Maximize Windows!
So, being an interface designer, interface developments in the operating systems interest me; differences between the operating systems especially. One such difference is the maximize window behaviour.
On Windows, clicking the maximize button expands the current window to fill the entire screen (see above screenshots) and more importantly, locks the window so it’s immobile until un-maximized again.
On the Mac, on the other hand, there’s no real maximize window feature. Instead, clicking the “expand” button (the plus button) either expands the current window to fit the contents of the document, or expands to fill the entire screen (though not locking the window in place), depending on the application. Clicking the expand button again, makes the window jump back to the size it had prior to being expanded.
A feisty discussion made it clear just how much this difference in behaviour can divide the waters. On one side, you have the pro-choice people who like to be able to maximize a window and focus on that window alone. On the other side, you have those who either do not see a use for the maximize feature at all, or simply prefer the inability to be able to maximize citing improved “multi-tasking” as the primary benefit.
Personally I’m a fierce proponent of the maximize window feature. It allows me to hide my cluttered desktop, it allows maximum use of screen real-estate; it essentially allows me to choose when I want to focus on one thing and one thing only. I can still have multiple windows on one screen if I want to, but I have the extra ability to choose to focus on one app when I want to.
The recent beta of Windows Vista makes this maximize feature even more pronounced. The transparent “glass” interface that Windows Vista sports allows one to see through the chrome of individual windows, thus “lightening” the overall weight of windows (what a load of crap). When maximized, however, the transparent glass becomes opaque (as seen in the screenshots above), tinted in the system color of your choice.
While I think a glass interface in Vista is a big mistake, the “letterbox” feel of maximized windows will make the fullscreen difference between MacOSX and Windows even more pronounced. So, which side are you on, and why? To fullscreen, or not to fullscreen?
That’s the most retarded argument I’ve heard yet. By which, I mean your thinking is retarded.
I… Ugh. I don’t even know how to hold a conversation with you.
@Joen
What the heck is going on today?
Yeah, why did this come back up from months ago? Weird.
In any case, maximizing makes great sense because it gives the application the use of the corners of the screen, which are by far the largest hit areas available in the entire operating system (approximately equivalent to half the screen area from the user’s perspecitve). I think this is called Fitt’s law? I can’t remember.
It makes “Close” extremely easy to do, but not terribly easy to get wrong since it’s still up in the corner. Really great UI if you ask me.
Thus, I am in the “Maximize” camp, but really it works both ways, one just is less annoying.
Golden oldies? Diamonds are forever? Good posts never die?
In any case, I’m enjoying it. And while you don’t agree with Stan, I think I understand him and agree just a little bit!
Right on the money. I think it’s about “inifinitely tall screens, meaning, even if you drag your mouse 50 meters across the corner, you’ll still end up in the corner.
In all fairness, OSX uses the screen edges too, as in one for the menu and one for the dock. Additionally, I’m pretty sure you can assign Expos? and possibly various other things to each of the corners.
I do, like you, prefer the Windows way to go, which means, one screen edge for the top of a maximized window, one corner for close and one corner for “start button”.
Interestingly, Ubuntu has a nice take on this. I’m not sure if I prefer it, but in Ubuntu, you have a taskbar in the bottom edge, the launcher in the top edge, the recycle bin in the bottom right corner, “show desktop” in the bottom left corner, “start program” in the top left corner, and I forget what it has in the top right corner.
SHUT THE HELL UP! IF YOU DONT LIKE MAXIMIZED WINDOWS AND U LIKE MAC GET A MAC AND DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT MAXIMIZING.
IF YOU LIKE DOING BOTH AND A BETTER EXPERNCE IN THE LOOKS DEPARTMENT GET A WINDOWS
IF YOU WANT BOTH GET A MAC AND THEN BOOT CAMP AND PUT VISTA ON IT BUT JUST DONT COMPLAIN
AND DONT REPLY WITH SOME CLEVER COMMENT JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT
and if you must know i like maximised and the look and layout of windows but prefer everthing else about mac so i put them together and wala the best os ever
Since when did honest, kind and informed discussion / criticism ever become a bad thing?
If something can be improved, shouldn’t it?
Lewis, buddy - try pressing that funny looking key to the left of the “A” until it doesn’t have a light in it.
If it’s on, It sets your keyboard to a mode where you come off as a complete retard every time you post something.