May 10, 2005 16:57 | MacStuff

Tiger annoyances

Ok so I've been running Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" for a bit over a week now. Generally, it is smooth, and actually does feel quicker (apparently due to a once again totally revamped GUI rendering process).

While I haven't played extensively with any of the "new stuff", I must say the two much lauded "candy" features are totally useless to me. Dashboard does not integrate with my workflow at all and the UI on Spotlight is retarded. Way too many results, way to few keyboard controls. No context, no easy search restriction (without a lot of mousing about)... ugh. I use Quicksilver, which kicks Spotlight in the pants. I hope dude figures out how to add Spotlight indexing databases to Quicksilver's shelf.

But that's "whatever". I can just ignore them. What I can't ignore is the fact that Tiger decides to fade ALL icons when I have "Show Hidden Files" enabled. This feature has always worked flawlessly and now it's broken. Yay. I need to see hidden files cause I work with Apache .htaccess files every day, and I also like making sure I'm not uploading .DS_Store files all over the place... Oh how I hate those .DS_Store files... Previously, the Finder would display hidden files as slightly faded. Now, it just shows all files, when in Icon or Column view, as faded.

The solution for now is to disable "Show Hidden Files". (If you need to do this, you already know how...)

Next, icon placement on the Desktop. Amen Hallelujah they finally gave us a tighter grid (how about a slider so we the users can control that hrm? Please?), but man has stuff gotten jumpy around here! Trying to move something from here to there produces one of three results: 1- bull's eye! success, 2- close enough, we'll snap it to the closest grid point (same as it always was, same as it always was) or, must frustratingly, 3- Psych! No way josé! Back to where you came from! "Going postal" is a reaction that comes to mind when this happens.

Aside from that, like I said, everything seems fine. A couple of little application bugs here and there but nothing show stopping. So far.

Addendum!
I totally forgot another supremely annoying new bug: Menu Bar item launch sequence and the inability to reorder certain apps appearing there. From what I understand, Menu Bar apps come in two flavors. I forget the names, but basically some you can move around (Apple Key + drag), others you can't. I have two date/time MenuBar apps I use and previously they launched perfectly well in the same place every time. Now, all MenuBar apps launch willy nilly between reboots, seemingly randomly ordering themselves every time. I blame Spotlight. Anyone else?

Comments

I totally hear ya.