Impressions from a first-time Mac user • Hacker News Board

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#651

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #574

2143 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Mint came with Cinnamon. (Wow that was a funny sentence :D) > macOS can use different backgrounds for different monitors, GNOME can't That'd be the least of my problems. Also, on xfce you can set different backgrounds for different monitors.

That's the thing GP is missing in his Linux criticism. Whatever you don't like you can just change. You can change to a different DE, change WM/themes/icons/dotfiles whatever you want, you can change. You are not constrained by a perscribed UX philosophy. To me personally that is very liberating.

[deleted]

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#652

Post by smoldesu » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

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…

Try running that game on a modern Mac, it won't launch now either.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#653

Post by deergomoo » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:20 PM UTC

danaris wrote: post #273

deergomoo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don’t think there’s a keyboard shortcut for it though is there?

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#654

Post by artificialLimbs » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:22 PM UTC

bdougherty wrote: post #509

artificialLimbs wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving around in lines is a complete mystery to me on my new MBP, having used Windows and Linux exclusively for ~20yrs. Throw in some various terminal programs and tmux and vim and oh god the horror.

⌘+left/right goes to the beginning and end of a line, ⌥+left/right moves by word.

Sometimes!

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#655

Post by emilecantin » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:26 PM UTC

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #2

Despite the warning, I didn't find it nearly as "ranty" as the author cautioned, and instead seemed like a fairly comprehensive and fair take on his experience. Having gone through the same thing myself several years ago, the UI aspect of it is something that I'd be curious to see how it develops for the author. I think it is not uncommon for Windows folk to find the windowing experience on macs rather painful, at le…

Most recent newcomers to Mac and ex-Windows users get tripped up by the fullscreen windows, which are honestly pretty bad.

The way to use MacOS is to use the Spaces to group windows by theme / task. For example, I have one space where I have Slack, Skype, Teams, Discord, Mail and Outlook currently open. Another one has my main "browsing" Chrome window. Another one has my iTerm (the only fullscreen app). And the last "permanent" one has my "debugging" Chrome window. They're always in the same order (none of that "reorder automatically" nonsense), so I can switch tasks using the mouse (2-finger swipe left/right on the Magic Mouse), trackpad (3-finger swipe) or keyboard (ctrl-left/right). Inside a Space, I switch between windows using Exposé (swipe on trackpad, double-tap on mouse or F3 on keyboard).

I've been using macOS both in my personal & professional life like this since Leopard and I think it works pretty well.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#656

Post by guywhocodes » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #272

thiagocmoraes wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

2 years into being forced to use them for work and this is the first time I even hear anyone mention this. Thanks!, I'll be checking it out first thing in the morning

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#657

Post by newaccount74 » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:31 PM UTC

bjoli wrote: post #623

I have started noticing regression after regression in almost all devices I use, mostly due to all the "reinvention" going on. In Monterey they made it easier to use multiple audio outputs. The new UI removes scrolling over the speaker icon to change volume. After updating to Monterey some of my keyboards don't have a command key. They worked until I updated. Now I get weird issues. But only on the non-US-ansi layout…

The worst thing on macOS is how they are removing all affordances that made the Mac so nice to use.

They removed:

- scrollbars

- toolbar labels

- color

- separator between title bar and content

- resize indicator

- document icons

A lot of things are still there if you know where to look, but I feel like learning macOS is a lot harder than it used to be. Watching my kid struggle to drag a window is infuriating. There's no logic why it's possible to drag the window by the top 50 pixels only, unless you know the history that this used to be the title bar which looked different than the rest of the window on earlier versions of macOS...

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#658

Post by guywhocodes » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:32 PM UTC

traceroute66 wrote: post #17

The author makes a big deal of lack of snapping. Frankly I've never seen the utility of it on OSs that do have it, infact I've always felt it more of a hinderance than a help (gets in the way, tries to snap when you don't want it to). The author makes a big deal that you have to do Command+Tab to switch applications, and then Command+` to cycle between windows in that application. Well, frankly I think thats the bett…

At this point, anything but many workspaces and automatic tiling feels like a toy implementation of windows to me. OS X doesn't do better than dwm.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#659

Post by Xevi » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:34 PM UTC

zild3d wrote: post #645

Xevi wrote: post #568

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 functioni…

What monitor, mouse, and keyboard did not work with mac? Most of the complaints makes it sound like you aren't actually trying to do everything the "Apple way", rather wishing macOS way worked like what you're used to and comfortable with from Windows.

> What monitor, mouse, and keyboard did not work with mac?

The monitor was an MSI Optix MAG321CQR (32", 1440p, 144hz). The text on it was blurry and pixellated as hell. It turns out that Apple has removed previously existing scaling functionality that would have made it work. So I had to upgrade to a 4k monitor to get around it. I would assume it's because they don't want to compete with cheaper monitors. The text was very sharp on Windows. I tried every single trick you could imagine to get it working. The speakers were from Logitech. I don't remember the name of them since I gave them away when I bought new ones. The mouse is a vertical ergonomic mouse from a lesser known brand, same with the keyboard.

> Most of the complaints makes it sound like you aren't actually trying to do everything the "Apple way", rather wishing macOS way worked like what you're used to and comfortable with from Windows.

Which complaint? How should I do it then? Please tell me because I'm dying to know. There is no way to turn off mouse acceleration or to get my scroll wheel working without a third party app. I can't snap or organize my windows without a third party app. Minimizing windows fucks me over when using voice control software (which I need due to RSI). Switching between windows from the same app is a pain in the ass, because it requires more clicks, which literally equals more pain for me. Folder content is not organized by default, do you suggest I just let it be messy, the way Apple wants it to be? Trying to click on desktop icons that are super small is a pain in the ass, because you have to click exactly on the icons for it to register. And so on.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#660

Post by ngcazz » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 1:34 PM UTC

pdpi wrote: post #619

neoneye2 wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Just checking you're aware that dead keys for all Portuguese diacritics are available in the UK PC layout - alt+e (´), alt+n (˜), alt+\ (`), alt+c (ç), alt+i (ˆ)

Because I never went back to the Portuguese layout after finding those key combinations.