6 ms·

From my relatively short experience but ongoing with Mac, MacOS lacks a lot of features that Windows has. It has many inferior options that people just accept.

• D13Fd 3y ago
  Like what? I use both every day, hard to think of any major features for my usage other than snapping that Mac OS lacks.
  • djfdat 3y ago
    - Peek at desktop - Quick hide-all-windows to copy something from your desktop to your clipboard, then bring everything back - Alt-tab, especially when it comes to apps with multiple windows, and windows in different states, such as minimized - A modern/fully-featured default web browser without a locked down extension ecosystem. - A start menu for seeing all your applications - A taskbar with application grouping - File Explorer is much more full-featured than Finder - Better settings, especially when it comes to relevant settings being in one place - The concept of uninstalling an application vs just deleting the application - In some cases, an actual function key row That said, I've used Windows for almost 15 years now, and I think many of its choices are second nature to me. Many of my friends are masters of switching windows with Expose, which I absolutely despise. And I still use Windows for work, but use Mac in personal usage. I usually end up frustrated at things that work on Windows but don't on MacOS, but rarely vice versa.
    • jitl 3y ago
      Desktop peek: Part of “Mission Control”: spread thumb and 3 fingers, or press Fn+F11. Alt tab: press cmd-tab to cycle applications, then cmd-` to cycle windows of that application. This typically has better number-of-keypress to get the window you want compared to Windows alt-tab which requires iterating over all windows in the worst case. Browser: Safari is fits your criteria Start menu to see all apps: this is called “Launchpad”, and is in the Dock by default for new macOS users, but can be removed. Uninstall vs delete: apps installed from the Mac App Store can be uninstalled from launchpad. Otherwise, isn’t “apps are files, drag to install, cmd-delete or drag to trash to uninstall” objectively simpler than using a wizard to install, and digging around in a control panel to uninstall? Function key row: you can swap the behavior of the fn row so that the keys send Fn1-Fn12 by default, and needs the fn key held down to send commands like “volume up”. Settings layout: this one is opinion; I’ve always found Windows settings horribly organized. From 2001-2007, there’s no contest that System Preferences is better organized than Windows XP’s control panel. From 2007-2015, the Vista-era control panel split things awkwardly between the “new style” Vista panels and old-style windows XP/2000/98 panels. Since Windows 10 things are on more even footing in my view, although some details in macOS Network and Displays are annoyingly hidden in some versions.
      • Gunnerhead 3y ago
        Also for desktop peek you can customize “hot corners” to show the desktop when you put your cursor in one of the corners.
        • djfdat 3y ago
          I... should have thought about this. Will give it a try!
      • karaterobot 3y ago
        > Alt tab: press cmd-tab to cycle applications, then cmd-` to cycle windows of that application. This typically has better number-of-keypress to get the window you want compared to Windows alt-tab which requires iterating over all windows in the worst case. Except that you can select a window with cmd-tab and then have absolutely nothing happen as a result. It will show windows that it does not let you muster on screen, except with a secret key combination it does not tell you about. The existence of this secret method of actually getting the application to do what you expect it to in no way excuses the default behavior of not doing what it should do.
        • wrs 3y ago
          I'm not sure quite what situation you're describing with the secret key thing, but in case it's relevant: Cmd-tab selects applications, not windows. If the application has no windows open, then when you cmd-tab to it, you won't switch to a window (but you will see the menu bar switch). The situation cannot occur in Windows because it insists that an application must have at least one window open to interact with it at all.
          • karaterobot 3y ago
            You can see a description of the problem, and its obscure (in the sense of being hidden) solution, in this stackoverflow thread. https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/112350/cmdtab-does-not-work-on-hidden-or-minimized-windows https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/112350/cmdtab-does... All applications are open in this case. MacOS just doesn't display anything in certain quite common cases, such as one of its windows being hidden or minimized. There is a mechanism to display these windows (the obscure, well-kept secret does work) but Apple chose not to apply it.
    • Gigachad 3y ago
      > The concept of uninstalling an application vs just deleting the application Uninstalling is a workaround for the failure of windows to actually contain an apps data. The way macos handles it is much better.
      • djfdat 3y ago
        But isn't there app data still left around on the disk somewhere in Library? Aren't apps able to generate and save off app data outside of the .app?
        • Gigachad 3y ago
          They can, though I guess it depends on what the user is actually trying to do when they remove a program. I'd say the user wants to free up disk space and to not have the app start up on boot or run in the background consuming resources. Deleting the .app does this while on Windows, the uninstaller is the only way I know how this would be done. The fact that the app might leave some documents and configs behind seems inconsequential. If you delete Word, you wouldn't want it to wipe out your documents with it for example. The fact that some configs remain in system dirs doesn't really matter when they take up no space.
  • Grum9 3y ago
    [dead]
• sys_64738 3y ago
  Some of the Windows choices are horrendous. Alt-tab to switch apps actually switches between browser tabs in Edge. It's really confusing. There's a litany of other problems too like virtual desktops move all screens instead of just the screen with the cursor, so it's unusable. There's also a case where certain actions with the mouse cause all the windows to vanish. I mean, what was that. Then there's that window history thing which is baffling to use. macOS has its demons but Windows just plain is confusing.
  • djfdat 3y ago
    Alt-tab to switch between browser tabs in Edge is new, a setting that you can turn off, and in some cases, it's actually very useful, since you can limit the number of tabs. It lets me treat recent tabs the same way as I would treat recent applications, which many websites effectively are. But anyways, that choice is made available to you. I don't currently use multiple monitors, but I do use virtual desktops, and... that's exactly how I would expect virtual desktops to behave? If it only changed a single monitor, does that mean you'd have to go to each monitor to change to a different virtual desktop? Do you see virtual desktop configurations specific to each screen, or any screen? What happens if your screens are different resolutions. I think that Windows again has the superior implementation here. Aero shake was pretty terrible, no arguments here. The window history thing, Timeline, is something that I have disabed, but honestly sounds like an even better version of Recent Files, which is something many people use and might like something more full featured.
    • sys_64738 3y ago
      I want all these turned off by default and not need to stumble through trying to figure out how to disable them. Windows now feels like using Android where you need to google first to figure out how to modify something. In terms of virtual desktops, having independent control per monitor is so elementary that it makes the feature pretty useless otherwise.
      • pulpfictional 3y ago
        I want it all, I want it now.
• HDThoreaun 3y ago
  It's just a far more opinionated OS. Always "my way or the highway". MacOS doesnt have a good window manager because it was designed for every app to be Fullscreen and then use three or four finger scroll to switch apps. The designers really want you to use their preferred way of managing windows so they make the traditional method suck.
  • xn--cr8h 3y ago
    ...so that you can't see the time? why would you want that?
  • kagakuninja 3y ago
    The roots of MacOS UI principles date back to the 1980s. Even the current UNIX based MacOS was created in 1999 based off of the Next OS. Multi-finger gestures were introduced with the iPhone in 2007, and eventually made their way onto laptops. Not only is MacOS 10 / 11 not based on multi-finger gestures, you can only use gestures if you are using a laptop or an Apple touchpad. The default mode of using MacOS is mouse based.
    • Toutouxc 3y ago
      > Not only is MacOS 10 / 11 not based on multi-finger gestures, you can only use gestures if you are using a laptop or an Apple touchpad. The default mode of using MacOS is mouse based. Well, every single one of their input devices supports the gestures. Built-in trackpads, Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but for me (Mac user of 9 years) macOS is decidedly gesture based, and I consider them one of its biggest strengths.
    • HDThoreaun 3y ago
      Ok? They abandoned their roots and went all in on the trackpad gestures. I'm not saying it's the right choice, it's just the one apple made.