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Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

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Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#31

Post by andrelaszlo »

bitcharmer wrote: post #21
tuyiown wrote: post #9

I don't think the issues of multi display really are only due the OS, my personal experience on multiple platform is that is suck regardless of whatever one thinks the solution would be. There are insolvable constraints implied by multi display: - Screen going on and off is an asynchronous mechanism that the OS has to treat by an event driven implementation. - All states must be valid (all graphical stuff must be put…

I'm on Linux and I don't have any of these issues

Tiling window manager with rules for window placements. It's not for non-devs, but for me it's perfect.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#32

Post by [deleted] »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #29

> The Mac operating system still Just. Fucking. Sucks. at remembering where windows were, when relaunching apps. I agree and it's confounding. For me it's even worse: when plugging back into my home office after some work on the road, it doesn't remember the window positions associated with that setup, and I have to reorganize my dozens of windows away from the laptop screen again. I've solved this through a 3rd-part…

[deleted]

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#33

Post by seanalltogether »

Does anyone else have a problem where secondary displays on mac just stop working, and the only way to fix it is to unplug and replug the display cable, or cycle inputs on the monitor? Nothing I've done seems to fix it. I don't know if its because its a 144hz monitor or what, but it never happened on my previous 60hz monitors and it never happens when i plug into my windows box.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#34

Post by nikanj »

seanalltogether wrote: post #33

Does anyone else have a problem where secondary displays on mac just stop working, and the only way to fix it is to unplug and replug the display cable, or cycle inputs on the monitor? Nothing I've done seems to fix it. I don't know if its because its a 144hz monitor or what, but it never happened on my previous 60hz monitors and it never happens when i plug into my windows box.

Plenty, but fortunately the fix is just an unplug+replug. In the past, the secondary display kept working but a sneaky kernel task took over 200% CPU, and you had to 1) realize the computer is feeling even more sluggish than normal 2) know what the heck kernel task is 3) know that un/re-plugging will fix the CPU load

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kppD1PotFw

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#35

Post by jwells89 »

geon wrote: post #16

I’ve had none of the issues OP complains about. Windows do open on the wrong screen, but I keep the same windows open for months at a time.

I don’t experience most of them either. Windows do get shuffled occasionally but it’s not that frequent. My setup is a Studio Display and now quite old Thunderbolt Display.

The Dock issue for example isn’t a problem for me because I have mouse sensitivity on high and take advantage of Fitts’ law. Tossing my cursor to the left with a certain velocity lands it on my left side dock on the secondary monitor reliably.

My use of the second display is primarily sets of “secondary” apps divided into desktops. This setup keeps everything sorted and makes manual management of windows mostly unnecessary… just switch to the desktop with the windows you’re looking for.

I could probably get used to a single large display or ultrawide, but I’d gravely miss that mix and match aspect of virtual desktops on multiple monitors. It’s so much nicer than futzing around with tiling, splits, etc.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#36

Post by cies »

I thought Mac had it better than Linux. But after reading this...

Anyway, I'm hopeful the situation for Linux will improve over the coming years with Wayland more-and-more becoming the default (so more people use it, and more will put effort to make it better) AND being a better foundation for building multi-monitor goodness on top (Xorg was getting old).

Would Windows do a better job at this than Mac? (havent used Windows in decades)

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#37

Post by cmckn »

The external display limitations of Apple silicon Macs are inscrutable and infuriating.

I have an M3 Pro from work. At the office, I plug it into an HP dock with a single USB-C cable (which I believe is TB4). I have 3 displays connected to the dock and they all work.

I purchased the exact same dock for my home, but only 2 of my displays work there.

I think the M3 Pro is documented to support 2 displays; you have to get the Ultra to have 3 (absurd). The dock is able to do some kind of workaround with the displays at the office, but I can’t figure out what the displays at home are lacking for that to work.

It’s 2024! For gods sake I should be able to have a dozen displays if I want.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#38

Post by philjohn »

geon wrote: post #16

I’ve had none of the issues OP complains about. Windows do open on the wrong screen, but I keep the same windows open for months at a time.

Yes - I noticed that the OP mentions they reboot a lot. If you just reboot for OS updates, and use sleep the rest of the time, most (all?) of these problems go away.

Same for closing apps - with modern OS's keeping an app open is likely not an issue as it'll not consume resources when not in focus, unless it's running a heap of background tasks.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#39

Post by ThePhysicist »

I'd love to use a Linux distribution and window manager on my MacBook, in particular KDE. Would be totally awesome, great hardware and a power-user friendly operating system. I resort to using a ThinkPad for my Linux needs and it's ok but the new Macs are just leagues ahead in terms of hardware.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#40

Post by the_other »

macOS has an accessibility feature which lets you set a second display to be a continuous zoomed-in presentation of the first display. It’s pretty good in use. But EVERY TIME you unplug the second display, macOS forgets that you wanted that set-up. It’s configured three or four layers deep in System Settings, so it’s fiddly to reach (more-so if your vision isn5 great and you’re squinting to find the controls in the first place). I’ve given up using the feature because the interruption to workflow is so infuriating.
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