Leopard and the puff of smoke

On the eve of Leopard’s release, with it’s very own 300 (that is thankfully sans shouting Scottish bloke, unlike the shit film), one thing plagues me. (This is aside from the ‘is it worth the upgrade’ – I’ve already answered that and shelled out for it.)

No, the question I have, the impassioned plea even, is, will this release of Mac OS X finally lay to rest one of the biggest crimes ever commited in the name of design. Something so hideous it’s possibly on a par with Comic Sans. Something so reprehensible it sends shudders down my spine every time I have the misfortune to gaze upon it’s uglyness. Something that has hampered my experience of Mac OS X since Cheetah’s 10.0. A thing that, to quote Commodus in Gladiator,

…Vexes me. I’m terribly vexed…

I cannot be the only person in the world that is praying on bended knee that Apple finally see sense and change that bastard puff of smoke animation when you remove something from the Finder’s sidebar or the Dock) (or ‘the Cock’ as Tom Broxton used to disparagingly call it).

All of Mac OS X looks so lovely, even the brushed metal occasionally has it’s place, but this, this is an abomination, an afront to the visual desirability that Apple usually holds so dear.

Why Apple, why?