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The Reshaped Mac Experience

morrick.me

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Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#61

Post by Jtsummers »

jwlake wrote: post #20
Vuska wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my minor bugbears with macOS since Yosemite has been changing the green button from zoom to full screen. I just don't use full screen mode much. On my 25" displays the only application that gets kept full screen is my IDE. I don't need a dedicated button that slowly animates the window to fullscreen if I accidentally click it. Speculating here, but given that most people using a mac are looking at a 13" screen…

This continually drives me nuts, especially watching people from windows use macs. They want to get normal maximize behavior to not have to manually size a window, and instead get thrown into fullscreen. This causes an immediate wtf moment, asking me how to undo it, and then living with a tiny little window. sigh

Tell them to double click the title bar of the window. This will maximize it for most windows, similar behavior to what they should be familiar with in Windows on that front at least. Sometimes this results in a "smart" maximization, like if it's a PDF in Preview it'll take all the vertical space it can get, but won't widen if it's in a single page view beyond what's needed. You can also hover over the edges (left/right, or top/bottom) until you get the double arrow cursor and double click to extend in horizontally or vertically, again just like Windows offers there.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#62

Post by whywhywhywhy »

ricg wrote: post #34
mrkstu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or making room for a device that runs either OS and making the transition less jarring. Though I suppose a MacBook touch (M1x) would already be able to run iOS apps, theoretically, and it would just help the apps themselves, rather than the OS, fit in.

So an iPad Pro running Big Sur? Combined with the Magic Keyboard, interesting... although I'd say an M1 Mac with a touch display is more likely. We'll see.

>So an iPad Pro running Big Sur?

No chance, this transition is only going one way. iPadOS is coming to the Macbooks not the other way around. MacOS is the old world iOS/iPadOS is the new world for Apple.

Pains me to say it as a huge MacOS advocate but the writing is unfortunately on the wall.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#63

Post by jmull »

Seems like a substance-free criticism of the Big Sur UI.

There are very few specifics. Also, the spacing and size of icons in finder and on the menu bar can be adjusted to suit. Not to mention general display scaling. So the author might end up happy with those aspects of Big Sur after all.

Generally, the op is unhappy that things aren’t the way they used to be and probably will keep changing. True, but purely a matter of personal opinion.

I like the finder window changes, especially the title moving to the left. Seems to be more visible somehow and makes more sense to me (I mostly use list and column views, and the title is the folder name and generally sits above the space where the files are listed below. And things seem to collapse better when the window is thinner.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#64

Post by hanche »

approxim8ion wrote: post #59
kome wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "that he is pulling up on 5 year old hardware?" is a 5 year old computer old?

It shouldn't be considered old at all. Using a 5-year old laptop right now, and I don't see much that needs upgrading.

Not even the battery? I have a 2015 macbook pro, and battery health is at 78%. It probably has another year in it, maybe two, if I am lucky.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#65

Post by uniqueid »

twarge wrote: post #11

In my view the positive direction over 20 years has been how chrome has been receding. With full screen and split screen apps, all you see are the apps. The OS lets you swipe between them. So it would appear to me that the focus should rather be on the app ecosystem and the slow, mild poisoning from electron/web apps.

I agree that the glut of electron apps is becoming a problem.

I disagree that Apple redesigning UIs to focus on content instead of chrome has improved usability. I'm thinking of 'style over substance' changes like hiding scrollbars, and making menus and menubars translucent. Those changes hurt usability.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#66

Post by danaliv »

conradev wrote: post #42
m463 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use macos to read mail. They have been chipping away at mail bit by bit. I have always used it in what's now called "classic layout" - message list above, current message below, sidebar with accounts/mailboxes. In the message list, I could choose what columns were shown, how wide they were and in what order. I could just click on the top of a column to sort one way, click again to sort another. This would let me fi…

I spend hours a day in my Mail app and I actually like the default layout as is. But my coworker likes the classic layout, and another coworker likes the default layout but with expanded preview text to more lines. I wouldn’t go as far to say one preference is worse than the other.

I have a copy of Sparrow I've been dragging from computer to computer for I don't know how many years now. [sheds single tear]

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#67

Post by approxim8ion »

hanche wrote: post #64
approxim8ion wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It shouldn't be considered old at all. Using a 5-year old laptop right now, and I don't see much that needs upgrading.

Not even the battery? I have a 2015 macbook pro, and battery health is at 78%. It probably has another year in it, maybe two, if I am lucky.

That's fair. Battery has never been great on this laptop, but certainly the health has significantly gone down. I guess I rarely notice because I don't really leave the house with it.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#68

Post by talentedcoin »

Some comments on this thread are a great example of what the authour here is pointing out:

"... the common reaction was that I was just being ‘nostalgic’; that surely my MacBook Pro was the better choice because it is orders of magnitude faster, with a ‘more modern’ OS, and that the sum of those parts was a better Mac experience. That I should ‘be rational’ and accept that."

I think it's clear from the comments on HN and the increasing frequency of articles like these that not everyone is thrilled with the iOS-ification of the Mac desktop.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#69

Post by intrasight »

raiyu wrote: post #2

The author makes the assertion that if we are all celebrating Apple's latest hardware, it is because the focus on their user interface has faded into the background and they have lost their way. But reading through the piece the only tangible evidence he provides is more spacing between elements that he is pulling up on 5 year old hardware? Screen density and pixels have improved dramatically in that time frame, we h…

I'd say that they'd never found their way. The MacOS UI sucks. I abandoned Macs years ago. I assume that it's only gotten worse since then. Of course just my humble opinion.

Re: The Reshaped Mac Experience

#70

Post by timw4mail »

falcolas wrote: post #38
kome wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "that he is pulling up on 5 year old hardware?" is a 5 year old computer old?

Consumer silicon components have an predicted life span of 5-7 years†. This life span gets lower the smaller we go with chip technology. So, yes, a 5 year old computer is near retirement age. † https://c3.nasa.gov/dashlink/static/media/other/ObservedFail...

That's a pretty lousy estimated lifetime. If that is truly the case, it feels like planned obsolsense, as the rate of improvement in computing power has drastically slowed.
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