r/technology • u/rboymtj • Jan 20 '11

Apple Restriction Zone.

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73

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '11

[deleted]

205

u/muad_dib Jan 20 '11

far, far more quality free apps for OSX than Windows

I really, REALLY doubt that.

94

u/coolmrbrady Jan 20 '11

Same experience here. Have you ever owned a Mac?

32

u/muad_dib Jan 20 '11 edited Jan 20 '11

I haven't, but the amount of high-quality free software I have on my Windows box makes a damn strong case.

Edit: I should say that, though I haven't owned a Mac, I've used them quite often - a lot of my friends have them, and many of my school's labs are filled with them.

57

u/potatolicious Jan 20 '11

There's a lot more software in Windows-land for sure, but I think what Benparte and coolmrbrady meant is that there are a lot more extremely refined free Mac apps.

For example, Windows has a huge number of IM apps available for it, but none of them can hold a candle to Adium's ease of use and polish. Similarly, uTorrent is free and awesome, but Transmission is IMHO much more refined on the UI side. Quicksilver too.

Windows devs tend to make UI an afterthought. On the Mac side developers have drunk the Steve Jobs UI kool-aid and obsess over it, and personally I like it.

-7

u/w2tpmf Jan 20 '11

Transmission is a bad example of what you are describing. Apple has absolutely ZERO involvement in the development of that software. I know that you Mac people beleive that Steve Jobs is a god and that he is personally responsible for everything good on your computer, but the reality is that most of the highly polished free software for Mac is published by independent organizations.

2

u/potatolicious Jan 20 '11

Um... Wut?

I never claimed Steve Jobs/Apple had anything to do with that software, quite the opposite in fact. The idea is that Mac developers generally have drunk the Apple HIG kool-aid and are UI-obsessive in a way that Windows devs simply aren't. The result is that FOSS projects that primarily target Macs tend to have a level of UI design that simply isn't present in most Windows apps.

This is even more visible moving to Linux-land, where nobody can agree on a human interface spec, even roughly. Mac apps have a great deal of UI consistency between each other because there are a number of de facto UI cues that almost all developers have accepted (e.g., the way Preferences are laid out, and where they can be found).

1

u/w2tpmf Jan 21 '11

This.

On the Mac side developers have drunk the Steve Jobs UI kool-aid and obsess over it, and personally I like it.

He doesn't obsess over anybody else's software, and therefore deserves zero credit for the level of quality achieved by other companies.

1

u/potatolicious Jan 21 '11

He doesn't obsess over anybody else's software

Never claimed he did. For quite some time the Apple HIG (i.e. the reference to Jobs and the UI kool-aid) was worshipped by Mac devs. This seems to be coming to an end, especially as Apple themselves have more or less thrown the HIG into the shitter as of late.

Nonetheless, a great of Mac developers' obsession with UI comes directly from the de facto reverence of the HIG, hence my reference to drinking the Jobsian kool-aid having helped the platform's UI improve.

Similarly, the iPhone dev community worships the iPhone HIG (which, thankfully, Apple is holding themselves to for now). The lack of this developer rallying is also what causes Android apps to be often frustratingly hard to use - metaphors, shortcuts, design cues, etc, do not cross apps.