]

What would your dream feature for 10.5 (or 10.6) be, and what would the worst feature be?
c'mon: give me your best!

For me it would be this:
best: steve comes out and says "the line between the computer your working on and your other comptuers has disloved: he finds a way to create a super computer out of all the computers you own, even if they are 1/2 way around the world"

Worst: Steve comes out and says "my favorate app is known as "bomb.app" what it does is run for 5 seconds, and then 'unexpectidly quit.' It is part of our demo apps in developer. Well, today I am pleased to annunce that this will be the launch screen, and that when the bomb goes off, it will crash your computer. As I speek (he presses a button) ALL of your computers are updateing AS WE SPEEK, and you cannot avoid it! Good news is, it requires 10.5!"

Steve then announces that Kaz Harai will be now head of Apple instead of Sony.

[voodoo]

Spacial Finder with a real Apple menu.

V

[.Neo]

Best
For me, and probably most users, it would be if the operating system itself became this transparent layer you don't notice anymore. A real dynamic system that allows you to do stuff quicker and more efficient on a screen as you would in real life.

Advanced voice recognition (in all languages Mac OS X supports, not just English) would play a big part in this. Next to that advanced mouse (or touch screen input) gestures should make this possible as well, like being able to literally throw windows in the trash to close them or to push them out of your way.

The interface would consist out of real life objects. So when working with Pages you would only see an A4 (or whatever format) page lying on your screen, with smart controls and buttons only popping up when you need them etc. Perhaps also a Dock that notifies you when a new email comes in or when your favorite TV-show is about to begin, only that sort of stuff.

Launching applications should go in the fashion of saying "Computer (or whatever), I want to write a paper", "Computer, I want to compose an email message", "Computer, take a picture of me" etc. Instead of clicking the Pages icon to write a paper, Mail to compose a new email, PhotoBooth to take a picture" etc. this should all go automatically.

Obviously this won't happen @ Mac OS X v10.6, but one can always dream huh?

Worse
If things evolve the other way where operating systems continue to become more flashy and in your face, which is basically the trend now.

And oh yeah, when viruses starting to pop-up everywhere.

[TETENAL]

Good: Possibility to turn off the "flash" in Photobooth since it ruins the colour balance the camera adjusted to.
Dream: Photobooth uses the colour balance setting of the camera to produce a properly tinted flash.

[mindwaves]

All I want is a working Finder.

[0157988944]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

Good: Possibility to turn off the "flash" in Photobooth since it ruins the colour balance the camera adjusted to.
Dream: Photobooth uses the colour balance setting of the camera to produce a properly tinted flash.

I like!

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Spacial Finder with a real Apple menu.

V

Good one.

I want the 'Special' menu to make a return. Fun times.

[0157988944]

GOD no. They mind as well make a "Misc." menu.

[fisherKing]

a way to disable the dock (so i can work full-screenand not have it pop up).

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!! 

Good one.

I want the 'Special' menu to make a return. Fun times.

Hehe yea, they renamed the special menu in OS X. It is now the Apple menu.

The Apple menu became the Dock.. oh I'm already developing a migrane trying to make sense out of the random UI desicions in OS X.

V

[TETENAL]

In OS X it's (from left to right):

System wide settings (Apple menu)
Application settings (application men)
Document/file commands (File menu)
Selection commands (Edit menu)

That's far from random. The "Special" menu was kind of "random" though, since it contained leftover commands that kind of didn't fit into any of the other menus.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

In OS X it's (from left to right):

System wide settings (Apple menu)
Application settings (application men)
Document/file commands (File menu)
Selection commands (Edit menu)

That's far from random. The "Special" menu was kind of "random" though, since it contained leftover commands that kind of didn't fit into any of the other menus.

The Apple meny is as random as the Special menu was in OS 9 and contains many of the same commands. Don't be so obtuse. Read, comprehend, post.

V

[Horsepoo!!!]

Wait...voodoo...you weren't kidding?

Wow...just wow.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!! 

Wait...voodoo...you weren't kidding?

Wow...just wow.

Of course I was't. Do you think I care for browsing trough a file system??

I'd use Safari or whatever if I wanted that.

Spacial is the best.

V

[Horsepoo!!!]

There's NOTHING random about the Apple menu in OS X. Like TETENAL explained to you, it controls OS variables. The Special menu was special as in "Special Olympics" 'cuz it was only accessible through the Finder and contained things like 'Restart' and 'Shut Down'.

The Apple menu in OS X now has About This Mac (a glance of the entire machine), Software Update (a tool to update the OS, drivers and 1st-party apps), Mac OS X Software (a link to an Apple controlled 'VersionTracker/MacUpdate' to find 3rd-party software and updates), System Preferences (this one speaks for itself), the Dock (perhaps the most prominent thing on the screen), Recent Items (makes sense right? if it were in any other menu it would mean you'd have to switch to a specific app to access this...this is accessible from any app just the way it's supposed to be), Force Quit (this one may not necessarily need to be there but it was added because novice users probably didn't know how to access the force quit window), Sleep, Restard, Shut Down, Log Out...all system commands that need to be in a system-wide menu if you don't want to have to switch to an app to get to them.

It doesn't make sense to have these commands be specific to the Finder.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Spacial is the best.

What is this 1984 again? Spacial is special as in "Special Olympics".

[goMac]

I dunno, I think operating systems have really reached their peak. There isn't much more needed. I guess better mobile (read: iPhone) integration would be nice. Wireless syncing and communication over the web. Seems possible with Back to My Mac.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!! 

There's NOTHING random about the Apple menu in OS X. Like TETENAL explained to you, it controls OS variables. The Special menu was special as in "Special Olympics" 'cuz it was only accessible through the Finder and contained things like 'Restart' and 'Shut Down'.

The Apple menu in OS X now has About This Mac (a glance of the entire machine), Software Update (a tool to update the OS, drivers and 1st-party apps), Mac OS X Software (a link to an Apple controlled 'VersionTracker/MacUpdate' to find 3rd-party software and updates), System Preferences (this one speaks for itself), the Dock (perhaps the most prominent thing on the screen), Recent Items (makes sense right? if it were in any other menu it would mean you'd have to switch to a specific app to access this...this is accessible from any app just the way it's supposed to be), Force Quit (this one may not necessarily need to be there but it was added because novice users probably didn't know how to access the force quit window), Sleep, Restard, Shut Down, Log Out...all system commands that need to be in a system-wide menu if you don't want to have to switch to an app to get to them.

It doesn't make sense to have these commands be specific to the Finder.

Err whatever. I don't care whether the menu is in the Finder or not, nor what it is called. Special menu or Apple menu.

Whatever. It's the same thing. In a different place.

Back when OS9 lived (and earlier) it didn't matter where that menu was. You just pressed the power key on the keyboard. Bingo! Restart, Shut Down, Sleep.

Available in all applications. Naturally a random UI design removed the power key off the keyboard which mean these commands had to be moved to a system wide menu.

It's still the same messy old Special menu. We just lost a perfectly fine Apple menu. That's the point. Not where or why or what the purpose or position of the current Apple menu vs the OS 9 Special menu is.

Does everything have to be spoonfed?

The old Apple menu also contained system wide things, such as 'About this Mac', Control Panels etc etc. Like the current one. Excepting of course user defined apps. They have to be in the Dock now.

Now that's special. As in the Olympics of the same name.

V

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!! 

What is this 1984 again? Spacial is special as in "Special Olympics".

Funny because browsing file systems like they are the intarweb is retarded!

V

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Funny because browsing file systems like they are the intarweb is retarded!

V

But the intarweb is so AWESOME!

[Mithras]

All I want is to do a control scroll to zoom in, and have the fonts scale smoothly. Can't a boy dream?

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by Mithras 

All I want is to do a control scroll to zoom in, and have the fonts scale smoothly. Can't a boy dream?

That almost became a reality.

[voodoo]

Another blast from the past I'd love to see in 10.5 is a dialogue before I empty the Trash that tells me the size and number of files in the Trash.

I'd also like to be able to have the Trash on the Desktop. As an option. Shouldn't be too much to ask for.

V

[lpkmckenna]

Merge the menu-bar and the Dock.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Merge the menu-bar and the Dock.

Sounds very Taskbar-y. And yet not. What do you mean? I can't see how the Dock and the menubar could be merged.

V

[voodoo]

Another thing: perhaps it would be ok if the Finder and Dock actually made any logical sense. Put a file in the Trash. Open the trash. Open the file. You can't.

Drag file to Dock. File still resides in the Trash. Click file in the Dock.

Bingo! It opens.

Idiots (Apple designers). Why can't one open a file in the Trash in the first place? How the heck is it done through the Dock?

FTFF is one thing. FTFD is another. FTFS. Ah.. S is for System.. Yes...

V

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

A recoded and working Finder
ZFS
EXT2/3/4 Support

[lpkmckenna]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Sounds very Taskbar-y. And yet not. What do you mean? I can't see how the Dock and the menubar could be merged.

The left side would still be menus, and the right side would be the Dock, instead of menu extras. Docklings could again provide menu extra functions.

There's too much wasted space on the left and right sides of the Dock, and too much wasted space in the middle of the menu bar.

[besson3c]

- System wide software update, software update that isn't brain dead (this includes forcing restarts for the silliest little thing)

- Open source package manager (if not a part of the system wide software update - this would have to be treated much differently than the current software update)

- SSHfs integration (preferably killing off AFP)

- Kill off metadata littering

- Performance optimizations, OS X is still too slow and unresponsive at times

- Multiple identity support in OS X Mail would be nice

- Better integration of X11

- Built in OS virtualization, or something like WINE for running various apps and games

- A better filesystem (ZFS would be nice)

- Resolution independence sounds like it might be pretty cool

[Curiosity]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Merge the menu-bar and the Dock.

No, no! Horrible!!

[Curiosity]

I would like an easy way to change the colours of all parts of the windows.

[MindFad]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Another blast from the past I'd love to see in 10.5 is a dialogue before I empty the Trash that tells me the size and number of files in the Trash.

I've been bitchin' about that since 10.0. I miss that simple and sensible feature.

I'd also like the "Stop" button in the "File in use" warning to actually work, as there have been a few times when I actually do want to stop the emptying process, not realizing there were other files in the trash that I didn't want there. For example, I've got 10 files and folders in the trash, right, and I've just hit empty, but it tells me so and so is still in use and offers to "Stop" (logically and intuitively, I think, stop emptying and continue with file in use) or "Continue" (logically and intuitively saying to me, "OK, we'll get rid of everything except what you're still using). Neither button does anything, and the Stop button still deletes everything but the file in use, kind of defeating the purpose of a "Stop" button.

I've sent feedback, but it still exists as of the latest Tiger. I guess the "upgrade" to this problem is Time Machine, huh?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Back when OS9 lived (and earlier) it didn't matter where that menu was. You just pressed the power key on the keyboard. Bingo! Restart, Shut Down, Sleep.

Control-Eject, dude.

[besson3c]

Perhaps what we need is an "undelete" function that would be an extension of Time Machine - a database of deleted file references that can be restored for as long as the sectors occupied by the file are not overwritten?

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Control-Eject, dude.

Eeeey! Didn't know about that one. Thanks for the tip!

V

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Perhaps what we need is an "undelete" function that would be an extension of Time Machine - a database of deleted file references that can be restored for as long as the sectors occupied by the file are not overwritten?

But then the FS would have to keep track of the files after they were deleted somehow, which would defeat the purpose of deleting them in the first place.

[JonoMarshall]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Control-Eject, dude.

I've been Control-Return-Ejecting all this time... *shakes head in dismay*

[Kevin]

Isn't this thread a bit redundant?

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...ssing-in-os-x/

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

But then the FS would have to keep track of the files after they were deleted somehow, which would defeat the purpose of deleting them in the first place.

I was thinking outloud about the Time Machine database doing this, not the file system

[G0Ducks]

Themes for users by apple.

[beez1717]

Originally Posted by G0Ducks 

Themes for users by apple.

in Mac OS 9, apple ALMOST did this as evidenced by a small diolog which only showed the themes installed on your computer allong with the system sounds. I don't remember which of the prefrencies did this, but boy was it nice.

[Gee4orce]

Dunno about best, but:

Worst: the general consensus is that web apps are the way to go. So everything gets re-written in Javascript, which you have to run in a web browser. No Core-anything APIs any more. Apps end up the functionality they had back in 10.0 public beta, except now they are 10x slower.


(yes, some people really think this will happen. God help us)

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- System wide software update, software update that isn't brain dead (this includes forcing restarts for the silliest little thing)

I don't see a problem with this, other than on servers.

- Open source package manager (if not a part of the system wide software update - this would have to be treated much differently than the current software update)

apt?

- SSHfs integration (preferably killing off AFP)

Agreed. (other than the killing off AFP)

- Kill off metadata littering

You mean .DS_Store files?

- Performance optimizations, OS X is still too slow and unresponsive at times

When?

- Better integration of X11

Yes! I want to use fluxbox without having to start it from a term, then having to switch between them.

- Built in OS virtualization, or something like WINE for running various apps and games

- A better filesystem (ZFS would be nice)

Yes, please.

- Resolution independence sounds like it might be pretty cool

Yeah, bit of a disappointment...

[Peter]

Originally Posted by C.A.T.S. CEO 

A recoded and working Finder
ZFS
EXT2/3/4 Support

why?
why?
why?

[Peter]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- System wide software update, software update that isn't brain dead (this includes forcing restarts for the silliest little thing)

Agree on the restart thing. "System wide Software Update??"

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Open source package manager (if not a part of the system wide software update - this would have to be treated much differently than the current software update)

Why? Whats wrong with just installing fink? Can't see why Apple would do this themselves.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- SSHfs integration (preferably killing off AFP)

Never had any problems with AFP. If it ain't broke dont fix it.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Kill off metadata littering

Examples?

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Performance optimizations, OS X is still too slow and unresponsive at times

Happening in Leopard.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Multiple identity support in OS X Mail would be nice

Why?

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Better integration of X11

Why?

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Built in OS virtualization, or something like WINE for running various apps and games

Doubt this'll happen. Same reason as above. Apple likes you using their UI.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- A better filesystem (ZFS would be nice)

Why? HFS+ is really good.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- Resolution independence sounds like it might be pretty cool

Meh.

[kevinway]

Why? HFS+ is really good.

You might not be aware, but filesystems like ZFS and WAFL are on a completely different playing field than HFS+.

Check this out: What is ZFS? at OpenSolaris.org

I would *love* ZFS, as it'd add a few niceties to my desktop and laptop, and would also make OS X Server a much better choice for my business.

[sc_markt]

I want these little things:
1) The ability to label just the folder colors like you could in classic. Plus the ability to make the label shading colors whatever you want them to be.
2) An analog menubar clock that you can actually see OR, the option of putting the analog clock back in the dock
3) A 'menubar dock' that works almost exactly like TASKMENUBAR for classic did.
4) The ability in iCal (month view) to shade the background color of any day to any color you want AND the ability to change the fonts attributes for each appointment.
5) A small section of the dock reserved for system level indicators like temp, network thruput, etc.
6) Have an option on the dock so you can make it automatically fit to the screen edges when it's not full of icons. What's the point of having the spaces between the edges of the dock and the screen edges other than to tell me that this is how much wasted screen space there is?

- Mark

[mdc]

Originally Posted by Gee4orce 

Dunno about best, but:

Worst: the general consensus is that web apps are the way to go. So everything gets re-written in Javascript, which you have to run in a web browser. No Core-anything APIs any more. Apps end up the functionality they had back in 10.0 public beta, except now they are 10x slower.


(yes, some people really think this will happen. God help us)

I didn't notice the first sentence or the worst part. As I was reading it just got worse and worse. I got halfway through and started reading it again slowly and then noticed the "worst" part. Phew.
I was thinking, "Why the hell would anyone want everything re-written in Javascript. My dock would be 'Safari'."