My main machine is a Mac, but being a developer I also have occasion to run Linux and Windows. I like Mac the best, but it has its warts. Linux and Windows likewise have their bright spots. I like Macs best because its the best platform for me for all my hobbies: software development, photography, and making music. As always, YMMV. That's why we used to call these thing personal computers.
How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
71–80 of 638 posts
Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#72Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#73The entire thing used to be super intuitive and consistent. Disk images were the mac equivalent of a compressed folder, e.g. zip. And I find the "compressedd virtual usb-stick" idea a lot more intuitive than the whole "we cram files into other files and loose all metadata" shenanigans. Apps used to be simple files in the finest unix tradition. No weird installer that does who knows what, no wizards, no special system…
Or "uninstalling" apps, always kind of confusing on Windows. Not on the Mac. Still, I think it's not that the Mac is not that intuitive any more, it's that Windows has more or less caught up.
Uninstalling on macOS is actually pretty tough, since ancillary files are not cleaned up. I end up installing a set of third party utilities whenever I set up a new Mac that help me with a bunch of the weird stuff that isn't handled by default. (including AppCleaner and ShiftIt for uninstallation and window management, respectively).
Windows makes it pretty easy with the one "add or remove programs" section of the control panel.
Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#74Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#75What are those images on the "Command" and "Option" keys supposed to express?
Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#76I bought a Mac in 2014 after a lifetime of using Windows. I never understood why people called it easier to use than Windows. Maybe this sentiment is a holdover from an earlier era when people would mindlessly run executables and zip files attached in emails and AIM messages. From a UI perspective, it's 90% identical to windows. From a UX perspective though, something fundamental like Finder is still not up to the jo…
As someone who recently switched to MacOs (not by their own choice) there are hundreds of little annoying, broken or inconsistent OS things I find. One of my favorites just happened yesterday with finder - I was trying to figure out how to rename a file, well the usual fx keys aren't doing it so the common process was to go to the toolbar context menu where hotkey is indicated next to the action's text. Rename for so…
> well the usual fx keys aren't doing it
When you say the 'usual' function keys... do you really mean some other system's function keys? Why would you expect macOS to use the same function keys as a different system? There's no standards body for these things.
Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#77yes they are, that is why they are popular among non-tech people
They have a tiny market share worldwide. Apart from the USA not many people in the world own them.
Exclude business PC’s and OSX’s market share is surprisingly large. Tablets and smartphones have eaten into the ultra cheap PC sales in a big way which has been shifting the market.
Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#78Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who recently switched to MacOs (not by their own choice) there are hundreds of little annoying, broken or inconsistent OS things I find. One of my favorites just happened yesterday with finder - I was trying to figure out how to rename a file, well the usual fx keys aren't doing it so the common process was to go to the toolbar context menu where hotkey is indicated next to the action's text. Rename for so…
> well the usual fx keys aren't doing it When you say the 'usual' function keys... do you really mean some other system's function keys? Why would you expect macOS to use the same function keys as a different system? There's no standards body for these things.
it was just muscle memory but that's not the point.
Re: How Intuitive Are Macs Really?
#80Window management is even greater s*show. To the point that you need 3rd party apps to make it usable.
The fact that you can’t create a key binding for a window or even name it is ridiculous.
I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure you can't name windows in Gnome, KDE, and Windows either.