Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

wadetregaskis.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 314 posts

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#131

Post by chongli »

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.

The most frustrating part for me is that the spatial metaphor [1] was at the core of the Mac’s identity from the beginning. I think this is a classic example of how a company’s philosophy — its very identity — can be lost if it’s not carefully preserved through turnover of team members.

[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#132

Post by happymellon »

jemmyw wrote: post #89
brtkdotse wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three times I tried switching from Windows to Mac and each time I bounced because of how janky basic window ergonomics were. I shouldn't have to buy single-dollar-programs to fix core OS functionality.

I wrote a hammerspoon script that moves my windows and the dock when I plug in to monitors. That's free, I agree we shouldn't have to have such a complex solution though. But I would bet that if Apple did provide a built in solution it would break the more complex solutions.

You make it sound like they give a damn about breaking 3rd party solutions at the moment.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#133

Post by anentropic »

da768 wrote: post #122
aden1ne wrote: post #112

My main issue with multiple displays on Mac is that the dock sometimes suddenly switches display. Sometimes this doesn't happen for weeks, other times it happens multiple times a day. When this happens, it tends to move the dock from the internal display to the external display, and the existing window on the external display suddenly gets smaller. The only resolution I've found when this occurs is unplugging and re-…

The dock moves whenever your cursor spends too much time hitting the bottom of the screen

OMG, next time it happens I will try if this is a way to get it to switch back (without unplugging and replugging /or rebooting or whatever I usually end up doing)

EDIT: it's not the Dock I meant but the Cmd+Tab app switching UI, don't know what it's called... but I guess maybe which display they appear on are somehow related

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#134

Post by neonsunset »

Just use Magnet, or Amethyst if you like tiling windows manager (it works really nicely with multi-display, sending windows with a hotkey instantly). There are many other alternatives too.

It's not perfect but not particularly different to Windows.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#135

Post by Toutouxc »

OJFord wrote: post #115
rob74 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, third party software will do that, Apple will probably just shrug and say, "it works with Apple displays".

Just like the touchpad and mouse 'scroll direction' setting being tied together. It makes sense for Apple mice/external trackpad (which all have a touch surface), so sod the 100% of other far more prevalent mice that use a scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural (but disable it, and lose it on the built-in trackpad too).

> scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural

IMO there is no objective reason why turning a plastic wheel towards or away from the screen should be the natural choice for scrolling down a webpage. It's just something that some people are used to.

My head sees scrolling on a touchpad, the Magic Mouse and a wheeled mouse as the same thing — and I even set my Windows gaming machine so that the mouse scrolls "naturally" like my Mac.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#136

Post by probabletrain »

The desktop-switching animation is too slow on new Macbook pros with "promotion" (high refresh rate) enabled. The animation speed is tied to the display refresh rate, so disabling promotion (setting refresh rate to 60hz) fixes the issue.

It's particular annoying because windows aren't interactable during the animation, so you have to wait for the ease-out to fully complete before you can click on things in the new desktop. This has been known to Apple for over a year.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#137

Post by kayodelycaon »

allthebestforus wrote: post #12

I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t support daisy chaining multiple monitors using DisplayPort Multi-Stream Transport (MST). That would be an elegant solution that also would fit Apple’s style.

I’ve got 2 4k UltraFine monitors and they chain with no issues.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#139

Post by pwython »

bitcharmer wrote: post #93
hmottestad wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That app seems to be both free (as in beer) and free (as in freedom).

Not if you want all features, it seems.

Eh, but the "pro" features aren't really necessary for it to work just fine. Like XDR/HDR brightness upscaling, Picture in Picture, Teleprompter mode, EDID override, etc. Those are niche case bonus features.

https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/List-of-free...

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#140

Post by epiccoleman »

butokai wrote: post #138

Partly related, I have issues with HDMI audio constantly breaking on a MacBook Air. I found multiple references to this issues around the web, but no solution.

I have an issue where the display audio will just stop working randomly too, and the only way to fix it seems to be to unplug the display and then plug it back in.

Is that what you're describing too? I always assumed it was an issue with my adapter setup, since I use an old Apple thunderbolt display that I got free from a previous employer.

Post reply on HN