Impressions from a first-time Mac user • Hacker News Board

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#601

Post by afiori » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:21 AM UTC

prajwalshetty wrote: post #593

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #2

Despite the warning, I didn't find it nearly as "ranty" as the author cautioned, and instead seemed like a fairly comprehensive and fair take on his experience. Having gone through the same thing myself several years ago, the UI aspect of it is something that I'd be curious to see how it develops for the author. I think it is not uncommon for Windows folk to find the windowing experience on macs rather painful, at le…

I concur on "it sort of made sense to me" in regard to the windows management and I don't think this is due to the fact that I am getting used to the ways of macOS, at least this part. When I use Windows occasionally, I miss the command+` to switch between windows of the apps, especially when they are far separated out in the Alt+Tab preview.

Another increase for the number of times I discover that a feature I dislike in gnome has been copied from macOS

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#602

Post by goosedragons » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:22 AM UTC

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #427

goosedragons wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never got used to it after a year. I wasn't even a "new" Mac user as I'd previously used Jaguar/Panther/Tiger/Leopard as well as Classic and even NeXTStep. But while those were better than XP time has marched on and I don't feel like MacOS improved enough compared to the competition (with regards to window management). If anything should have been Sherlocked it should have been rectangle/magnet etc. I also feel lik…

So, I always invert the mouse scroll wheel on Linux now, because the Mac scroll direction just feels right to me. Which is sort of the problem here: macOS’s UI works really well if the paradigm makes sense to you and long-time Mac users often have the same problems “backwards” when they use Linux or windows.

Did it feel natural to you in 2011? It's not that old of a change. You can get used to it no doubt and I almost feel like it makes sense on trackpads but not so much on scroll wheels. Why fight 10+ years of muscle memory for literally no gain and a bunch of pain everywhere else?

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#603

Post by bodge5000 » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:22 AM UTC

Not being a mac user myself, the ubinquity of homebrew made me think it was native for many years, to the point that I'd been tempted several times to make the switch (not because having a package manager is that fantastic, but it signals a lot about the intended use of the OS). I always thought MacOS was more stable than Linux, but more open to devs than Windows, but now I'm not so sure about that second point.

I doubt I'd get a mac anyway because there aren't many games I could play on it, but I have been previously tempted over the past year or so.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#604

Post by can16358p » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:24 AM UTC

I get if someone wants to move to Linux from macOS, but Windows?

Every time I need to work with Windows, I think switching from Windows to Mac was one of the greatest decisions of my life.

And I'm saying this as a person who still have used Windows more than Mac in his life, time-wise. That whole OS is a mess.

I think the author will get used to macOS by time. I complained about similar stuff initially, but then got used to everything pretty quickly and those are just very minor issues that definitely do not outweigh the benefits.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#605

Post by jeltz » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:26 AM UTC

hx833001 wrote: post #185

olyjohn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get used to the fact that I can't alt-tab to a minimized window. Nor can I figure out how to switch to any particular minimized window. You have literally no way of knowing that a minimized window exists other than right-clicking the dock icon, or going to the "Window" menu after you switched to the application. The dock was fine 20 years ago when they released OSX, but they've literally done nothing to make…

One way of addressing this is to use the intended method, which is to Hide the application instead of minimizing it. Cmd H hides the application away, and it pops back to the front with a Cmd Tab.

Why havent they removed the mostly useless minimize feature?

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#606

Post by pmontra » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:27 AM UTC

GeekyBear wrote: post #596

rwc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that it's right or wrong, but the behavior dates back to the very first implementations of Mac OS and Windows. Mac OS has always been an application switching interface, and Windows has been a window switching interface. Takes getting used to the paradigm shift.

In addition, the classic user interaction method for Macs has always been drag and drop between multiple on-screen windows, while Windows users have traditionally kept every window maximized. Personally, I think it goes back to early Windows originally supporting very low resolution graphics cards where you simply couldn't display more than a single widow's worth of content at once. Remember that EGA was only 640×350…

The first Mac (actually Macintosh back then) had a 9" monochrome screen with 512x342 resolution, so less than EGA (16 colors). [1] The Macintosh and EGA were released at about the same time. [2]

[1] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_128...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#607

Post by Semaphor » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:28 AM UTC

bodge5000 wrote: post #603

Not being a mac user myself, the ubinquity of homebrew made me think it was native for many years, to the point that I'd been tempted several times to make the switch (not because having a package manager is that fantastic, but it signals a lot about the intended use of the OS). I always thought MacOS was more stable than Linux, but more open to devs than Windows, but now I'm not so sure about that second point. I do…

I don’t use it (and never used a mac for more than a few horrible seconds), but Windows does now have a package manager built in: WinGet [0]

[0]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/win...

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#608

Post by tener » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:30 AM UTC

teilo wrote: post #5

Someone needs to tell him about option-click on the maximize button. Most of these "rants" really just amount to: "this different OS doesn't work exactly the same way as the OS I am used to." That's why 3rd party utilities exist to give you the functionality you wish to have. That formula cuts both ways.

It is hilarious that a button called "zoom" only does "zoom" when you use its alternative functionality and by default does something completely different.

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#609

Post by yesenadam » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:30 AM UTC

mastazi wrote: post #582

yesenadam wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, or CMD + left/right arrow. Option + left/right arrow goes back/forward one word. Hold down Shift doing these to select what you move over.

in my experience, Cmd + left/right arrow behaves like a pgup/down. Goes to the very end of the page, not end of a single line

That's weird. Where do you mean? e.g. in a text editor? in HN comment text entry boxes?

Re: Impressions from a first-time Mac user

#610

Post by Semaphor » Tue, Apr 12, 2022, 10:32 AM UTC

ysleepy wrote: post #87

My recommendations for Mac Users: * Put the Dock left or right, vertical space is precious (trust me, do it for a week and then decide) * Setup Hot-Corners (Settings -> Mission Control -> Hot Corners) - Upper-Right Corner as Mission Control (Must be upper right so spaces are immediately shown) - Lower-Left Corner as Application Windows - just fling your mouse curser into the corner (use std. gestures on the trackpad)…

> * Put the Dock left or right, vertical space is precious (trust me, do it for a week and then decide)

"vertical space is precious" indeed. Yet Microsoft recently decided that this stopped being the case, and now you need 3rd party tools to have the taskbar on the side.

Somewhat unrelated to the wider discussion, sorry. It just makes me angry/sad :/