I think it took so long to be implemented in OS X because it's actually not a big benefit when you have a nice windowing system with drag and drop that works everywhere (in fact the benefits of drag and drop are significantly reduced by using virtual screens and the benefit is -- for most users -- outweighed by the cost).
You're the first person I've heard describe OS X as having a "nice windowing system". OS X has many good traits, but I've always thought of the WM as being rather poorly done. As far as I can tell it lacks proper maximization, horizontal/vertical maximization, snapping, mousefocus, intelligent raise behavior, tiling, tabbing, omnipresence, pin-to-top, pin-to-background, keyboard move-resize, and meta-key drag+resize. Not to mention configurable bindings for any of these.
Now there's single-app mode, which I take as a tacit acknowledgement that real maximization instead of "zoom" was a good idea after all. How long did that take, again?
I reallyreally want to like OS X. It does so many things right (focus-stealing, DnD, and copy-paste among them!) It's just so painful to use after having a real WM.
[edit] For reference, I use Openbox; the listed features (except for tiling/tabbing) are what I use everyday. I expect the awesome/ratpoison crowd has slightly different but no less valid criticisms.
Expose is really really good. The biggest problem with Spaces is that it doesn't 'play nice' with Expose.
The maximising the Window thing is a tacit acknowledgement that you're not actually using the full potential of your desktop as a multi-application environment. :-P
If you want to bash a Windowing system that truly deserves it, bash the one from Windows! OS X isn't perfect, but Windows is really really bad. Except for Windows 7, which made big improvements (aka copying OS X) and is now merely really bad.
Are you confusing Windowing System with Window Manager?
I'll give you that Linux has a few better WMs than OS X. (I'm particularly fond of Openbox myself, and was always excited about the elusive 'Enlightenment e17'.)
However, I cannot accept any claim that X is better than Quartz.
> Are you confusing Windowing System with Window Manager?
His comment is fair considering the parent comment was confusing about why it took so long to get spaces (an aspect of window management) because of elements of the windowing system.
