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I'm using a Dell 40" with a built-in KVM. I have a Logitech keyboard and mice configured through a Logitech unifying receiver and a Logitech webcam connected to

by bmitc 5y ago

I'm using a Dell 40" with a built-in KVM. I have a Logitech keyboard and mice configured through a Logitech unifying receiver and a Logitech webcam connected to the KVM via USB. The setup is such that I can use the same monitor, webcam, keyboard, and mice with both my personal computer (Dell XPS Desktop with Windows 11) and my work computer (Macbook Pro with macOS Big Sur) with a keystroke. Windows 11 handles the resolution and all monitor-related settings and features perfectly. There hasn't been a single issue. macOS on the other hand has been a nightmare. It has serious trouble driving the external monitor (despite having a dedicated graphics card) at even reduced resolution, fonts are fuzzy, it bogs down all the time and uses up almost all RAM, and the keyboard and mice seem to have their settings and functionality randomly toggled and enabled/disabled. Sometimes scrolling just stops working. Or switches between natural or standard scrolling. macOS does not support adjusting display brightness via the keyboard or even the OS for external monitors except on select LG monitors it sells on the Apple Store. It drives me insane. I'll never understand how macOS has kept the "it just works" moniker. That may have used to been the case, but honestly, in my experience, it is Windows that just works. People also complain about Windows updating. The same thing happens on macOS. I came to my computer yesterday and it had rebooted itself and installed updates without asking or me accepting. And in doing so, it reset several settings back to default, such as turning on magnification on the Dock and having a bug such that it couldn't be turned off. (From a setting point of view, it was already off but it was actually on.)

behnamoh 5y ago
> I'll never understand how macOS has kept the "it just works" moniker. That may have used to been the case, but honestly, in my experience, it is Windows that just works. This 100%. On Windows, I can just plug in the monitor cable (any cable, not just the ones that work with Apple products) and it just works perfectly. It baffles me that Apple has just ignored thousands of complaints about Mac's incompatibility with most external monitors over the years. When trying to find a solution for the blurry and fuzzy text in my setup, I found threads and forum discussions going all the way back to 2009!! More than a decade later and Apple has not only fixed this issue, but in fact they removed the "Font Smoothing" option, making things worse. Most people that I talk to agree on this problem, and they say they just stopped using their Mac with an external monitor altogether. The crazy part is even if you get the resolution on the external monitor right, there's no way to turn off Mac's internal display! On Windows, I can simply choose "Second Screen Only" and it just works. On Mac, you have to manually turn the brightness down to zero on the internal display, which doesn't really solve the issue because macOS still renders an additional Retina display which you're not using, leading to waste of system resources. Some people say their solution is to use their MBP in clamshell mode, but in my experience, that causes heating problems, no matter how good Macs are at heat management. Plus, on Mac, my BlueTooth keyboard asks for setup configs every time I reboot, something I never experienced with Windows. To be honest, as soon as Asahi Linux becomes ready, I'll ditch macOS asap. It's a shame that so much hardware power (M1 chips) is being wasted on an OS that claims to be the most advanced in the world, and yet it fails to properly drive external monitors. And did I mention that you cannot control external monitor's speakers in Mac? You have to install third-party apps (some paid and closed-source) to do that. What a nightmare.

by bmitc 5y ago

behnamoh 5y ago

> I'll never understand how macOS has kept the "it just works" moniker. That may have used to been the case, but honestly, in my experience, it is Windows that just works. This 100%. On Windows, I can just plug in the monitor cable (any cable, not just the ones that work with Apple products) and it just works perfectly. It baffles me that Apple has just ignored thousands of complaints about Mac's incompatibility with most external monitors over the years. When trying to find a solution for the blurry and fuzzy text in my setup, I found threads and forum discussions going all the way back to 2009!! More than a decade later and Apple has not only fixed this issue, but in fact they removed the "Font Smoothing" option, making things worse. Most people that I talk to agree on this problem, and they say they just stopped using their Mac with an external monitor altogether. The crazy part is even if you get the resolution on the external monitor right, there's no way to turn off Mac's internal display! On Windows, I can simply choose "Second Screen Only" and it just works. On Mac, you have to manually turn the brightness down to zero on the internal display, which doesn't really solve the issue because macOS still renders an additional Retina display which you're not using, leading to waste of system resources. Some people say their solution is to use their MBP in clamshell mode, but in my experience, that causes heating problems, no matter how good Macs are at heat management. Plus, on Mac, my BlueTooth keyboard asks for setup configs every time I reboot, something I never experienced with Windows. To be honest, as soon as Asahi Linux becomes ready, I'll ditch macOS asap. It's a shame that so much hardware power (M1 chips) is being wasted on an OS that claims to be the most advanced in the world, and yet it fails to properly drive external monitors. And did I mention that you cannot control external monitor's speakers in Mac? You have to install third-party apps (some paid and closed-source) to do that. What a nightmare.