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0 pointsdkonofalski7y ago0 comments

I run into this all the time with Windows users switching to a Mac. I do a lot of training for new users when it comes to using Macs and the Windows users are always the worst when compared to people learning for the first time because Windows users always want to do it "the Windows way" and so they get frustrated when all their right clicking doesn't pan out. They bought a Mac because they were frustrated by Windows but then they expect their Mac to just be "Windows without the problems". They rarely are open to using the product differently than before and don't even consider that part of what's "better" is that you use it differently and think about it differently.

Case in point - I recently had a user who did all kinds of audio editing for foley sound effects and had organized them all into folders himself. When he switched to the Mac, we were using software that has a very iTunes-focused mentality and it imported all the sounds into a library. He could not get over the fact that everything was flat and that he couldn't view his folder structure and was so frustrated because he couldn't find anything. It took me days to get the point across to him that a library system was much more powerful than a strict hierarchy because he could tag sounds with multiple keywords instead of just relying on his memory to remember which folder he had put a particular clip in. It's now been about 6 months and he has converted so many people to the Mac just by showing them how he can search tags for "flute", "wood", and "horror" and get a listing instead of having to remember that it was in his "horror" folder and then inside the "flute" folder with some weirdly numbered filename.

It's so nice when the computer just gets out of the way and lets you worry about the work and not about futzing with everything in the background.

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AnIdiotOnTheNet7y ago

> He could not get over the fact that everything was flat and that he couldn't view his folder structure and was so frustrated because he couldn't find anything. It took me days to get the point across to him that a library system was much more powerful than a strict hierarchy because he could tag sounds with multiple keywords instead of just relying on his memory to remember which folder he had put a particular clip in.

Right, so he had his workflow organized in a particular way that worked for him, but rather than allow him to work like that his computer forced him into a workflow management paradigm and then you told him it was better that way and he should just accept it.

> It's so nice when the computer just gets out of the way and lets you worry about the work and not about futzing with everything in the background.

I agree, I wish they'd actually do that in 2018.

dkonofalskiOP7y ago

>workflow organized in a particular way that worked for him

Except that it didn't, at all, he'd just become used to it. It still took him 3x-4x as long to use the structure that he had devised as opposed to the "new" one. On top of that, a good majority of the sounds that he was using were already tagged via ID3 tags with descriptors so he wasn't even using tools that were available to him the whole time. I didn't tell him that it was better that way and that he should just accept it, you're assuming that. What I actually did was ask him to just trust me and the designers at Apple for 2 weeks and try using the system as it was intended. If it didn't work for him, I would teach him how to use it the way he was used to using it (the option is always available and it's not like MacOS forces you to do it that way).

It took him 3 days to agree that the library method that MacOS used was far more efficient and better suited to what he had been doing the whole time. Additionally, it opened up even more avenues for him because he could extend those same paradigms to video and actual music files (as opposed to audio/sound effect files).

>I wish they'd actually do that in 2018

I work as a developer in digital media production and I love my Macs because they do actually do exactly that. I literally never have to mess with the OS and can focus exclusively on getting my work done. The only exception to that rule is the rare case where I have to use Adobe tools. Some of them are just unstable, regardless of if you're running them on a Mac or PC.

Also, to stop any further assumptions or insinuations, I'm also a PC gamer and have extensive background in web development so I'm extremely familiar with both Windows and Linux (mostly CentOS and Ubuntu). My Mac is the only machine that actually gets out of the way and lets me work.

vinceguidry7y ago

> Right, so he had his workflow organized in a particular way that worked for him, but rather than allow him to work like that his computer forced him into a workflow management paradigm and then you told him it was better that way and he should just accept it.

You can't opt out of strong opinionation when it comes to operating systems or applications in general, sadly.

dkonofalskiOP7y ago

Nor should you. An OS where every person gets to customize every aspect to their own liking is mostly a recipe for disaster from a support experience standpoint unless you really know what you're doing.

Take Linux for example. You can customize a ton to get your workflow exactly right if you really know exactly what you're doing. If you don't, though (and I'd argue that most people don't), it's a nightmare. One wrong step can take down the entire workflow completely.

michaelmrose7y ago

"it's a nightmare. One wrong step can take down the entire workflow completely."

How and in what universe? I'm not merely being flip I literally don't understand how having options leads to such disasters. In most linux distros for example you have a central settings menu much like the windows control center plus many apps have a settings menu for app specific settings.

If you check a box and things no longer work the way you expect it doesn't require magic to open the menu and uncheck the box or reset the app to default settings. Its rather difficult to do any real harm. Even mucking up a system so bad it can't boot is cause for booting up from a disk to fix the problem or reinstalling in an hour if that seems too challenging.

I'm not clear on how to parse "take down an entire workflow completely" into anything meaningful. Its like someone argued for a house with a single set of furniture glued down to the floor and discussed how houses where you could put any sort of furniture down anywhere could take down your breakfast routine completely as if billions of people weren't out there organizing their own kitchens and churning out meals all over the world.

komali27y ago

I think the ideal solution would have been some sort of automatic tagging based off the folder structure. It would have allowed him to keep his previous workflow (maybe? I have never touched itunes) while allowing him to transition to tagging.

I for one love tagging search systems, but still need folder structures for organization. I feel itchy when all my shit is just slopped into a single folder, especially when I need to work in the terminal for something.

dkonofalskiOP7y ago

Well, the folder structure was actually still setup exactly the way it had been, he just didn't see it inside of any of the apps he was using. I offered to show him how to use his folder method if he would just try my (read MacOS's) method of doing it. All the files were already tagged via ID3 or some other metadata as they were either MP3, OGG, or FLAC files.

His big realization was that he didn't actually care about how the files were organized so long as he could find the sounds he was looking for. He cared before because there wasn't any way to efficiently search for them by any meaningful method (finding "metallic" sounding effects, for example) and so he filed things away in folders so that he would only have to browse through a subsection of folders (in that case - materials->metals->metallic). Now he just searches the library for "metallic" and all the sounds come up and he can combine search terms for "loud metallic" or "warped metallic" or "wobbly metallic" and get exactly the sounds he's looking for.

root_axis7y ago

Interesting story but not seeing why it has anything to do with Windows in particular, you could have flipped the OSs and told the same story, it's not like you can't run software that sorts files by tags on Windows.

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0 comments

AnIdiotOnTheNet7y ago

> It's so nice when the computer just gets out of the way and lets you worry about the work and not about futzing with everything in the background.

I agree, I wish they'd actually do that in 2018.

dkonofalskiOP7y ago

>workflow organized in a particular way that worked for him

>I wish they'd actually do that in 2018

vinceguidry7y ago

You can't opt out of strong opinionation when it comes to operating systems or applications in general, sadly.

dkonofalskiOP7y ago

michaelmrose7y ago

"it's a nightmare. One wrong step can take down the entire workflow completely."

komali27y ago

dkonofalskiOP7y ago

root_axis7y ago

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