3 ms·

The current MacOS desktop environment is, generously, a dumpster fire. But it’s also miles ahead of anything else on the market. The last decade of desktop env

by mulmen 5y ago

The current MacOS desktop environment is, generously, a dumpster fire. But it’s also miles ahead of anything else on the market. The last decade of desktop environments feels like a march backwards, or perhaps even vertical, into some kind of alternate reality where the UI is designed to get in the way instead of enable. Modern desktop environments are a painful death by a thousand cuts. This is a rant but a desktop environment is my hammer. It is the tool I use more than anything else. The experience is sacred. And yet it is defiled annually. I never feel more helpless than the first moments after a MacOS upgrade. Like all my power has been stripped. It hurts.

YPPH 5y ago
All I want is macOS with window snapping and a maximise button. Their absence makes shifting from Windows very difficult. I can't understand why these basic features have not been added, yet the OS receives changes that, as you rightly point out, tend to defile the user experience. I can't understand why people would want to make windows full screen in ordinary situations. It seems to be something I would only want to do on rare occasions, given that you lose quick access to the menu bar. Magnet/Rectangle are third-party fixes for the former. But it's a basic function that should be built into the OS.
- mulmen 5y ago
  To be clear, I think the power in a windowing desktop environment is not having to maximize windows. That’s a compromise for small screens. When I upgraded my 2014 RMBP to Big Sur I lost the ability to compose multiple windows because of the grotesque enlargement of the window header. The ability to snap to fill the screen may be useful on tiny screens but with Mac hardware shouldn’t be as important because the real estate (pixels!) should be there to use and arrange individual windows. Even multiple windows per app. Modern MacOS (post OSX) got away from the classic MacOS (<=9) workflow and now occupies an awkward position of having the worst characteristics of Windows, Gnome, and OSX.
  - YPPH 5y ago
    Sure, but if I want to use one app on my screen and still have access to the menu bar, it means awkwardly dragging the window around to fill gaps. In Windows, it's one click. Similarly, if I want two apps side by side, it's even more awkward. Ideally I would want to avoid wasting pixels by having unfilled areas, so it's a lot of finnicky dragging to make sure they align up. In Windows, it requires two clicks.
    - mulmen 5y ago
      Double click the window header. It will fill the space below the menu bar. Double click again and it will return to the previous size. Agreed snapping would be nice. Windows does this well out of the box. MacOS leaves way too much quality of life to third party apps.
      - goosedragons 5y ago
        It won't necessarily. Double clicking the window header is the green button of yore where apps maximize to the space they feel they need which may or may not be the space below the menu bar. Chrome will fill the space but Safari will just do website width + length.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]

by mulmen 5y ago

YPPH 5y ago

All I want is macOS with window snapping and a maximise button. Their absence makes shifting from Windows very difficult. I can't understand why these basic features have not been added, yet the OS receives changes that, as you rightly point out, tend to defile the user experience. I can't understand why people would want to make windows full screen in ordinary situations. It seems to be something I would only want to do on rare occasions, given that you lose quick access to the menu bar. Magnet/Rectangle are third-party fixes for the former. But it's a basic function that should be built into the OS.

mulmen 5y ago
To be clear, I think the power in a windowing desktop environment is not having to maximize windows. That’s a compromise for small screens. When I upgraded my 2014 RMBP to Big Sur I lost the ability to compose multiple windows because of the grotesque enlargement of the window header. The ability to snap to fill the screen may be useful on tiny screens but with Mac hardware shouldn’t be as important because the real estate (pixels!) should be there to use and arrange individual windows. Even multiple windows per app. Modern MacOS (post OSX) got away from the classic MacOS (<=9) workflow and now occupies an awkward position of having the worst characteristics of Windows, Gnome, and OSX.
- YPPH 5y ago
  Sure, but if I want to use one app on my screen and still have access to the menu bar, it means awkwardly dragging the window around to fill gaps. In Windows, it's one click. Similarly, if I want two apps side by side, it's even more awkward. Ideally I would want to avoid wasting pixels by having unfilled areas, so it's a lot of finnicky dragging to make sure they align up. In Windows, it requires two clicks.
  - mulmen 5y ago
    Double click the window header. It will fill the space below the menu bar. Double click again and it will return to the previous size. Agreed snapping would be nice. Windows does this well out of the box. MacOS leaves way too much quality of life to third party apps.
    - goosedragons 5y ago
      It won't necessarily. Double clicking the window header is the green button of yore where apps maximize to the space they feel they need which may or may not be the space below the menu bar. Chrome will fill the space but Safari will just do website width + length.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]