Reswitch: Switching Back From OSX (Part 2)

Part 2: Ease of use

Every time you hear someone talk about a Mac, one of the reasons why they love their Mac so much is because it is extremely easy to use. I will admit, that OSX is simple... to a point. The Mac UI is streamlined into every application that Mac developers create. Like Alex Lindsay says, Mac users love "pretty" interfaces. That extra work that goes into applications that Mac developers put into their product is nice, but has no effect on the experience as a whole. Spotlight, Dock, Expose, and Finder were things that should have been revisited when Snow Leopard was designed, for one simple reason, ease of use.

Now, I don't want to say that Windows 7 is the most easy thing to use. I will be the first to admit, applications and files end up being hidden in places like the start menu, or your documents folder. A program may be hard to find because you can't remember where something was installed to, or where a picture ended up after you dumped the data off your digital camera. Those are all things that happen in OSX too. Both have automated services for things like transfers from a digital camera, and it always displays where a file is going to be saved, but navigation to where that location is can be a pain.

In OSX, there was Spotlight. I personally found the feature useless. When ever I used Spotlight to find a file I was looking for, it never would find what I wanted it to. It just never worked like I wanted it to. Windows Search, which is built into Windows 7 does so much more then Spotlight ever did. Can't find where that important document is? Type what you named the document and it will appear in the search, ready to be opened. Its right at the bottom of the start menu for easy access. Search works within Explorer too and is just as easy and fast. Spotlight did the same thing within Finder, but didn't work like I wanted it too. Libraries benefits from how efficient Window Search is, but there is more on that on a later post.

Window Search plays into another key piece of efficiency would be the redesigned taskbar (dubbed SuperBar). The new taskbar feels like the Dock in OSX. You can pin things to it for easy access, you can manage applications that are running in the taskbar and you can see what is running within the applications from the taskbar. Unlike the Dock, where you have to click to enable the "Application View" within Expose. With the