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Impressions from a first-time Mac user

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Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#561

Post by wink »

majormajor wrote: post #350
CSMastermind wrote: post #257

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…

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…

You can ignore the "four" and just say "more than one". And that's absolutely not uncommon in work environments.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#562

Post by dsego »

kaetemi wrote: post #333

Huh. People actually use window snapping? Interesting. Never seen anyone use it myself.

Side by side view, eg. terminal + code editor. Or when I want two finder windows in sort of a total commander fashion, so I can copy/move hundreds of files around and visually inspect the results so I don't accidentally lose anything.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#563

Post by majkinetor »

jeroenhd wrote: post #192
josho wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do. On Windows it's msi, and Mac it's pkg. But, for whatever reason folks have preferred to build their own package solution instead of learning the OS native approach. I'm guessing because building your own makes for an easier end user CLI experience.

Microsoft made the mistake of adding non-deterministic behaviour to MSI files, because without that the package format is pretty much everything I'd want out of a software packaging system. I think companies wanted to stuff branding and ads into their installers, so MSI files fell out of use. Modern Windows seems to prefer msix and other weird UWP-based formats, but I don't think you can just install those. What Wind…

You can use Chocolatey until WinGet gets some traction. You have everything there and no more clicking around. I haven't started MSI by hand in last 5 years.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#564

Post by wyclif »

knolan wrote: post #560
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.

You don’t even have to use the green zoom button. Just double click the top of the window like in every other OS. The difference is that zooming a window is not the same as maximising. It makes the window as big as the content it contains. Also you can double click the edge of any window to extend it to the edge of the screen. I really don’t get the obsession for tiling windows personally. It’s not part of my workflo…

Apple calls the green button “zoom” in their documentation, but its default function is fullscreen, not zoom.

I've always found that a bit disorienting. I guess Apple just decided that "zoom" is better as a name because it's one short word instead of two.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#565

Post by dsego »

shahbaby wrote: post #484

Windows comes with more than you need. MacOS comes doesn't come with enough.

Oh, let me know when I can select text in a photo and copy/paste it (exists by default in macos) or when I can open a PDF and sign it via my touchpad (by default in macos). Or being able to do pretty advanced video editing in iMovie or record a song in GarageBand (not installed by default, but free and one click away). Or that I can force touch a word and a dictionary dialog pops up explaining what it means without me having to select the word and search for it in google.

On the other hand I can't shit+click select multiple files in icon view or reverse the scroll direction of my mouse without a 3rd party app. In general, though, macos offers more out of the box for the enthusiast than windows.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#566

Post by knolan »

diffeomorphism wrote: post #537
bdougherty wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody seems to know about App Exposé, which you can trigger with ctrl+down. I also have it set for three finger swipe down. You can then use the arrow keys to move between windows if you don't want to use the mouse, and it includes minimized windows as well, which cmd+` does not.

> Nobody seems to know about That seems like a problem.

When you go into the trackpad settings there are little videos showing what each gesture does. App Exposé is right there. I don’t know how more discoverable it can be.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#567

Post by bumblebritches5 »

mastazi wrote: post #469

I think this is a pretty fair article. I'll add one more: in MacOS there is no unified way to get to the beginning or end of a line. In Linux and Windows this is done with the Home and End keys. In Mac, there are some shortcuts but they are not universal, what works in terminal may not work in a browser textarea and so on. Some programs interpret the same shortcut as "go to the very end of the text (as in a PgDown ke…

No post body was provided.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#568

Post by Xevi »

Rant

I switched to a Mac Mini M1 in December and it has been a complete pain in the ass. First of all, to even be able to use it I had to switch out my monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers because Apple didn't like them. And then I had to buy an extra dock to get more ports. On top of that I've also had to install a bunch of third party software to get basic functionality like window snapping (Moom), and a functioning scroll wheel and the ability to turn off mouse acceleration (SteerMouse). And don't get me started on the absolute bonkers ways you toggle between applications, or the fact that you need to click TWICE on a window when switching between windows, if you want to type something in it. My desk is absolutely cluttered with application windows, because minimizing them apparently makes Mac treat them as if you never want to see them again, which messes with my voice control software. Oh, and why is there no delete button? And why do I need to be so precise when clicking on desktop icons, instead of just having a bounding box around them? Who thought that was a good idea? And while we're on desktop icons, why on earth aren't they sorted and fixed to a grid by default? Does anyone like unorganized items in folders?? Another thing that annoys me is pop-up windows with no freaking option to close them other than clicking "done" or whatever. What if I don't want to apply any of the changes I've made? Why can't I just cancel?? I could go on and on about UI inconsistencies and various bugs I've encountered. Needless to say I'm switching back to Windows (which isn't without its own problems) next time I'm buying a computer.

This mac has made my RSI go haywire. I've tried to do everything the "Apple way", but it's just always so clunky and slow compared to Windows.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#569

Post by KyeRussell »

chillacy wrote: post #356
JoelMcCracken wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“France is really dumb because I can’t understand what they are saying. Look, even England does it the way I know!”

"Impressions from a first-time english speaker" > A little background on me: I’ve been speaking French and Spanish my entire professional life ... > The Bad > I’m accustomed to gendered pronouns in both French and Spanish, so it was nice to see that in English. However, the lack of gendered nouns is awful. French and Spanish both have what I would call “sane” gendered nouns (shown in this dictionary), where you know…

A fun parallel. Consider the importance being placed on gender to be in part a malleable cultural factor in part perpetuated by language. Plenty on this in the sphere of ‘gender studies’.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#570

Post by kaetemi »

dsego wrote: post #562
kaetemi wrote: post #333

Huh. People actually use window snapping? Interesting. Never seen anyone use it myself.

Side by side view, eg. terminal + code editor. Or when I want two finder windows in sort of a total commander fashion, so I can copy/move hundreds of files around and visually inspect the results so I don't accidentally lose anything.

I always just size the windows as needed. Snapping for me is just this annoying non-feature that attempts to be more clever than me and interferes with my flow.
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