Bill Bumgarner on Google Earth for Mac

Overall, it looks and feels like an X11 application. That, combined with a overly busy user interface that does not focus on the core display (which is quite fantastic in and of itself) leads to an application that is just terribly unpleasant to use.

Bumgarner is right: it’s not just that the UI widgets look clunky — it’s just not a particularly well-designed app, particularly its use of screen space.

★ Thursday, 12 January 2006