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

191–200 of 314 posts

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#191

Post by baq »

monsieurbanana wrote: post #162
stevage wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. After years of mar I tried to go back to windows. I did it for 2 years but I'm so much happier on Mac again. I did kind of like the windows thg of dragging a window to the top to maximise, but that stuff is easy to replace with an app or two. General OS slowness and instability and clunky design not so much.

> General OS slowness and instability and clunky design not so much. I can't tell whether you're talking about Windows or Mac here

My WindowServer is sitting at 30% CPU and 15% GPU on an M1 MacBook Pro and I have no idea why. I reboot the Mac more often than I rebooted my dogshit HP enterprise laptop.

MacOS is just a bad OS. It's good if you only ever use the MacBook as a laptop, but the moment you hook it up to a useful setup, it becomes a drag.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#192

Post by erksa »

jayde2767 wrote: post #178

To be honest, with respect to just the headline, you could pretty much substitute Windows or Linux in the headline as well. We can dump tech workers, en masse, to be replaced with futuristic Artificial Intelligence and advanced LLMs, but plug in 2 displays and your computer shits itself.

This and picking the right audio-source consistently throughout the day.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#193

Post by zarzavat »

drekipus wrote: post #146
Y-bar wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I think it is, In Mac OS it has always been explicit that an application ≠ window (with only a few exceptions such as the calculator app). Closing an app window must not quit the application. This is reinforced by the menu bar which is always at the top of the screen rather than attached to an application window.

Why is that? I'm a gnome/Linux user who had to switch to Mac M3 for work. Macos feels.... Half baked. I don't understand why apps should run after I close the window. I'm also annoyed that I can't type the window I want when viewing all windows. If I open mission control, it takes 3 clicks on the dock to run the app. (Un-do mission control, focus the dock, run the app.) That being said, I do like stage manager, I try…

The menu bar is at the top because it’s always been there, but moreover it makes it easier to click menus as you only have to flick your cursor to Y=0 and then move it in the X dimension laterally instead of having to find a small target on a window in the middle of the screen. On other OSs it’s more common to maximize windows.

Distinguishing between processes (applications) and windows just makes sense.

For example say you download something in your browser, then you open a new window, then you close the original window. If windows = processes then closing the original window should cancel the download (because you killed that process), but we all know that would be nonsensical. So user intuition is that there is one main process and multiple windows.

Apple does allow for closing the window to kill the process. However only if there is one main window, such as the calculator app. If there’s multiple windows possible (such as in a text editor or web browser), then closing all windows does not quit the application because the user may want to close a window and then open a new window (e.g. open document or new document).

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#194

Post by baq »

ffsm8 wrote: post #125
cjk2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Works fine for me. I sit down, plug my MBP 14" into the studio display, close the lid and carry on where I was. It does a reasonable job of window placement.

[flagged]

> You're special

'You're holding it wrong' is a classic. Nothing special about it.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#195

Post by mydriasis »

I used linux mint in a work environment for years with no problems. Multiple monitors, audio sources, peripherals everywhere, no problems.

These macs, man. They drive me insane. I'm just tired. I've written so many times about them, I'm just tired. They're outright hostile. I do a cargo cult rain dance daily because of some new and interesting problem, or an old problem whose true solution is always seemingly just out of reach.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#196

Post by baq »

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).

UnnaturalScrollWheels is an actual name of an actual tool that I use to fix this particular idiocy.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#197

Post by hu3 »

OJFord wrote: post #116
nottorp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP has PTSD from wintel computers i guess. People move to macs and don't expect sleep to work, expect to need a mouse for their laptops etc. I could contradict the entire article with my personal experiences if I took the time. Been using multiple monitor Macs (and Linux before them) for ages. > When the Dock is on the side, it only appears on the display that is farthest to that side. Having to move the mouse across…

> Who uses the dock? What's wrong with Right. Shame it can't be turned off then, nevermind just another user error right?

You're holding it wrong.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#198

Post by baq »

nottorp wrote: post #67
philjohn wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OP has PTSD from wintel computers i guess. People move to macs and don't expect sleep to work, expect to need a mouse for their laptops etc. I could contradict the entire article with my personal experiences if I took the time. Been using multiple monitor Macs (and Linux before them) for ages. > When the Dock is on the side, it only appears on the display that is farthest to that side. Having to move the mouse across…

> OP has PTSD from wintel computers i guess. People move to macs and don't expect sleep to work, expect to need a mouse for their laptops etc.

Say for yourself. My mac becomes unusuable after a week. I reboot at least every Monday, sometimes more. I used to do it more but looks like one of the updates fixed WiFi not being able to connect to anything and no amount of clicking or command line resetting would help.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#199

Post by baq »

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.

I thought I was alone! Cycling inputs doesn't even work for me, I must unplug the monitor physically. Not even BetterDisplay can fix it.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#200

Post by nottorp »

baq wrote: post #198
nottorp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP has PTSD from wintel computers i guess. People move to macs and don't expect sleep to work, expect to need a mouse for their laptops etc. I could contradict the entire article with my personal experiences if I took the time. Been using multiple monitor Macs (and Linux before them) for ages. > When the Dock is on the side, it only appears on the display that is farthest to that side. Having to move the mouse across…

> OP has PTSD from wintel computers i guess. People move to macs and don't expect sleep to work, expect to need a mouse for their laptops etc. Say for yourself. My mac becomes unusuable after a week. I reboot at least every Monday, sometimes more. I used to do it more but looks like one of the updates fixed WiFi not being able to connect to anything and no amount of clicking or command line resetting would help.

Personal experiences. I'm on my 4th apple laptop since 2013, I never rebooted them except for OS updates and I never had any problems with wifi or lag.

Besides I started a windows development contract this month which immediately reminded me why i pay the apple tax...

Post reply on HN