How Intuitive Are Macs Really?

I think this is a common view held by experienced computer users, because they don't consider which parts of their own usage patterns are a component of their advanced knowledge, and which are inherent to all users.

For example: an experienced user is more likely to notice that closing a window in macOS backgrounds the app, and more likely to figure out how to fully exit the app process completely (either via Cmd+Q or menu>Quit). Given that, an experienced user is less likely to grow accustomed to all of their apps being in a backgrounded state, and find Finders forced background state unusual/exceptional.

In contrast, an inexperienced computer user will likely leave all apps they use open all the time (possibly not realising they're running) and as such grow more quickly accustomed to having to Option+N for everything (not just Finder).

There's a lot of such examples in macOS.

> The most intuitive thing is the command line

Are you joking? Searching in a windowed app usally brings up a dialog with various search options that can be ticked. Learning options for grep/awk/sed etc. is incredible tedious.

Like most things, there is a difference between intuitive for person A and person B and this is not the same as whether a power user can invest time learning a tool and then become super fast at it. An expert in Grep could probably find something in a file much more quickly than someone in Windows or MacOS but I would argue many people would find windowed apps more intuitive.

I wouldn't say MS has 'completely' sovlved the installer problem.

"Just download the windows version"

'OK.. am I x86, x64 or ARM? I think it's Windows 10'

'Do I want the zip, the exe, the MSI or standalone?'

It's almost enough just to tell them to use the MS app store.

Very few things are intuitive. Is it intuitive to brush your teeth? No it is not. I spent years brushing my teeth incorrectly and paid for that as a kid until a dentist showed it to me.

Is it intuitive to tie your shoelaces? No, you learn it. Your tie knot?

Is it intuitive learning to read and write? No, it takes years of practice.

Is it intuitive memorizing the presidents or the States of the US, the capitals and countries of the world? I had to learn to memorize much more effective as an adult in order to do things like learning Chinese script. As a kid nobody taught me how to memorize well and I did poorly. As an adult I look like a genius compared with others.

Is it intuitive all the Spanish compound verb tenses, or German people compound separated verbs at the end? No it is not, but Spaniards or Germans do it naturally and without effort.

I find the mac idiosyncrasies way easier to understand than the Microsoft Windows ones.

When I used Windows I used to to the things one way, like going to Control panel, devices or whatever, only for the next version to change it, or having Clippy then removing Clippy, for shutting down the computer do something, and now with surface is something different.

Most people comply about macs however because they have only used Windows for a long time, and they are used to it, like a German complying that compound verbs are together and he is used to ending the phrases with them,backwards.

Macs are strange.

I agree that there's a lot of counter intuitive if not worse UI ideas.

But it's surrounded by tons of superb tricks. Remember the live document preview years ago ?

Also the GUI guidelines made the system visually more appealing.

The compositor is also weird, I cannot really explain but when I use a Mac I don't see layers.. I don't feel like i'm clicking on a button, then an event is sent, then some logic occurs.. maybe it's only subjective bias (can't be 100%) but it feels more direct. Maybe they tailored the graphical subsystem / compositor to ensure extremely low latency I can't say.. but, even after using countless machines and countless desktop environments.. the first time I used a mac I felt something very different. Not better .. but deeply different.