Well, as far as multiple displays is concerned MacOS UX has been broken since day one. It is absolute lunacy to have the menu bar for an application pinned to the first display while the application opens in a second or third display.
Our Macs have two or three 24 inch monitors, which makes you realize just how dumb the whole thing is. If you are working on an application on the left monitor and need to access a menu item you have to mouse all the way over to the middle monitor and then back. Do this 200 times a day and you very quickly realize just how stupid the whole thing is.
Furthermore, the menu bar might not necessarily contain menu items for the application you are looking at because you happen to have clicked on the desktop or another application.
Yes, of course, you can mentally manage the concept. That does not mean that it is a good idea.
Linux, Irix, Solaris, Windows and other OS GUIs have gotten this right from the very start. The application is a self contained window and every instance travels with its own controls. No need to mouse across 72 inches of monitors to get to a menu.
The menu bar is part of a hierarchy of application > window, rather than window = application instance. Because of this, the self-contained application window is a bitch to deal with when using different windows across different applications. I have to use Dreamweaver due a bunch of pre-written macros. I can't ever, ever, ever take a tab out of Dreamweaver and pair it with a specific preview firefox window (at least under Windows).
That's not to say that the Mac's window model is without fault. But, it is much easier to patch to one's liking: http://manytricks.com/witch/
Multiple monitors. Why try to cram it all into one? It makes no sense. It is not uncommon for me to have ten applications open and actively in use. In some cases (say, Excel) multiple files open. On our engineering workstations we have a minimum of three 24 inch monitors. Going back and forth between applications, dragging and dropping data and selecting which application instance you need to work with is fluid and fast. Your Dreamweaver and Firefox example has a trivial solution once you add a second screen.
If you are working on an application on the left monitor and need to access a menu item you have to mouse all the way over to the middle monitor and then back.
If you're using it more than 10 times a day you shoud make a custom keyboard shortcut using the "Keyboard" preference pane or one of those custom apps.
I find the menu bar a very interesting part of the Mac. It gives visual identification on which app has focus, it is mechanically easy to access (just throw your mouse arrow up, no aiming), doesn't pollute the document window. I learned to see it more as a "reference" point (what's the shortcut for doing that?) rather than something you should rely on.
Our Macs have two or three 24 inch monitors, which makes you realize just how dumb the whole thing is. If you are working on an application on the left monitor and need to access a menu item you have to mouse all the way over to the middle monitor and then back. Do this 200 times a day and you very quickly realize just how stupid the whole thing is.
Furthermore, the menu bar might not necessarily contain menu items for the application you are looking at because you happen to have clicked on the desktop or another application.
Yes, of course, you can mentally manage the concept. That does not mean that it is a good idea.
Linux, Irix, Solaris, Windows and other OS GUIs have gotten this right from the very start. The application is a self contained window and every instance travels with its own controls. No need to mouse across 72 inches of monitors to get to a menu.