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macOS needs its grid back

blog.hopefullyuseful.com

121–130 of 272 posts

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#121
post #9

> If they approve, the settings open, then the user has to find the specific little toggle and enable it. Another security prompt then done. Why isn’t this at most 2 prompts? Answer: Because modern-day Apple has subscribed to a particular brand of mitigation for the "noobs will always click 'Allow' especially if you ask them to first" problem. The mitigation is that Apple just dumps you on step 2 of a little 4-5 step…

Making the prompts understandable helps a lot when it comes to preventing your grandma from installing a keylogger. I don't mind the setting not being obvious exactly because people who don't know computers shouldn't be tricked into toggling them.

But it is funny to see the daily barrage of permission prompts fly through when macOS made an entire ad ridiculing Vista for half the popups and permissions macOS requires these days.

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#122
post #109
post #9

> If they approve, the settings open, then the user has to find the specific little toggle and enable it. Another security prompt then done. Why isn’t this at most 2 prompts? Answer: Because modern-day Apple has subscribed to a particular brand of mitigation for the "noobs will always click 'Allow' especially if you ask them to first" problem. The mitigation is that Apple just dumps you on step 2 of a little 4-5 step…

> As a complete nerd, you'd think maybe I'd like that I can prove my skills like this, but it comes off as deeply disrespectful to me as the user that I can't disable this. You seem to have understood the problem. But then you didn't follow. If there was a way to disable this, first thing that the grandma would do is watch a video how to disable that and lose security from then on. Of course it is not perfect, but th…

Could make it disable-able only from the terminal in recovery mode. That one would be too hard / bothersome to fend off most cases I feel like

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#123
post #67
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree! That "Desktop 1", "Desktop 2" view is so annoying, and given we have higher res monitors now, it serves no purpose if the intention was to save space.

I loathe that I can't even rename the desktops. Wouldn't it be great to have them named "Design", "Dev", "Productivity", "Games". Or whatever makes sense given your needs, instead of simply desktop #.

Windows has had the rename feature for ages and I don't know why Apple can't just copy that. They've copied plenty of other stuff, why stick with the weirdly restrictive desktop naming scheme?

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#124
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading the article as a Linux user was almost infuriating. I can't imagine having my workflow, something I've refined for my needs over the years, taken away from me at the wish of a company. Before I switched to Plasma and Wayland I ran XFCE with the exact same config for maybe 15 years, unbothered by updates.

> I can't imagine having my workflow taken away from me You never ever had a single software change its workflow?

People have been using emacs for how many decades? Or vim and terminal? Linux DEs rarely change entirely without the ability to run old versions, with the notable exception being gnome 3 which is still divisive to this day in large part because of it. And even then it was still possible to keep your workflows with MATE, the continuation of gnome 2. Libre office just recently implemented the ribbon and you can still disable it.

Radical workflow changes with no recourse is the standard in proprietary software, not so much in FOSS.

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#125

Questions for those who like the grid layout of virtual desktops - how does it (or should it?) interact with multi monitor setups? Feels like this would break or at least compromise the spatial metaphor. - Each monitor has own grid? - The VD 'spans' the pair of monitors? - VDs only on one monitor? - The monitors form a fixed 'window' into the grid? - Something else?

I have a Kwin plugin so my laptop is always the same, but my external monitor is a grid. Iirc by default, KDE makes them all share the same grid

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#126
post #101
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, that’s why you get a simpler yes/no dialog for notifications, and a conplex “navigate to this settings pane and click a separate button” flow for a keylogger

I’d like a dialog where you are simply asked to repeat a sentence like «yes, record my screen» or «yes, record what I type» into a text field to approve. Straightforward but still makes you think.

AWS Console has that, but it's infuriating that it has different prompts for different resources, it asks you to type "delete" or "confirm" or the name of the resource.

But like most of the AWS Console, each service is different in a unique way.

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#127
post #124
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't imagine having my workflow taken away from me You never ever had a single software change its workflow?

People have been using emacs for how many decades? Or vim and terminal? Linux DEs rarely change entirely without the ability to run old versions, with the notable exception being gnome 3 which is still divisive to this day in large part because of it. And even then it was still possible to keep your workflows with MATE, the continuation of gnome 2. Libre office just recently implemented the ribbon and you can still d…

KDE 4.0 has entered the chat.

Jokes aside: yes, I can see how it's technically possible to never experience a workflow change. But also using the same tools at work, your kids school, family you help etc. I just find not very probable.

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#128

Prior to MacOS 10.11, Mission Control was good: you would swipe up with four fingers and it would show you a preview of all of your spaces. Then in 10.11, for no discernable reason, they changed it to suck: rather than showing you a preview, the bar just says "Desktop 1", "Desktop 2", etc until you mouse over it; the practical effect is that using spaces is disorienting and requires memorization. Some third-party sof…

> rather than showing you a preview, the bar just says "Desktop 1", "Desktop 2" I never noticed that behaviour because I only use mission control in full-screen mode. If you swipe up with three (or four) fingers from a full-screen window the previews are visible immediately. I have no idea why we need a different preview for desktop vs full screen however. The part of this UX that annoys me is the spaces get re-order…

> If you swipe up with three (or four) fingers from a full-screen window the previews are visible immediately.

Previews are also visible immediately if you set Mission Control as a hot-corner action. In never see the title-only spaces — i forgot it even did that until this discussion.

I also wish I could name the Spaces. "Desktop N" is pretty useless.

Re: macOS needs its grid back

#129

there is a project that makes macOS alt+tab look like windows grids (if anyone coming from there), its all something alt_tabs or something

yup, that's alt-tab : https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos I've been using it daily for last 3 years, it's awesome !
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