Switching Checkpoint

OK, so now we've recapped and closed off a previous two-parter, it's probably worth quickly taking stock of the current switching situation. The "switch sitch", if you will.

A previous post laid things out neatly in terms of three "things I like" and three "things I'm struggling with". On reflection I think this is actually a serendipitously powerful technique for measuring where I've got to with the Mac: the subtlety (or not) of the issues corresponds to the depth of my current concern; the severity corresponds to my overall happiness or otherwise.

So without further ado, things I like:

• even though I'm far from a Unix guru or expert, I'm beginning to enjoy the Unix-ness of OS X. I like the transparency of the innards of the platform very much. In a similar spirit, MacFuse is fantastic.
• multiple monitor support in the OS seems to work beautifully in a way I could never achieve with Windows. I plug the MacBook Pro into my LCD at work and it remembers that the laptop is on the right and the external monitor is the primary display. I plug it into my monitor at home and it remembers that the laptop is on the left and the external monitor is the primary display. I plug it into a projector at work and it remembers that the laptop is on the left and is the primary display. It works exactly how you'd want it to.
• Growl. This as far as I'm concerned is background real-time notifications done right. It is a sleek Smart Car to the Windows notification bubble's Model T. I like Growl a lot, and I especially like that now I have it I find that software I'm already using (Aperture, MarsEdit, last.fm, Spotify) just picks it up and starts using it. Great stuff.

but there's stuff I'm struggling with too:

• the insanely unpredictable and useless "Zoom" buttton (the green blob at the top-left of a window). In any given situation, with any given window, I can never tell in advance what clicking it is going to do. I just clicked it in Safari and the window grew about 50 pixels to the right. I clicked it again and the window grew about 50 pixels to the left. WTF? Want to maximize your iTunes window? Click the green button... but no! In iTunes, "zoom" apparently means "become miniature". That's fucked up.
• although the OS does multiple monitors really well, application support is scarce. I'm forever rescuing application windows from remote corners of the screen because they're trying to be on a monitor which has been disconnected. Tweetie For Mac, I'm looking at you in particular right now.
• Spaces is a real mess. They did fix a bug in a point release of Leopard where switching to one space and then back again would change the z-order of all your windows... but still: I can't tell you how many times I've found I can't interact with an application in Space n because it's displaying a modal dialog in Space m. Lame.

Next time: some essential utilities for survival in Mac-land.