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Impressions from a first-time Mac user

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Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#261

Post by rbanffy »

brimble wrote: post #252
rbanffy wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had exactly the opposite experience. Homebrew chewed up my computer a couple times back when it installed everything alongside OS files. The only sane way to get rid of it was to reinstall the OS.

> back when it installed everything alongside OS files. Whoa—I don't recall it ever doing that. Some time before ~2012?

Not sure. It made the system binary folders user writable. It stopped doing that when Apple forced them by adding some extra security measures around /usr/bin.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#262

Post by agentgumshoe »

darkteflon wrote: post #169
teilo wrote: 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.

Absolutely - these ranty invectives are so tedious. The idea that something is fundamentally broken because it doesn’t work the way you expect it to. I struggle through each of my Windows sessions despite having used Windows since the 80s and having built probably more than 10 PCs over the past 30 years. I don’t blame Windows for that. I daily drive MacOS and that’s what I’m used to. That’s a me problem, not a Window…

These responses are also tedious, in that a negative opinion can't be valid and the user just didn't 'do it properly.' The author went to the effort of providing the rationale for his opinion at least.

Per your second point. Why is that not a Windows problem? Because a lot of other people don't experience it? Just because a whole heap of people can work with Windows might mean they just got used to it, rather than it was good in the first place, which goes back to your first sentence.

No OS is 'good' for everyone, as no OS is 'bad' for everyone.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#263

Post by zmmmmm »

olyjohn wrote: post #64
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.

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…

The one thing I'll say I like about the weird minimize behaviour is that I do a lot of screen sharing and it's pretty nice that once I minimize a window that it's pretty hard for it to suddenly pop back into view. On Windows I have to pretty much just religiously quit applications before I share screen but on OSX it's usually sufficient just to minimize them.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#264

Post by samatman »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #194
urbandw311er wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so you can actually do this but the keyboard sequence is a bit bonkers. * Hold down Command and press Tab until the application icon representing the minimised window is highlighted. * Release Tab but DONT let go of Command. * Now press Option too so you are holding down Command + Option * Now release Command so you are just holding down Option * Finally release Option Amazingly this will then maximise the window…

You can also tab to the application, hit the up arrow and use the arrow keys to select the minimized window then hit enter. In fact, my command-tab workflow is: command-tab to open the Switcher and then arrows to switch application/window

I did not know you could do this, and have been following command-tab with control-down for years now. Thanks!

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#265

Post by sircastor »

I’m always amused when people bring up package managers as a complaint about macOS. I like them, and use them of course, apt on linux machines, homebrew on Macs. It’s great, super useful for what I do.

However I feel like pointing out that no one who uses a computer for mundane tasks like surfing, writing email, watching videos, posting pictures, etc. cares remotely what a package manager is, or how well it works.

Package managers feel like they live exclusively in the realm of developers and Linux aficionados. And I see people complain about it as though they just bought a house to discover it doesn’t have toilets.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#266

Post by nneonneo »

olyjohn wrote: post #64
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.

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…

I minimize windows on purpose if I want to completely ignore their existence but not close the window. For example, Terminal windows that are running background processes that I don't need to attend to, VMWare windows for headless VMs that I only SSH into, and the like. It's nice because they don't show up when I open the app, and basically cannot unminimize without explicit action.

Most of the time, though, I don't bother minimizing windows on macOS, whereas I minimize windows often on Windows. Although they're similar actions, they wind up serving different functions, and trying to treat minimized windows on macOS like minimized windows on Windows is just a recipe for frustration.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#267

Post by brimble »

rbanffy wrote: post #261
brimble wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> back when it installed everything alongside OS files. Whoa—I don't recall it ever doing that. Some time before ~2012?

Not sure. It made the system binary folders user writable. It stopped doing that when Apple forced them by adding some extra security measures around /usr/bin.

Man, that blows. I find the current model (and only one I can remember? Maybe I did use it when it worked that way, and just didn't realize it) of keeping all user packages totally separate from the core system and just linking them in better and safer than what e.g. most Linux package managers do—now that I'm used to my package manager not really being able to mess up my base system, I wish all the rest worked that way, too :-/

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#270

Post by jonnycomputer »

zmmmmm wrote: post #250
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?

Most annoying for me is there is no simple way to simply search for files matching a name in a folder. Attempting to search using Finder insists on bringing up a giant system wide search that indexes content of files, emails, every stupid thing that contains anything like the phrase I looked for. So imagine I am sharing my screen and I try to just find a simple file and it's spewing the contents of my private emails…

Well, if Finder is in the folder, and you enter a search, then I see three options reading to just search in the folder. It pops up between the command bar and the folder contents.
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