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One potential conclusion: Mac users understand the productivity increase and the value of apps feeling native, since the Apple ecosystem is one of the primary p

One potential conclusion: Mac users understand the productivity increase and the value of apps feeling native, since the Apple ecosystem is one of the primary places to get such a native experience today. This shouldn't necessarily be interpreted as "Mac users are special flowers", but rather, "Mac users may have stronger opinions about this because they've experienced the benefits of native apps". I've been around the block with operating systems, and was primarily a Linux user for many years. Later in my career, I started to appreciate the simplicity and consistency of the Apple ecosystem, and while I recognize that's not everyone's thing, it lets me focus on the job at hand and spend less time learning how to use new apps/tools. This is valuable.

ajford 5y ago
Another take on it is that Mac decided to go a different path on a few different UI things in the past, and that has persisted to this day. Look at how *nix, Windows, Sun, BSD, Chrome OS (which is basically a linux anyways) all use Ctrl, Meta (alt), and Shift for their hotkeys, compared to how Mac uses Hyper (cmd). Also look at how Mac has one instance of an app's tool bar/menu that all windows share. I'll agree that the consistent UI is a boon, but there's a large lack of discoverability imo, and some things that are just entirely lacking, like the ability to move windows around with hotkeys.
- npunt 5y ago
  You've got the order reversed. Mac pretty much defined the modern WIMP UI and was the only real game in town for consumers & professionals from 1984 - 1990 when Windows 3 was released, and during this time an entire industry (DTP) was built atop Mac's strong UI foundations. It's more accurate to say that in modern UIs the others decided to each go their own different paths and replicate part of what made the MacOS experience special, but they also tended to forget to include a lot of the little details that made it great, and have never had the same dedication to consistency. Re: discoverability, there's an order to discovering advanced options in MacOS - hold Option and click on menus. You'll be surprised how far that gets you. The whole idea of MacOS and native apps is you learn how to use the system once, and you're rewarded from thereon out. Not all things are discoverable without these keys because not all things are relevant for everyday uses and can add clutter - its a design choice to make simple things easy and hard things possible. They're not always perfect but they're still the best game in town. RE: moving windows with hotkeys, just get an app like Magnet, problem solved.
Zababa 5y ago
That's a great conclusion. Sadly the way it's usually felt is through entitlement. I can't count the number of time where I've seen an electron/Flutter/anything app presented, and Mac users are once again asking for a native app while pretending to not understand why the app is cross platform in the first place. If they're so attached to native apps, maybe they should build a website/community where people ready to pay more for native apps can say they want for example a native client for slack, discord, spotify, and then the companies can see if it's viable or not. My problem is that these complaints are exactly like "the back button is broken", it doesn't bring anything new or interesting to talk about, people never propose to help a project or to pay money for new features, they just complain and never stop. This isn't good content for Hacker News in general.
- JaggerJo 5y ago
  I'd say that if you had to choose a desktop platform to build paid apps for Mac OS is the best choice. Mac users tend to spend (more) money on software. BTW. there is a paid native slack client: https://shrugs.app https://shrugs.app

ajford 5y ago

Another take on it is that Mac decided to go a different path on a few different UI things in the past, and that has persisted to this day. Look at how *nix, Windows, Sun, BSD, Chrome OS (which is basically a linux anyways) all use Ctrl, Meta (alt), and Shift for their hotkeys, compared to how Mac uses Hyper (cmd). Also look at how Mac has one instance of an app's tool bar/menu that all windows share. I'll agree that the consistent UI is a boon, but there's a large lack of discoverability imo, and some things that are just entirely lacking, like the ability to move windows around with hotkeys.

npunt 5y ago
You've got the order reversed. Mac pretty much defined the modern WIMP UI and was the only real game in town for consumers & professionals from 1984 - 1990 when Windows 3 was released, and during this time an entire industry (DTP) was built atop Mac's strong UI foundations. It's more accurate to say that in modern UIs the others decided to each go their own different paths and replicate part of what made the MacOS experience special, but they also tended to forget to include a lot of the little details that made it great, and have never had the same dedication to consistency. Re: discoverability, there's an order to discovering advanced options in MacOS - hold Option and click on menus. You'll be surprised how far that gets you. The whole idea of MacOS and native apps is you learn how to use the system once, and you're rewarded from thereon out. Not all things are discoverable without these keys because not all things are relevant for everyday uses and can add clutter - its a design choice to make simple things easy and hard things possible. They're not always perfect but they're still the best game in town. RE: moving windows with hotkeys, just get an app like Magnet, problem solved.

Zababa 5y ago

That's a great conclusion. Sadly the way it's usually felt is through entitlement. I can't count the number of time where I've seen an electron/Flutter/anything app presented, and Mac users are once again asking for a native app while pretending to not understand why the app is cross platform in the first place. If they're so attached to native apps, maybe they should build a website/community where people ready to pay more for native apps can say they want for example a native client for slack, discord, spotify, and then the companies can see if it's viable or not. My problem is that these complaints are exactly like "the back button is broken", it doesn't bring anything new or interesting to talk about, people never propose to help a project or to pay money for new features, they just complain and never stop. This isn't good content for Hacker News in general.

JaggerJo 5y ago
I'd say that if you had to choose a desktop platform to build paid apps for Mac OS is the best choice. Mac users tend to spend (more) money on software. BTW. there is a paid native slack client: https://shrugs.app https://shrugs.app