[prev] [thread] [next] [lurker] [Date index for 2005/04/29]
Apple wisely placed all applications into a simple, flat /Applications directory as opposed to scattering them all over the filesystem or creating some sort of hierarchy. This is good. Now I can find shit. So I get on a Mac and I look in Applications for X11... its not there. Terminal? Not there. Digital Color Meter? Not there. Grab? NetInfo? ColorSync? Console? Not bloody there! OOhhhhhhh, they're cleverly hidden in /Applications/Utilities. What's a utility? What's the difference between an application and a utility? How do I decide which is which? Why is a program to take a screenshot (Grab) a utility and one to decompress a file (Stuffit Expander) an application? iSync is an application but RsyncX is a utility. How is a user supposed to know the difference? Why even have this artificial split? About the only distinction I can see is Apple put things into Utilities it would rather its dumb users not stumble onto such as the Terminal or X11 or the Disk Utility lest they shoot themselves in the foot and generate money wasting support calls. Ok, maybe I can see that... but Grab? Just how much trouble can you get into making screenshots? Unix does this, too, with the whole bin vs sbin thing. traceroute and ifconfig being the two I'm always losing. As always... hate.
Generated at 00:00 on 02 May 2005 by mariachi 0.52