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I think search is hard generally. I switched to an M1 Mac pro recently, and it has its own set of challenges. For instance, there is no start menu but a search

by zwaps 4y ago

I think search is hard generally. I switched to an M1 Mac pro recently, and it has its own set of challenges. For instance, there is no start menu but a search bar called Spotlight. You do your quick math in there (where you'd call calc.exe in Windows). However, it only accepts your query as math... sometimes. Like 50% of the times. Otherwise it searches the web. If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny second to update results such that if you type one letter too much, your top result goes from program to web search, and pressing enter opens Safari. Relevant results (folders + files) do appear, but usually you have to scroll. The search bar itself comes up very quickly though. If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use. Oh and for some reason, it's less stable than my prior windows machine. Apps just crash a lot, but that's probably due to the Arm64. I mean, remarkably stable compared to computer back when, of course, but compared to Windows 10, I have more crashes and even had to restart a couple of times!

infinitezest 4y ago
For window management and tiling, I think Rectangle is better than most of the alternatives I've used. And its OSS https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/
- whatatita 4y ago
  I use this and love it! It's in my "must have" list of apps I install straight away. You can install it with brew too: `brew install --cask rectangle`
flohofwoe 4y ago
You can switch off everything related to siri in the system settings (especially 'siri suggestions' in the spotlight settings) to get a local spotlight search (which then actually works pretty well as app launcher, that's what I use it mainly for).
xenonite 4y ago
Yes, this is why I turn off search in Spotlight (also for privacy). For window management, please consider using the Rectangle app or some other keyboard window manager. Otherwise, I believe its possible to long press on the maximize button to put your windows on the left or right half.
- mszcz 4y ago
  Rectangle, Rectangle Pro, Magnet are all very nice and make the window management ok-ish on Mac imho. I've made the switch a couple of months ago and the window management without those apps seemed both different but also somehow worse. Now, I'm all used to it and it works good.
  - chris37879 4y ago
    I use Moom, it gives me basically perfect snapping and keyboard controls
    - Joeri 4y ago
      I switched from magnet to moom. It feels like a native OS feature, which is the highest compliment I can give such a tool.
  - ct520 4y ago
    Had both Mac and pc. Made switch with latest M1 Pro to replace windows pc desktop. Got 49inch ultra wide and 27inch using magnet works great.
- yesenadam 4y ago
  > its possible to long press on the maximize button to put your windows on the left or right half. Ohh I never knew about that. Thank you!
- Kwpolska 4y ago
  The green button isn't a maximize button, it's a full screen button. Full screen on macOS is a separate virtual desktop, so you can't just quickly bring up another window to reference something. Some apps simplify/hide their UI in full screen mode, and until recently, the menu bar would always auto-hide in full screen (it's configurable now). There's also Zoom, activated by option-clicking the green button. This resizes the window to the app's preferred size, which is random, and usually not the full screen (e.g. full screen height but whatever width it had before). Turns out operating systems named "Windows" are much better at window management. (The maximizing stuff is one issue, the application-first model is another.)
nrabulinski 4y ago
I have never had any app crash on me and I’ve been using M1 Pro daily for a couple months now. For solving window management I use yabai which lets me navigate my machine (mostly) with the keyboard, just as I’m used to from my Linux daily driver
- atoav 4y ago
  I had apps crash on me 4 times in a M1 and I don't even own one, so I used it for a total of maybe 10 hours or so.
bingo-bongo 4y ago
Take a look at Alfred: https://www.alfredapp.com/ https://www.alfredapp.com/ I’ve been using it since v1, it’s extremely configurable, very very snappy and doesn’t suffer from the common AI-problems, that seems to be forced into searches everywhere these days. (EDIT: it’s a Spotlight replacement)
- dabeeeenster 4y ago
  Switched to Raycast and never looked back. Incredible tool.
  - krono 4y ago
    A great tool no doubt, but I'm personally not a fan of their extensions architecture. Last time I checked, it silently installed it's own complete and default build of NodeJS with NPM and everything. The extensions themselves are manually reviewed before being made available, but are - or were at least then - otherwise given free reign over the host system and even inherit the accessibility permissions (aka MacOS "godmode" for apps) that Raycast requires to function. To make this whole thing even more questionable, extensions are automatically and silently updated in the background, without a way for the user to disable this. Makes you wonder in what other parts of this closed source app secure practices might have also taken a backseat. Long story short: Very helpful tool, but their extensions architecture is quite insecure.
- climb_stealth 4y ago
  Alfred is great. Just have to disable the feature to search on the web. Otherwise it will have the same issue where a typo results in a new browser tab with a web search instead of doing nothing.
_23sd 4y ago
The more direct equivalent to the Windows start menu (assuming you just want to search programs) is the Launchpad, which isn't bound to a key by default but you can do it in settings. It's much more reliable than Spotlight. Personally, since I regularly have to deal with all 3, I use the same key combo for PowerToys Run on Windows, Launchpad on Mac, and the GNOME app launcher on Linux.
damowangcy 4y ago
Switching between Windows and Mac, spotlight (or Alfred) is something I missed on Windows (solved by using FlowLauncher, PowerToys Start doesn't support plugins). I don't understand the need to wait for something other than a search box to draw on the front when I just wanted to search and launch something. On top of that, there is no way to customise the search result or create aliases. If I installed something portable without writing to registry, I couldn't even find it. And this is coming from a company that is adding AI to their search engine soon.
- jfoerste 4y ago
  PowerToys Run does seem to support some plug-ins though. I happily use https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys to use Everything for bettler local search for example.
Thlom 4y ago
Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe. Also noticed yesterday that you can tile windows left right by long-pressing on the maximize button.
- lelanthran 4y ago
  > Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe. That's full-screen, not maximised[1]. It's also something I hate - I make an app full-screen and suddenly it's on a different desktop, so my awareness of what apps are on which desktop is completely gone - I can no longer to ctrl-alt-right twice to get from my golang desktop to my browser desktop, I need to move away from my keyboard, lean over to the macbook and three-finger swipe. As far as Apple are concerned, no one ever docks their MB into an external screen, keyboard and mouse. You're supposed to do all of your work squinting. [1] Someone will no doubt correct me if I am using the wrong terms.
  - wishfish 4y ago
    I've been using a Mac full time for a little over a year. I'd agree fully with you on the full screen going to a separate desktop. Extremely annoying. However, you can switch desktops with control + right/left arrow. No need for the trackpad. Because I'm easily distracted, I frequently have all major applications maximized. That's how I always used Windows. Fortunately, I can have the same on the Mac. Maximized with the dock showing below and all apps on the same desktop. Full screen is a rarity for me.
    - eybbus 4y ago
      My issue with control + right/left arrow is just how freaking slow it is. If I realise that I went the wrong direction I have to wait for the animation to finish before going in the other direction. It locks you in the animation. Note: As I was writing this, I was making sure that I was right. I notice that it will allow me to ignore the animation sometimes, but i am not sure what triggers that.
pbhjpbhj 4y ago
I've found Windows window management to be pretty poor. They removed always on top (except in OneNote, and it's in power toys). Open a second Word document and all your docs get maximised. Undock and re-dock your MS machine from it's MS dock and the MS OS suddenly has no clue where to put your windows. Dock to a different dock (hot-desking; same brand and size of monitor) and the entire display options need to be re-written - no option to preserve it. Restart your machine and you can only load your Startup apps into one virtual desktop (I tried powertoys but it didn't seem to make anything better). Et cetera ... It's pretty hard to believe that the people designing this system use it for work. At least they got zones, coming from KDE and not having zones nor virtual windows, initially, was a big shock.
- fodi 4y ago
  I've been using DeskPins for "always on top" since I've known about its existence.
  - tryfinally 4y ago
    I use this AutoHotkey oneliner. WIN+Space pins/unpins the current window. #SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A (Save to set-always-on-top.ahk, and create a shortcut to the script in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. Optionally add #NoTrayIcon at the top of the script to get rid of the tray icon.)
    - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
      Yeah AHK can fix a lot of this, but I only really use Windows on my employer's computer and they're very much averse to installing anything to help with QoL issues like this.
  - behnamoh 4y ago
    Surprisingly, there’s no way to keep an app on top on macOS!
- type0 4y ago
  They have Powertoys https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzones https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzon... and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/always-on-top https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/always-o... not sure how good it is since I haven't used it myself edit: you have to install it yourself
aa-jv 4y ago
Solve window management on MacOS with 10 lines of Hammerspoon config: local hyper = {"ctrl", "alt", "cmd"} hs.loadSpoon("MiroWindowsManager") hs.window.animationDuration = 0.3 spoon.MiroWindowsManager:bindHotkeys({ up = {hyper, "up"}, right = {hyper, "right"}, down = {hyper, "down"}, left = {hyper, "left"}, fullscreen = {hyper, "f"} })
happymellon 4y ago
You could try Amethyst, it is a tiling window manager for Mac, but it's substantially better than without. https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ It also adds shortcuts for things like moving windows between virtual desktops. Why is that not a key binding by default in MacOS? Tiling left and right does sort of exist natively, but you have to make an app only desktop and then add the second one. It's really clunky and doesn't feel like it's intended for actual use.
addandsubtract 4y ago
The most essential tool I recommend to any new Mac(book) owner is BetterTouchTool. It started out as a tool to allow you to assign and define new gestures on your trackpad, but has become a lot more since. One of the things it does is window management – drag a window to an edge to full/half/quarter-screen it. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut or trackpad gesture to do this, if you prefer. I couldn't use my macbook without it.
addandsubtract 4y ago
Another pro tip for using Spotlight: you can search by the initials of an app. For example, if you want to open "Private Internet Access", instead of searching for a substring, you can simply type "pia" into spotlight.
coldtea 4y ago
>Oh and for some reason, it's less stable than my prior windows machine. Apps just crash a lot, but that's probably due to the Arm64. For what is worth, I use dozens of apps, several big ones and lots of utilities, and no crashes (though I went for all being M1 native). So could just be the choice of apps or some other factor. Regarding typing to launch apps, you can try Alfred. It's free for basic use, and is what many long time Mac users tend to use for that role, as opposed to Spotlight. Also, there absolutely is "tiling". There are several third party apps such as Magnet, and there is even a quite basic built-in: click and keep clicked for a second or so the green window button, and it will give you option to put the window in a left/right tile and chose another for the other side, etc.
- alpaca128 4y ago
  > click and keep clicked for a second or so the green window button, and it will give you option to put the window in a left/right tile and chose another for the other side But it won't let you just tile a single window to a side, it is mandatory to select another window for the other half of the screen. Also it moves those windows to a separate workspace for whatever reason, which causes a delay when entering/exiting this tiling mode because of the workspace switching animation. I'm glad Rectangle exists. Now I just need something like Mission Control but with keyboard support (seriously, why can't I at least select another window with the arrow keys?)
  - joelmgallant 4y ago
    Contexts is the app that I was looking for, and may be for you as well! https://contexts.co https://contexts.co
  - catach 4y ago
    > But it won't let you just tile a single window to a side, it is mandatory to select another window for the other half of the screen. Also it moves those windows to a separate workspace for whatever reason Hold down the Option key to get it to work the way you want, here.
brianwillis 4y ago
>Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. It sort of does, but it's not as obvious as it should be. Mouse over the green zoom button in the top-left corner of a window, hold the option key on your keyboard, and then "move window left" and "move window right" options appear.
- tuankiet65 4y ago
  I think just hovering the cursor above the zoom button for a few seconds will also trigger the left/right tiling options.
  - lloeki 4y ago
    It's also in the Window menu, so you can add a keyboard shortcut to it. See https://lna7n.org/2021/04/16/a-survival-guide-to-macos-from-linux.html https://lna7n.org/2021/04/16/a-survival-guide-to-macos-from-...
  - pavel_lishin 4y ago
    Wow, I had no idea! I like OSX, but I will say that it has a lot of features which are basically impossible to discover except by accident.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
kaptainscarlet 4y ago
I just realised that Gnome 3.3 has the feature equivalent to Spotlight. At least for Math expressions. Pretty cool.
- somat 4y ago
  I thought the linux equivalent was the terminal, you can launch programs, manage files, do math, write programs, connect to remote machines, it's pretty great.
feet 4y ago
>Otherwise it searches the web. If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny second to update results such that if you type one letter too much, your top result goes from program to web search This sounds nearly identical to the search function I've used in the windows start menu. It's terrible
unkulunkulu 4y ago
I purchased an app to maximize my windows on mac. It also moves them between monitors. It’s called Magnet. Highly recommend :)
greggman3 4y ago
For me Spotlight fails constantly. I don't know what's tripping it up but programs I use often it randomly decides "today I'm not going to find those for you". I have it set to only show programs and nothing else so no idea why it can't do that simple task but whatever, several times a week it decides "not this time" As for tiling, Mac does do somethings that Windows (IIRC) doesn't. One is, if you move a window or the edge of a window slowly it will snap at the border of another window. So you move fast to get it close then slow down and it will align nicely. Also, tiling: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204948 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204948 But I agree that Windows tiling is more discoverable.
- everdrive 4y ago
  Spotlight gets better the less you ask it to do. Remove varieties of results (eg: web searching) and see how much more useful it becomes.
badpun 4y ago
One of first changes I do on a fresh Win 10 install is disabling the web search in start menu. I hope Mac you can do that on Macs as well.
pixelrevision 4y ago
Adding software can help. Alfred can either replace spotlite or run along side it. I’ve found it much faster and easier to use. You can customize it pretty well. (Just don’t download the Mac App Store version as it’s multiple versions behind) There’s a ton of windows managers out there that help you setup hot keys or modify windows to work how you want. Mac overall is much better with native software not doing its own thing than windows so changes tend to be pretty consistent. I’m using MOOM because it’s on the app store and lets me hotkey all my windows into specific sizes but there’s plenty of other stuff out there depending on what you want to do.
- mr-ron 4y ago
  shouldout to sizeup for window management. Keeping me sane since 2012.
acdha 4y ago
> Oh and for some reason, it's less stable than my prior windows machine. Apps just crash a lot, but that's probably due to the Arm64. I mean, remarkably stable compared to computer back when, of course, but compared to Windows 10, I have more crashes and even had to restart a couple of times! This is not normal: you might have a hardware issue or possibly some kind of invasive corporate security software. The two M1 devices I’ve used have never had a system level crash and application crashes are rare except for the things I’m compiling myself. For window management, I use Rectangle.app - Macs are all about keyboard shortcuts and that adds all kinds of resize patterns. For search, I’ve used Launchbar since before Spotlight existed. It’s notably faster for app launching and customizable, and the clipboard history is invaluable.
- josephg 4y ago
  My experience has been the same. I had an old Intel Mac start occasionally crashing after taking it in for a screen replacement. I fired up memtest86 and sure enough saw errors. I took it back and Apple replaced the entire motherboard for me for free. Does anyone know if there’s a memtest86 equivalent for M1 macs? I’m not sure how I’d go about testing the ram on my machine now.
  - oriolid 4y ago
    When this happened to me, I was told that the memory can't be replaced without replacing the entire motherboard. Which means that after warranty period has passed the machine is either very expensive to repair or unrepairable.
    - acdha 4y ago
      That’s sadly true given the design trade offs: M1 CPU package includes RAM - that makes it fast by lowering latency and removes the category of errors related to physical sockets but means any failure requires the entire part to be replaced.
      - oriolid 4y ago
Gareth321 4y ago
I fully agree on all points. I took a Mac hiatus for a few years and have been shocked with how unstable it has become in that time. FYI Alfred is the commonly recommended fix for Spotlight. Spotlight has become progressively worse over time. Apple recently removed the ability to remove web results, and disabled the ability to order which results come first.
rollcat 4y ago
> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use. Mac has a different window management paradigm. It suits some people, it frustrates others. I've switched from Linux/BSD after 15 years there, and it immediately made so much more sense to me. YMMV. It also makes so much more sense if you have a very large screen. I've tried using dwm or Sway with my 43" screen and it's incredibly awkward. You need first-class support for floating windows, or at least smarter tiling. But I agree, some things on macOS are not as good (workspaces), or plain dumb/useless (stage manager). For missing functionality, like keyboard-driven tiling, I fix things using Hammerspoon: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon/init.lua https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...
- hadlock 4y ago
  > warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. I've been using Spectacle (https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/ https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/) which is technically unsupported but seems work fine on an M1 mac and provides all the neat tiling left/right/up-down windows 8 functionality via the keyboard. This is the first thing I install on a new work computer along with Amphetamine.
- suzzer99 4y ago
  I use DisplayMaid which remembers the positions of all the apps I usually have open, one configuration for each combination of monitors I use (work, laptop only, home).
shaan7 4y ago
> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage Phew, so I'm not alone. I used a Mac during 2014 to 2018 and window management was the most frustrating thing. I wanted to scream every time I accidentally moved a "maximized" window 1px to the right. aaaaargh.
emsixteen 4y ago
I really struggled with moving to macOS for work, but a couple of utilities helped a lot: AltTab - Windows style tabbing between windows, including thumbnails and tiles for each open window of an application[1]. brew install --cask alt-tab LinearMouse - Removes mouse acceleration, but also gives you the ability to have different scroll directions on mouse and trackpad[2]. brew install --cask linearmouse Rectangle - Open source window management tool, I use it for window snapping[3]. brew install --cask rectangle [1] https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos [2] https://github.com/linearmouse/linearmouse https://github.com/linearmouse/linearmouse [3] https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle
mhw 4y ago
> Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist Sure it does - long press on the green maximise button and you get a little drop down. For me it includes "Enter full screen", "Tile Window to Left of Screen" and "Tile Window to Left of Screen". Tiling is like full screen but with two apps side-by-side rather than one. If you want to maximise a window instead of going full screen (that is, make it as big as possible but not overlap the menu bar or dock), Option+Click on the green button or double click the title bar. macOS calls this "Zoom". Safari is atypical in that maximising it only changes the window's vertical height, but pretty much everything else maximises height and width. All these options are on the 'Window' menu as well.
- erksa 4y ago
  Yeah, windows and mac has a different approach to things, and seemingly people do not want to invest the time to properly learn a new OS when changing. "I've used computers for x years, and if mac is so intuitive I should just get it, and mac sucks because you can't move folders only copy them in finder". A variation of this I've heard multiple times. MacOS is intuitive for people who's never used another system in my opinion. If your muscle memory and workflows have been shaped by windows, you're going to have to look up how to do things. Like, holding down option with certain clicks to reveal more options is not something everyone know, and it's applicable (used to be at least) in many places.
tristor 4y ago
> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. It didn't used to be this way, a lot of things about the UX has gotten worse in Mac OS. The nice thing is there is common, well written software in the community to resolve most of the quirks. BetterTouchTool is a REQUIRED install on every Mac I touch and while it is very powerful and has many capabilities, its two most important features for me are rather mundane: Dragging to grid and switching the behavior of the green button back to maximizing the window instead of going full screen (does anyone actually want /full screen/ for a normal application that is not watching a long video?) If you have the right mix of community written software (much of which is free, but some is paid), Macs become a truly lovely experience. I can't stand Windows these days, when I used to feel very positively about it. Granted, there are great community written programs for Windows to improve its UX as well.
dylan604 4y ago
The web stuff on Spolight is one of the first things I turn off on any new Mac. Siri is disabled, suggestions from the web are disabled, spotlight is only allowed to look at apps and files, etc. My mac works wonderfully after so that it returns results of what I expect when searched. Search is a lot less hard when you restrain it to searching only what you care about.
- tanseydavid 4y ago
  Does anyone know how to get a similar configuration with Win11? The setup described here is exactly what I want.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    --Hi, I'm a PC. --And I'm a Mac. The only winning move is not to play Win11
  - RandomChance 4y ago
    I believe you can set it with PowerShell: Set-WindowsSearchSetting -EnableWebResultsSetting $false -SearchExperienceSetting NotPersonalized Link to the Docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/windowssearch/set-windowssearchsetting https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/windowss...
- snuxoll 4y ago
  Spotlight, as in the underlying search technology and APIs originating from Mac OS X 10.4, is fantastic. Spotlight, as in the search box that appears when hitting Cmd+Space has become obnoxious and commonly thinks I want to know what 1 pascal is in inHg when I type "1pa" instead of thinking I want to open 1Password. To this day Alfred remains one of the first things I install on a new Mac as a result. Still have access to Spotlight (the indexing service) search, but none of the extra "intelligence" (aka Spotlight the app thinking it knows better than me what I want) unless I explicitly ask for it by explicitly invoking an extra workflow for things like unit conversion, etc.
noodleman 4y ago
I'm on mac for work and use an open source app called Rectangle to manage app windows. I don't know how people manage without it! It's funny how bad window management is with mac. I'd not be surprised if Apple's UI/UX designers just look at what Windows does well and says "Let's do the opposite of that"
Tagbert 4y ago
“ If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny second to update results such that if you type one letter too much, your top result goes from program to web search, and pressing enter opens Safari.” The search in Windows start menu does the same thing. This is from progressive return on results intended to get something to the user fast while the searches are still not done. The downside is a shift like you see. I think subsequent results should only append to the end of the results, not change the order of existing results. As someone mentioned, you can turn off the web search results in Spotlight and it will eliminate most of this problem. I’m not sure if you can do that in the Windows Start Menu or not.
layer8 4y ago
> I think search is hard generally. The Windows 7 start menu search worked very well for the TFA use case. You can still get the equivalent with OpenShell. Microsoft f’ed it up from Windows 8 on.
lowbloodsugar 4y ago
>Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist “Window management is different and even though it is a completely different OS I didn’t bother to learn it.” You might as well have said its command.exe is garbage and back slashes don’t work.
bradgessler 4y ago
> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use. There’s a $0.99 app in the App Store called Magnet that solves these problems. It’s absurd that Apple doesn’t build this into their OS and wastes so much time on stuff like Stage Managed, but it is what it is. I highly recommend Magnet.
andrewmackrodt 4y ago
Regarding a lack of start menu, I find it useful to pin the Applications folder to the dock Once pinned, right-click and set your preferred view mode, e.g. grid or stack. However this approach is limited in that it is a folder view, so will omit anything in your user's ~/Applications folder. I enjoy macOS' maximize (fullscreen to new workspace behaviour) as I usually use it only when using a single screen with a trackpad. However, double clicking the titlebar will maximize more conventionally like Windows, Gnome or KDE. BetterTouchTool is IMO a must have application on macOS. It supports window tiling.

by zwaps 4y ago

infinitezest 4y ago

For window management and tiling, I think Rectangle is better than most of the alternatives I've used. And its OSS https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/

whatatita 4y ago
I use this and love it! It's in my "must have" list of apps I install straight away. You can install it with brew too: `brew install --cask rectangle`

flohofwoe 4y ago

You can switch off everything related to siri in the system settings (especially 'siri suggestions' in the spotlight settings) to get a local spotlight search (which then actually works pretty well as app launcher, that's what I use it mainly for).

xenonite 4y ago

Yes, this is why I turn off search in Spotlight (also for privacy). For window management, please consider using the Rectangle app or some other keyboard window manager. Otherwise, I believe its possible to long press on the maximize button to put your windows on the left or right half.

mszcz 4y ago
Rectangle, Rectangle Pro, Magnet are all very nice and make the window management ok-ish on Mac imho. I've made the switch a couple of months ago and the window management without those apps seemed both different but also somehow worse. Now, I'm all used to it and it works good.
- chris37879 4y ago
  I use Moom, it gives me basically perfect snapping and keyboard controls
  - Joeri 4y ago
    I switched from magnet to moom. It feels like a native OS feature, which is the highest compliment I can give such a tool.
- ct520 4y ago
  Had both Mac and pc. Made switch with latest M1 Pro to replace windows pc desktop. Got 49inch ultra wide and 27inch using magnet works great.
yesenadam 4y ago
> its possible to long press on the maximize button to put your windows on the left or right half. Ohh I never knew about that. Thank you!
Kwpolska 4y ago
The green button isn't a maximize button, it's a full screen button. Full screen on macOS is a separate virtual desktop, so you can't just quickly bring up another window to reference something. Some apps simplify/hide their UI in full screen mode, and until recently, the menu bar would always auto-hide in full screen (it's configurable now). There's also Zoom, activated by option-clicking the green button. This resizes the window to the app's preferred size, which is random, and usually not the full screen (e.g. full screen height but whatever width it had before). Turns out operating systems named "Windows" are much better at window management. (The maximizing stuff is one issue, the application-first model is another.)

nrabulinski 4y ago

I have never had any app crash on me and I’ve been using M1 Pro daily for a couple months now. For solving window management I use yabai which lets me navigate my machine (mostly) with the keyboard, just as I’m used to from my Linux daily driver

atoav 4y ago
I had apps crash on me 4 times in a M1 and I don't even own one, so I used it for a total of maybe 10 hours or so.

bingo-bongo 4y ago

Take a look at Alfred: https://www.alfredapp.com/ https://www.alfredapp.com/ I’ve been using it since v1, it’s extremely configurable, very very snappy and doesn’t suffer from the common AI-problems, that seems to be forced into searches everywhere these days. (EDIT: it’s a Spotlight replacement)

dabeeeenster 4y ago
Switched to Raycast and never looked back. Incredible tool.
- krono 4y ago
  A great tool no doubt, but I'm personally not a fan of their extensions architecture. Last time I checked, it silently installed it's own complete and default build of NodeJS with NPM and everything. The extensions themselves are manually reviewed before being made available, but are - or were at least then - otherwise given free reign over the host system and even inherit the accessibility permissions (aka MacOS "godmode" for apps) that Raycast requires to function. To make this whole thing even more questionable, extensions are automatically and silently updated in the background, without a way for the user to disable this. Makes you wonder in what other parts of this closed source app secure practices might have also taken a backseat. Long story short: Very helpful tool, but their extensions architecture is quite insecure.
climb_stealth 4y ago
Alfred is great. Just have to disable the feature to search on the web. Otherwise it will have the same issue where a typo results in a new browser tab with a web search instead of doing nothing.

_23sd 4y ago

The more direct equivalent to the Windows start menu (assuming you just want to search programs) is the Launchpad, which isn't bound to a key by default but you can do it in settings. It's much more reliable than Spotlight. Personally, since I regularly have to deal with all 3, I use the same key combo for PowerToys Run on Windows, Launchpad on Mac, and the GNOME app launcher on Linux.

damowangcy 4y ago

Switching between Windows and Mac, spotlight (or Alfred) is something I missed on Windows (solved by using FlowLauncher, PowerToys Start doesn't support plugins). I don't understand the need to wait for something other than a search box to draw on the front when I just wanted to search and launch something. On top of that, there is no way to customise the search result or create aliases. If I installed something portable without writing to registry, I couldn't even find it. And this is coming from a company that is adding AI to their search engine soon.

jfoerste 4y ago
PowerToys Run does seem to support some plug-ins though. I happily use https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys to use Everything for bettler local search for example.

Thlom 4y ago

Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe. Also noticed yesterday that you can tile windows left right by long-pressing on the maximize button.

lelanthran 4y ago
> Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe. That's full-screen, not maximised[1]. It's also something I hate - I make an app full-screen and suddenly it's on a different desktop, so my awareness of what apps are on which desktop is completely gone - I can no longer to ctrl-alt-right twice to get from my golang desktop to my browser desktop, I need to move away from my keyboard, lean over to the macbook and three-finger swipe. As far as Apple are concerned, no one ever docks their MB into an external screen, keyboard and mouse. You're supposed to do all of your work squinting. [1] Someone will no doubt correct me if I am using the wrong terms.
- wishfish 4y ago
  I've been using a Mac full time for a little over a year. I'd agree fully with you on the full screen going to a separate desktop. Extremely annoying. However, you can switch desktops with control + right/left arrow. No need for the trackpad. Because I'm easily distracted, I frequently have all major applications maximized. That's how I always used Windows. Fortunately, I can have the same on the Mac. Maximized with the dock showing below and all apps on the same desktop. Full screen is a rarity for me.
  - eybbus 4y ago
    My issue with control + right/left arrow is just how freaking slow it is. If I realise that I went the wrong direction I have to wait for the animation to finish before going in the other direction. It locks you in the animation. Note: As I was writing this, I was making sure that I was right. I notice that it will allow me to ignore the animation sometimes, but i am not sure what triggers that.

pbhjpbhj 4y ago

I've found Windows window management to be pretty poor. They removed always on top (except in OneNote, and it's in power toys). Open a second Word document and all your docs get maximised. Undock and re-dock your MS machine from it's MS dock and the MS OS suddenly has no clue where to put your windows. Dock to a different dock (hot-desking; same brand and size of monitor) and the entire display options need to be re-written - no option to preserve it. Restart your machine and you can only load your Startup apps into one virtual desktop (I tried powertoys but it didn't seem to make anything better). Et cetera ... It's pretty hard to believe that the people designing this system use it for work. At least they got zones, coming from KDE and not having zones nor virtual windows, initially, was a big shock.

fodi 4y ago
I've been using DeskPins for "always on top" since I've known about its existence.
- tryfinally 4y ago
  I use this AutoHotkey oneliner. WIN+Space pins/unpins the current window. #SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A (Save to set-always-on-top.ahk, and create a shortcut to the script in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. Optionally add #NoTrayIcon at the top of the script to get rid of the tray icon.)
  - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
    Yeah AHK can fix a lot of this, but I only really use Windows on my employer's computer and they're very much averse to installing anything to help with QoL issues like this.
- behnamoh 4y ago
  Surprisingly, there’s no way to keep an app on top on macOS!
type0 4y ago
They have Powertoys https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzones https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzon... and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/always-on-top https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/always-o... not sure how good it is since I haven't used it myself edit: you have to install it yourself

aa-jv 4y ago

Solve window management on MacOS with 10 lines of Hammerspoon config: local hyper = {"ctrl", "alt", "cmd"} hs.loadSpoon("MiroWindowsManager") hs.window.animationDuration = 0.3 spoon.MiroWindowsManager:bindHotkeys({ up = {hyper, "up"}, right = {hyper, "right"}, down = {hyper, "down"}, left = {hyper, "left"}, fullscreen = {hyper, "f"} })

happymellon 4y ago

You could try Amethyst, it is a tiling window manager for Mac, but it's substantially better than without. https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ https://ianyh.com/amethyst/ It also adds shortcuts for things like moving windows between virtual desktops. Why is that not a key binding by default in MacOS? Tiling left and right does sort of exist natively, but you have to make an app only desktop and then add the second one. It's really clunky and doesn't feel like it's intended for actual use.

addandsubtract 4y ago

The most essential tool I recommend to any new Mac(book) owner is BetterTouchTool. It started out as a tool to allow you to assign and define new gestures on your trackpad, but has become a lot more since. One of the things it does is window management – drag a window to an edge to full/half/quarter-screen it. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut or trackpad gesture to do this, if you prefer. I couldn't use my macbook without it.

addandsubtract 4y ago

Another pro tip for using Spotlight: you can search by the initials of an app. For example, if you want to open "Private Internet Access", instead of searching for a substring, you can simply type "pia" into spotlight.

coldtea 4y ago

>Oh and for some reason, it's less stable than my prior windows machine. Apps just crash a lot, but that's probably due to the Arm64. For what is worth, I use dozens of apps, several big ones and lots of utilities, and no crashes (though I went for all being M1 native). So could just be the choice of apps or some other factor. Regarding typing to launch apps, you can try Alfred. It's free for basic use, and is what many long time Mac users tend to use for that role, as opposed to Spotlight. Also, there absolutely is "tiling". There are several third party apps such as Magnet, and there is even a quite basic built-in: click and keep clicked for a second or so the green window button, and it will give you option to put the window in a left/right tile and chose another for the other side, etc.

alpaca128 4y ago
> click and keep clicked for a second or so the green window button, and it will give you option to put the window in a left/right tile and chose another for the other side But it won't let you just tile a single window to a side, it is mandatory to select another window for the other half of the screen. Also it moves those windows to a separate workspace for whatever reason, which causes a delay when entering/exiting this tiling mode because of the workspace switching animation. I'm glad Rectangle exists. Now I just need something like Mission Control but with keyboard support (seriously, why can't I at least select another window with the arrow keys?)
- joelmgallant 4y ago
  Contexts is the app that I was looking for, and may be for you as well! https://contexts.co https://contexts.co
- catach 4y ago
  > But it won't let you just tile a single window to a side, it is mandatory to select another window for the other half of the screen. Also it moves those windows to a separate workspace for whatever reason Hold down the Option key to get it to work the way you want, here.

brianwillis 4y ago

>Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. It sort of does, but it's not as obvious as it should be. Mouse over the green zoom button in the top-left corner of a window, hold the option key on your keyboard, and then "move window left" and "move window right" options appear.

tuankiet65 4y ago
I think just hovering the cursor above the zoom button for a few seconds will also trigger the left/right tiling options.
- lloeki 4y ago
  It's also in the Window menu, so you can add a keyboard shortcut to it. See https://lna7n.org/2021/04/16/a-survival-guide-to-macos-from-linux.html https://lna7n.org/2021/04/16/a-survival-guide-to-macos-from-...
- pavel_lishin 4y ago
  Wow, I had no idea! I like OSX, but I will say that it has a lot of features which are basically impossible to discover except by accident.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

kaptainscarlet 4y ago

I just realised that Gnome 3.3 has the feature equivalent to Spotlight. At least for Math expressions. Pretty cool.

somat 4y ago
I thought the linux equivalent was the terminal, you can launch programs, manage files, do math, write programs, connect to remote machines, it's pretty great.

feet 4y ago

>Otherwise it searches the web. If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny second to update results such that if you type one letter too much, your top result goes from program to web search This sounds nearly identical to the search function I've used in the windows start menu. It's terrible

unkulunkulu 4y ago

I purchased an app to maximize my windows on mac. It also moves them between monitors. It’s called Magnet. Highly recommend :)

greggman3 4y ago

For me Spotlight fails constantly. I don't know what's tripping it up but programs I use often it randomly decides "today I'm not going to find those for you". I have it set to only show programs and nothing else so no idea why it can't do that simple task but whatever, several times a week it decides "not this time" As for tiling, Mac does do somethings that Windows (IIRC) doesn't. One is, if you move a window or the edge of a window slowly it will snap at the border of another window. So you move fast to get it close then slow down and it will align nicely. Also, tiling: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204948 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204948 But I agree that Windows tiling is more discoverable.

everdrive 4y ago
Spotlight gets better the less you ask it to do. Remove varieties of results (eg: web searching) and see how much more useful it becomes.

badpun 4y ago

One of first changes I do on a fresh Win 10 install is disabling the web search in start menu. I hope Mac you can do that on Macs as well.

pixelrevision 4y ago

Adding software can help. Alfred can either replace spotlite or run along side it. I’ve found it much faster and easier to use. You can customize it pretty well. (Just don’t download the Mac App Store version as it’s multiple versions behind) There’s a ton of windows managers out there that help you setup hot keys or modify windows to work how you want. Mac overall is much better with native software not doing its own thing than windows so changes tend to be pretty consistent. I’m using MOOM because it’s on the app store and lets me hotkey all my windows into specific sizes but there’s plenty of other stuff out there depending on what you want to do.

mr-ron 4y ago
shouldout to sizeup for window management. Keeping me sane since 2012.

acdha 4y ago

> Oh and for some reason, it's less stable than my prior windows machine. Apps just crash a lot, but that's probably due to the Arm64. I mean, remarkably stable compared to computer back when, of course, but compared to Windows 10, I have more crashes and even had to restart a couple of times! This is not normal: you might have a hardware issue or possibly some kind of invasive corporate security software. The two M1 devices I’ve used have never had a system level crash and application crashes are rare except for the things I’m compiling myself. For window management, I use Rectangle.app - Macs are all about keyboard shortcuts and that adds all kinds of resize patterns. For search, I’ve used Launchbar since before Spotlight existed. It’s notably faster for app launching and customizable, and the clipboard history is invaluable.

josephg 4y ago
My experience has been the same. I had an old Intel Mac start occasionally crashing after taking it in for a screen replacement. I fired up memtest86 and sure enough saw errors. I took it back and Apple replaced the entire motherboard for me for free. Does anyone know if there’s a memtest86 equivalent for M1 macs? I’m not sure how I’d go about testing the ram on my machine now.
- oriolid 4y ago
  When this happened to me, I was told that the memory can't be replaced without replacing the entire motherboard. Which means that after warranty period has passed the machine is either very expensive to repair or unrepairable.
  - acdha 4y ago
    That’s sadly true given the design trade offs: M1 CPU package includes RAM - that makes it fast by lowering latency and removes the category of errors related to physical sockets but means any failure requires the entire part to be replaced.
    - oriolid 4y ago

Gareth321 4y ago

I fully agree on all points. I took a Mac hiatus for a few years and have been shocked with how unstable it has become in that time. FYI Alfred is the commonly recommended fix for Spotlight. Spotlight has become progressively worse over time. Apple recently removed the ability to remove web results, and disabled the ability to order which results come first.

rollcat 4y ago

> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use. Mac has a different window management paradigm. It suits some people, it frustrates others. I've switched from Linux/BSD after 15 years there, and it immediately made so much more sense to me. YMMV. It also makes so much more sense if you have a very large screen. I've tried using dwm or Sway with my 43" screen and it's incredibly awkward. You need first-class support for floating windows, or at least smarter tiling. But I agree, some things on macOS are not as good (workspaces), or plain dumb/useless (stage manager). For missing functionality, like keyboard-driven tiling, I fix things using Hammerspoon: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon/init.lua https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

hadlock 4y ago
> warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. I've been using Spectacle (https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/ https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/) which is technically unsupported but seems work fine on an M1 mac and provides all the neat tiling left/right/up-down windows 8 functionality via the keyboard. This is the first thing I install on a new work computer along with Amphetamine.
suzzer99 4y ago
I use DisplayMaid which remembers the positions of all the apps I usually have open, one configuration for each combination of monitors I use (work, laptop only, home).

shaan7 4y ago

> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage Phew, so I'm not alone. I used a Mac during 2014 to 2018 and window management was the most frustrating thing. I wanted to scream every time I accidentally moved a "maximized" window 1px to the right. aaaaargh.

emsixteen 4y ago

I really struggled with moving to macOS for work, but a couple of utilities helped a lot: AltTab - Windows style tabbing between windows, including thumbnails and tiles for each open window of an application[1]. brew install --cask alt-tab LinearMouse - Removes mouse acceleration, but also gives you the ability to have different scroll directions on mouse and trackpad[2]. brew install --cask linearmouse Rectangle - Open source window management tool, I use it for window snapping[3]. brew install --cask rectangle [1] https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos [2] https://github.com/linearmouse/linearmouse https://github.com/linearmouse/linearmouse [3] https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle

mhw 4y ago

> Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist Sure it does - long press on the green maximise button and you get a little drop down. For me it includes "Enter full screen", "Tile Window to Left of Screen" and "Tile Window to Left of Screen". Tiling is like full screen but with two apps side-by-side rather than one. If you want to maximise a window instead of going full screen (that is, make it as big as possible but not overlap the menu bar or dock), Option+Click on the green button or double click the title bar. macOS calls this "Zoom". Safari is atypical in that maximising it only changes the window's vertical height, but pretty much everything else maximises height and width. All these options are on the 'Window' menu as well.

erksa 4y ago
Yeah, windows and mac has a different approach to things, and seemingly people do not want to invest the time to properly learn a new OS when changing. "I've used computers for x years, and if mac is so intuitive I should just get it, and mac sucks because you can't move folders only copy them in finder". A variation of this I've heard multiple times. MacOS is intuitive for people who's never used another system in my opinion. If your muscle memory and workflows have been shaped by windows, you're going to have to look up how to do things. Like, holding down option with certain clicks to reveal more options is not something everyone know, and it's applicable (used to be at least) in many places.

tristor 4y ago

> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. It didn't used to be this way, a lot of things about the UX has gotten worse in Mac OS. The nice thing is there is common, well written software in the community to resolve most of the quirks. BetterTouchTool is a REQUIRED install on every Mac I touch and while it is very powerful and has many capabilities, its two most important features for me are rather mundane: Dragging to grid and switching the behavior of the green button back to maximizing the window instead of going full screen (does anyone actually want /full screen/ for a normal application that is not watching a long video?) If you have the right mix of community written software (much of which is free, but some is paid), Macs become a truly lovely experience. I can't stand Windows these days, when I used to feel very positively about it. Granted, there are great community written programs for Windows to improve its UX as well.

dylan604 4y ago

The web stuff on Spolight is one of the first things I turn off on any new Mac. Siri is disabled, suggestions from the web are disabled, spotlight is only allowed to look at apps and files, etc. My mac works wonderfully after so that it returns results of what I expect when searched. Search is a lot less hard when you restrain it to searching only what you care about.

tanseydavid 4y ago
Does anyone know how to get a similar configuration with Win11? The setup described here is exactly what I want.
- dylan604 4y ago
  --Hi, I'm a PC. --And I'm a Mac. The only winning move is not to play Win11
- RandomChance 4y ago
  I believe you can set it with PowerShell: Set-WindowsSearchSetting -EnableWebResultsSetting $false -SearchExperienceSetting NotPersonalized Link to the Docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/windowssearch/set-windowssearchsetting https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/windowss...
snuxoll 4y ago
Spotlight, as in the underlying search technology and APIs originating from Mac OS X 10.4, is fantastic. Spotlight, as in the search box that appears when hitting Cmd+Space has become obnoxious and commonly thinks I want to know what 1 pascal is in inHg when I type "1pa" instead of thinking I want to open 1Password. To this day Alfred remains one of the first things I install on a new Mac as a result. Still have access to Spotlight (the indexing service) search, but none of the extra "intelligence" (aka Spotlight the app thinking it knows better than me what I want) unless I explicitly ask for it by explicitly invoking an extra workflow for things like unit conversion, etc.

noodleman 4y ago

I'm on mac for work and use an open source app called Rectangle to manage app windows. I don't know how people manage without it! It's funny how bad window management is with mac. I'd not be surprised if Apple's UI/UX designers just look at what Windows does well and says "Let's do the opposite of that"

Tagbert 4y ago

“ If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny second to update results such that if you type one letter too much, your top result goes from program to web search, and pressing enter opens Safari.” The search in Windows start menu does the same thing. This is from progressive return on results intended to get something to the user fast while the searches are still not done. The downside is a shift like you see. I think subsequent results should only append to the end of the results, not change the order of existing results. As someone mentioned, you can turn off the web search results in Spotlight and it will eliminate most of this problem. I’m not sure if you can do that in the Windows Start Menu or not.

layer8 4y ago

> I think search is hard generally. The Windows 7 start menu search worked very well for the TFA use case. You can still get the equivalent with OpenShell. Microsoft f’ed it up from Windows 8 on.

lowbloodsugar 4y ago

>Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist “Window management is different and even though it is a completely different OS I didn’t bother to learn it.” You might as well have said its command.exe is garbage and back slashes don’t work.

bradgessler 4y ago

andrewmackrodt 4y ago

Regarding a lack of start menu, I find it useful to pin the Applications folder to the dock Once pinned, right-click and set your preferred view mode, e.g. grid or stack. However this approach is limited in that it is a folder view, so will omit anything in your user's ~/Applications folder. I enjoy macOS' maximize (fullscreen to new workspace behaviour) as I usually use it only when using a single screen with a trackpad. However, double clicking the titlebar will maximize more conventionally like Windows, Gnome or KDE. BetterTouchTool is IMO a must have application on macOS. It supports window tiling.