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macOS Monterey

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Re: macOS Monterey

#341

Post by nawgz »

concinds wrote: post #275
nawgz wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are secret features better than the now-discoverable option of simply shutting it off and turning it back on? It's an all-time computing classic and now it's using the UI classic toggle language. This seems superb to me.

Turning bluetooth on and off doesn't reset anything, so it doesn't help when people have deeper problems with their Mac's bluetooth.

Ok, I understand. That is a regression. The UI piece as a whole is still superior in my opinion, wrt UX at least, even if this is a regression in functionality

Re: macOS Monterey

#342

Post by jrochkind1 »

aikinai wrote: post #264
EamonnMR wrote: post #185

If any apple product managers are reading this, the biggest thing holding MacOS back is that it global searches when you search a folder. I know there's a config setting for it, but dammit I want the default to be local file name search and full text search should be an off-by-default option, and search the whole hard drive should be a different also off by default option.

What any the fact that Spotlight is terrible at finding files and is now just trying to be a bad version of Google?

seriously, why is spotlight still so bad at finding files?

Re: macOS Monterey

#343

Post by ricardobeat »

beders wrote: post #116

It is frustrating to see how stagnant desktop OS's have become. Both macOS and Windows 11 have added incremental features that are surely nice to have, but no one dares to improve on the human-computer-interaction which has remained the same for decades now. With the advances in AI and the ridiculous compute power of modern CPUs, we should be able to have OSs that are Digital Assistants. Just one example: - file mana…

A human assistant would have endless trouble with that “plan a trip to Dallas” request. When/why? For how long? What kind of accommodation? Your preferences may vary a lot depending on the purpose of the trip, budget, and so on. It’s a pipe dream.

On not having files, you may not remember that iOS did go that route until ~2018, and it was terrible. Tying documents to a single app, proprietary formats and awkward sharing facilities made for a very poor experience. I’m glad they returned to sanity and introduced the Files app.

As others have mentioned, a lot of these concepts predate modern OSes and are tied to universal HCI principles. Some of the best work in the area was done in the 60s.

Re: macOS Monterey

#344

Post by smoldesu »

zepto wrote: post #324
fnord123 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reboot for an upgrade happens by holding a spin lock until it overheats and reboots. This happens every time on multiple computers so I think it's intentional(?) but the crash reports are pretty wild. No official package manager. The Macbook cases ground through the user when they're on an insulated surface (there is no ground pin on the Macbook power adapters). Audio crackles when the machine grounds through the use…

What do you want from an ‘official’ package manager?

For one, it would at least solve the issue of MacOS' coreutils being perpetually outdated. Secondly, it would be a nice way for developers to skip the burning dumpster fire otherwise known as the App Store when distributing basic apps, without having to download untrusted third-party software.

As for specific features, I'd really like to see a list of all the different MacOS components so I can remove the things I don't care about (iMessages, Photos, Facetime, etc.) like I can do on all my Linux boxes. It would be nice to have integration with MacOS' various distribution formats too, and while we're asking I'd love to see a declarative approach like NixOS, that would really put MacOS head-and-shoulders above your average Linux distro.

Re: macOS Monterey

#345

Post by memco »

tfsh wrote: post #300
nsonha wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think window management in Mac leaves much to be desired (hot key and snapping floating windows). But associate fullscreeen window/split with a new workspace is actually one thing it does right. I installed an addon on Gnome just to emulate that. Split is kind of useless with an ultrawide monitor though, I wish it was 3 columns

If you're looking for a good OSX window manager, Yabai [1] is excellent. If you're willing and allowed too you can get greater control by disabling SIP. However even with system integrity enabled (which bars access to certain WindowServer APIs - space control, removing shadows, multi-monitor integrations) Yabai functions great. It uses a messaging passing API to interface with a local service, so it's completely prog…

Amethyst is another option, but doesn't require disabling SIP: https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst. Does require accessibility permissions though.

Re: macOS Monterey

#346

Post by dev_tty01 »

neither_color wrote: post #310
0xFACEFEED wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need this so badly. True story: I've been eagerly awaiting a new Macbook to completely rid myself of Adobe software. Over the past decade I've considered installing Adobe software but always held back because of how intrusive and shady the software is (I checked on friends' computers). I've been able to work around having to edit PDFs and used Figma in place of Photoshop for my very basic graphical needs. Well a fe…

>Once that laptop arrives I'm never touching Adobe software ever again unless there's a way to completely sandbox it. If the ipad versions of illustrator and photoshop have the features you need that's the only way you can avoid all the nagware. I only need to do the occasional edit to a logo or photo so the ipad pro versions are enough and I prefer the pen to a mouse. I've stopped using them on desktop and use https…

This is an excellent Mac PDF editing tool. I'm not affiliated, just a user.

https://pdfexpert.com

I was editing pdf drafts from a publisher and just couldn't stand another minute of dealing with Acrobat. Found this, removed all vestiges of Adobe, and haven't looked back.

I've used Preview a lot, but it just isn't reliable (for me). Apple seems to muck around with the code every couple of versions and break things. Odd.

Re: macOS Monterey

#347

Post by rsync »

josephg wrote: post #322
0xFACEFEED wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need this so badly. True story: I've been eagerly awaiting a new Macbook to completely rid myself of Adobe software. Over the past decade I've considered installing Adobe software but always held back because of how intrusive and shady the software is (I checked on friends' computers). I've been able to work around having to edit PDFs and used Figma in place of Photoshop for my very basic graphical needs. Well a fe…

> Well a few months ago I needed to fill out customs form 5106. This form uses some kind of proprietary Adobe PDF form creation software thing PSA in case anyone doesn't know this: the built-in Preview app on MacOS can be used to fill in any PDF form. You can type into text boxes on some forms. But even if they're not there, you can add text anywhere on a pdf. You just have to drag your own text boxes to wherever you…

Unfortunately, this is incorrect.

I have seen weird pdfs that only display “help” messages when opened in preview… you have to follow a link and then open it in actual acrobat.

Re: macOS Monterey

#348

Post by ttul »

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #290
MrWiffles wrote: post #181

I haven’t seen this anywhere when I’ve looked, so I’ll ask here on the slim chance maybe they really added something I badly want and somebody knows… Is there any application forced sandboxing feature yet? Something users can control to forcibly stop bad behavior from certain “must have” apps. Chrome, for example, has been caught doing entire drive scans on Windows, and I’m not sure I entirely trust Zoom either. So I…

I need this so badly. True story: I've been eagerly awaiting a new Macbook to completely rid myself of Adobe software. Over the past decade I've considered installing Adobe software but always held back because of how intrusive and shady the software is (I checked on friends' computers). I've been able to work around having to edit PDFs and used Figma in place of Photoshop for my very basic graphical needs. Well a fe…

I know this may seem extreme, but you could always run Adobe in a separate MacOS user login to keep it sandboxed. When you don’t need Adobe, just log that user out…

Re: macOS Monterey

#349

Post by fingerlocks »

tuzed wrote: post #328
josephg wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well a few months ago I needed to fill out customs form 5106. This form uses some kind of proprietary Adobe PDF form creation software thing PSA in case anyone doesn't know this: the built-in Preview app on MacOS can be used to fill in any PDF form. You can type into text boxes on some forms. But even if they're not there, you can add text anywhere on a pdf. You just have to drag your own text boxes to wherever you…

That’s not entirely true. Some government forms where I live are shared in a PDF format but are only downloaded and displayed properly when they are opened in Acrobat, and otherwise display a page telling you to download acrobat. I suspect this allows the form to be updated, and see why it might be done, but I still find it very annoying.

I've never seen this before, and I've been using the Preview method described above for 15+ years. I have also never installed an Adobe product on a mac, ever. Do you have a link to a file that can produce this error in Mac Preview? It would be fun to learn how to bypass that.

Re: macOS Monterey

#350

Post by throwaway851 »

MrWiffles wrote: post #181

I haven’t seen this anywhere when I’ve looked, so I’ll ask here on the slim chance maybe they really added something I badly want and somebody knows… Is there any application forced sandboxing feature yet? Something users can control to forcibly stop bad behavior from certain “must have” apps. Chrome, for example, has been caught doing entire drive scans on Windows, and I’m not sure I entirely trust Zoom either. So I…

/usr/bin/sandbox-exec is still on macOS Monterey. It's not pretty, but you should still be able to roll your own sandbox rules and run any arbitrary app with it:

https://mybyways.com/blog/creating-a-macos-sandbox-to-run-ko...

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