The idea behind it is that you can simply close any window without having the application quit. I know that – especially for used-to-be PC users – this seems to be a strange concept, but actually I like the fact that e.g. I can close my iTunes window without the music stopping. Otherwise I would only be able to minimise the window and thus filling up my dock with minimised windows.

But, admittedly, there are a lot of other applications that I would just like to quit completely as soon as the last window is closed, just like on a PC.

Back on OS9 there used to be an incredibly smart thing called “QuitIt”, which was a freeware application which did just that. You could even set the applications it should quit on window close and which not, even with confirmation messages. Very handy.

Unfortunately an OSX version was never released and honestly I still miss it sometimes.

The workaround: I use Butler, setting a simple shortcut – F1 in my case – to quit the front application. I got so used to it that the above mentioned “problem” is no longer an issue…

Björn

As for Photoshop it can run very similarly to the Mac version and I see no purpose to not have the grey area in the background, it kind of annoys me when I can see other things to distract my attention.

1) “A consistency thing” — but it’s NOT consistent. The System Preferences app, for example, closes when you hit the red button.

2) Maybe Internet Explorer has one instance for each window, but there are plenty of Windows applications that do not. Firefox is one application, which closes when you close the last window. Many Windows applications run in the system tray, and stay there when you close the window.

However, I find the red button’s behaviour far more predicatable than the green button’s.

It makes perfect sense. :-)

http://www.asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html

The difference, though, is in single-window applications. For example, take Thunderbird. There is only one windw — and thus, no “inner” and “parent.” On Windows, when you close the one window, Thunderbird is quit. On Mac, when you close the one Window, Thunderbird keeps running — just without a present GUI.

I think there are advantages to both system and don’t necessarily favor one over the other — what bugs me about Apple’s setup is that it’s not consistenent. There are some apps that definitely quit when you close the last (or only) window. I’m at a PC right now and can’t name them off the top of my head, but they do exist, and many of them are even Apple’s own programs. Address Book comes to mind as one I think quits when you close the window (but like I said, I can’t verify that right now). GarageBand presents yet another paradigm: when you close the window in it, a mandatory open dialog box pops up, forcing you to open another file. So, what it boils down to is this:

- In most applications, you can close all window, but the app remains running.
- In some, when you close the last window, the app quits.
- In at least one (GarageBand), when you close the last window (which, in this case, is a song file), you get an “open” dialog making you open another song.

It’s just not consistent. It bugs me (even though, like I said, I’m a Mac-lover).

So really, cmd-w and ctrl-w do the same thing, which is close the inner window. It just doesn’t “feel” like an inner window on the mac because the parent window is treated / behaves more transparently.

At least, that is how it is in Firefox, not sure about safari or other Mac browsers.

http://mboffin.com/post.aspx?id=1306

and…

http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2004/02/16/os-x

The second is what sparked my post and is LOADED with those little niggling things a Windows user will run into.

I can see how new-comers from the windows world would be confused by this.

I think the fact that applications like Windows Media Player exists when you close the window is just an example of Microsoft trying to build their software the same way on both platforms, when both platforms are really completely different in the way they handle applications and their GUI.

Apparently though you are just closing the window and not the application, which I guess means that OS X uses a ‘window’ paradigm in comparison to Windows which uses a full application-type paradigm.

I would phrase it the other way around. OS X is application-centric, and the window is merely an interface to the application. Windows is window-centric, as the application is depending on having a GUI up front.

You can get similar actions going in Windows using Java. If you don’t write your Java application right, you can hit the big X in the upper-right to close the window, but leave the application running. I’ve done it before and been very confused by it. :D

I do believe there are performance gains by, as Brian said, having only one instance of the program running with multiple windows, rather than multiple instances.

What it boils down to this is: that little red “x” doesn’t quit your program — it closes your window. If you only have one window active in a particlar application, there is a possibilitiy that closing it will also quit the application. But, most of the time it will not, and you wil still need to Cmd-Q or File>Quit to get it out of memory.

It’s definitely confusing — and I grew up on macs.

Load times for applications were slow, especially since the first macs had no hard drives and loading everything off floppies. You could very well want to close all your windows without quiting the program you are in.

Not to say that having a global menu bar affixed to the top of the screen is simply a historical artifact. You always know where your menubar is, no matter what application you are in. Getting to it is very fast too, all you have to do is fling your cursor to the top of the screen.

Of course, a lot of Applications actually do quit when you close all their windows. Not everyone follows the Apple HIG (sometimes not even Apple themselves).

This link is for developers, but it might be helpful:

http://developer.apple.com/ue/switch/windows.html#useASingleMenubar

Yeah, I usually ignore the red button all together and go with command+q and command+w.

To add to the confusion, there are some apps that hitting the red bead will close completely. Windows Media Player, for example, and … I forget the name, the app I use to test for hotspots and their strength.

I always use Cmd + W to close windows and Cmd + Q to close programs though.

I like it because you can leave things like Safari or Mail open, without having a window there taking up space. They are still in memory so they open a lot quicker than if I quit and start the app each time.

I also like the fact that, especially in photoshop, all the windows are free floating, and you don’t have that large grey background behind everything.