15 Comments

1. Heng-Cheong Leong Says:
   April 6th, 2006 at 11:43 pm

   Mighty mouse, Newton, Front Row. :-)

2. Jay Bailey Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 7:53 am

   And recent history also dictates that AAPL’s implementations aren’t half-baked like M$FT’s. The Cupertino Cadre typically enter markets with the best of breed product (OS X, iPod, iTunes, etc.).

   My, how MCE and all those wonderful Tablet PC’s are just flying off the shelves! I couldn’t get drunk enough to believe that.

   You have to admit, Scoble, the industry has been shaking/rattling/rolling over the last couple of days because of little ol’ Apple.

3. Chris Ryland Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 8:56 am

   To elaborate on comment 1, the Mighty Mouse (started shipping a year or so ago) is an N-button mouse disguised as a one-button mouse.

4. namehere Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 9:40 am

   “I bet we see a multi-button mouse”

   Yes. I remember using Macintoshes back in the 80s. Even then there were (far, far, far) superior computers like the Amiga that came with multi-button mice. The stark inferiority of one-button mice was as plain as a sewer breakage in a flower shop.

   Years go by.

   Nothing. Still nothing. Still the one-button mouse. And then the…what do they call it?…the ONLY button mouse. The mouse whose entire top shell is a button. Okay, so they hate buttons and only want one, but love buttons and so make them gigantic. That one big button was so hard to use.

   It’s that sort of thing that convinced me that Apple users will put up with ANY STUPIDITY to avoid ANY associations with a nerdy looking person like Bill Gates.

5. Preston Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 10:23 am

   “It’s that sort of thing that convinced me that Apple users will put up with ANY STUPIDITY to avoid ANY associations with a nerdy looking person like Bill Gates.”

   It’s not that. MacOS, and OS X, are designed so you don’t need a right-mouse button. They use one button mice because they’re the superior interface solution to confusing users with multiple modes.

   The ONLY reason you’re used to using a right mouse button is because you’re a Windows user trained to expect hidden functionality through right-clicking everything to death. The Mac user interface is designed more efficiently, requiring only one input. In fact, you can’t provide a valid justification for why a right-mouse button needs to exist. Its functionality should already be available in the toolbar, menus, or main interface of the application.

   I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of the tired cliche of helping a Windows user through something, telling them to right-click something and having them stare at you dumbfounded until you explain what you mean, then telling them to click on something, and every time they ask right then-”Right click or left click?” Every time.

   Right-clicking is just confusing and redundant. Providing it as an option ala the Mighty Mouse is the best way to do it. Forcing the need for a right mouse button is like providing two gas pedals in a car, one for forward and one for reverse!

6. namehere Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 11:05 am

   The ONLY reason you’re used to using a right mouse button is because you’re a Windows user…

   Bull. As I mentioned, I was using 2-button mice with 2-button applications on the Amiga.

   Forcing the need for a right mouse button

   Windows has generally been set up to allow full-functionality through the keyboard only. The mouse itself is strictly an aid.

   Right-clicking is just confusing and redundant.

   The right-mouse button almost always means “configuration” or “other options”. This helps encapsulate the options of any given thing with itself, rather than an “options” menu. With Macs, the option (or “command”?) button, combined with the one big button does the same thing as a right-mouse button. Apple engineers aren’t stupid, and so they added this as a workaround. It’s the marketing people who are stupid.

   telling them to right-click something and having them stare at you dumbfounded until you explain what you mean,

   I worked in tech support years ago, and used the term “right-click” dozens/hundreds of times a day and never confused anybody. Not one.

   Listen,

   Here I am in Firefox. I highlight some text. I right-click the text, and get the option “View Selection Source” which is encapsulated with that, or any, highlighted-text. Now, what is the Apple-option in such a case? When I highlight text, does the browser’s window menu change-does it get a “highlighted text options” option? That is painfully inelegant-an out-of-context menu should not change state from unrelated events. Yet, that sort of clumsy backbending seems necessary to keep the Apple “efficient”.

7. NateB2 Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 11:58 am

   Watch out! Here comes yet another Mac/Windows flame war!

8. Dmad Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 12:44 pm

   @6 Try explaining that to your grandmother. I would love to see a video of someone’s grandmother using a keyboard only to navitage Windows. Geeks need to think beyond how other geeks use software. I often get the impression Microsoft designs software only for use by other Microsoft employees.

9. Larry Says:
   April 7th, 2006 at 12:45 pm

   One button or two, may not be the issue. The question I have, and haven’t seen much on… is how fast is it? There have been Windows emulators for the Mac for years, Virtual PC, etc. My experience is that were always a rev or two back, and the software middle layer translation effect was noticable. How doe the new bootcamp work once it is all up and running??

10. Steve Fleming Says:
    April 7th, 2006 at 1:21 pm

    Yes I’ve read elsewhere that the mighty mouse “right button” is enabled by default.

11. Jon Schwartz Says:
    April 7th, 2006 at 2:28 pm

    Would “If you can’t beat em, join em!” be too rude to say at this point? :D

12. J. Random Poster Says:
    April 7th, 2006 at 10:15 pm

    Guys,

    For all of your crowing and posturing, let me point out that the whole purpose of Boot Camp was to keep people from wrecking their Macs trying to work around Microsoft’s failure to support EFI.

    For christ’s sake, it’s been three YEARS since Gateway shipped the first PC that included it. This is not something for MS to be bragging about, it’s ANOTHER reminder that MS needs to get on the ball about supporting intel’s improvements.

    The immediate effect of this, is that those people who had to keep a crap PC like a Dell around for that one windows-only app they had to use, won’t have to have two machines anymore. Any Mac user who needs a copy of windows can get it for $20 at the most from some Linux user who didn’t want it in the first place, but didn’t have the choice of buying a PC without it.

    The long-term effect, is that this removes the standard argument that the IT drones use to veto Mac purchases. That alone could double Apple’s sales.

13. Christopher Coulter Says:
    April 8th, 2006 at 1:34 am

    What could double or TRIPLE or more Apple sales, like overnight, is allowing the OEMs to crack at it, HP, Sony, Dell/Alienware and Gateway and Voodoo. But no, Apple wants to play black-turtleneck, rat-tail-sporting-Cult-member cool hardware games; style over substance, and stay at under 10% marketshare, and run on iPod fuel. Minor blip at best, among those that are geeky enough to config both OSes.

14. J. Random Poster Says:
    April 8th, 2006 at 6:49 am

    Christopher,

    I agree that Apple could vastly increase their sales by letting Dell and HP sell OS X; we know that they’ve been begging for it ever since Apple announced the Intel switch. I don’t agree with your claim that they haven’t done it yet just because they’re playing games.

    You know what Microsoft does to rival OS vendors. If Apple offered OS X to Dell, then MS would cut off the apps immediately. (Anti-trust violation? You betcha, but it’s not like they can’t afford to litigate it for another decade and then buy off another incoming presidential candidate.)

    So, before Apple can offer OS X to other manufacturers, iWork had better be a *full* replacement for MS Office. All of its apps will need to stand head and shoulders above their MS Office counterparts, like Keynote does. This is certainly doable, but it’s not doable *today*.

15. John C. Welch Says:
    April 8th, 2006 at 7:51 am

    No, Apple doesn’t want to deal with the Pain Microsoft has to, with having to support half-assed hardware implementations, ISVs that insist on BIOS, PS/2, and parallel ports, etc.

    That’s a huge issue for Microsoft. My god, if everyone went to EFI, USB only, DVI only, no more serial / parallel, etc, the Windows’ team’s job would be MUCH simpler.

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