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Impressions from a first-time Mac user

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Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, I don't think most end users are plugging in four monitors, cut and pasting folders, or playing 25 year old games. And all those things are very user-specific and better for some than others in different places. I have a Dell from 2017 that won't run an external monitor with the lid closed out of the box, it'll go to sleep. I tried playing Total Annihilation (another 25 year old one) off GOG on it and it…

> I don't think most end users are plugging in four monitors, cut and pasting folders, or playing 25 year old games. Most users are not cut and pasting folders? What? When I first used a Mac, that was one of the first major difficulties I encountered. Cut and paste was quite unnatural - you had to Copy the source item, and then press COMMAND+OPTION+V to move/paste an item rather than to copy it. It was quite unintuit…

⌘ + drag moves the item

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannot at all relate to this perspective. If you like PopOS, that’s great. But this nonsense about Mac fans being blinded by their love of the brand is the edgelord meme that will not die. MacOS is fine. PopOS is fine. Windows is fine. They each ask you to adopt a UI paradigm because how could they not. It’s natural that transitioning between them is costly. Every time I see comments like this I’m reminded of this gr…

> “The only intuitive interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned.” At least IBM took this to heart.

Hmm, I was using my ThinkPad with the wrong body part

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen this mention between comments and the article, but there is such an option! Or am I thinking of something else? If you go to "System Preferences" > Mouse > unclick "Scroll Direction: Natural". Am I missing something?

Unless they've changed it really recently you can't have a mouse scroll "unnaturally" and a trackpad "naturally". They're tied together for some reason. You need a 3rd party utility to it.

Yes, you can, both options exists in System Preferences, one under Mouse, the other under Trackpad

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#525
I've been using macOS professionally for years, but I still find the application/window management system really strange and clumsy. Quite often, closing the last window of an application doesn't entirely quit the application itself. This is particularly annoying when using chrome or firefox, since I'd expect the last tabs I had open to be there when I next open the application, but if I haven't entirely quit the application it just launches a blank new window. I've gotten used to right clicking the icon in the dock and quitting it that way, but it's cumbersome and inconsistent with how it works on other OSes. You also can't quit Finder entirely this way either for some reason.

I'm sure there's some technical explanation that makes sense, but it feels wrong.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#526
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that did work. But now I just have a massive pile of minimized window icons... and still no keyboard shortcut to switch to them.

On Mac you generally just don’t minimize windows unless you explicitly want that behaviour (sort of hidden and available manually through the dock). It’s just a different workflow.

This seems like a weird comment, what did people do before macs got virtual desktops (which was relatively recent compared to unix)? As a side note I remember discussion with apple users arguing that virtual desktops are not how one "should work" and are useless, now it's "you should use virtual desktops, obviously".

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#527

We're doing cross-plat work and I have a macBook that I sometimes need to use to compile and debug stuff. Even after a couple of years, I dread having to work on the mac. Could be me being used to Windows since the DOS / Win3.1 days, but I feel right at home on Windows - know most nooks and crannies; macOS feels like a kid's toy by comparison (an ATM or kiosk terminal) - it literally feels like being asked to do work…

I grew up using Windows, but have been using macOS and linux primarily for the last 10 years or so. I have a similar "handicapped" feeling when I go back to Windows. I guess it's just what I'm used to?

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#528
post #87

My recommendations for Mac Users: * Put the Dock left or right, vertical space is precious (trust me, do it for a week and then decide) * Setup Hot-Corners (Settings -> Mission Control -> Hot Corners) - Upper-Right Corner as Mission Control (Must be upper right so spaces are immediately shown) - Lower-Left Corner as Application Windows - just fling your mouse curser into the corner (use std. gestures on the trackpad)…

Some alternatives:

An IStats like: https://github.com/exelban/stats very nice looking, highly configurable. Lulu instead of LittleSnitch: https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html and a lot of others tools from the same developer.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#529
post #201
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Apple UX in a nutshell. Hidden power tools are not intuitive.

How is this Apple UX specific? Windows UX and Linux UX work the same way. I'd argue a lot of power user feature are more accessible on macOS than on Windows. The shortcuts and gestures for macOS can be found in the system settings and you can change the shortcuts. How are you supposed to find them on Windows? I think people see macOS as more intuitive because it doesn't offer as much customization and is relatively c…

> How is this Apple UX specific? Windows UX and Linux UX work the same way.

Meanwhile the post just below yours: "I have been using macs for 9 years and never knew ...". So, no. They don't. "Power user" things are much less discoverable on macs.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#530
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 solution is simple. Don't minimize windows. Everything fullscreen on virtual desktops. Three fingers up and choose the window you want if it's one you don't use normally. Three finger swipe between frequently used windows.

Amazing that in the era of N+1K external monitors suggestion is still to use fullscreen windows.
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