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Once upon a time this was true. User-facing documentation was scarce (usually requiring internet searches). However, between unofficial package managers like

Once upon a time this was true. User-facing documentation was scarce (usually requiring internet searches). However, between unofficial package managers like homebrew, the excellent efforts of a few devs (LaunchBar/Quicksilver, PathFinder, Little Snitch, etc...), `osascript`, and the internet providing defaults documentation for obscure apple apps, I always felt like I could get the system to behave the way I needed it to. This started changing about a decade ago. The first time I noticed it was when Apple bundled all of the services involved in NAT into a huge binary (this would have been about OS X 10.8 or .9). You could turn it on or off, but there was no longer a built-in way to serve DHCP on both ports. There's been a steady progress away from tools aimed at the entire skill gradient and towards the lower end of that gradient: Around 10.9 OSX got new file open/save dialogs, which were infinitely better if you used a mouse... but lacked any cmd-key shortcuts. Gatekeeper has made it progressively harder for system tweaks like LaunchBar or Little Snitch to exist, and I've had to wrestle with SIP more than once. In summary, earlier versions of OSX are perfectly fine (my one remaining mac is on 10.10), but Apple has not been doing itself any favors with the dev community in more recent iterations of the OS.

Myrmornis 7y ago
> but lacked any cmd-key shortcuts Not true. The shortcut is cmd-shift-g which allows one to select files via the standard filesystem directory hierarchy, using a widget which supports tab completion.
SPBS 7y ago
What cmd-key shortcuts are you thinking of? FWIW every apple filepicker window I come across I can utilise the following shortcuts consistently, which is very nice: Cmd-Shift-A: Open Applications folder Cmd-Shift-H: Open Home folder Cmd-Shift-D: Open Desktop folder Cmd-Shift-O: Open Documents folder Cmd-Option-L: Open Downloads folder Cmd-Shift-L: Open Library folder Cmd-Shift-.: Toggle Hidden Files Cmd-[: Back Cmd-]: Forward Cmd-Up: Up
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- okennedy 7y ago
  I forget the full list, but these had been standard since I started with OS7. cmd-s Save cmd-n New folder cmd-shift-s Save As It's possible some have been added back.
- Myrmornis 7y ago
  That's a useful list. If I may say so I think it omits the best one! Cmd-Shift-G: Use the filesystem however the fuck you like, with tab completion.
- jamiek88 7y ago
  That hidden files toggle shortcut is amazing! I've always used a terminal command I have saved in notes to do that. So much easier! Embarrassingly I am not new to OSX/MacOS.
- ValentineC 7y ago
  This list of shortcuts is really useful. Thank you!
- SPBS 7y ago
  If anyone is interested, here's a full list that I got it from that blew my mind https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236
- derefr 7y ago
  It's useful to emphasize that the Cmd-[ and Cmd-] shortcuts specifically, work pretty much everywhere: in iTunes, Safari, Mail, Preferences, etc. It's almost like macOS has universal "scene-graph navigation shortcuts."
SomeOtherThrow 7y ago
> In summary, earlier versions of OSX are perfectly fine (my one remaining mac is on 10.10), but Apple has not been doing itself any favors with the dev community in more recent iterations of the OS. The GNU/Linux community also isn't bending to my will arbitrarily either. Frustrating, to say the least. In all seriousness, people are all happy to talk about how easy linux is to customize until you broach the subject of changing keybindings to use a mac-like scheme (using command for gui interactions as a rule of thumb, readline bindings everywhere there's text entry), and you find out this is pretty much impossible. In reality software is mostly customizable in the way the creators built it to be customized, including things like windowserver and macos mouse behavior and X11 and gtk and emacs and bash.
- ColanR 7y ago
  It seems like you're using OSes that are trying to cater to a diminishingly technical crowd. I read (somewhere, a year or so ago) that the generation now in their late 20s/early 30s was the last one that actually needed to care about how their computers worked, because their computers occasionally needed to be fixed. Generally speaking, I think that the newer generation has likely never been exposed to a computer that they could try to troubleshoot and fix themselves: everything is iPhone apps and Windows 7 / 10 and Andriod and slick websites. The information age no longer requires technical knowledge. As a result, I'd guess that most of the purchasers of new computers are in the generations above and below the ones with technical knowlege: the new generation, without the background to even care about being a power user, and the older generation where most aren't power users anyway. BTW, I'm using i3, and I think it would be (relatively) super easy to change the keybindings around to what you're describing. It sounds like you may need to find an OS that's designed to expose the level of customization that you want.
  - msbarnett 7y ago
    > > people are all happy to talk about how easy linux is to customize until you broach the subject of changing keybindings to use a mac-like scheme (using command for gui interactions as a rule of thumb, readline bindings everywhere there's text entry) > BTW, I'm using i3, and I think it would be (relatively) super easy to change the keybindings around to what you're describing. Really? How does one go about configuring i3 such that, say, any time you hit ctrl-w it deletes backwards to the previous white space (a common readline binding) in any text entry box in, say, Firefox, IntelliJ, Spotify, VLC, Amarok, Gimp, etc? Are you quite certain that “readline bindings everywhere there’s a textbox” is really in the scope of i3’s customizations? What OP described goes quite a bit beyond window manager customization. > It sounds like you may need to find an OS that's designed to expose the level of customization that you want. On OS X this can be achieved by placing { "^w" = "deleteWordBackward:"; } in $HOME/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeybindings.dict, so I rather think he already is using an OS that exposes this level of pervasive customization.
masukomi 7y ago
> Around 10.9 OSX got new file open/save dialogs, which were infinitely better if you used a mouse... but lacked any cmd-key shortcuts. Cmd+Shift+G withing an open/save diolog gets you a dialog where you can enter a path with tab completion support.

Myrmornis 7y ago

> but lacked any cmd-key shortcuts Not true. The shortcut is cmd-shift-g which allows one to select files via the standard filesystem directory hierarchy, using a widget which supports tab completion.

SPBS 7y ago

What cmd-key shortcuts are you thinking of? FWIW every apple filepicker window I come across I can utilise the following shortcuts consistently, which is very nice: Cmd-Shift-A: Open Applications folder Cmd-Shift-H: Open Home folder Cmd-Shift-D: Open Desktop folder Cmd-Shift-O: Open Documents folder Cmd-Option-L: Open Downloads folder Cmd-Shift-L: Open Library folder Cmd-Shift-.: Toggle Hidden Files Cmd-[: Back Cmd-]: Forward Cmd-Up: Up

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
okennedy 7y ago
I forget the full list, but these had been standard since I started with OS7. cmd-s Save cmd-n New folder cmd-shift-s Save As It's possible some have been added back.
Myrmornis 7y ago
That's a useful list. If I may say so I think it omits the best one! Cmd-Shift-G: Use the filesystem however the fuck you like, with tab completion.
jamiek88 7y ago
That hidden files toggle shortcut is amazing! I've always used a terminal command I have saved in notes to do that. So much easier! Embarrassingly I am not new to OSX/MacOS.
ValentineC 7y ago
This list of shortcuts is really useful. Thank you!
SPBS 7y ago
If anyone is interested, here's a full list that I got it from that blew my mind https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236
derefr 7y ago
It's useful to emphasize that the Cmd-[ and Cmd-] shortcuts specifically, work pretty much everywhere: in iTunes, Safari, Mail, Preferences, etc. It's almost like macOS has universal "scene-graph navigation shortcuts."

SomeOtherThrow 7y ago

> In summary, earlier versions of OSX are perfectly fine (my one remaining mac is on 10.10), but Apple has not been doing itself any favors with the dev community in more recent iterations of the OS. The GNU/Linux community also isn't bending to my will arbitrarily either. Frustrating, to say the least. In all seriousness, people are all happy to talk about how easy linux is to customize until you broach the subject of changing keybindings to use a mac-like scheme (using command for gui interactions as a rule of thumb, readline bindings everywhere there's text entry), and you find out this is pretty much impossible. In reality software is mostly customizable in the way the creators built it to be customized, including things like windowserver and macos mouse behavior and X11 and gtk and emacs and bash.

ColanR 7y ago
It seems like you're using OSes that are trying to cater to a diminishingly technical crowd. I read (somewhere, a year or so ago) that the generation now in their late 20s/early 30s was the last one that actually needed to care about how their computers worked, because their computers occasionally needed to be fixed. Generally speaking, I think that the newer generation has likely never been exposed to a computer that they could try to troubleshoot and fix themselves: everything is iPhone apps and Windows 7 / 10 and Andriod and slick websites. The information age no longer requires technical knowledge. As a result, I'd guess that most of the purchasers of new computers are in the generations above and below the ones with technical knowlege: the new generation, without the background to even care about being a power user, and the older generation where most aren't power users anyway. BTW, I'm using i3, and I think it would be (relatively) super easy to change the keybindings around to what you're describing. It sounds like you may need to find an OS that's designed to expose the level of customization that you want.
- msbarnett 7y ago
  > > people are all happy to talk about how easy linux is to customize until you broach the subject of changing keybindings to use a mac-like scheme (using command for gui interactions as a rule of thumb, readline bindings everywhere there's text entry) > BTW, I'm using i3, and I think it would be (relatively) super easy to change the keybindings around to what you're describing. Really? How does one go about configuring i3 such that, say, any time you hit ctrl-w it deletes backwards to the previous white space (a common readline binding) in any text entry box in, say, Firefox, IntelliJ, Spotify, VLC, Amarok, Gimp, etc? Are you quite certain that “readline bindings everywhere there’s a textbox” is really in the scope of i3’s customizations? What OP described goes quite a bit beyond window manager customization. > It sounds like you may need to find an OS that's designed to expose the level of customization that you want. On OS X this can be achieved by placing { "^w" = "deleteWordBackward:"; } in $HOME/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeybindings.dict, so I rather think he already is using an OS that exposes this level of pervasive customization.

masukomi 7y ago

> Around 10.9 OSX got new file open/save dialogs, which were infinitely better if you used a mouse... but lacked any cmd-key shortcuts. Cmd+Shift+G withing an open/save diolog gets you a dialog where you can enter a path with tab completion support.