Recent convert ... The one thing in OSX that annoys me.

What's the deal with window resizing on this platform? Is there no way to force Safari windows to maximize in OSX? You know as in occupy as much space as possible? It seems to just resize itself to some predetermined/arbitrary size anytime I attempt to.

Lastly ... I hear Firefox sucks on OSX. True story? I don't mind Safari since it has an adblock but I'm just so used to Firefox and find the smartbar pretty nifty.

 

The utility Right Zoom will address exactly this issue for you, and change the green plus button to a window maximize (full screen) capability. Link Here

Firefox 3.5 has no difficulty on OS X, in the vast majority of scenarios. Safari is faster and the address bar is similar to the SmartBar (which I find useful), but many users are caught up in all their extensions from Windows and want to keep them .

 

Thanks!

By the way, out of curiosity .... Is this change possible via the terminal? I've read up on it and it seems it can tweak OS X in almost anyway possible.

 

Haven't a clue on that one, as I'm not that level of power user. Others here might know, however.

RightZoom is a very small background program that won't affect overall performance, so there isn't much reason to not take advantage of it's elegant capability if you need it.

 

it takes 3rd party software to change the functionality of the green button.. yes...

the green button is not a maximize button... there is no maximize button. The button is called the Zoom button. It stretched the window out so that all current content in the window fits without any scrollbars needed... unless the content is too big for the screen. I much prefer it over maximize... I've never like maximize covering up my whole screen with 1 window... but everyone has their own way.

 

Firefox does suck on OSX. I love firefox and all, but I had to drop it because it would lag so bad when I scrolled. Pretty frustrating I'd say.

 

also is there a way to move the minimize/maximize buttons over the the top right of the windows, where they are in Windows 7?

 

Hm I see, I prefer the maximize button when it comes to reading articles online and what not. Having a view of the desktop just distracts me. I guess there's also that little application called Cinch ... It imitates Windows 7's snap feature to the letter.

That's a shame, I love the 'smartbar' feature it had. You visit a site but don't exactly remember the URL ... Type in something vaguely familiar and it pulls it up. No big deal though ... Spotlight does the same thing. Good thing I also used Safari on Win 7 ... No learning curve to overcome.

@Slikdealor: That's no big deal in my opinion, you'll get used to it pretty quickly ... It's all part of the experience I think.

 

One thing I do (and you really only have to do it once) is to manually set a Safari window (for width and height - by dragging the edges manually) and every time you open Safari after that it opens to those parameters automatically. I had set up my Safari window to open taking up 80% of the desktop width-wise and extending from the menu bar all the way down to the dock, did that about a year ago. Shutting down, Sleep etc... does not change it. It works.

 

I think I'll just use Cinch or SizeUp ... It's exactly what I'm looking for.

There's just no getting used to this "Zoom" feature for me.

 

Give it some time, I felt the same once too. Your still adjusting from Windows which took the lazy approach by just maximizing everything to OS X that only opens up enough to do away with scrolling. In reality MS just got you used to wasting extra space on your screen to fill up with nothing.

 

Not really, it is called zoom but it works much differently between applications.
Maximizes to content in Safari, puts iTunes into mini mode, full screen in Mail and iCal, switches between modes in Calculator etc, when it is that inconsistent in Apple apps, it is even more inconsistent in non-Apple apps, since devs don't have a definitive behavior associated to it from Apple.

 

its true apps can make it do whatever they want it to do... some override it to make it useful.

Who needs the little calculator zoomed to fullscreen? why leave the button useless... add a different function to it.

I just explain the default behavior of the button... but its true that any app can use the button however it wants to.

 

I hate firefox on windows as well it never closes for me whenits open, it just stays open and uses over 1GB of ram at times, but I like where chrome is heading, but for now its too glitchy in that some pages arent right...
I like safari, but there is no perfect web browser for me, but safari is the best on os x.

On windows I always open chrome and firefox, firefox for harder more complex websites (homework) chrome for forums, etc

IO wish the green plus could read my mind, sometimes I want maximize and sometime I want zoom