Live data from Hacker News

Impressions from a first-time Mac user

loganmarchione.com

271–280 of 756 posts

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#271

There's a lot of people in comments defending macOS saying that the difference in switching between operating systems will lead to a bad experience no matter what and people just need to power through and learn the new system. I'll say that I've used Windows and macOS both personally and professionally for two decades now (longer for Windows). I'd consider myself a power user in both OSes, I know the keyboard shortcu…

[deleted]

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#272
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've been using macs for 9 years and never knew about option+click. Granted I've been using apps for window management since forever as the native tools suck or are almost hidden.

Just FYI, holding down modifiers to reveal additional functions is a common theme in macOS. In the Finder for example, try holding down option and shift while looking through menus for a few examples. Holding down option while clicking the close or minimize buttons in apps will also close or minimize all windows for that app.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#273
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.

Er...macOS has had the ability to put two windows side-by-side in full-screen mode for a few years now. Press and hold on the green "zoom" button and you'll get side-by-side options.

It does not, and likely will never, have options for gluing two windows together and treating them as one in non-fullscreen mode. That seems like a fairly niche desire to me.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#274
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cmd+` switches between windows of the same app, and it's actually more convenient (IMHO) than using Alt+Tab to switch between every one of your windows from every app. There are also a handful of trackpad gestures for showing all the windows in the current app or all of your windows.

[deleted]

Yeah. It might be different on a non-US keyboard layout, though. It switches between windows of the current app, so it will only do anything if you have more than one window open in the current app.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#275

There's a lot of people in comments defending macOS saying that the difference in switching between operating systems will lead to a bad experience no matter what and people just need to power through and learn the new system. I'll say that I've used Windows and macOS both personally and professionally for two decades now (longer for Windows). I'd consider myself a power user in both OSes, I know the keyboard shortcu…

[deleted]

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#276
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...And can you easily change Windows or Linux to behave like macOS, in these fundamental ways?

sometimes you can. A good exemple is Windows 8.1. Depending on who you ask, it's either the best OS Microsoft has ever made or one of the worse. If you know how to install a different Start Menu, you can get >95% of the benefits of W10/W11 with no downside other than game compatibility. If you are stuck with the menu provided by Microsoft, it's almost literally unusable. It's so bad that and hated by literally everyo…

I didn't ask if you could make Windows act like Slightly Different Windows. I asked if you could make it act like macOS. Single menu bar at the top, Alt-Tab changing applications, with another shortcut for cycling through windows of the active application, etc. Since the criticism that it was hard to make macOS act like Windows.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are people doing with their computers that a Mac is so stifling? I'm late to the Mac game, have been on it for about a decade, and was a 15-year Windows and Linux desktop user before that. Still, I don't even know what it might be.

If you are used to using gnu user land you’ll be using a utility like brew to install the gnu components. The bsd counterparts are just off enough to find something a bit off on most of them. I really dislike finder. I’ve not found a sane replacement. Updates for me took 10-15 minutes. Rebooting a few times. Relegated to answering slacks on phone during that time. Office is also awful on the Mac. I wound up using off…

Microsoft Office has gotten better but it’s still bad on Macos. I think it’s by design.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#278
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.

People on corp hardware can't install third party utilities, though. You're basically saying "it's fine that this OS can't do what you need it to do, because I can customize it for my purposes". Not to mention - even if the author could install those third party utilities, now they're pulling untrusted code into a work environment and potentially exposing trade secrets to random software developers. Any IT department paying attention would not okay most of those tools. The stuff the author complains about missing is built in on Windows and Linux and is not particularly niche or complex.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#279

There's a lot of people in comments defending macOS saying that the difference in switching between operating systems will lead to a bad experience no matter what and people just need to power through and learn the new system. I'll say that I've used Windows and macOS both personally and professionally for two decades now (longer for Windows). I'd consider myself a power user in both OSes, I know the keyboard shortcu…

[deleted]

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#280

There's a lot of people in comments defending macOS saying that the difference in switching between operating systems will lead to a bad experience no matter what and people just need to power through and learn the new system. I'll say that I've used Windows and macOS both personally and professionally for two decades now (longer for Windows). I'd consider myself a power user in both OSes, I know the keyboard shortcu…

I have five monitors. When it works, it's great. The other 5% of the time it's a giant pain in the butt. I don't know why this part of macOS is so incredibly buggy. It often forgets the arrangement, the HDR setting, and the refresh rate.

I wrote a little program to detect when it breaks and set it back, but they don't have APIs for refresh rate and HDR so it's only a partial fix.

I've half a mind to take a job there, fix it, and quit.

Post reply on HN