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MacOS is interesting in that I know regular users who have used it for over a decade who still don’t grasp some of its basics. For example, the post actually m

MacOS is interesting in that I know regular users who have used it for over a decade who still don’t grasp some of its basics. For example, the post actually makes a mistake when mentioning macOS doesn’t have Alt+TAB window switching. It does. You just have to do Alt+’. That being said, even though the OP is wrong, there’s a massive kernel of truth in that the majority of ordinary Mac users are unaware of this. Another one is that many regular users cannot distinguish between closing all windows and closing the app. See a regular users desktop and you will often see open but unused apps sitting in their dock because they closed all the windows and didn’t realize they had to do something different to close the app as well.

licebmi__at__ 4y ago
And to add to the point, Alt+’ is not the same as alt+tab, which will switch between all the available windows while the former will only switch between the windows on the current selected application. And it’s also even worse, because Alt+’ as a natural partner of alt+tab won’t even work if you use a different keyboard layout; and it won’t even work if you set an application on a workspace.
- rhaway84773 4y ago
  The keyboard layout issue is very real! If you do have a regular layout, the 2 ALTs are indeed supposed to work together. I remember when I first used a Mac in like 2004 I thought this was fantastic. That’s because at the time Windows (or at least the machine I had windows on), was incapable of rendering individual windows when Alt+Tabbing… So you’d Alt+Tab and try and distinguish between the window you wanted by the name or just plain luck. However, computers ar better now and are capable of showing little images of the windows in Alt+Tab. The MacOS style is strictly inferior at this point IMO.
chii 4y ago
and the thing is, the alt-tab is not even really a native idea for macs - Exposé is the way to switch windows (which, for me is the 4 finger swipe up on the touch pad - but some people can choose to use hot corner on the screen, or the dedicated hardware button).
- pxc 4y ago
  Plasma has a feature like Exposé/Mission Control as well, but it's much better in one crucial way: it does fuzzy filtering as you type. Besides directly summoning windows with hotkeys I've assigned, it's pretty much the only way I ever switch windows on Plasma.
yamtaddle 4y ago
> MacOS is interesting in that I know regular users who have used it for over a decade who still don’t grasp some of its basics. This is true for every OS. Go observe non-tech office workers using Windows some time. I'm not certain things like hierarchical FS layouts (you know, the way every halfway-common filesystem and file browser works, and has approximately since desktop computers started existing) are really understood by a majority of people who've been using computers for a decade or more, let alone deeper concepts.
Steltek 4y ago
> For example, the post actually makes a mistake when mentioning macOS doesn’t have Alt+TAB window switching. It does. You just have to do Alt+’. Alt-Grave is not Alt-Tab. Alt-Grave only cycles between windows for a particular app. Standard Alt-Tab behavior should cycle through all possible windows. Apple copied the behavior incorrectly.
mmis1000 4y ago
Like, lots of absolute useful option are hidden by default unless you hold [option]? It always both me that why mac ever want to make the [move] option be in the hidden menu at first place. Isn't move/copy 90% of the reason user ever want to open finder? Windows surely also have lots of hidden function. By I never see it hide something that is so critical to a hidden menu or something similar.

licebmi__at__ 4y ago

And to add to the point, Alt+’ is not the same as alt+tab, which will switch between all the available windows while the former will only switch between the windows on the current selected application. And it’s also even worse, because Alt+’ as a natural partner of alt+tab won’t even work if you use a different keyboard layout; and it won’t even work if you set an application on a workspace.

rhaway84773 4y ago
The keyboard layout issue is very real! If you do have a regular layout, the 2 ALTs are indeed supposed to work together. I remember when I first used a Mac in like 2004 I thought this was fantastic. That’s because at the time Windows (or at least the machine I had windows on), was incapable of rendering individual windows when Alt+Tabbing… So you’d Alt+Tab and try and distinguish between the window you wanted by the name or just plain luck. However, computers ar better now and are capable of showing little images of the windows in Alt+Tab. The MacOS style is strictly inferior at this point IMO.

chii 4y ago

and the thing is, the alt-tab is not even really a native idea for macs - Exposé is the way to switch windows (which, for me is the 4 finger swipe up on the touch pad - but some people can choose to use hot corner on the screen, or the dedicated hardware button).

pxc 4y ago
Plasma has a feature like Exposé/Mission Control as well, but it's much better in one crucial way: it does fuzzy filtering as you type. Besides directly summoning windows with hotkeys I've assigned, it's pretty much the only way I ever switch windows on Plasma.

yamtaddle 4y ago

> MacOS is interesting in that I know regular users who have used it for over a decade who still don’t grasp some of its basics. This is true for every OS. Go observe non-tech office workers using Windows some time. I'm not certain things like hierarchical FS layouts (you know, the way every halfway-common filesystem and file browser works, and has approximately since desktop computers started existing) are really understood by a majority of people who've been using computers for a decade or more, let alone deeper concepts.

Steltek 4y ago

> For example, the post actually makes a mistake when mentioning macOS doesn’t have Alt+TAB window switching. It does. You just have to do Alt+’. Alt-Grave is not Alt-Tab. Alt-Grave only cycles between windows for a particular app. Standard Alt-Tab behavior should cycle through all possible windows. Apple copied the behavior incorrectly.

mmis1000 4y ago

Like, lots of absolute useful option are hidden by default unless you hold [option]? It always both me that why mac ever want to make the [move] option be in the hidden menu at first place. Isn't move/copy 90% of the reason user ever want to open finder? Windows surely also have lots of hidden function. By I never see it hide something that is so critical to a hidden menu or something similar.