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Impressions from a first-time Mac user

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Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#61
> give anything to replace macOS with Linux (or even Windows)

I agree that this was a fair, measured post, but I find it bizarre that a Linux enthusiast would ever want to replace their Mac OS with Windows when the biggest complaint is... window management? I feel like they left something out here.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#62

All OS's should come standard with sophisticated windows management. I use BetterSnapTool on my Mac, have done so for close to 10 years now. I honestly don't know what I'd do without it--and I'm not doing too much fancy. But keyboard shortcutting to maximize, minimize, or tile (left right/corners/thirds) elimintes 90% of the fiddly annoying this about dealing with the too many windows I have open. But even this basic…

I'm pretty sure macOS was designed to have every window in fullscreen 100% of the time and the user would three finger swipe to switch windows. Seems like having a shitty experience when trying to do anything besides fullscreen is kind of the point, "do things the way we want you to or suffer."

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#64
post #7

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 can't get used to the fact that I can't alt-tab to a minimized window. Nor can I figure out how to switch to any particular minimized window. You have literally no way of knowing that a minimized window exists other than right-clicking the dock icon, or going to the "Window" menu after you switched to the application. The dock was fine 20 years ago when they released OSX, but they've literally done nothing to make it better since then.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#65
post #31

I tried the m1 mini when it came out because I was hyped by all the m1 HN talk. This was my first time using macOS and besides the window management what I loathed was having to re-learn all the shortcuts I've been using for 20+ years, how no one mentions this is baffling to me. I tried to make it work more like "normal" windows / linux but I didn't find any good options and I always felt like I was running with my s…

It just takes time to get used to. I used Linux for a long time before switching to a Mac about seven years ago. I nearly returned my new MacBook to the store because I felt hamstrung by the UI. But in a few weeks, once I'd become accustomed to the application-centric windowing model, the keyboard shortcuts, and especially the touchpad gestures, it all clicked and I wouldn't go back now.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#66
post #5

Someone needs to tell him about option-click on the maximize button. Most of these "rants" really just amount to: "this different OS doesn't work exactly the same way as the OS I am used to." That's why 3rd party utilities exist to give you the functionality you wish to have. That formula cuts both ways.

I set up a custom "All Applications" keyboard shortcut for the Zoom command, it's really handy.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#67

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.

Probably because most of the "windows in the application" these days is just the web browser.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#68
post #32

I always find this interesting, my primary computing device that I do actual work on is Mac (technically I guess my primary is my iPhone or iPad if I go by time but I am not counting that). But I have a Windows computer for gaming and a few Linux machines lingering around. I constantly find myself frustrated by Windows because I am just used to how Mac operates. I have been using it as my primary compute device since…

Yea, I think what OP is missing is that macOS was designed to be used with a trackpad. I think three fingers up is what they want when they alt tab. The green button makes the window full screen because using three fingers sideways and the occasional three fingers up is the best way to manage windows on small laptop screens. Even on my external monitor I have every window fullscreen. This was admittedly hard to get u…

I don't think it was necessarily designed this way to begin with, they didn't really add these gestures until well into OSX I don't think.

But at the very least they have leaned very heavily into it. Considering they sell 2 devices to add gestures when you are not using a laptop.

I find myself very rarely using cmd-tab because it just doesn't fit my use. I can either more quickly do that my moving my mouse to the bottom and accessing the Dock or 3 fingers up and everything pulls out. Throw in hitting "space" to quickly zoom into a window if I just need a quick piece of information but not open the app completely.

I am largely the same with 3 monitors. At least 2 tend to be full screen apps with my center one being my mix of things, but it depends on what is happening. Each monitor has a desktop of scratch things (like notes) that I don't want full screen but just sits somewhere. The native tab support in the OS for things like VSCode helps a lot with this.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#69
post #34
post #5

Someone needs to tell him about option-click on the maximize button. Most of these "rants" really just amount to: "this different OS doesn't work exactly the same way as the OS I am used to." That's why 3rd party utilities exist to give you the functionality you wish to have. That formula cuts both ways.

Or double-clicking the window chrome.

That works... most of the time.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#70

> 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.

>Windows and MacOS don't have anything

Doesn't Windows have two official ones? Chocolatey and Winget?

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