5 ms·

> Apple's annoying tendency to keep an app running when you close the last window This is…just how macOS works. Windows applications (generally) tie their life

by cmckn 4y ago

> Apple's annoying tendency to keep an app running when you close the last window This is…just how macOS works. Windows applications (generally) tie their lifecycle to the existence of a window, but Macs have a different paradigm: the program can live without any windows. Pretty much every Mac app behaves this way. It’s been this way as long as I can remember. iOS is different; you can force close an app with the app switcher, but the OS generally encourages you to leave things “open” and the OS will periodically wake your process so it can perform various tasks. The OS is very stingy about how much work your process can do when it’s in the background in this way. This is one of the challenges when developing for iOS, for sure.

daveidol 4y ago
Yeah, I think OP is right that this behavior is confusing for Windows users, but as a longtime macOS user I don't find it confusing or problematic at all.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  I'm more a unix user than a Windows user. I use pretty much all current OSes (including Mac and Windows) on a daily basis but FreeBSD is my daily driver. I think macOS is pretty unique in this regard (as well as being the only that use Meta-C / Meta-V for copy/paste, something that still bites me every day as I switch between OSes :) ). But I only used macOS since 10.2, never used classic.
  - saltminer 4y ago
    Classic was the same. On older systems, I think it was a good idea, given the speed of hard drives back then. With SSDs, the performance gains from keeping unused programs alive are far lower, but at the same time, RAM is far more plentiful, so it comes at a much lower cost.
  - Ruphin 4y ago
    I had the same issue with copy/paste on MacOS, until I couldn't stand it anymore and used software to remap the keys. I swapped the builtin Fn, Ctrl, and Meta keys around so they are positioned like you'd expect on a normal keyboard (and a normal OS), and it instantly fixed my issues without any other negative side effects aside from having to learn another key combo for Ctrl-C in terminals. I highly recommend the Karabiner app, it makes this change trivial. There's also a way to do it without additional software, described here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/88897/how-do-you-make-the-fn-keyboard-button-work-like-a-ctrl-button https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/88897/how-do-you-m...
    - GekkePrutser 4y ago
      Thanks, I'll give that a try!
  - rswail 4y ago
    Considering Apple added the Command ⌘ key in 1984 and the original cut/copy/paste as being command-x/c/v, it's more like the others didn't follow convention at the time.
GekkePrutser 4y ago
Not just Windows though. *nix also. But yes I know it's just how macOS works. I never really got used to it except that it ingrained "Command-Q" into my muscle memory :) I agree it makes sense for some apps. For example for mail, which will continue receiving in the background and notify you. But not for Maps. This is an app that isn't useful when its window is not open. But I mean this uniqueness to macOS is causing this to cause unintended side-effects. While working in Apple Maps, I imagine the user would not care so much about latency issues and the location tracking would be useful. By the app shouldn't do it while it's not actively being used IMO, as long as there is no way to avoid the latency. I wonder if the same happens with Apple's own FaceTime by the way, or if they made an exception for that :)

by cmckn 4y ago

daveidol 4y ago

Yeah, I think OP is right that this behavior is confusing for Windows users, but as a longtime macOS user I don't find it confusing or problematic at all.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
I'm more a unix user than a Windows user. I use pretty much all current OSes (including Mac and Windows) on a daily basis but FreeBSD is my daily driver. I think macOS is pretty unique in this regard (as well as being the only that use Meta-C / Meta-V for copy/paste, something that still bites me every day as I switch between OSes :) ). But I only used macOS since 10.2, never used classic.
- saltminer 4y ago
  Classic was the same. On older systems, I think it was a good idea, given the speed of hard drives back then. With SSDs, the performance gains from keeping unused programs alive are far lower, but at the same time, RAM is far more plentiful, so it comes at a much lower cost.
- Ruphin 4y ago
  I had the same issue with copy/paste on MacOS, until I couldn't stand it anymore and used software to remap the keys. I swapped the builtin Fn, Ctrl, and Meta keys around so they are positioned like you'd expect on a normal keyboard (and a normal OS), and it instantly fixed my issues without any other negative side effects aside from having to learn another key combo for Ctrl-C in terminals. I highly recommend the Karabiner app, it makes this change trivial. There's also a way to do it without additional software, described here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/88897/how-do-you-make-the-fn-keyboard-button-work-like-a-ctrl-button https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/88897/how-do-you-m...
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    Thanks, I'll give that a try!
- rswail 4y ago
  Considering Apple added the Command ⌘ key in 1984 and the original cut/copy/paste as being command-x/c/v, it's more like the others didn't follow convention at the time.

GekkePrutser 4y ago

Not just Windows though. *nix also. But yes I know it's just how macOS works. I never really got used to it except that it ingrained "Command-Q" into my muscle memory :) I agree it makes sense for some apps. For example for mail, which will continue receiving in the background and notify you. But not for Maps. This is an app that isn't useful when its window is not open. But I mean this uniqueness to macOS is causing this to cause unintended side-effects. While working in Apple Maps, I imagine the user would not care so much about latency issues and the location tracking would be useful. By the app shouldn't do it while it's not actively being used IMO, as long as there is no way to avoid the latency. I wonder if the same happens with Apple's own FaceTime by the way, or if they made an exception for that :)