Impressions from a first-time Mac user • Hacker News Board

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#51

Post by lbrito » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:02 PM UTC

scns wrote: post #39

lbrito wrote: post #20

>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…

As a Linux user of 15 years now, i look forward to beeing challenged by using a Mac, since for me energy efficiency is more important than personal comfort.

How does energy efficiency matter here? Or rather, why are you implying that a Mac might be more energy efficient, and enough to matter? Geniuenly curious.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#52

Post by verelo » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:03 PM UTC

loganmarchione wrote: post #9

rwc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OP here. I like this perspective, I never thought about it this way!

As someone that came from a windows world for the first 10ish years of my career, i found this pretty frustrating too. I honestly still do. Sometimes it feels like I just cannot get to the window I want.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#53

Post by deergomoo » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:04 PM UTC

sylens wrote: post #13

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.

Ironically, if you’re looking to snap two windows side-by-side (which I expect accounts for the majority of cases), iPadOS with a keyboard is actually more capable for that specific use case than macOS. I expect the same shortcut will make its way into the next Mac release, I just hope they don’t gimp it by tying it to full-screen mode.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#54

Post by shaan7 » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:04 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #42

As someone who switches around between primarily Windows and secondarily OSX, and GDM3, I find OSX to have the most intuitive window manager. I don't like apps being maximized, and I feel like I can always intuitively find the window I'm looking for in OSX, just under the active window. I find myself arranging windows in Windows like OSX might arrange them. Maybe Apple is just using a different metaphor. I understand…

Funnily enough, for the ~5 years I used macOS, the Window Manager was the most frustrating aspect for me. I could not maximize apps (there was only a weird fullscreen/focus mode), I would accidentally end up dragging a window very often etc. All this gave ended up creating this feeling in my brain that the windows are just "floating" on the screen instead of being tightly bound to an arrangement.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#55

Post by pishpash » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:04 PM UTC

spicyusername wrote: post #28

> Package management This always floors me when I have to use a non-Linux computer. The difference between package management on Linux and other OSes is shocking. Dnf, Yum, Pacman are all so convenient and straightforward. I can't understand why Windows and MacOS don't have anything official that fills this gap.

Because they are platforms on which open-source (including dependencies all the way down) is not the norm? They do have app stores.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#56

Post by macrael » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:04 PM UTC

I have never spent much time on Windows machines but I _love_ cmd-` on the Mac. I mean, I have a whole rant about how its ordering behavior changed on Lion for the worse but I love having windows grouped by application and picking the app I care about before picking the window I care about. I have never understood why so many people use a single chrome window for all of their tabs but I think it comes from not being experienced with cmd-`. For me, I group tabs in my browser by subject, most commonly, by google search query, and then I can close them all at once when I'm done with them.

I've actually started braking more websites out into their own fluid.app so that I can cmd-tab to them specifically. Jira, Github, Gmail (well, when I used gmail) all get their own app so I don't have to go hunting for that single tab in my browser, making my browser window management that much easier.

If you're interested in that, I pair fluid.app with choosy so that links open in the correct fluid browser.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#57

Post by bombcar » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:05 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #10

File management is another one I'd like to add to the list of macOS screwups. How can viewing lists of files and moving them over from one place to another be so complicated?

MacOS apparently caches directory views somewhere, and I can routinely get the "Downloads" folder to not actually show what is in the Downloads folder; often having to resort to "open" on the terminal to access the file. I wish I knew how to force it to refresh the actual contents instead of reading it from the cache.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#58

Post by hbn » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:05 PM UTC

deltarholamda wrote: post #36

traceroute66 wrote: post #17

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 bett…

I get where the author is coming from, but I too prefer the cmd-tab to switch between applications, and cmd-backtick to cycle through windows in the application. I do more of the latter than the former. Neither do I care that much for snapping. What I really prefer is for my windows to be where I left them, and MacOS is pretty good about keeping them that way.

> What I really prefer is for my windows to be where I left them, and MacOS is pretty good about keeping them that way.

Well, it is once you go into Preferences > Mission Control and turn off "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use"

I can't imagine why that's enabled by default, and I always forget to turn it off when setting up a new machine and don't realize it until I get confused for the 50th time, thinking I'm losing my mind cause my desktops are in a different order from what I thought

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#59

Post by sitzkrieg » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:05 PM UTC

imwillofficial wrote: post #38

lbrito wrote: post #20

>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…

“You can get great hardware and battery life with system76 for instance.” The build quality of these two platforms is nowhere, and I mean nowhere close. Apples (heh) and oranges. I’m rooting for system76, but they have a long way to go.

they are cheap clevo laptops at a huge markup

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#60

Post by scns » Mon, Apr 11, 2022, 8:05 PM UTC

traceroute66 wrote: post #17

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 bett…

Sorry for the snark in advance: Are you for real? I do want IDE and documentation in browser next to each other on my 31.5" 1440 screen, thank you very much.