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Apple has very skilled engineers, makes great strides in security, and I'm impressed by their hardware skills. However, UX is their weakness. I don't know why

Apple has very skilled engineers, makes great strides in security, and I'm impressed by their hardware skills. However, UX is their weakness. I don't know why we keep pretending that UX is Apple's strength. Have you used their window manager? Have you used their workspace implementation? Clearly they haven't used it themselves. Everything about the Mac UI is geared toward just having a pile of windows in one workspace. Their window switcher by default requires switching between applications then switching between the windows of that application. Why? Rearranging the contents of workspaces is a complicated dance of swipes and drags and other mouse-heavy movements. On a decent window manager, this can all be done with keyboard shortcuts. They neglect power-users. They neglect usability for those with limited range of motion.

freeplay 7y ago
Download 'Magnet' Not a native solution but very lightweight and solves a lot of your issues. And if you want something extremely powerful and robust, check out Hammerspoon. Much more complicated setup but basically turns the MacOS window manager into a proper tiling wm.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I like how Window management works in macOS more than the other platforms! The touchpad gestures are great. Or, if you're using a mouse with extra buttons, one of the side buttons can get mapped to Mission Control, which works wonderfully! I did prefer App Exposé in Snow Leopard, but ah well...
- noobiemcfoob 7y ago
  "the other platforms" leads me to suspect you haven't tried many other window managers. Linux has too many to name.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    I mean, I'm certainly not a Linux expert, but I've played with it before. I've used Gnome, Pantheon (elemenataryOS), and i3wm. Not a fan of tiling window managers, personally.
TheKarateKid 7y ago
Agreed. The only thing that mitigated this is that larger screens naturally made us more prone to having a bunch of windows open on a screen. Back in the 1024x768 days, not being able to maximize a window on Mac was ridiculous. "Full screen" view is/was a terrible "solution" to this. The fact that windows can't be "snapped" like on Windows is so frustrating. (Yes, I know there are 3rd party apps for this.)
- sleepinseattle 7y ago
  > The fact that windows can't be "snapped" like on Windows is so frustrating. They can actually: press and hold the green button, then drag the window to the side.
  - pacifiedcitizen 7y ago
    So that's infuriating... but thanks.
    - noobiemcfoob 7y ago
      And illustrates one of my core problems with Apple stuff: so much is hidden in gestures I'll never naturally discover unless someone tells you. Likely where Snapchat got the idea
creatornator 7y ago
> Their window switcher by default requires switching between applications then switching between the windows of that application. Why? Really? When I use four fingers and swipe up (instead of down), I see windows from all applications and can switch between them
- EpicEng 7y ago
  Try using the keyboard e.g. Alt+Tab in Windows.
DavideNL 7y ago
> They neglect power-users. The way i see it is Apple provides simple defaults which work best for most/avarage users. If you want something different/extra vs the default, you can customize some stuff within SystemPreferences (like keyboard shortcuts) or install a third party app (like BetterTouchTool, Contexts, Moom, Magnet, etc.) Personally, i much prefer my Macbook's UX over my Windows10 UX.
grumdan 7y ago
I really recommend Amethyst, which is an xmonad-like tiling window manager for OSX. It's still not as configurable as xmonad, but certainly nicer for me than the default WM: https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst
gotrythis 7y ago
Wait - "by default"? Is there a way to fix the window switcher? [Edit] Never mind, I see others volunteered info. Having come from Windows, I thought I was just stuck with the way things were. Fixing this today!
lowdose 7y ago
>I'm impressed by their hardware skills. I am not anymore the Macbook Pro is a huge disappointment. iCloud runs on Google Cloud because Apple thought the cloud was a feature. Apple should have bought Dropbox instead of having to rely on Google for their Cloud offering especially since they are talking about being a service company instead of a product company.
- just_a_username 7y ago
  >Apple should have bought Dropbox Apple did try to purchase Dropbox when Jobs was still around... https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-on-rejecting-steve-jobs-offer-2018-3?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-on-...
ashishb 7y ago
Have you tried spectacle https://www.spectacleapp.com/ https://www.spectacleapp.com/?

freeplay 7y ago

Download 'Magnet' Not a native solution but very lightweight and solves a lot of your issues. And if you want something extremely powerful and robust, check out Hammerspoon. Much more complicated setup but basically turns the MacOS window manager into a proper tiling wm.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

I like how Window management works in macOS more than the other platforms! The touchpad gestures are great. Or, if you're using a mouse with extra buttons, one of the side buttons can get mapped to Mission Control, which works wonderfully! I did prefer App Exposé in Snow Leopard, but ah well...

noobiemcfoob 7y ago
"the other platforms" leads me to suspect you haven't tried many other window managers. Linux has too many to name.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  I mean, I'm certainly not a Linux expert, but I've played with it before. I've used Gnome, Pantheon (elemenataryOS), and i3wm. Not a fan of tiling window managers, personally.

TheKarateKid 7y ago

Agreed. The only thing that mitigated this is that larger screens naturally made us more prone to having a bunch of windows open on a screen. Back in the 1024x768 days, not being able to maximize a window on Mac was ridiculous. "Full screen" view is/was a terrible "solution" to this. The fact that windows can't be "snapped" like on Windows is so frustrating. (Yes, I know there are 3rd party apps for this.)

sleepinseattle 7y ago
> The fact that windows can't be "snapped" like on Windows is so frustrating. They can actually: press and hold the green button, then drag the window to the side.
- pacifiedcitizen 7y ago
  So that's infuriating... but thanks.
  - noobiemcfoob 7y ago
    And illustrates one of my core problems with Apple stuff: so much is hidden in gestures I'll never naturally discover unless someone tells you. Likely where Snapchat got the idea

creatornator 7y ago

> Their window switcher by default requires switching between applications then switching between the windows of that application. Why? Really? When I use four fingers and swipe up (instead of down), I see windows from all applications and can switch between them

EpicEng 7y ago
Try using the keyboard e.g. Alt+Tab in Windows.

DavideNL 7y ago

> They neglect power-users. The way i see it is Apple provides simple defaults which work best for most/avarage users. If you want something different/extra vs the default, you can customize some stuff within SystemPreferences (like keyboard shortcuts) or install a third party app (like BetterTouchTool, Contexts, Moom, Magnet, etc.) Personally, i much prefer my Macbook's UX over my Windows10 UX.

grumdan 7y ago

I really recommend Amethyst, which is an xmonad-like tiling window manager for OSX. It's still not as configurable as xmonad, but certainly nicer for me than the default WM: https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst

gotrythis 7y ago

Wait - "by default"? Is there a way to fix the window switcher? [Edit] Never mind, I see others volunteered info. Having come from Windows, I thought I was just stuck with the way things were. Fixing this today!

lowdose 7y ago

>I'm impressed by their hardware skills. I am not anymore the Macbook Pro is a huge disappointment. iCloud runs on Google Cloud because Apple thought the cloud was a feature. Apple should have bought Dropbox instead of having to rely on Google for their Cloud offering especially since they are talking about being a service company instead of a product company.

just_a_username 7y ago
>Apple should have bought Dropbox Apple did try to purchase Dropbox when Jobs was still around... https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-on-rejecting-steve-jobs-offer-2018-3?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-on-...

ashishb 7y ago

Have you tried spectacle https://www.spectacleapp.com/ https://www.spectacleapp.com/?