^^^^^^^^^^Which programs? And why? And how do these programs act any differently in any other operating system?^^^^^^^^^^
I hadn't realized that the macos did this. This is one of my biggest reliefs since moving from windows. Now when I'm typing something and another window/program "needs attention" it is not forced to the forefront anymore.(this often times happens when dealing with instant messenging, they need attention all the time depending on who you're talking to)
^^^^^^^^^^What's your actual complaint about this setup?^^^^^^^^^^
I view the dashboard as completely useless considering i've got up to 16 full usable desktops. Why have a half assed second desktop that you can only put select things on?
Most of the gripes are personal. Those are the two that get me.
Programs under Mac OS X do not typically jump to the front and into focus. If the author has a gripe with this happening, it is probably with a poorly written program or a program in which this is a feature. One of the nice things Apple did with Mac OS X was attach the dialog events to their respective windows. Now if anything comes up and the system wants to redirect your attention to another application it bounces that application's icon in the dock until you take care of it.
The dashboard is useful, if you use any of the widgets. If not, it can be easily ignored. There are nifty dashboard widgets for translating languages, converting units of measurement, and reviewing the local weather forecast. That's really what dashboard is about anyhow, quick access to tiny little, often used utilities that are a pain to keep in the dock individually. It also helps that using dashboard doesn't require having to launch every widget individually. It is loaded and ready to go when you need it.