I installed Mac OS X 10.7 - Lion - on my iMac a few days ago and I’ve been adjusting to the changes, especially to the changes to scrolling. I’ve been using a Magic Trackpad for some time, but with Lion, the gesturing and changes to scrolling really come together. It’s only been a few days, so I haven’t completely mastered these gestures, but I think I like them.
And what I really like is the feeling that this is MY system. It works for me. But I suspect that it’s customizing me more than I’m customizing it.
I typically try and modify any system I have, adapting it to fit me, but sometimes, I select systems for the way they stretch and change me. It reminds me of my first calculator. It used Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) as input. Instead of thinking “1 plus 1 equals” to get the answer “2″, you’d think “1 ENTER 1 plus.” That system is superior for entering strings of calculations and nested arguments. And I loved it. When I bought my next one, an expensive programmable HP 33 (hey, in 1976 calculators were cutting-edge computing), I had fully embraced RPN as the way calculators should work.
And the added benefit: no one at school asked more than once to borrow my calculator. They couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
My wife is completely frustrated with the trackpad and natural scrolling. I understand that. She doesn’t use my system much and it doesn’t work the way she expects. For her, I’m taking my old Macbook Pro, keeping it at Mac OS X 10.6.x, and leaving it in as stock a condition as possible. She’ll be comfortable. It will be her system.
And I’m betting, it will baffle me a bit when I try to use it after using my iMac, my iPhone, and my iPad.
Apple has been training the general population on how to use touch screens and use gestures for several years now. Yes, the changes to Mac scrolling can seem disruptive, at least initially, but they represent the next evolutionary step in human/computer interaction. Apple killed the floppy drive, they killed the Parallel printer port. They’re killing the CD/DVD drive (and have kept the BluRay disc from becoming a computing standard). And now they’re killing the mouse. With natural scrolling and gestures I’m feeling more a part of my computing experience and less like I’m working controls. Yes, it does seem more like magic. Soon they’ll be having me doing incantations. That’s OK with me.
For a few, specialized users, the mouse will remain. Things like CAD/CAM systems virtually require them (for now). But touch and gestures represent the next step.
Just wait until Apple decides to kill off the monitor.
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