Alternative to Disk Utility?

I'm still an Apple fan and I still think it's heads above a windows machine. I just hope they improve it instead of crippling it.

You also seem to think Apple designs their products for power users. The are designing "Appliances" for the masses. Which is what new users expect.

My assumption is Apple redesigned DU for the masses.

It's also possibly a withdrawal to Apple's early design default - simplify to the max to make it as easy as it can be to use a computer for those who have never used one.

That's like the desktop. From day one of the Mac desktop, the default has been to hide drive icons, and still is! That maybe made sense at the time as people had never seen a GUI before, and the slow acceptance of it (most users still bought PC's with command line DOS) kind of continued to make it a good default to give users less to have to look at as they learned how to use a GUI.

But how long has it been now? Five year olds know what a GUI looks like and how to use it. Virtually every person who uses a computer looks at a GUI interface. Continuing to hide the drive icons is now a very outdated default. People expect to be able to see their drives. They know what they are and what they're for.

But how long has it been now? Five year olds know what a GUI looks like and how to use it. Virtually every person who uses a computer looks at a GUI interface. Continuing to hide the drive icons is now a very outdated default. People expect to be able to see their drives. They know what they are and what they're for.

Seriously? I know your read the posts here. New buyers are lucky if they know what a drive even is.

I gave my g/f an iMac and an iPad mini. She uses both on a daily basis. She still doesn't know that when she clicks on the close button in Firefox it doesn't quit the program. I have offered many, many times to show her some things that would help her. She has ZERO interest in learning anything about computers as long as she can use one.

I have a friend who teaches Word at a local college. she was demonstrating how to cut and paste a word to her class. She asked if they had any questions. One person put up their hand and asked, "Well, I see how to do it but what if I want to cut and paste a different word?"

Like i said, new buyers don't care about the inner workings. They want them to just work, like their TV or toaster. Heaven help them if their TV comes with a programmable remote. 😝

Do I sound a bit cynical? lol

Seriously?

Yes, of course. There are few schools (at least in the U.S.) that don't teach every student from an early age how to use a computer. By the time they reach even 9th grade, they all know more about computers than many adults.

Are there plenty of people who just don't get it? Sure. There are people like that in every habitable part of the world. They not only don't get even only slightly more advanced notions of using a computer, they don't want to. They just want to turn the computer on, hope it actually does turn on the way it's supposed to, and then hope the apps they use launch and their files get saved as they're supposed to. Anything that goes even slightly amiss, and it's a trip to some store to pay someone to fix it, no matter how minor. And that's not just a "for instance". I've worked with several people exactly like that.

Kurt Lang wrote:

That's like the desktop. From day one of the Mac desktop, the default has been to hide drive icons, and still is!

On the contrary, on the classic Mac OS the drives were ALWAYS visible on the desktop (and so was the trash can).

And by drives I mean 3.5" 400KB disquettes - yes, I am that old.

Hmm, I must not have gone back quite far enough. That I can recall, Simple Finder was always the default. That included no desktop icons.

I knew you know this. It was rhetorical. 😎

My only point is, I believe Apple wants to make their products as accessible to everyone that they can. In the process it makes certain things for experienced users less accessible. But since we are experienced users we know how to get around. 😉

As was said, it's for the masses. I too know people who feel that an on/off button is about a technologically challenging and they can manage and think computers should be like Star Trek where you can utter a poorly phrased request and it will solve world hunger.

One target is to stupid-proof the OS. The top level of the drive is not where it is at. You have to dig three layers down to the user folder, and then probably to the folders inside of that and those are in the sidebar. You put the top level of the drive in front of somebody and they will probably wonder what that 9GB of stuff in "System" is and drag it to the Trash. It started with hiding the user library which oddly is something to which even the novice occasionally needs access.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

yes, I am that old.

Me too. 😝

Years ago someone asked me what kind of computer they should buy that was easy to use. I told them, buy a Mac. Less than a week after they bought it it no longer worked. Why? because one of them thought the System Folder (which used to be right on the desktop) made the desktop look messy so they tossed it in the trash (yes, you could throw away the system then). 😁

Google around to get a pre-made copy of the old disk utility from Yosemite that works along side the new one in EL Cap. Do not overwrite the one in EL Cap. Place it somewhere else. It works fine.

I knew you know this. It was rhetorical. 😎

Sorry if I didn't get that across in my post. Yup, I did get that. 🙂

@ Limnos,

One target is to stupid-proof the OS. The top level of the drive is not where it is at.

That's for sure! Structurally, OS 9 and earlier were simpler. Or at least as simple as a computer could be. Unix under OS X added a lot of complexity that came with the added security. That is the main thing. As "simple" as computers comparatively are to use than they used to be, they are still incredibly complex underneath.

Apple, like many others, have invoked the 95% design paradigm. Develop a system

that will meet the needs and provide as little issue as possible for the 95%. If that

means tossing functionality/features that the 5% rely on, use, or otherwise find convenient,

too bad!

Which is how it should be if they want to stay in business.