I WONDER IF IT'S TOO LATE TO HAVE AN OS X wishlist?
(I know OS X Client is due any moment now, but all the
same.)
1. How about everything is saved the moment you
do it? (Yes, I know, I know, shareware programs like iType
enable one to do that already, but then what's the big deal
trying to incoporate that capability into the OS itself?)
I mean, many's the occasion my wife has lost an important
document because something crashed. (And she's a lawyer,
so she needs her docs like yesterday.) Of course she uses a
Windows machine (forced on her by her office), but that only
excuses it a little bit, not a lot.
2. How about enabling everything to be done either
via the keyboard or the mouse, the choice being altogether
up to the user? Right now the keyboard has only a few
Mac OS shortcuts, like Command-O for Open File.
Windows -- now, now, don't get me wrong, but Windows does
do some things right! -- Windows has those neat little underlined
letters in the menus which, if you press while holding down
the Alt key, makes that menu item come alive. The Mac
could have something like that (maybe instead of underlining,
a tiny dot under the letter might be more subtle.)
We Mac mavens need not fear that learning something
from Bill Gates will get us trashed. On the contrary,
our stature will increase in the minds of the really
"Think Different" crowd.
3. How about a Mac OS with a built-in Browser, with more and
more capability given over to the Browser? I mean, let every
other app be used inside the Browser: like these days
Adobe Acrobat can be used inside Netscape with
the help of a plug-in. Then all you'd need to do is use just
one app, the Browser. With G4 Macs running at a billion
gigaflops every picosecond (or whatever it is), it shouldn't
be too hard or too slow, what? (Just hope the Justice Department
doesn't mind.)
4. How about automatic full connectivity to enable
any computer to be run from any other, like
you can do today with Timbuktu Pro? I mean, I am right
now using my kids' iMac because my own Performa with the giant
screen is much too slow in comparison. Why not enable me to
sit at my Performa's screen and run all my apps off the iMac,
without having to run any other app to do it? Indeed, why
not enable me to sit at my Performa and play games off my
wife's Pentium, when those games aren't available for the
Mac?
5. Why not full backups every time the computer is idle, no
questions asked? If there is any other drive connected to
the computer, and if there is enough space on it, at least let
the OS automatically back up recently created documents,
and when that is done, back up docs created some time ago, and
when that is done, everything else like apps.
6. Why not an Apple Menu item that enables the
user to switch between "Optimize for Speed" and "Optimize
for Versatility" modes? Like, if I'm running Photoshop,
click on the former, and if I'm running a dozen simple apps
simultaneously, click on the latter?
7. How about full phone and fax capability right out of the
box? I mean, when was the last time you did not
use the phone line with your computer?Once your computer
is hooked up to the phone network, why should you need any separate
apps to use it to its max? Why not just plug and play?
8. How about full control of your household appliances
and lights via the electricity wires? I mean, when was
the last time you didn't have your computer hooked up to the
wall socket? (I know, I know, you PowerBook guys will
chew me out for this.)
9. How about incorporating all the points mentioned by
Marc Zeedar in his MacOpinion column It's
Not Perfect?
And finally ...
10. How about all of you readers sending
all your wishes to Santa Jobs for OS X-Mas?
We should be careful, though, what we wish for: we might
even get it!
... (not his real name -- but you figured that out already,
right?) ... calls himself a "Thinker", especially about the
future. He thinks that's where he'll be spending the rest
of his life (but who's he kidding, eh? Doesn't he realize
it's always going to be now?)
Most people say to him "You can't be serious" -- and they're
right, he can't. (But then, who can be serious about
the future, seeing as how anything can happen in it, and usually
does ... er, will?)
His best book -- indeed his only book -- is entitled The
Seventh Generation, and its shareware version in Adobe
Acrobat format is available for download from his alter-ego's
web site (under construction right now) at http://cpu2308.adsl.bellglobal.com.
It's all about the next 150 years or so, and where technology
might take us in that amount of time. (Just $5.00 -- cheap!
And well worth it, though he says so himself). Check it out.
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