Don't like Mission Control and miss Spaces!

You present your case logically and sensibly, and no question, Mission Control doesn't do the job for you.

Conversely, I found Spaces unusable - really, kind of an annoyance; I eventually disabled it. However, with Mission Control, Lion consolidated the concept so it could be used on a single screen. For the first time, I can juggle between the parts of the window with the intuitive movement of three fingers, with the Dashboard and Desktop within easy reach.

I believe that the OS has aimed for heightened ease of use, allowing for creation of nearly 20 different desktops. Maybe this demo will convince you:

http://tidb.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/how-to-use-spaces-in-lion/

Apple indeed needs to take a second look at what users expect from this Mission Control feature. I don't necessarily completely dislike it, but there is a lot of room to improve it.

I used to be a heavy Spaces user, and loved everything about it. If I could rearrange the order of desktop/spaces at the top, and maybe arange with rows and columns it would be really nice. I like having my full-screen apps to the side and available, but would also like to rearrange them.

Also, a missing functionality from Expose, having the ability to see All Windows, not only Application Windows. I want to see everything that is open on a particular Desktop/Space. I arrange spaces based on tasks, not applications. For Example: I want to only see work-project related app windows on ONLY ONE SPACE - not all app windows all over. This is a problem for me because I open about 20 different browser windows at the same time.

Definitively Apple needs to look at these issues and do something about it quick. Not sure what they are thinking.

Hope someone from Apple reads these threads and do something about it.

i almost like mission control, but there some features, that make me mad! for example, i don't want to know what apps i'm working with, i can see it from dock indicators, why cant i see all opend windows without grouping them in piles of the applications! Using mission control i need to see miniatures of all opened windows in the grid, i need to see miniatures of windows, wich were minimized to the dock, like in snow leopard! In Snow leo it was super easy when dock was combined with expose, when you could see all windows from any app by clicking and holding its icon in the dock, i liked Snow Leo for thows features, and i am surprised that Lion is less comfortable and more complicated in this case.

I believe that the link attached to the 2nd post answers some of these problems; if anything, there's much greater opportunity for customization than before.

As with many OSX features, there are a few (like Spotlight) that I used every session; others, like the former Spaces, were pleasant-looking, but I never used them much. Mission Control consolitates three different features from Spaces into a single window, but also allows you to create new desktop. I now use it regularly, though I haven't yet incorporated it fully into my process flow.

My issue, somewhat related to this discussion, relates to the paucity of material available right now to support the use of these features. All the publishers are "in-print" with their Lion books. Apple doesn't offer a PDF guide, and MacWorld online is only now accumulating a list of top hints (and a contest for best hint). Lion is unprecedented with both its download-only availability and the near-total absence of support for its 250 features.

I miss spaces too, it was a major part of my usage. I think mission control is just broken.

I am thinking to get the snow leopard binaries for spaces and overlay them on lion, perhaps I can ge it working again.

I Feel Exactly the same and work with a similar ethic of 6 "spaces" each assigned to different areas of work (ie coding, browsing, mailing, testing (apps like terminal an bbedit here), remote access and of course misc.)

Mission control has in effect ruined my entire work flow (That is my personal opinion and in no way reflects my love of the simplicity and intuitiveness of the OS Itself) by forcing me to now cmd-tab between apps (mostly 3-4 concurrently) instead of ctrl-down arrow to test or ctrl-right arrow to examine the data produced from my corner (1) editing space.

Also moving windows between desktops is not that polished in mission control as you have to be in the desktop that the window is in then open mission control and drag it to another desktop, as against the spaces style where you could pick up a window from any space and drop it anywhere else very simply.

I would like to see an amalgamation of mision control and spaces or alternatively the option to use one or the other depending on your work style, this would IMHO complement my workflow greatly.

I really like how the OS has been simplified for the end user but for developers this has created unexpected workflow issues. Niggling issues like this take the shine off for me.

I routinely write and I base my writing on 1) statistical output and 2) articles. It is very useful for me to have all my writing (Pages, LaTeX, Word) constantly locked in one space; my statistical apps (Stata, R, Excel) in another space, and my articles (PDFs in Preview) in a thrid space -- while being able to move between the three of them.

I suppose I will learn to use Mission Control, but it will never give me the spatial control I had with Spaces, which made my computer more like a real desk -- with one group of documents in one corner, another in another corner etc. It really was a brilliant concept for my needs. I just wish I could keep using it...

How is Mission Control any different, besides the layout. You can assign applications to desktops by dragging them into a desktop or using the Opition submenu of the Dock.

Poikkeus wrote:

if anything, there's much greater opportunity for customization than before.

I don't think so.

The layout was the most important part of Spaces. I, too, used 6 spaces and had them layed out to my liking. From one space, I could go right and access and app, or go down to access another. Now with Mission Control, I have to go right multiple times to get to the app I want. There's much more work to be done to access the app I'm trying to get to. I HATE Mission Control. Bring back Spaces!

Totally agree with the OP. I was also a 6 space user and Mission Control has ruined my workflow. Spaces was such a faster way to access different apps. Now I've got to remember "Ok, iTunes is 5 desktops to the right." That's just stupid.

I love the old Exposé and Spaces, probably my most favourite feature in OS X.

It could have been improved by sorting the windows logically... BUT without making stacks of Windows.

In Snow Leopard I open exposé and select the window I need. (Always thought it would be nicer if they were sorted by app, but anyway over the time I got used to find the righ window fast.)

In Lion I open Mission Control, select the app. And then I can spread the window a little bit. But they are small and still nearly stacked -> still can't see what's in the windows.

So I have to use Apps Exposé, which spreads the windows more.

But the whole thing takes two steps now instead of on like before.

And spaces... 4 big Spaces before, now I got tiny little windows on the top where I hardly see something. And a lot of Desktop space just got wasted.

I would love to have the option to have the old Exposé and Spaces back. Or even better the old with windows getting sorted a tiny little bit smarter.

Agreed - BRING BACK SPACES (also I use 2 screens and my desktop backgrounds don't work anymore - i.e. I get one page with a random iphoto image and the rest are of space)

If you have TimeMachine drive follow these instructions

http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html

If you have a hold option key bootable clone of 10.6

then do that using Disk Utility to erase and reverse clone

Back to Snow Leopard from Lion install method

Read and print out these instructions, your computer is going to be offline and you will be cutoff from help until your machine is restored.

Clear the Desktop, Downloads and Trash of anything you wish to keep by placing their files in the respective Documents, Music, Pictures, Movie folders.

Boot into Windows and backup any files there as well. Disconnect all other drives and devices not involved.

Backup ALL your Users folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music etc) manually (drag and drop methods) to a (not to TimeMachine) external powered drive (HFS+ journaled formatted in Disk Utility) and disconnect, your going to be wiping the entire boot disk of ALL DATA. (warning, everything will be gone and not recovered, OS, programs, files, Windows etc all gone.)

If Lion is hosed but boots: You may want to hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk and use Disk Utility to format the new blank external drive instead of using OS X Lion's Disk Utility. Then reboot into Lion and copy files that way. If you have a backup of your files this is not necessary.

If Lion won't boot: You can install OS X 10.6 onto a blank external HFS+ journaled formatted drive and then hold option key and boot off the external drive and grab your files if you don't have a backup. If your Lion drive won't mount or is corrupted try a Disk Utility repair, as a last resort use DataRescue (commercial software you need to download) to do a 1's and 0's recovery (not pretty, you should always backup)

Here we go!

Hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk that comes with your computer and second screen in just STOP there, don't install OS X yet.

Look up at the Utilities Menu for Disk Utility.

On the left is the name of your hard drive maker (Hitachi, Toshiba, Seagate, WD etc.), click it and Erase (format HFS+ Journaled), give it the same drive name as before, and click Erase...

(note: if you want to "scrub" the drive of old files that haven't been overwritten yet, then use the Security Option > Zero Erase, takes a lot longer)

This should wipe the drive of ALL partitions (GUID, OS X and 10.7 Recovery, Windows if present)

When it's done, quit and install OS X 10.6.

When you setup a first account, use the same user name as before, this way you can simply drag and drop the content of your previous Users folders from the external drive right back into the new Users folders and everything should work peachy. Links in iTunes to music, playlists and iPhoto links especially.

Update OS X to 10.6.8 using the Combo Update for best results.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399

Run the Software Update under the Apple Menu

Then install all your programs from fresh sources and validate/update.

(Note: If your original machine had 10.5 and you want the free iLife that comes with the disks with the computer, then you'll have to install 10.5 first using the same c boot/erase/format methods as above, then update to 10.6 via the disk, then Combo Update 10.6.8)

Final steps to prevent such a mess from reoccurring

A lot of people use a Carbon Copy Clone of their boot drive to a new/blank HFS+Journaled external drive (used only for this purpose) as a "hold the option key" bootable backup in case something goes wrong with their boot drive or need to restore to a previous OS X version..

Restoring from a bootable clone is rather painless and nearly automatic as it's a duplicate of the boot drive cloned. Make as many clones as you need.

It can be autoupdated to just apply changes so it doesn't take as long as a full clone.

http://bombich.com/get_ready_for_lion.html

Also use a TimeMachine drive, although not bootable like a clone, is easy to restore stuff from provided you have a installer disk to boot from (Restore TM is right under the same menu as Disk Utility on the installer disk), so if your superdrive is dead or your installer disks are missing or damaged, your out of luck.

Always maintain two copies of your data on two separate pieces of hardware at all times to prevent a unexpected surprise from catching you.

Do not maintain a Bootable Clone and a TimeMachine partition on the same external drive, separate drives is best.

I too would like to have geometric layout back. I would like to be able to name Desktops, and move apps directly between them rather than only from the current Desktop. On the other hand, I really love being able to move between Desktops with swipe gestures. In any event, you can still have apps assigned to specific spaces and move directly to those spaces using Ctrl-#, just as you did in Snow Leopard. The only thing you can't do is arrange them in rows and columns. The system preferences settings you will need are:

Let's hope Apple brings back geometric layout as an option in a future release, and adds some of the other features many of us would like. In the meantime, I've at least found the Lion functionality tolerable, and in some cases, like gestures, superior.