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Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

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Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#101

Post by blowski »

lloeki wrote: post #96
gmac wrote: post #94

I think multiple display support has gone backwards on the Mac, in a way that’s representative of the platform and rather dispiriting. I remember 20 years ago a colleague pointing out that Apple had put a lot of work in to allow windows to seamlessly cross different monitors, even if the PPI and colour depth were different. At some point between then and now, they ripped that out: windows are now only ever shown on o…

> windows are now only ever shown on one display Untrue :D System Preferences > Desktop & Dock > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces > Off So why is it not allowing windows to overlap two displays when that setting is on? Because when it's on a) you can swap spaces independently on each screen and b) you can move individual spaces across displays. If you had overlapping windows, swapping Spaces or rearran…

I've just turned it off, and I still can't spread Safari over two displays. I'm on Sonoma, on an M3 Max, albeit using a third-party monitor.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#102

Post by gmac »

lloeki wrote: post #96
gmac wrote: post #94

I think multiple display support has gone backwards on the Mac, in a way that’s representative of the platform and rather dispiriting. I remember 20 years ago a colleague pointing out that Apple had put a lot of work in to allow windows to seamlessly cross different monitors, even if the PPI and colour depth were different. At some point between then and now, they ripped that out: windows are now only ever shown on o…

> windows are now only ever shown on one display Untrue :D System Preferences > Desktop & Dock > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces > Off So why is it not allowing windows to overlap two displays when that setting is on? Because when it's on a) you can swap spaces independently on each screen and b) you can move individual spaces across displays. If you had overlapping windows, swapping Spaces or rearran…

Oh: glad to hear that, if true. Thanks.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#103

Post by tuyiown »

doix wrote: post #57
tuyiown wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I have them all the time

Did you try to solve them? "Linux" doesn't really mean anything, which DE/window manager? X11 or Wayland? Which graphics drivers? Every configuration will have a slightly different solution, but at least there is usually a solution and it makes somewhat sense. And you can customize it to make sense for _you_, not what someone else decides makes sense. Back when I used to work in an office and used to dock/undock my l…

I don't doubt you figured out a stable setup. My original comment was just to point out that I don't believe there is a definitive, all purpose, acceptable solution to the multi display problems.

The idea is not that specific combination are not solvable, but for each setup, you will have to solve issues manually or live with inconvenience due to the nature of the problem.

For our specific case, I didn't meant I was annoyed every day with my setup. I just meant I always had to fiddle a little to end up with a workable solution, each time I had more than one screen.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#105

Post by originalvichy »

The display issues are somewhat forgivable from my side but I can’t wrap my mind around the worse alt-tab experience compared to Windows. All windows are separate in Windows, but if you alt-tab to Chrome on a multi-display Mac, it will not jump to the last Chrome window, but pull up ALL Chrome windows.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#106

Post by swiftcoder »

originalvichy wrote: post #105

The display issues are somewhat forgivable from my side but I can’t wrap my mind around the worse alt-tab experience compared to Windows. All windows are separate in Windows, but if you alt-tab to Chrome on a multi-display Mac, it will not jump to the last Chrome window, but pull up ALL Chrome windows.

There is at least some rationale to this madness - Mac also has a cycle-windows-within-app shortcut (CMD-`) which is frustratingly missing on windows

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#107

Post by zuhsetaqi »

originalvichy wrote: post #105

The display issues are somewhat forgivable from my side but I can’t wrap my mind around the worse alt-tab experience compared to Windows. All windows are separate in Windows, but if you alt-tab to Chrome on a multi-display Mac, it will not jump to the last Chrome window, but pull up ALL Chrome windows.

I have the same problem and solved it by installing https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#108

Post by swiftcoder »

JodieBenitez wrote: post #3

I can't stand multiple displays, mac or not, they just distract me. I want one big display, something like 27" or 32". To each their own.

> I want one big display, something like 27" or 32"

27" is big? I'm really curious what sort of setups people are running that they feel this way. I ran a 40" 4K monitor for years, and I'd really like the option to go to 5K 40" or even higher.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#109

Post by OJFord »

JR1427 wrote: post #49
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…

My company has enforced frequent updates of browsers and other software set up, so we are relaunching apps very often, and this drives me crazy. It feels like someone is walking over to your desk and moving everything around, just to annoy you.

yabai is the closest you can get to i3/sway like tiling window management on macOS, and its config allows fixing an app always to open in a certain workspace.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#110

Post by OJFord »

parker-3461 wrote: post #44
andrelaszlo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I’m surprised there isn’t much discussion on the amazing ecosystem of tiling window managers in this whole thread. When I was still using macOS one to two years ago, I was using yabai [1] and it was perfect [1] https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai

Idk about 'perfect', it's still painful and you wish you were using Linux, but it makes it just about workable.
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