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I recently switched my work laptop from a ThinkPad running Arch to a MacBook Air M2. I was very efficient in my Arch environment that I have tweaked gradually

I recently switched my work laptop from a ThinkPad running Arch to a MacBook Air M2. I was very efficient in my Arch environment that I have tweaked gradually for over a decade so I was quite reluctant to make the move. Trying to keep an open mind, I told myself that at least I will get the pleasure of using the amazingly intuitive and beautiful UIs that Apple have been tweaking since before I was even born! Imagine my disappointment. Simple things are slow and annoying. Difficult things are impossible. Something so basic as moving a file between two directories. Can you Command-X, Command-V it? No. If both folders are open in Finder tabs you can drag the file to the tab, then wait for a blinking animation to complete before you are allowed to drop it into the target folder. I guess you should open both folders as separate windows and then drag. But that creates even more windows, and window management in Macos is just impossible to tweak, so you are forced to use Apple's weird gesture-based paradigm. It might feel productive since you make so many animations happen but switching to the window you're thinking of should - and could - take fractions of a second and feel like an extension of your mind but in this new reality it's more like choreographing a bizarre window ballet even when you get used to it. Things could be so much better. But hey, the hardware seems pretty good.

SonOfLilit 3y ago
The first thing one installs on every mac is Rectangle. (and then brew). I use Cmd+X Cmd+V all the time, so I'm quite confused by your issue. But indeed Total Commander is the thing I miss the most.
- edanm 3y ago
  Try Nimble Commander. After years of searching, it's the closest Mac replacement for Total Commander that I've found, it's really great.
- renewiltord 3y ago
  Finder does not support Cmd-X. Only Cmd-C and Cmd-V (and Cmd-Option-V).
  - mattkrause 3y ago
    Aren’t “cut” and “move” functionally equivalent? The only edge case I can see is “cutting” once and then pasting to multiple destinations, which would need N-1 copies and a final move.
    - renewiltord 3y ago
      I believe they are, but for a long time I did not know of the Move shortcut. I can see why they added it: better UX since less likely to be accidental whereas using Cmd-X may cut a file when you misclicked off cutting the name of the file.
  - slater 3y ago
    > Finder does not support Cmd-X It does.
    - meindnoch 3y ago
      Only in text-editing contexts.
- refulgentis 3y ago
  Been on Macs for 17 years and 0 idea what rectangle is and never heard of it
  - phaer 3y ago
    https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/ I am also one of those Linux desktop users who bought an M2 for power management and I don't understand how people can be satisfied with the out of the box window management experience. Every other environment supports hyper + arrow to move windows into a split view, windows, gnome, kde, whatever.
    - refulgentis 3y ago
      Ahhh that makes 100% sense, definitely especially if you were on Linux. Not that I've ever stuck with one long enough. And I might have not done this at all with this latest Mac, I tried stage manager. But had gave up on that too last week.
  - Freedom2 3y ago
    Agreed. Not sure where GP got his idea that the first thing one installs would be Rectangle, or brew (do non-developers even need brew?). This assumption is silly.
    - alpaca128 3y ago
      > Not sure where GP got his idea As explained GP used a customized Linux desktop for years. Switching from that to Mac OS' limited window management features can definitely motivate someone to google possible solutions as one of the first steps. I know because it was the same for me as well. I don't need an insane set of keyboard shortcuts but I think matching e.g. Gnome's default experience isn't too much to ask for.
      - Freedom2 3y ago
        Sure, I'm not disputing that. I think that extrapolating it to assume (at least from my limited english) that every Mac user installs Rectangle and brew is a bit presumptuous.
- OJFord 3y ago
  I think yabai is far better for someone tiling window manager on Linux inclined. Rectangle is more like grandma asked how to have two windows side by side. I don't currently have a Mac, but when I did and if I did I would definitely install brew before whatever other essential - how else am I going to install the latter? (I'd reluctantly open Terminal and Safari to do so, and then to be honest Alacritty and Firefox would probably beat anything for window management. I used to have it all scripted, so it actually would've been just Terminal git clone and run.)
dwmbt 3y ago
> Something so basic as moving a file between two directories. Can you Command-X, Command-V it? try Command-C, Command-Option-V. works for me :) also, if you're in need of a launcher, Raycast is nice. i don't use any of their fancy AI stuff and opted out of data tracking. i have several window management functions there that are indispensable.
- dwmbt 3y ago
  i know it's separate from the thread, but i thought i'd share another nice macos utility app. i have some bots and personal CLI tools running somewhat around the clock. amphetamine helps keep your mac alive through sessions, so you can run jobs or even just play music while 'sleeping'.
meindnoch 3y ago
>Something so basic as moving a file between two directories. Can you Command-X, Command-V it? No. Hehe. Skill issue. Cmd+C puts it on the pasteboard, (doesn't matter whether you want to move it or copy it) Cmd+Option+V moves to destination Cmd+V copies to destination
- sco1 3y ago
  lol, I've been using Apple laptops for 15 years and had no idea this was a thing. All this time I've just copy+pasted and then gone back to the source folder to delete the original.
  - meindnoch 3y ago
    Yikes. Grandma, is that you?
- java-man 3y ago
  But put the dedicated item in the menu? No way!
  - meindnoch 3y ago
    It has a dedicated item in the Edit menu, that becomes visible when you press the Option key. This is a well-known macOS idiom. Homework exercise: go through various macOS apps' menus and see what happens if you hold the Option key.
- reitanqild 3y ago
  So intuitive. Different shortcuts from app to app. Back when I used Mac last time it frustrated me to no end that the simple system that works everywhere on Windows and Linux: - home / end for start / end of line - arrow left /right to move one character at at time - ctrl to move one word at a time - shift combines nicely with all these in case you need to select the text you move across while on Mac of course home and end doesn't exist (bonus point for there being two keys there that could have been home and end or page up and page down, but that even the most dyed in the wool Mac users I know cannot explain what they are for) and while I think it is rather consistent now, back then it wasn't consistent that CMD - arrow worked like home or end. There were different shortcuts from app to app and today I have learned that even the one shortcut I thought was consistent from app tp app on Mac, CMD-X, CMD-C and CMD-V aren't consistent as Finder isn't lacking CMD-x, they have just decided to do it differently so you use CMD-shift-V instead to paste by cutting (?), breaking to consistency even of that. It is like the (effective, not written) building regulations in my area: Just make sure your house doesn't look similar to any other house in the area and you should be good. And yet I have asked for a Macbook for my new laptop. After 10 years I just had to try. The last one was fantastic, only the OS was rage inducing even after 3 years. This time however I have done my homework. I have a Mac mini, I have checked that the fn and ctrl key can now be put in their correct positions and there now exist a way to fix CMD-tab so it does the only logical and sane thing: switches between the last windows. Still: wish me luck.
brazzledazzle 3y ago
You can move a file with shortcut keys but (very counter-intuitively) it's more paste while cutting rather than cut and paste. Hit Command+c like a copy but instead of Command+v hit Command+Option+v. Add it to the long list on macOS and iOS of things Apple provides but are unintuitive and difficult/impossible to discover on your own.
- dwaite 3y ago
  To be fair, what is meant to happen if you cut one file and then cut a second one? Look for the first in the trash?
  - alpaca128 3y ago
    Cut only marks files until they are finally moved with Ctrl-V or replaced by another selection (or the user closes the window)
- java-man 3y ago
  The whole idea of the Option key fails discoverability principle.
  - hhh 3y ago
    dude its just the alt key
- bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
  Cutting removes the original content and puts it on the clipboard. If you could really cut a file, it would have to disappear until you pasted it somewhere.
  - brazzledazzle 3y ago
    In windows it just marks the file for cutting (transparent/greyed out state). If you cancel the cut (say by copying or cutting something else) it removes the mark.
all2 3y ago
Good news. You can install Arch on M2 hardware if you're willing to do the legwork. I found some threads on Reddit by doing a general search. Good luck.
- denysvitali 3y ago
  The legwork is visiting the Asahi Linux website? https://asahilinux.org/ https://asahilinux.org/
  - all2 3y ago
    The legwork is mashing up the arch linux on Arm aarch64 installer, I think. I don't have an M2, so I'm not familiar with the details.
jwells89 3y ago
It sounds like the “blinking animation” you’re encountering is a feature known as Spring-Loaded Folders, which has been a part of macOS since the 90s. It’s intended to make it easier to move files and folders around without first opening a window for the destination. If you hold the dragged file over a folder a moment longer, the target folder will open in a new window where you can either drop the file or navigate more deeply by repeating the process. To avoid this behavior, drop dragged files in the destination folders before the spring loading triggers.
dahart 3y ago
Finder is a special beast, I think. It doesn’t seem to follow the same UX rules, possibly for legacy reasons. That’s no excuse, since it’s obviously one of the most used interfaces on Mac, but you’re right the UI is unintuitive by today’s standards. One of my favorite examples: when navigating folders with arrow keys, the enter key will rename the folder, and it takes a chord cmd-o to enter it. That’s not the best choice anymore, if it ever was.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  Today I discovered a new Finder oddity and I'm not sure what triggered it: when I open any folder on any external USB harddrive (but not SSD!) finder opens the folder in a new window that contains no UI other than the area showing the files & folders. Going five folders deep means five separate windows. I have no idea what's going on because I know it didn't always behave that way.
- antoniojtorres 3y ago
  The enter to rename is brutal. What could the reasoning for that decision be?
drcongo 3y ago
"I recently switched to using a different OS and now I'm surprised that it's different" is one of my favourite genres of HN post.
- andrelaszlo 3y ago
  Haha, I know what you mean. I grew up with several generations of macs through the nineties, and people still say that it's great. I am still learning ways to make it better (thanks to all the replies) but I just don't think it's very good. Its supposed to be the best. It's neither beautiful nor intuitive (subjectively), but what really bothers me is that it's not an effective tool. Who is it designed for? Beginners obviously find a lot of simple things difficult. My colleagues should be power users since they are developers using it for decades, but when we screenshare there's a big difference in efficiency - the most obvious one is all the time they spend on finding, moving, resizing, and reorganizing windows but there are so many other little things that add up as well.
  - drcongo 3y ago
    Take comfort in the fact that I'm equally confused and disoriented whenever I have to use Windows or desktop Linux, utterly baffled at some of the interaction choices.
bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
You don’t have to wait to drop a file on a finder tab

SonOfLilit 3y ago

The first thing one installs on every mac is Rectangle. (and then brew). I use Cmd+X Cmd+V all the time, so I'm quite confused by your issue. But indeed Total Commander is the thing I miss the most.

edanm 3y ago
Try Nimble Commander. After years of searching, it's the closest Mac replacement for Total Commander that I've found, it's really great.
renewiltord 3y ago
Finder does not support Cmd-X. Only Cmd-C and Cmd-V (and Cmd-Option-V).
- mattkrause 3y ago
  Aren’t “cut” and “move” functionally equivalent? The only edge case I can see is “cutting” once and then pasting to multiple destinations, which would need N-1 copies and a final move.
  - renewiltord 3y ago
    I believe they are, but for a long time I did not know of the Move shortcut. I can see why they added it: better UX since less likely to be accidental whereas using Cmd-X may cut a file when you misclicked off cutting the name of the file.
- slater 3y ago
  > Finder does not support Cmd-X It does.
  - meindnoch 3y ago
    Only in text-editing contexts.
refulgentis 3y ago
Been on Macs for 17 years and 0 idea what rectangle is and never heard of it
- phaer 3y ago
  https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/ I am also one of those Linux desktop users who bought an M2 for power management and I don't understand how people can be satisfied with the out of the box window management experience. Every other environment supports hyper + arrow to move windows into a split view, windows, gnome, kde, whatever.
  - refulgentis 3y ago
    Ahhh that makes 100% sense, definitely especially if you were on Linux. Not that I've ever stuck with one long enough. And I might have not done this at all with this latest Mac, I tried stage manager. But had gave up on that too last week.
- Freedom2 3y ago
  Agreed. Not sure where GP got his idea that the first thing one installs would be Rectangle, or brew (do non-developers even need brew?). This assumption is silly.
  - alpaca128 3y ago
    > Not sure where GP got his idea As explained GP used a customized Linux desktop for years. Switching from that to Mac OS' limited window management features can definitely motivate someone to google possible solutions as one of the first steps. I know because it was the same for me as well. I don't need an insane set of keyboard shortcuts but I think matching e.g. Gnome's default experience isn't too much to ask for.
    - Freedom2 3y ago
      Sure, I'm not disputing that. I think that extrapolating it to assume (at least from my limited english) that every Mac user installs Rectangle and brew is a bit presumptuous.
OJFord 3y ago
I think yabai is far better for someone tiling window manager on Linux inclined. Rectangle is more like grandma asked how to have two windows side by side. I don't currently have a Mac, but when I did and if I did I would definitely install brew before whatever other essential - how else am I going to install the latter? (I'd reluctantly open Terminal and Safari to do so, and then to be honest Alacritty and Firefox would probably beat anything for window management. I used to have it all scripted, so it actually would've been just Terminal git clone and run.)

dwmbt 3y ago

> Something so basic as moving a file between two directories. Can you Command-X, Command-V it? try Command-C, Command-Option-V. works for me :) also, if you're in need of a launcher, Raycast is nice. i don't use any of their fancy AI stuff and opted out of data tracking. i have several window management functions there that are indispensable.

dwmbt 3y ago
i know it's separate from the thread, but i thought i'd share another nice macos utility app. i have some bots and personal CLI tools running somewhat around the clock. amphetamine helps keep your mac alive through sessions, so you can run jobs or even just play music while 'sleeping'.

meindnoch 3y ago

>Something so basic as moving a file between two directories. Can you Command-X, Command-V it? No. Hehe. Skill issue. Cmd+C puts it on the pasteboard, (doesn't matter whether you want to move it or copy it) Cmd+Option+V moves to destination Cmd+V copies to destination

sco1 3y ago
lol, I've been using Apple laptops for 15 years and had no idea this was a thing. All this time I've just copy+pasted and then gone back to the source folder to delete the original.
- meindnoch 3y ago
  Yikes. Grandma, is that you?
java-man 3y ago
But put the dedicated item in the menu? No way!
- meindnoch 3y ago
  It has a dedicated item in the Edit menu, that becomes visible when you press the Option key. This is a well-known macOS idiom. Homework exercise: go through various macOS apps' menus and see what happens if you hold the Option key.
reitanqild 3y ago
So intuitive. Different shortcuts from app to app. Back when I used Mac last time it frustrated me to no end that the simple system that works everywhere on Windows and Linux: - home / end for start / end of line - arrow left /right to move one character at at time - ctrl to move one word at a time - shift combines nicely with all these in case you need to select the text you move across while on Mac of course home and end doesn't exist (bonus point for there being two keys there that could have been home and end or page up and page down, but that even the most dyed in the wool Mac users I know cannot explain what they are for) and while I think it is rather consistent now, back then it wasn't consistent that CMD - arrow worked like home or end. There were different shortcuts from app to app and today I have learned that even the one shortcut I thought was consistent from app tp app on Mac, CMD-X, CMD-C and CMD-V aren't consistent as Finder isn't lacking CMD-x, they have just decided to do it differently so you use CMD-shift-V instead to paste by cutting (?), breaking to consistency even of that. It is like the (effective, not written) building regulations in my area: Just make sure your house doesn't look similar to any other house in the area and you should be good. And yet I have asked for a Macbook for my new laptop. After 10 years I just had to try. The last one was fantastic, only the OS was rage inducing even after 3 years. This time however I have done my homework. I have a Mac mini, I have checked that the fn and ctrl key can now be put in their correct positions and there now exist a way to fix CMD-tab so it does the only logical and sane thing: switches between the last windows. Still: wish me luck.

brazzledazzle 3y ago

You can move a file with shortcut keys but (very counter-intuitively) it's more paste while cutting rather than cut and paste. Hit Command+c like a copy but instead of Command+v hit Command+Option+v. Add it to the long list on macOS and iOS of things Apple provides but are unintuitive and difficult/impossible to discover on your own.

dwaite 3y ago
To be fair, what is meant to happen if you cut one file and then cut a second one? Look for the first in the trash?
- alpaca128 3y ago
  Cut only marks files until they are finally moved with Ctrl-V or replaced by another selection (or the user closes the window)
java-man 3y ago
The whole idea of the Option key fails discoverability principle.
- hhh 3y ago
  dude its just the alt key
bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
Cutting removes the original content and puts it on the clipboard. If you could really cut a file, it would have to disappear until you pasted it somewhere.
- brazzledazzle 3y ago
  In windows it just marks the file for cutting (transparent/greyed out state). If you cancel the cut (say by copying or cutting something else) it removes the mark.

all2 3y ago

Good news. You can install Arch on M2 hardware if you're willing to do the legwork. I found some threads on Reddit by doing a general search. Good luck.

denysvitali 3y ago
The legwork is visiting the Asahi Linux website? https://asahilinux.org/ https://asahilinux.org/
- all2 3y ago
  The legwork is mashing up the arch linux on Arm aarch64 installer, I think. I don't have an M2, so I'm not familiar with the details.

jwells89 3y ago

It sounds like the “blinking animation” you’re encountering is a feature known as Spring-Loaded Folders, which has been a part of macOS since the 90s. It’s intended to make it easier to move files and folders around without first opening a window for the destination. If you hold the dragged file over a folder a moment longer, the target folder will open in a new window where you can either drop the file or navigate more deeply by repeating the process. To avoid this behavior, drop dragged files in the destination folders before the spring loading triggers.

dahart 3y ago

Finder is a special beast, I think. It doesn’t seem to follow the same UX rules, possibly for legacy reasons. That’s no excuse, since it’s obviously one of the most used interfaces on Mac, but you’re right the UI is unintuitive by today’s standards. One of my favorite examples: when navigating folders with arrow keys, the enter key will rename the folder, and it takes a chord cmd-o to enter it. That’s not the best choice anymore, if it ever was.

alpaca128 3y ago
Today I discovered a new Finder oddity and I'm not sure what triggered it: when I open any folder on any external USB harddrive (but not SSD!) finder opens the folder in a new window that contains no UI other than the area showing the files & folders. Going five folders deep means five separate windows. I have no idea what's going on because I know it didn't always behave that way.
antoniojtorres 3y ago
The enter to rename is brutal. What could the reasoning for that decision be?

drcongo 3y ago

"I recently switched to using a different OS and now I'm surprised that it's different" is one of my favourite genres of HN post.

andrelaszlo 3y ago
Haha, I know what you mean. I grew up with several generations of macs through the nineties, and people still say that it's great. I am still learning ways to make it better (thanks to all the replies) but I just don't think it's very good. Its supposed to be the best. It's neither beautiful nor intuitive (subjectively), but what really bothers me is that it's not an effective tool. Who is it designed for? Beginners obviously find a lot of simple things difficult. My colleagues should be power users since they are developers using it for decades, but when we screenshare there's a big difference in efficiency - the most obvious one is all the time they spend on finding, moving, resizing, and reorganizing windows but there are so many other little things that add up as well.
- drcongo 3y ago
  Take comfort in the fact that I'm equally confused and disoriented whenever I have to use Windows or desktop Linux, utterly baffled at some of the interaction choices.

bobbylarrybobby 3y ago

You don’t have to wait to drop a file on a finder tab