Live data from Hacker News

Make macOS consistently bad unironically

lr0.org

351–360 of 398 posts

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#351

This was one of the first things I noticed after upgrade and was confused. I had an understanding that people in Apple UX are extremely meticulous when it comes to every single little tiny detail. I guess those times are over.

They still obsess about it but they seem to be idiots, and always have been. Nobody has ever been able to explain reasonably why "about this software" is the first thing on the first menu of every MacOS program - it isn't useful exept maybe once a year. It's a ridiculous UX choice, always has been. Don't get me started on Finder.

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't maximize anything on a monitor that wide, I do appreciate Window's snap to half/quarter functionality for monitors that wide, and I wish Mac had the same ability natively.

> I wish Mac had the same ability natively Hover over the green button in the top left of the window. I recently found out about that menu for moving a window between screens, which is also an option it has. (I also just found them in the Window menu if you prefer that. I dont; the options take an extra level of hovering to get to.)

> Hover over the green button in the top left of the window.

Weirdly it still doesn't quite do what I want. It leaves a gap around the edge of the window for some reason.

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Computers have been running thousands of times slower than they should be for decades I've been hearing this complaint for decades and I'll never understand it. The suggestion seems completely at odds with my own experience. Regardless of OS, they all seem extremely fast, and feel faster and faster as time goes on. I remember a time when I could visually see the screen repaint after minimizing a window, or waiting…

I think the best example is in iOS. On old iOS versions, the keyboard responsiveness took precedence over everything, no matter what. If you touched the keyboard, it would respond with an animation indicating what you are doing. The app itself may be frozen, but the self contained keyboard process would continue on, letting you know the app you are using is a buggy mess. Now in iOS 26, you can just be typing in Notes…

Yeah long ago when I was doing some iOS development, I can remember Apple UX responsives mantras like “don’t block the main thread”, as it’s the thing responsible for making app UIs snappy even when something is happening.

Nowadays seems like half of Apple’s own software blocks on their main thread, like you said things like keyboard lock up for no reason. God forbid you try to paste too much text into a Note - the paste will crawl to a halt. Or, on my M4 max MacBook, 128GB ram, 8tb ssd, Photos library all originals saved locally - I try to cmd-R to rotate an image - the rotation of a fully local image can sometimes take >10 seconds while showing a blocking UI “Rotating Image…”, it’s insane how low the bar has dropped for Apple software.

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#355

For all his infamy, Jobs held Apple together in large part through his uncompromising perfectionism and attention to the kind of details that have since been demoted to "we'll fix it in the next version" or the equivalent of "# temporary". Every company is a bit of an ant-farm, but this one either has no single queen to lay down the law, or the queen is "trying things out" :P Jobs used to laugh at Microsoft for all m…

I see you point, but I think that Jobs not per se held Apple together. This is Tim Cook doing as well and arguably on a way larger scale.

The one thing that distinguished Jobs from the rest ever since is the fact, that he was Apple's greatest fan boy. If you have a look at the Itunes introduction, Jobs sits there and for around 2 hours showcases every feature and function. He was so into the product, that this keynote is for me the most nerdy ever conducted by him.

The others as well always show him being the company's No 1 fan and host of every feature there is.

Imagine to have a boss like this. He set the standard for product development in every regard.

And this is what slipped. Consistency is lacking and according to biographies about Cook, he has a very huge focus on him as a person. This is always wrong. It is about the product, nothing else.

There will never be a Jobs again. And it is getting worse from here: the old guard is mostly gone. Even the myth of Steve Jobs is nothing Gen Z cares about.

We live in the Post-Jobs phase and Cook seems to be overshadowing Jobs, as sad as this is. All innovations except the headphones date back to Jobs. All the scale that Apple reached to Cook.

I bet Jobs would rather have a way smaller scale with great products. This luxury lifestyle is nothing Jobs liked.

Sad, but true.

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#356

For all his infamy, Jobs held Apple together in large part through his uncompromising perfectionism and attention to the kind of details that have since been demoted to "we'll fix it in the next version" or the equivalent of "# temporary". Every company is a bit of an ant-farm, but this one either has no single queen to lay down the law, or the queen is "trying things out" :P Jobs used to laugh at Microsoft for all m…

I see you point, but I think that Jobs not per se held Apple together. This is Tim Cook doing as well and arguably on a way larger scale. The one thing that distinguished Jobs from the rest ever since is the fact, that he was Apple's greatest fan boy. If you have a look at the Itunes introduction, Jobs sits there and for around 2 hours showcases every feature and function. He was so into the product, that this keynot…

One wonders what Jobs would think of Liquid Glass.

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#357

Not to mention that WindowServer seems to take 100+% cpu since the upgrade. Also I can't paste filenames in the save file dialog in some apps. And the URL field in Safari is just weird. My computer was running so slowly that I had to minimize transparency in system preferences somewhere. I think I also turned off opening every app in its own space. And I hid the icons on the Desktop in Finder settings somehow, which…

> Computers have been running thousands of times slower than they should be for decades I've been hearing this complaint for decades and I'll never understand it. The suggestion seems completely at odds with my own experience. Regardless of OS, they all seem extremely fast, and feel faster and faster as time goes on. I remember a time when I could visually see the screen repaint after minimizing a window, or waiting…

>Regardless of OS, they all seem extremely fast, and feel faster and faster as time goes on.

One analogy is that the distance between two places in the world hasn't changed, but we're not arriving significantly faster than we before modern jetliners were invented. There was a period of new technology followed by rapid incremental progress toward shortened travel times until it leveled off.

However, the number of people able to consistently travel between more places in the world has continued to increase. New airports open regularly, and airliners have been optimized to fit more people, at the cost of passenger comfort.

Similarly, computers, operating systems, and their software aren't aligned in optimizing for user experience. Until a certain point, user interactions on MacOS took highest priority, which is why a single or dual core Mac felt more responsive than today, despite the capabilities and total work capacity of new Macs being orders of magnitude higher.

So we're not really even asking for the equivalent of faster jet planes, here, just wistfully remembering when we didn't need to arrive hours early to wait in lines and have to undress to get through security. Eventually all of us who remember the old era will be gone, and the next people will yearn for something that has changed from the experiences they shared.

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#358
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. Today we have multi-Ghz processors, with multiple cores at that. Photons travel about 1 foot per nanosecond ... so the CPU can executes MANY instructions between the time photons leave your screen, and the time they reach your eyes. Now, on Windows start Word (on a Mac start Writer) ... come on ... I'll wait. Still with me? Don't blame the SSD and reload it again from the cache. Weep.

Not sure where you're getting at. MS Word, full load to ready state after macOS reboot takes ~ 2 seconds on my M1 mac. If I close and re-open it (so it's on fs cache) is takes about ~1 second.

You, and sibling comment author just never experienced the truly responsive ui.

It is one where reaction is under a single frame from action. EDIT: and frame is 1/60s, that is 16.(6)ms. I feel bad feeling I have to mention this basic fact.

This was possible on 1980s hardware. I witnessed that, I used that. Why is it not possible now?

Re: Make macOS consistently bad unironically

#359

For all his infamy, Jobs held Apple together in large part through his uncompromising perfectionism and attention to the kind of details that have since been demoted to "we'll fix it in the next version" or the equivalent of "# temporary". Every company is a bit of an ant-farm, but this one either has no single queen to lay down the law, or the queen is "trying things out" :P Jobs used to laugh at Microsoft for all m…

I see you point, but I think that Jobs not per se held Apple together. This is Tim Cook doing as well and arguably on a way larger scale. The one thing that distinguished Jobs from the rest ever since is the fact, that he was Apple's greatest fan boy. If you have a look at the Itunes introduction, Jobs sits there and for around 2 hours showcases every feature and function. He was so into the product, that this keynot…

this is why I want Jobs back, not as CEO but as head of software or head of software QA
Post reply on HN