With respect: it's far from the same thing. There's great value in the two operating systems sharing some code and some design principles, but for some things: a line must be drawn.
Whilst I'm not averse to rule-breaking, I'm wary of any majority rule that
totally disregards the reasoning of minorities.
The iCal sidebar example
Removed from the app, I don't know Apple's reasons but it became significantly more difficult to use the app.
In a later version of the OS, sidebar functionality was regained.
Then again, Apple removed the sidebar. Around that time,
popovers were
a novelty – and in some apps, popovers were both beautiful and functional. In iCal, popovers were both of those things, but their functionality
could not match that of the sidebar. It's reasonable to assume that only a small minority of users were bothered by the reduced functionality. Reasons to not remove the sidebar were given to Apple long before the OS was released, but the release went ahead with reduced functionality causing significant bother to a small minority of users.
It would have been reasonable to allow the sidebar as an alternative/complement to a popover. Instead, Apple disallowed it.
In a later version of the OS, sidebar functionality was regained.
So. The same mistake twice – and I'm sure that for each time it was made, there were good reasons to do so from a majority of Apple developers and users – but a majority does not necessarily make something right.
It's good manners to respect developers (and users) but please,
we must not simply trust the developers!
Feedback from Apple's
OS X Beta Program should be an opportunity for the developers to
put right, in pre-release seeds of the OS, significant wrongs.
Kicking the ball around – for fun, with a serious edge
In the screenshot below, a mock-up, the appearance of the window is sleeker than Apple's original design. There's enough on screen to know that it's a window to Macintosh HD so hey, I removed the title bar. Something other than a title bar can be used to drag and move the window. I could even define (but not make visible) a drag bar that's as deep as a title bar was, and put that invisible bar
inside the frame. So whilst the background colour is perfectly consistent, clicking in white space might have not the same effect as clicking in white space.
Would you trust my design? Set aside any stubbornness. Simply give it time; you'll get over it
