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Impressions from a first-time Mac user

loganmarchione.com

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Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#11

Post by Sharlin »

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #2

Despite the warning, I didn't find it nearly as "ranty" as the author cautioned, and instead seemed like a fairly comprehensive and fair take on his experience. Having gone through the same thing myself several years ago, the UI aspect of it is something that I'd be curious to see how it develops for the author. I think it is not uncommon for Windows folk to find the windowing experience on macs rather painful, at le…

Agreed. The distinction between applications and windows that macOS/Mac OS has always made was jarring at first, but definitely one of those things that after the initial adjustment simply feel different rather than objectively better or worse.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#13

Post by sylens »

Window management is still my number one complaint with macOS. Windows has only gotten better with it since Windows 7 introduced Aero Snap, and on Linux I can do whatever my heart desires, including using a proper tiling environment.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#14

Post by Sharlin »

> Apple decided to grace the 2021 Macbook Pro with ports that any PC laptop user has had for years (HDMI?! SD card reader?! gasp!).

To be fair, MBPs also had those for years, until Apple in its wisdom decided to ditch them in 2016, along with making other questionable interface decisions that they've been gradually reverting since then. I still use a 2015 MBP partially for that reason. Now it's probably become a time to upgrade to a M1 model.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#15

Post by mattnewton »

ghostpepper wrote: post #12

The window management grips are fair, although I don't find Cmd + ` to be particularly burdensome - it's right above tab on the keyboard, and my KDE Plasma desktop behaves the exact same way.

I don't know any Mac users who don't primarily use expose (or is it mission control now? The thing where it tiles all your windows open and you click the right one). Agree that windows should snap even when not fullscreened but I think expose solves this one better if you hand is already on the trackpad / mouse

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#17

Post by traceroute66 »

The author makes a big deal of lack of snapping. Frankly I've never seen the utility of it on OSs that do have it, infact I've always felt it more of a hinderance than a help (gets in the way, tries to snap when you don't want it to).

The author makes a big deal that you have to do Command+Tab to switch applications, and then Command+` to cycle between windows in that application. Well, frankly I think thats the better way, I'll give you an example:

Let's say (as you do) you have a dozen browser windows open (maybe in more than one browser) ... do you REALLY want to sit there hitting Command+Tab dozens of times ? No. Its quicker to switch to the desired app and then cycle within the app. That way you don't cycle through the browser when you don't need to.

Finally there are some, frankly bizarre, comments in the blog post, such as:

> However, that keyboard doesn’t have the Option (⌥) or Command (⌘) keys like on my Macbook.

Well, yeah, its not Apple's problem if you choose to use a PC keyboard with your Mac. Most people would either use the built-in Mac keyboard or buy an external one (third-party Mac keyboards are available from the usual suspects if you don't fancy an Apple one).

I gave up reading the blog post around that point ("The Undecided" header to be precise).

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#18

Post by uuyi »

This is a story as old as time.

When you’re used to something else the change hurts. I have found it far better to not bring your mental baggage with you and meet the new platform as its level rather than try and make it the same as the old one.

I have gone MOS > RiscOS > WinNT -> Solaris -> Linux -> Win7 -> macOS and it hurt every time.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#19

Post by wmf »

rwc wrote: post #7
ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #2

Despite the warning, I didn't find it nearly as "ranty" as the author cautioned, and instead seemed like a fairly comprehensive and fair take on his experience. Having gone through the same thing myself several years ago, the UI aspect of it is something that I'd be curious to see how it develops for the author. I think it is not uncommon for Windows folk to find the windowing experience on macs rather painful, at le…

Not that it's right or wrong, but the behavior dates back to the very first implementations of Mac OS and Windows. Mac OS has always been an application switching interface, and Windows has been a window switching interface. Takes getting used to the paradigm shift.

I wonder how much of the difference between Windows and Mac comes from the 1980s look-and-feel lawsuits. Microsoft couldn't clone the Mac directly so they had to make it gratuitously different and worse.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#20

Post by lbrito »

>you use what they give you, how they give it to you, using their workflows, barely customizing anything. Apple products are supposed to be revered the world over as the pinnacle of design, used by artists, engineers, professionals, and creators. Why do I feel like there are training wheels on a machine I use for productivity?

Gosh, this is exactly how I felt in a similar situation. Really hit the nail on the head.

I've used Linux for a long time, and for a while I was kindly forced to use a Mac (got a Linux laptop last week). It was a painful experience that took a heavy toll on my productivity.

My impression is that Mac has so many idiossincrasies that fans just assume are "intuitive" while they're really not - they've just been used to it for a long time. Personally I hated, hated the usability. Can't stress it enough, it absolutely sucked. Never again!

Also the benefits compared to non-Macs are diminishing over time. You can get great hardware and battery life with system76 for instance.

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