> When you maximize a window it doesn't maximize to the full screen like it does
> in windows, hence not making it much of a maximize.

In OS X, if you maximize a window, it makes it take up the full screen except for the dock at the bottom, but if you put that on auto-hide then it does take up the full screen. There are no window handles so the window matches up to the border. You can still see the title bar, but that's because you couldn't see the name of the window you were on otherwise because the top of the screen is taken up by the menu. You can switch between open programs with apple+tab and switch between the program's windows with apple+~. Apple is in the same place as Alt on mac keyboards.

I constantly use GarageBand maximized as well as Firefox.

Maximized: