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The erosion of the Mac experience

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Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#371

Post by kitsunesoba »

sodapopcan wrote: post #362
lastangryman wrote: post #133

I feel like I may be the only developer that prefers Windows to MacOs. I really, really just do not get the "Mac Experience". It feels so clunky and counter intuitive. - Why does the alt tab equivalent cycle through applications first, and I need another shortcut to cycle through the windows of that application? When I have an IDE with 5x instances, hosting different projects, it's a pain switching back to the projec…

I'm not one to defend the "mac experience" but some of the stuff you mention I actually really like, namely like the separate key-combo for switching between app windows and the two modes of full screen (although I never use full-full screen anymore). Finder is definitely not great. It's improved over the years which is kind of sad as it's not a whole lot better. You still can't cmd+x a file to move it to another loc…

You can cut and paste files in Finder, it’s just a decision that’s made on the “paste” side of the process instead of the “cut” side.

Copy as usual with Command-C, then at your destination move the file with Command-Option-V. This allows you to change your mind about whether you want the file to be duplicated or moved without having to first navigate back to the source and perform an additional action.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#372

Post by jononomo »

egypturnash wrote: post #318

There is really no reason to keep on adding stuff to OSX/MacOS. It's done. It does everything it needs to do. It has been done for something like a decade. It should be in maintenance mode, with bugs being fixed as they show up and nothing really changing. And yet every year there's a new version. Mostly it's a bunch of new features on the bundled programs that I don't ever touch. And a new skin on the GUI. Sometimes…

Yeah, I completely agree -- the MacOS is finished and should be in long term maintenance mode for the next 25 years. We should turn our attention to other problems.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#373

Post by amelius »

lastangryman wrote: post #133

I feel like I may be the only developer that prefers Windows to MacOs. I really, really just do not get the "Mac Experience". It feels so clunky and counter intuitive. - Why does the alt tab equivalent cycle through applications first, and I need another shortcut to cycle through the windows of that application? When I have an IDE with 5x instances, hosting different projects, it's a pain switching back to the projec…

Also: why is there a traffic light in the top of every window?

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#374

Post by ris58h »

wizofaus wrote: post #31
bandushrew wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me use a single device but via different hardware depending on context. Give me a phone I can plug into 2 monitors and a keyboard and interact with as a desktop, or slot into the back of a laptop case for portable computing, or put into my pocket.

Actually sounds pretty good, but how feasible is it for a phone sized device to be sufficiently high spec to run, e.g., fully featured development tools etc. I mean you need 32Gb RAM, 8 core processors and 512Gb SSDs these days just to run the basics (maybe less if using linux)...if you're doing modern game development or CAD stuff probably twice that. But... something you could dock your phone into as needed to allo…

How many people who own a smartphone need to use "fully featured development tools"?

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#375

Post by altairprime »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #41
happyopossum wrote: post #20

I have been hearing this for almost 2 decades now, as long as I’ve been following the ‘community’. Meanwhile, in my real life, my parents, wife, kids, and friends, are all happier than they ever ever been with their latest MacBooks and macOS. Things like iCloud photo syncing, universal control, and airdrop feel boring to us, but they make the computing experience feel pretty much like living in the future for them.

Your parents, kids et cetera aren't power users though. Macs used to be for professionals, but Apple started seriously chasing the consumer demographic with the original iMac.

You incorrectly assume that all power users wish to modify their operating system and hardware, and in doing so exclude professionals who prefer to use the tool as it was sold to them. There are many reasons why professionals with the capability to modify software and hardware behaviors might choose not to; conflating “power users” and “professionals” disregards that distinction, and by doing so ignores why Macs are successful among those professionals who are not, as you label it, “power users”.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#376

Post by layer8 »

runjake wrote: post #43

The key point in this Twitter rant is that the SWEs who understood the Mac (and NEXTSTEP, for that matter) have aged out. Most everyone has retired or moved onto other opportunities. There's very few of them left at Apple. And they're often overruled by younger managers. Apple is hiring tons of fresh new SWEs who have no understanding, nor desire to understand "The Mac Way". I'm not saying this is right or wrong, the…

The same seems to have happened at Microsoft for Windows.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#377

Post by onetokeoverthe »

Jensson wrote: post #83
1-6 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple has already sailed the seas of no return. Another company that puts users first will eventually arise and take its place. Life is a cycle of highs and lows. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

> Another company that puts users first will eventually arise and take its place. I doubt it, new companies spring up like mushrooms when fields gets disruptively innovated, but big companies tend to stay otherwise. Can see it here, lots of shifts in the biggest companies the first half, while the second half is dominated by Apple, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Facebook and Amazon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSulo…

No post body was provided.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#378

Post by shortlived »

drawingthesun wrote: post #91
runjake wrote: post #43

The key point in this Twitter rant is that the SWEs who understood the Mac (and NEXTSTEP, for that matter) have aged out. Most everyone has retired or moved onto other opportunities. There's very few of them left at Apple. And they're often overruled by younger managers. Apple is hiring tons of fresh new SWEs who have no understanding, nor desire to understand "The Mac Way". I'm not saying this is right or wrong, the…

Moved on to where? Windows has adverts in the start menu! Desktop Linux GUI is still painful and really only suitable for those who love to tinker. Since I moved to Mac from Windows I’m thankful for macOS even if it could be better, it’s still much more usable than the alternatives. I find myself spending more time on my professional work and less time fixing driver issues or fighting annoying in OS ads.

Windows + your favorite Linux distro thanks to WSL. It’s the perfect combo.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#379

Post by queuebert »

vikingerik wrote: post #352
lastangryman wrote: post #133

I feel like I may be the only developer that prefers Windows to MacOs. I really, really just do not get the "Mac Experience". It feels so clunky and counter intuitive. - Why does the alt tab equivalent cycle through applications first, and I need another shortcut to cycle through the windows of that application? When I have an IDE with 5x instances, hosting different projects, it's a pain switching back to the projec…

FYI for anyone who doesn't know: that other shortcut is Command+` to cycle between windows of one application. It's totally nondiscoverable (I read about it here), but once I learned that, it felt amazingly intuitive to separate the concerns of application-switching and window-switching. And Command+` works consistently on MacOS, unlike on Windows where every app reimplements its own multiple-document interface and s…

It's right next to tab on most keyboards, so I would call that discoverable.

Re: The erosion of the Mac experience

#380

Post by ip26 »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #57
doctor_eval wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has always chased that demographic. It started life as “the computer for the rest of us”.

There was one point where it seemed like everybody in Hollywood, music, and the visual arts were using Macs. Logic and Final Cut used to be serious programs.

I've always been curious why. Was Final Cut the Excel of the arts? Perhaps it was integrated platform color control? I don't recall PPC being dramatically faster, or supporting much more memory.
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