

OS X Lion: Macs' beginner-friendly days are over - primatage
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/90832-os-x-lion-macs-are-no-longer-beginner-friendly

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stevenp
I couldn't disagree more. I just gave my father (who has an iPhone) his first
Mac and he had no idea where to find applications until I showed him the
Launchpad. It's a feature I would never use, but it's accessible with a single
button press or click and looks and feels just like the familiar iOS
interface.

Apple is doing something smart here. My guess is that more people have iPhones
than Macs and they're betting that switchers will understand these new
features and turn into across-the-board Apple fans.

~~~
Udo
Exactly. I also don't agree with the author's assertion that advanced features
are now no longer optional. Mom&Dad-style users are still not _forced_ to use
Mission Control just as they weren't forced to use Expose on Snow Leopard.
Applications more or less behave the same way, except for saving stuff which
incidentally is the one area were unsophisticated users tended to screw up
immensely.

I'd argue the opposite, that it's actually advanced users who are getting
handed the fuzzy end of the lollipop here. The egregious autocorrection
feature, pointless fullscreen function on multiscreen setups, disempowering
and potentially wasteful versioning behavior - these are things that geeks
like us don't particularly like. Even with these valid nerd rage issues though
I'm quite happy with Lion...

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cmelbye
I'm not sure how he came to the conclusion that Lion isn't beginner-friendly
anymore. The only reason it took him 20 minutes to get acclimated is because
he's most likely been using advanced features of OS X (that were slightly
changed in Lion) for years and it took him a little while to rewrite his
muscle memory.

I installed Lion on both of my parent's computers a few weeks ago. The only
things they noticed that was changed was the vastly improved Mail UI, which
they both picked up almost instantly, and the scrolling.

I simply warned them that scrolling had been reversed, they noted that "it
finally makes sense because the stuff that's moving goes in the right
direction now," and they continued using the computer normally.

~~~
kenjackson
First, I haven't used Lion yet. But from listening to Engadget it sounds as if
they have made some rather confusing changes.

For example, they point out that application-wide gestures are two finger and
system-wide gestures are three finger. This strongly assumes that people know
the difference. Based on convos I've had people don't. "Which version of
Office are you using?" "XP". "Office XP?" "Umm, Windows XP?". "OK, that's the
version of Windows. What is the version of Office?" "The whole computer is
XP". They were using Office 2003.

~~~
astral303
However, that's a difference that can be picked up experimentally and can
start making sense: "two fingers keep me in the browser, three fingers throw
me out of the browser and go somewhere else." You don't get punished by using
the wrong gesture (unless it's a web page in Safari that doesn't support back
and forward movement): if you use three fingers in one direction, three
fingers in the other direction will get you back.

Your contrast of versions of Windows and Office is an apples and oranges
comparison. People don't know that difference because it doesn't matter and
there is no reason to even discover that difference.

~~~
kenjackson
How can you say there's no reason to discover to discover the difference
between apps/system yet argue that they'll notice they jumped from one app to
another? And as web apps approach the look and feel of native apps this will
become harder to understand.

As you point out, the distinction isn't necessary for many novices. Yet Apple
is making the distinction a fundamental aspect of their gesture model.

~~~
astral303
I don't think that you can equate knowing that you have 'Office XP' vs 'Office
2003' (which is a difference that I maintain is inconsequential in daily use)
to the difference of seeing your screen move off sideways onto another kind of
application. Even if there is no application in another screen, that's still a
difference that you at least will experience and wonder about.

Sure, web apps are getting closer to native apps and that's a great point (why
is switching between web apps that much different than switching between
spaces). However, most web pages still tend to look much like a web page and I
maintain that people will discover the concept of different applications by
associating them with what comes up once they click the dock icons (iCal,
Mail, Settings).

Another point is that if this distinction is useless to novices (e.g. they
don't use the gestures or they don't "get it"), then the more experienced
users can pick up on this, and take advantage of this knowledge. Just because
it's a fundamental aspect of the gestures does not hurt the novice aspect.

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schrototo
> and it’s taken them this long to learn how to quit an app, as opposed to
> simply closing its windows.

Well that's the whole point: they shouldn't _need_ to know the difference. The
system should take care of that and beginning with Lion it will.

> As another example, let’s say someone who’s never used Expose or Spaces
> accidentally activates Lion’s new full-screen feature in Safari. Apps that
> go full-screen create a new Space to live in, and, obviously, they fill the
> entire screen. I don’t know about your parents, but the phrase “how do I get
> out of this” rings in my head just thinking about it. So does the needlessly
> lengthy phone call that would follow.

So you tell them "swipe left or right with three fingers" and then they'll
know. Software doesn't need to be immediately and completely obvious to
everyone in every situation. What's important is that basic concepts are
universally applicable once they're learned.

And keep in mind that discoverability does not mean every possible action
needs to be _visible_ at first sight. Swiping should become immediately clear
once you fool around with the trackpad; the feedback is obvious, immediate and
pleasant.

> Use another app, and the same gesture could mean something completely
> different.

I don't think the slight differences in the minutiae of swiping gestures (one
finger, two fingers, three fingers,...) is that big of a deal. There is (or
should be!) immediate feedback and the actions are always (or should always
be!) nondestructive. It should not take long for anyone to figure things out.

Granted, there is always the problem of especially older people being less...
"playful" in how they approach new technology. Most often that stems from a
fear of breaking things. Which is exactly why it's so great that we're finally
on the right track with the latest trends towards "care-free" computing
environments: autosave, unlimited undo, auto resume, automatic backup and
synchronization etc.

~~~
Tichy
"So you tell them "swipe left or right with three fingers" and then they'll
know"

I hope this is not the only way to get out of full screen mode? I think it
would have been the last thing I tried. And there are a lot of things you can
try - "three finger swipe" is completely arbitrary, after all.

I've been using a Mac for two years now, but I never learned any gestures and
I would be screwed if they became mandatory. I guess I am still stuck in the
"basic Windows switcher mode".

~~~
ugh
You can press ESC (which, I think, is universally the standard command for
exiting full screen mode), you can mouse up to the menu bar and click the full
screen button or you can use the shortcut that gets you into full screen mode
to exit it again.

I wouldn’t bother with gestures. I would tell my parents to press ESC. They
know that button and they should already be aware that it is often used to
exit full screen modes.

~~~
Tichy
ESC is fine and it makes sense to learn about it. As you say, it is pretty
universal, whereas three finger swipe will only work on OS X.

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gmac
Pure BS. Pretty much everything here is either a non-issue, or something that
actually undermines the argument.

For example, "it's taken them [my parents] this long to learn how to quit an
app, as opposed to simply closing its windows". Well, my parents have been on
Mac a few years now, and they still haven't learned it. Now they don't have
to. Great!

Plus there are other changes that will help beginners. Both my parents have
been flummoxed after accidentally clicking the top-right lozenge in an app
window: "where did all the buttons go?!". That lozenge is history. Great!

Etc.

~~~
Derbasti
Plus, Lion makes quitting apps virtually meaningless.

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astral303
_They switched from Windows XP earlier this year, and it’s taken them this
long to learn how to _quit_ an app, as opposed to simply closing its windows._

That's exactly why Lion is more beginner friendly. They don't need to know how
to quit an app anymore. Why would you ever care to quit an app? That's a
legacy concept that's so ingrained in the author's memory that he can't
comprehend not knowing it. Think, instead, of all the time his parents wasted
trying to understand this quitting apps thing.

My girlfriend was using my iPhone and kept asking me "how do I quit the
browser now." She was used to a PocketPC/WM phone, where if you don't manage
your open apps, your phone crawls. I had to keep saying: "don't worry about
it, just lock the phone. There is no closing."

10 years from now we will look back on quitting apps and saving files as
relics of the ancient times, like floppy disks and parallel ports.

~~~
bjtitus
Why are you talking about not having to quit apps? Lion still has the concept
of quitting apps versus closing windows. Are you just talking about iOS or am
I missing something?

I actually think the handling of background apps running state handling would
be one of the best things to port from iOS to Mac. There are obvious large
hurdles, though.

\--EDIT-- I guess you're talking about resume but the issue is having apps
still running after all windows are closed. I see people who leave all office
applications open just because they were working on a document, spreadsheet,
and slideshow in the last week. Apple needs to encourage more developers to
focus on quick launch times and quitting applications like the App Store does
when windows are closed.

~~~
kyleslattery
Lion actually adds some APIs so developers can make their apps work like iOS
apps. If the developer allows, the OS can kill their app at any time when it's
in the background. More info here:
[http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-
os-x-10-7.a...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-
os-x-10-7.ars/8)

~~~
bjtitus
Thanks for the info! Definitely did not know this was a new feature. It just
seemed to me like applications doing this were checking for window closed
events, finishing up any work, and then closing as soon as possible. I hope
more Mac OS developers take advantage of this but I fear it will be seldom
used.

~~~
astral303
Nothing like a little encouragement for adopting this feature as a condition
of being accepted in the Mac App Store to drive system feature adoption.

------
Derbasti
Funny, I feel exactly the opposite way. New users won't care one bit about the
scrolling direction. They won't care about mostly-invisible scrollbars and
they probably won't even discover multitouch gestures.

They will however find the App Store, they will see the Mission Control Dock
icon and they will recognize the window resizing controls. They will also find
use for the ubiquitous autocorrect and full screen apps.

All things told, Lion is a departure from Microsoft Windows paradigms, and
thus will give switchers a somewhat harder time. But in general, I think it is
a lot cleaner and more discoverable than its predecessors.

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schleyfox
"The old way, the Snow Leopard way, was that advanced features were purely
optional. If you wanted multiple desktops, you activated Spaces. If you wanted
to put the UI to work for multi-tasking, you used Expose. It was great for
people who wanted more from their Macs, and it worked out perfectly for newer
users who needed to ease into it all"

I think this was the point. Much of the effort in Lion seems to be around
exposing useful, but esoteric features, that were present in previous
versions. My perspective is that Apple wants everyone to be able to get more
from their Macs, not just the elite power user set. Mission Control and full
screen apps really make the case for virtual desktops. Spaces were basically
lifted whole from Linux desktops, but they now actually feel well integrated
into the Mac experience.

Just because someone is not an advanced user, it doesn't mean that they should
not get advanced features.

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glhaynes
_New users and non-techies aren’t the only groups negatively affected by
Lion’s changes, either. Seasoned Apple users have spent the last two days
filling the internet with blog posts and Twitter updates noting their
frustrations. Whether it’s the gestures, scrolling, full-screen apps, Mission
Control, Versions, or Resume — people are having more than their fair share of
trouble adjusting._

Every release of anything is followed by weeks of people complaining about
anything that's changed, whether it's changed for better or worse. From my
perspective at least, the Lion-likers appear to outnumber the Lion-dislikers
by a wide spread.

~~~
Caballera
I agree, it was the same after Snow Leopard. It was the same with Windows 7,
although maybe less so since Vista was sooo horrible and a lot of people were
happy for the change.

~~~
DrJokepu
Ironically, most complaints about Vista also fell in the "people complaining
about change" category. There were a few annoying things about Vista (UAC was
a bit more annoying than it should've been) but it wasn't _that_ bad.

~~~
ricardobeat
_yes it was_.

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ThomPete
Wait a minute....

You cannot take the opinion from regular users of a system and apply it to new
users of a system.

New users will simply adjust unless something is completely off.

So nice headline but it has no actual argument to back it up.

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wynand
New Mac user here (I've had mine for less than 12 hours now). Caveats upfront:
I'm a long-time Ubuntu user and I'm a programmer, so I'm not exactly a
parental-class user.

The most confusing thing for me was to get my Mac onto our university WPA2
enterprise network. It is actually impossible to configure Mac OS 10.7 for
this (at least via a GUI). After an hour, I realized I could use the
.mobileconfig file for the iPad/iPhone (on our network) to set up a profile
for my Mac and then things went smoothly. This was annoying to be sure and I'm
not sure what benefit derives from this removed functionality (since 10.6 can
do this).

But other than that, I've had a blast of a day. Everything else has been
fairly discoverable and I figured out the gestures very quickly. In contrast
to some of the complaints, I like the reversed scrolling and I like the way
that Mission Control works.

I'm certain that if I were to give this machine to my parents, they would be
fine. Perhaps I would disable Mission Control but otherwise I cannot foresee
stumbling blocks.

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ugh
Lion doesn’t have any forced complexity. I just installed Lion on my parents
iMac and they didn’t even notice (except for the new Mail app which they have
no problem with).

You don’t ever need to use Mission Control, you don’t ever need to use full
screen mode, you don’t ever need to use Launchpad.

(I reversed the scrolling direction and set it up to always display
scrollbars. That’s it.)

~~~
pnathan
So you can keep the old scrolling direction from SL?

:-)

~~~
ugh
I use reversed scrolling and also hide the scrollbars. I just think my parents
aren’t ready for that. I’m not using their iMac and I’m hundreds of miles away
from it for most of the time.

~~~
pnathan
I _far_ prefer the SL model of scrolling, and I visually use scrollbars.

So I would not upgrade unless those options were available

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davidedicillo
It's obvious that writing another good review about Lion wouldn't have
generated enough page views.

~~~
Caballera
Yeah really, I stopped reading "adapting to “natural scrolling” is difficult
due to years of muscle memory." I'm sorry but I've had no problems using
'natural scrolling', doesn't it take a few days to get use to yes, but it's
possible to get use to it. If for whatever reason you cannot get use to it,
you can always change your settings to the 'old' scrolling style.

If anything, I'm disappointed that Lion wasn't even more of a change, but I
guess for me it would have been change for the sake of change, as Lion, just
like Snow Leopard works great for me.

Additionally, others I personal know that have switched to Lion, no one has
any problems with it and everyone likes it. Granted we're all a bunch of geeks
working Tech Support and use Windows as well.

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cpeterso
I've tried, but I just can't get used to Lion's "natural" scrolling. I think a
better transition would be to leave mouse scrolling alone, but reverse the
scrolling direction for MacBook trackpads and the "Magic Trackpad" device.

~~~
alanfalcon
I'm just curious, are you using Apple's Magic Mouse, or a mouse with a
traditional scroll wheel?

~~~
cpeterso
Traditional scroll wheel. I love the Magic Mouse, but its flaky right click is
a deal breaker..

~~~
ricardobeat
It's irritating at first, but try getting used to it - the "real" scrolling is
very much worth it.

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2nd_planet
I think Lion is beginner friendly, but I think they are going in the entirely
wrong direction with the "iOS inspiration" thing. But it doesn't matter for
me—I live in the world of the command-line and keyboard shortcuts.

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jam
I'm not sure I agree with the author, but Apple doesn't really need to make
easy-to-use desktop operating systems any more. That's what the iPad is for.

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shinratdr
Alternate headline:

OS X Lion: There is still plenty of BS click-bait to be mined from this topic.

