Stacks and better translucent windows

[ewx]

I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard.

The first thing I noticed was that it was significantly faster to start up and log in than its predecessor. Unlike certain other operating systems it does seem to be genuinely starting faster too, rather than just getting you to a desktop quickly and then running like a drain while it finishes actually starting up. The Startup Disk system preferences pane is something else that's visibly faster.

Exposé is more tidily organized. In Leopard when the windows shrank to fit they would be rather haphazardly jumbled up. In SL they are in one or more lines, with iconized windows below. Having the iconized windows appear from nowhere is initially a little disconcering (the rest shrink smoothly into place).

Stacks are improved too to the point that I've stopped having my frequently used applications in the dock and instead put just /Applications there and started programs from there. While doing this I noticed that Apple have made a better translucent window, albeit not in a way that they use everywhere. Ordinarily I find translucent windows completely pointless as if the background and foreground are both text-heavy (which they often are for me) the background text distracts from the foreground:

But in a stack, the background is heavily blurred, making it much less intrusive:

Comments

[fanf]

I use Spotlight to start apps.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, this idea is nicked from Vista/Windows 7's transparency. Bet we don't here the usual outcry the Mac weenies seem to make every time MS nick a good idea from Apple.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Because, what, it's about 1500 to 1?

[nunfetishist.livejournal.com]

But, can you turn off the drop shadows again? And as for the transparency; give me opaque any day. Last time I checked, real postits weren't translucent :)