Getting Used to Panther

Panther is slowly growing on me. Overall, its extra snappiness, organization, and design do make it a better, more mature package than Jaguar, though I still feel that the muddy silver used for most menus runs OS X in a negative direction. Microsoft has never understood that the metallic (dark grey) designs it used for its GUI set up a boring, unfeeling experience for the user. Apple seems to have understood that. Many computer columnists, lots of them Windows users seeing OS X for the first time, have called OS X with its Aqua interface “beautiful”. Indeed, it is. Or has been. Panther (OS 10.3) shows
a drift of Apple’s GUI designers toward more metallic interfaces. That could be a big mistake. The beauty of using a Mac and OS X (especially on a flat panel iMac) is you forget you’re using a computer. You’re in an environment, one that is colorful and fluid. Designing too many metallic colors into the interface destroys that feeling, and feeling is something that needs to be encouraged…not discouraged…when one is performing a creative task. The beauty, feeling, and ease of use of OS X were the things that attracted me to it. Its stability, security, and ease of maintenance are why I have stayed with it.

Speaking of interface design, the new Finder window is taking a bit of getting used to. I like its organization, but I have to keep reminding myself that I’m using Finder and NOT an application when I see its brushed metal borders. It seems like the application of brushed metal borders in Panther was not thought completely through, especially when it came to looking at what precedent Apple had set in Jaguar with them. I don’t have a problem with brushed metal at all; in fact, I use a brushed metal theme on my Windows XP computer to give it more of an OS X look. But there it is applied to everything; I don’t have to sort out where I’m at, i.e., what the visual cues are telling me. Apple might want to think about that a bit as it designs its next operating system upgrade.