Finder is awful IMO, this thread is probably fully of Apple-y types who will disagree, but if you're actually interested:
- Why does hitting the enter key not "go into directory" or "open file"?
- I can't even see a path tree to know where I am in the filesystem out of the box.
- Search, by default searches the entire system not the directory I'm in
- The default presentation is some weird list of random stuff from my system, recent files and temporary files and assorted irrelevant garbage. I had to fuss with options for quite some time just to get this to be intelligible.
- What the hell are all these colors? Why would any sane person want to group their files by color?
In the end I wiped OSX off the machine as I just couldn't put up with it's constant annoyances for no gain - more of window management than file management though. I shouldn't need 3rd party tools like Spectacle just to make things tolerable on a modern OS. Having used dozens of different desktops on Linux and Windows I didn't think a "user friendly" one would be such a pile of annoyances. Turns out that part was marketing wank too I guess.
Just in case anyone reading this has noticed the problem here but hasn't quite woken up to it: I really hate that people seem to accept their marketing at face value and not analyze any further, think they're doing something wrong if they run into problems with an Apple product. It's not just you. They make garbage and promote it like it's gold and people fall for it.
>Why does hitting the enter key not "go into directory" or "open file"?
Because it has it's own shortcut for it, e.g. Cmd-O.
>I can't even see a path tree to know where I am in the filesystem out of the box
That's some kind of complain? There's a two clicks away setting to enable said path display, plus a one click away viewing mode (NeXT-style) that shows all previous directories up to where you are.
>Search, by default searches the entire system not the directory I'm in
Again irrelevant. I, for one, like it that way. Besides, there's a setting to make it search only the directly you're in (and a third, to make it stick to what you've selected before, either global search or "current dir" search).
>The default presentation is some weird list of random stuff from my system, recent files and temporary files and assorted irrelevant garbage.
Irrelevant, and not really random. Sounds more like a complaint from somewhere coming from Windows and wondering why things aren't the same (ignoring the fact that OS X did things before Windows, and has its own users to please by keeping its own way).
>What the hell are all these colors? Why would any sane person want to group their files by color?
For the same reason people use colored post-it notes and bookmarks, and color code things. Immediate visual identification. And "those colors" are part of tags, which allow arbitrary, not folder based, grouping of files.
I know I shouldn't feed the troll, but here goes anyway...
Why does hitting the enter key not "go into directory" or "open file"?
Because Return renames the file. To open the file or directory you use Command-O, just like you'd use Command-P to print the file.
I can't even see a path tree to know where I am in the filesystem out of the box.
View > Show Path Bar. Or, Command-Option-P
Search, by default searches the entire system not the directory I'm in
On my machine it searches where I am. Just tried it.
The default presentation is some weird list of random stuff from my system, recent files and temporary files and assorted irrelevant garbage. I had to fuss with options for quite some time just to get this to be intelligible.
Sounds like you're using a Mac from 1987.
What the hell are all these colors? Why would any sane person want to group their files by color?
I do it all the time. If I'm going through a bunch of files that I need to deal with later, I'll tag the files for one client yellow, and another client blue, and another client green. When it's time to do something with those files I just type "green" into the search, and all of those tagged files just show up.
Also, while the tags are color-coded, it's not about the colors. It's file tagging. You can tag a file "Client X" or "Taxes" or "Animals" and then search for all files tagged Taxes modified in the last three months of a particular file type. The colors are just a place to start.
> Because Return renames the file. To open the file or directory you use Command-O, just like you'd use Command-P to print the file.
How often do you rename files?
How often do you open files?
Based on that knowledge, which of these actions deserves a single button? Which button is universally used on all other platforms?
Yes, many of these things are preferences, but they're also bad defaults, having good UI and bad defaults are mutually exclusive in my opinion. Apple has some of the worst defaults in Finder.
How often do you rename files? How often do you open files?
Based on that knowledge, which of these actions deserves a single button?
It's the difference between doing something to a file, and doing something with a file.
Which button is universally used on all other platforms?
If all you've ever used is Windows and desktop environments that mimic Windows to make life easier for people coming from Windows, then you might have a narrow definition of "universal." But I've used dozens of platforms over the last 40 years, and can confidently state that there is no universal method.
> It's the difference between doing something to a file, and doing something with a file.
I fail to see a difference, I especially fail to see why, of all things, rename would be the default action on hitting the enter key.
Regardless, you're missing the key point: which action is done more frequently? Which deserves a single button?
> If all you've ever used is Windows and desktop environments that mimic Windows to make life easier for people coming from Windows, then you might have a narrow definition of "universal." But I've used dozens of platforms over the last 40 years, and can confidently state that there is no universal method.
Look at all modern file managers
- Windows Explorer
- Nautilus
- Thunar
- Dolphin
- Directory Opus
- Total Commander
What's the default action when you tap a file in your file manager on your mobile device? To open it. The easiest action to get to should be the most useful.
No one is just "mimicking Windows" here, they're doing the only thing that makes sense: to make frequent user actions readily available to the user. I get the impression some people seem to think this is good just because it's different.
Pretty sure the guy you're responding to knows that. The question is why is the key mapped to "rename", when "open" is likely the far more common command?
> On my machine it searches where I am. Just tried it.
Finder -> Preferences -> Advanced: "When performing a search:" you can choose from "Search the Current Folder" (my current setting) or "Search This Mac" (apparently yours) or "Use the Previous Search Scope"
So, I'm nearly certain that I've not touched that setting, so the default is then "This Mac", which again, is what the parent is pointing out.
Without saying that the parent is right, that you've customized your setting does not invalidate the point the parent is making: that it is a bad default. (In fact, your customization might be proof towards it being a bad default.)
I didn't think I'd changed my default either, but I remembered I did run a shell script to set up "MacOS for developers" when I first got it, so maybe that was an included change.
I think all that demonstrates is that the default is bad for you and me. My parents use Macs, and I've watched my mother work enough to know she relies on the "This Mac" behavior regularly. She is a teacher, not a developer.
Users. What's a more common operation: rename this file, or open this file? I think if you did just a general survey of operations on a files, opening a file is vastly more common than wanting to rename it.
(And including all operations, including those that might be done with a mouse. I think you should design the keyboard around allowing users to transition into being power users, s.t. common inputs are doable on the mouse, but faster (but obvious) on the keyboard.)
What isn't ignorance or preference is factually wrong, with one possible exception:
> The default presentation is some weird list of random stuff from my system, recent files and temporary files and assorted irrelevant garbage. I had to fuss with options for quite some time just to get this to be intelligible.
Is the idea here that you don't think new finder windows should show "Recents"? Good news! Finder -> Preferences -> General: "New Finder windows show:" is a drop-down list. I set mine to Downloads, as that suits my workflow better than Recents.
The file properties window is worse than useless, especially if you want to do anything like editing ACLs. The multi-column menu is clunky and why is it the default setting to allow icons to overlap each other making them impossible to work out what it is.
I am forced to use OS X regularly enough and I still find finder a constant annoyance to the point where I feel like I am being gaslighted when I say I don't like it.
