Windows is simply a better multitasking OS

[Red Storm]

That's actually the only thing for which I use my desktop. I don't launch programs from it or anything like that. I use it as a dumping ground for files that I'm currently using but do not necessarily need to keep for an extended period, like screenshots.

Me too.

 

[cheez]

Terrible default.

Oh my God...

And I just checked and the snipping tool in Windows doesn't seem to have any options for automatically saving, not that I would want it to anyway.

That's why snipping tool in Win7 is no good. It takes too many steps and I don't have time to waste at work when I need things to get done like *that*. TooooooOOOOooOOoOoOOOooooooooo slow. OS X is about 60 times faster. That's substantial.:thumbsup:

But why is it a terrible default? Anyone that cares will look to see how to change it, and everyone else won't care.

Good question, and good advice.

Because it promotes abuse of the desktop by using it as a dumping ground.

You may have a point. But any rookie users will notice when the desktop items start filling up. What do they do? Start moving them and condense them to a folder or two. Duh!

Windows 7 in my opinion will be the next windows XP.
over-lived, and rightfully so.

Yes I agree win 7 is better in most respects of multitasking.

If you ever look at microsofts pattern of OS releases it goes likw this:

Win3.0 = junk
Win3.1 = good
95 = junk
98 = good
me = junk
2k/xp = good
vista = junk
7 = god
8 = junk...........

God? D: Are you sure about that. If it's good, I might half agree. Now, Server 2003 = God.

 

[KeypoX]

Hmmmm... I haven't tried that. I thought pressing a spacebar wouldn't do a thing. I will try it out when I get hom.

Yes I use that at work. It's slow. The whole screen flashes and takes a second or two to refresh before you can actually take screenshots or draw the area and screenshot. And after the screen print, it doesn't automatically save the PNG file on desktop like Mac OS X does... I think Mac OS X built-in screen capture is the best.:thumbsup: It's so damn fast and convenient.

Actually it saves it to the clipboard and can be pasted anywhere you want. Why do you want jpgs on your desktop? Generally if im taking a screen shot its for a purpose usually pasted in word on photo edited.

Ctrl V will paste it.

 

[Tegeril]

OS X doesn't force you to have an image on your desktop either. I see a whole lot of misconceptions in here simply due to a lack of knowledge of actual functionality.

Command + Shift + 3 or 4: saves the image.
Control + Command + Shift + 3 or 4: copies it to the clipboard.

 

[TheStu]

OS X doesn't force you to have an image on your desktop either. I see a whole lot of misconceptions in here simply due to a lack of knowledge of actual functionality.

Command + Shift + 3 or 4: saves the image.
Control + Command + Shift + 3 or 4: copies it to the clipboard.

Oh hey. I had forgotten about that one. Thanks.

 

[Ns1]

Actually it saves it to the clipboard and can be pasted anywhere you want. Why do you want jpgs on your desktop? Generally if im taking a screen shot its for a purpose usually pasted in word on photo edited.

Ctrl V will paste it.

...because if it's not going onto word (ie going onto photobucket or whatever to be posted to ATOT), the process is print screen + open paint + paste + save (assuming no cropping is needed) vs hit a hotkey combination


I also agree with others that OSX desktop is great for a dumping ground since I have zero application/folder shortcuts. My windows desktop is dramatically different and I try my best to keep files off of it.

 

[cheez]

Actually it saves it to the clipboard and can be pasted anywhere you want. Why do you want jpgs on your desktop? Generally if im taking a screen shot its for a purpose usually pasted in word on photo edited.

Ctrl V will paste it.

Of course it saves to the clipboard, but you gotta open an another application to paste the content. It takes time to open an application. Takes time to paste. Takes HUGE amount of time trying to convert / export that as an image file, JPG or PNG. You then gotta find the damn file where you saved to... This whole process could take up to 30 minutes. I don't have that kind of time to waste. This limits production. With Mac OS X, the split-second after I take a snapshot it saves to the desktop as "PNG" file. I then uploaded it to imageshack.us website that's already open. All this can be done in 1.5~ 2 minutes. Is 30 minutes better or 1.5 minutes?

 

[ControlD]

Of course it saves to the clipboard, but you gotta open an another application to paste the content. It takes time to open an application. Takes time to paste. Takes HUGE amount of time trying to convert / export that as an image file, JPG or PNG. You then gotta find the damn file where you saved to... This whole process could take up to 30 minutes. I don't have that kind of time to waste. This limits production. With Mac OS X, the split-second after I take a snapshot it saves to the desktop as "PNG" file. I then uploaded it to imageshack.us website that's already open. All this can be done in 1.5~ 2 minutes. Is 30 minutes better or 1.5 minutes?

You have to be doing something wrong if it takes you 30 minutes to do this. Hit "Printscreen" (or usually "Alt-Printscreen" to get just the active window) to capture the screen, open paint, Ctrl-V to paste. File, Save As, choose the format of your choice and done. I do this daily for work and it takes all of a minute or so if I am being slow. If you use the Windows default for saving the capture there is no hunting for the file either, it will be in your "My Pictures" directory which is easily accesed from any application that uses the Windows common file dialog.

Not sure how we got on the topic of saving screen grabs in regards to multitaking, but still 30 minutes is pushing it a little.

 

[cheez]

You have to be doing something wrong if it takes you 30 minutes to do this. Hit "Printscreen" (or usually "Alt-Printscreen" to get just the active window) to capture the screen, open paint, Ctrl-V to paste. File, Save As, choose the format of your choice and done. I do this daily for work and it takes all of a minute or so if I am being slow. If you use the Windows default for saving the capture there is no hunting for the file either, it will be in your "My Pictures" directory which is easily accesed from any application that uses the Windows common file dialog.

Not sure how we got on the topic of saving screen grabs in regards to multitaking, but still 30 minutes is pushing it a little.

30 minutes may sound a little exaggerating but I like to exaggerate stuff... but still, takes too long to go that route. It's not practical.

You need a very special printscreen application that's specialized for this kind of stuff. The windows builtin snag tool sux.

 

[ControlD]

30 minutes may sound a little exaggerating but I like to exaggerate stuff... but still, takes too long to go that route. It's not practical.

You need a very special printscreen application that's specialized for this kind of stuff. The windows builtin snag tool sux.

One minute isn't practical. I'll have to let my boss know I need a Mac Pro then.

 

[TheStu]

One minute isn't practical. I'll have to let my boss know I need a Mac Pro then.

I also didn't know about Alt+Print Screen, that is super useful since I usually have to go in and crop the images afterwards to remove extraneous stuff.

And cheez, I shouldn't give you this advice since your penchant for grossly over the top statements, completely ridiculous made up numbers and absurd exaggerations are signs that I use to usually ignore you, but they make it hard for anyone to take you seriously, or actually, you know, listen to points that you may be trying (but failing miserably) to make.

And for the record, it takes my MacBook Air 2 seconds to open this 108MB image. And then I can zoom in and out fluidly.

It takes my 2.4GHz Core i5 work laptop 2 seconds as well. So, not really sure where or why you are having problems. However, as soon as I try to zoom the image, it locks up for a few seconds, so fail for Windows there.

 

[cheez]

My friend Cheezie,

It takes my 2.4GHz Core i5 work laptop 2 seconds as well. So, not really sure where or why you are having problems. However, as soon as I try to zoom the image, it locks up for a few seconds, so fail for Windows there.

Windows is the best candidate for opening picture files. I don't think there is any other OSes that can match this performance. With my Server 2003 32bit, I can open a large jpg / png file in less than a second. Some of them are super instant, like 0.1 or 0.089 sec. It is set to open with Internet Browser. The browser version is IE7 I think... Oh wait, I think it might be IE6! Old stuff is the king (for speed). Trust me.

So because of this, I send all picture files to my HTPC so I can open them. For taking "snap shots" I use Macbook Pro w/ OS X Lion because it's super duper fast and easy to snap shot.

 

[nerp]

Because it promotes abuse of the desktop by using it as a dumping ground.

It's not 1998 anymore. Most people use the desktop for whatever they're working on and organize it whenever. It doesn't matter. If you're anal and like it clean, fine. But there's a reason why a lot of things default to desktop —*people want it that way.

 

[Nothinman]

It's not 1998 anymore. Most people use the desktop for whatever they're working on and organize it whenever. It doesn't matter. If you're anal and like it clean, fine. But there's a reason why a lot of things default to desktop —*people want it that way.

It's not 1998 anymore, nothing should be defaulting to the desktop either. But again, I've seen plenty of completely fucked desktops within the last 14 years so I disagree with your conclusion.

 

[Pia]

Aero Snap is really good. Alt-tab is really good. And the rest of Windows' main UI is bad, Start worst of all. Whatever Windows 8 does is probably an improvement.

OS X's new fullscreen mode is utter shit, just like the workspaces are. But the green "Zoom" button will mostly do the right thing, and some apps have their own good fullscreen modes.

Using a lot of cmd-tab, cmd-`, Expose and Spotlight is the least bad window management solution I have met so far. Unfortunate that OS X doesn't have the exact equivalent of Windows' alt-tab, and some kind of Aero Snap clone. (Yes, I know both of these are possible with paid apps.)

 

[TheStu]

Aero Snap is really good. Alt-tab is really good. And the rest of Windows' main UI is bad, Start worst of all. Whatever Windows 8 does is probably an improvement.

OS X's new fullscreen mode is utter shit, just like the workspaces are. But the green "Zoom" button will mostly do the right thing, and some apps have their own good fullscreen modes.

Using a lot of cmd-tab, cmd-`, Expose and Spotlight is the least bad window management solution I have met so far. Unfortunate that OS X doesn't have the exact equivalent of Windows' alt-tab, and some kind of Aero Snap clone. (Yes, I know both of these are possible with paid apps.)

CMD+Tab is the same as Alt+Tab. Are you thinking of Start+Tab with the silly Flip3D?

 

[Pia]

CMD+Tab is the same as Alt+Tab. Are you thinking of Start+Tab with the silly Flip3D?

No. OS X's cmd-tab goes through apps while Windows' alt-tab goes through all open windows regardless of app. The latter is more useful by far.

 

[Steelbom]

No way. OS X has far better multitasking capabilities than Windows 7. Mission Control ftw.

 

[TheStu]

No. OS X's cmd-tab goes through apps while Windows' alt-tab goes through all open windows regardless of app. The latter is more useful by far.

I had never really noticed that. Good point.

 

[Ns1]

No. OS X's cmd-tab goes through apps while Windows' alt-tab goes through all open windows regardless of app. The latter is more useful by far.

cmd+tab to go through apps, then
cmd + ~ to switch between windows

Better yet, just 4 finger exposé and pick the window you want...

 

[Pia]

cmd+tab to go through apps, then
cmd + ~ to switch between windows

Unfortunately that's what I have to resort to.
It would be more tolerable if cmd-` worked in latest-used order like cmd-tab and alt-tab, but no. I don't know what they were thinking when designing this crap.

 

[Ns1]

Don't understand what you are talking about. It is far superior to alt tabbing through 30 windows.

 

[Pia]

Don't understand what you are talking about. It is far superior to alt tabbing through 30 windows.

If I'm working with and swapping between three windows, two of which are in the same app, and that app also has 10 other windows open, on Windows I need a maximum of two alt-tabs to switch between any of these windows. In OS X I need to cmd-' ten times after cmd-tabing every 3rd time when I swap windows (on average). Much less effective. The user also has to note which apps specific windows are in in order to know when to cmd-tab and when to cmd-'; this isn't much of an obstacle for me but it is bad design.

 

[ControlD]

Don't understand what you are talking about. It is far superior to alt tabbing through 30 windows.

Agreed, but does anybody actually resort to Alt-Tab that much anymore to sort through 30 windows? If I am in OS X I use Expose and if I am Windows 7 I use Aero Peek. Once I am in my application, I use Cmd +~ in OS X or Ctrl-Tab if I am in Windows. It seems to me that both operating systems offer pretty much the same functions, just slightly different ways to go about it. I think both are pretty good when it comes to multitasking actually. I will go one step farther and say it would be hard to find a modern desktop operating system that is bad at handling multitasking.

 

[Dominato3r]

Terrible default. And I just checked and the snipping tool in Windows doesn't seem to have any options for automatically saving, not that I would want it to anyway.

Windows key + PrtScrn saves your screen to the pictures folder