I would just like to add that this thread is an absolute gold mine of information. I haven't been full time on a mac since the corona-induced WFH where I just picked stuff up on my desktop, but recently I've picked up an M1 Air to work on and separate "home" from "work" and a lot of the suggestions here provide incredible insight into slight annoyances that I find within Mac OS. Not that I care that much since like 99% of my time is spent in tmux and I try to avoid the touchpad/mouse like the plague as much as possible, but it's nice to read the insight people provide here.
Impressions from a first-time Mac user
611–620 of 756 posts
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#612As a lifetime windows user that just recently joined a macBook company, i have to say i am indifferent overall, but there have been many alternating moments of delightful surprises and annoyances of unmet expectations in my journey to learn the MacOS UX. I'm a month in now and i have to say that attitude is everything when it comes to learning something new, and, especially when you know something "kind of like this"…
I think the thing that was hardest for me to learn is navigating the folder systems. Luckily I can use a terminal.
I spend the vast majority of my non-browser time on the command line, but sometimes for some things for some reason I prefer a GUI file browser - shuffling around 'admin documents', bills etc. rather than programming stuff or anything I've written in a text-based format. Maybe it's just because I grew up with Windows & File Explorer, so that's what I'm accustomed to for that sort of thing.
For that, Finder is maybe the one thing I miss from macOS. Haven't found one for Linux that works well and doesn't have surprising click/select/rename behaviour for example. (I'm using Elementary's 'Files' at the moment (not on its distro) certainly open to any suggestions.)
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#613Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition, the classic user interaction method for Macs has always been drag and drop between multiple on-screen windows, while Windows users have traditionally kept every window maximized. Personally, I think it goes back to early Windows originally supporting very low resolution graphics cards where you simply couldn't display more than a single widow's worth of content at once. Remember that EGA was only 640×350…
The first Mac (actually Macintosh back then) had a 9" monochrome screen with 512x342 resolution, so less than EGA (16 colors). [1] The Macintosh and EGA were released at about the same time. [2] [1] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_128... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter
Remember CGA with a maximum resolution of 640×200 in two color mode or 320x200 at four color mode?
It was also supported in Windows, and given that Windows also kept a separate copy of the menubar as part of every window's chrome, they could have really called it Microsoft Window.
The need for a user interaction method that works at such a low resolution is the origin of Windows users expecting a UI that keeps every Window maximized.
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#614Not being a mac user myself, the ubinquity of homebrew made me think it was native for many years, to the point that I'd been tempted several times to make the switch (not because having a package manager is that fantastic, but it signals a lot about the intended use of the OS). I always thought MacOS was more stable than Linux, but more open to devs than Windows, but now I'm not so sure about that second point. I do…
I don’t use it (and never used a mac for more than a few horrible seconds), but Windows does now have a package manager built in: WinGet [0] [0]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/win...
Also choco, though thats third-party
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#615Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not a mac user (but a linux user who chooses desktops with the windowing paradigms of like windows 2000 or so plus multiple desktops) so have no idea how it's like in practice, but: These days it's very common for more than half your work to take place in a browser, with many browser windows, each having many tabs Every window of the browser almost is like its own application for the user, yet they're all from th…
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.
It's inconsistent compared with alt-tab behaviour.
cmd-tab switches to the last used application (assuming you don't hold down), right now for me that switches from Firefox to Slack.
Pressing cmd-tab again switches from Slack back to Firefox.
However for window switches
cmd-` switches from my HN window to a jira window. cmd-` again switches to a webmail window. To switch from jira back to HN I have to press cmd-shift-`
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#616Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funnily enough, for the ~5 years I used macOS, the Window Manager was the most frustrating aspect for me. I could not maximize apps (there was only a weird fullscreen/focus mode), I would accidentally end up dragging a window very often etc. All this gave ended up creating this feeling in my brain that the windows are just "floating" on the screen instead of being tightly bound to an arrangement.
You're not really 'supposed' to maximize or even tile apps on the Mac. In most cases it's a waste of screen space. The Mac has always been focused around the desktop metaphor. Historically applications were composed of multiple windows, and focusing a window in an application brought all of the other windows for that application to the front. You would manually arrange each of the windows/palettes of your application…
Heavy Mac user here for many years, and I agree. I can't even think of the last time I "maximized" an app. All my apps sit around in a pile and I switch between them. If I were on a tiny screen, maybe I would dislike this, but at 27" a maximized app would be a pain in the ass.
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#617My 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)…
> Learn about the screenshot shortcuts CMD+shift+{3,4}, 3: full screen, 4: select area or switch to window select with hitting space bar once. I just learned about command-shift-5 for screen recordings, which is super nice for showing a visual diff of work done.
Command-shift-6 to take a picture of your Touch Bar, if you Mac has one.
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#618My 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)…
Autohiding the dock on the bottom works for me. Don’t need it showing full time - mostly use CMD-space to launch apps.
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#619Earlier 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.
I prefer binding "Move focus to next window" to the F12 key. Since Cmd+` is a hard keyboard combo on non-american keyboards.
I kind of gave up on non-US keyboards.
The Portuguese layout sucks horribly for programming, especially on the Mac (brackets in horrible places), and the U.K. layout (where I’m based) sucks horribly for writing Portuguese in. The US international just works for all my purposes (including writing tiny amounts of other languages besides Portuguese and English)
Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user
#620The author's conslusion isn't well supported by the evidence they provide. They assert they would never buy a personal Mac, but their primary criticisms are solved by downloading a few apps. It's surprising that they can use Homebrew but not Rectangle etc given their work policy, but these restrictions don't apply for personal computers anyways?