Thursday, February 17, 2005

Mac at first sight

Last weekend Rajesh had got his new Mac G5 to the office. It was simply superb, to say the least. Karthik and I used the machine for sometime and we were totally bowled over by the features. This was the first time I was using a Mac. I have seen the ibook and the Powerbook, but never really played around with them. This was my first shot at it. In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned that Microsoft was “arguably” the best UI designer. I couldn’t be more wrong!! The UI of the Mac OS simply rocks. It’s a lot more responsive and has tons of visual effects. Also, there’s the familiar bash shell for the console freaks.

We were looking through the hardware configuration of the machine when suddenly something called AirPort caught my attention. Guess what that is! It’s the wireless port! Come to think of it, the name actually makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

There’s one thing I dislike about the Mac though. It comes with a single button mouse!! To right click, you need to hold the command key and click. Also there’s no scroll wheel !! The right mouse button and the scroll wheel makes life so much more convenient while using a PC. What were those Mac designers thinking?? It’s like giving the next generation computer with a 20th century mouse.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

you can use any 2+ button mouse and scroll wheels on a mac. for the notebooks there is an alternative driver called SideTrack that brings a 2nd and 3rd mouse button (by tapping in the corners) + scrolling to the mac's touch pads.

Wilkes Joiner said...

My wife didn't like the look of a 3rd party mouse with our mac at home so we've been using the 1-button mouse for 2 years. It took me about a week to get used to it. Now, I love it. I'm definitely in the minority on this one. Most people I know with a mac have a 3rd party mouse.

Anonymous said...

Come to think of it, AirPort is a good name. The problem is that it also conflicts with a very meaningful name for "a place where airplanes land and take off". You try registering airport.com and tell me what happens :)

ROhan said...

actually there is a reason why MAC guys used a single button mouse. There was an article on the net .. I duno where it is .. if I find it sometime Ill show it to U ..

Chirdeep Shetty said...

I do know that any 2+ button mouse works well with the mac; I was just wondering why it doesn't come with it as a default. Any particular reason? And Rohan.. do let me know if you find that article. I'd sure like to read through it.

Anonymous said...

http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/why_apple_makes_a_one_buttoned_mouse_01280820/