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> it feels like Mac's UI is optimized around the assumption most users won't expand windows to fill the whole screen, but rather leave them half-sized somewhere
by dbatten 6mo ago
> it feels like Mac's UI is optimized around the assumption most users won't expand windows to fill the whole screen, but rather leave them half-sized somewhere in the middle
IMO, this has been their assumption for years, and it actually turned me off when I tried getting used to Mac circa 2006-2007. Coming from Windows at the time, I just couldn't get over a weird anxiety that my application window wasn't maximized, because it didn't look like it completely snapped into the screen corners.
Now, using 34-inch ultrawide monitors almost exclusively, I never maximize anything... it'd be unusable.
- nine_k 6mo agoI constantly stretch windows to maximum height. I maximize windows of graphics and video editors.
- ffsm8 6mo agoAs a 38" ultrawide owner myself, I use vscode or intellij maximized most of the day, depending on the codebase I'm Browsers only ever get maximized to the left/right half screen for me too Which is something macos should really improve on though, the ux is pretty bad compared to Windows and Linux there
- jmspring 6mo agoI split a vs code window and a browser or a browser and terminal window on my 13" mb air. Usually need additional context on the same screen.
- plandis 6mo agoMacOS has a built in 4x4 window tiling which works for this purpose for me. I don’t find ever wanting more than 4 windows open on an ultrawide. Definitely not as powerful as something like xmonad but useful for the majority of my use cases.
- eru 6mo agoWindows also has this kind of tiling built-in. It even comes with default keyboard shortcuts.
- troad 6mo agoSo does Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/mac-help/mchl9674d0b0/mac https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/mac-help/mchl9674d0b0/.... Obnoxiously, it's part of the recent trend of overloading the Globe/Fn key, so it's hard to do with third-party keyboards.
- wholinator2 6mo agoHere to say ubuntu's got it built in as well
- bobthepanda 6mo agoWhile I don't maximize anything on a monitor that wide, I do appreciate Window's snap to half/quarter functionality for monitors that wide, and I wish Mac had the same ability natively.
- girvo 6mo agoI’m pretty sure it does? I haven’t installed anything and it has the ability to do half and some other layouts through the window menu and snapping IIRC
- pc86 6mo agoI can't speak to the quarters but you absolutely can snap windows to the left and right halves in MacOS.
- dionian 6mo agoi do quarters all the time. it used to be with third party apps. iu think its native now
- drivers99 6mo ago> I wish Mac had the same ability natively Hover over the green button in the top left of the window. I recently found out about that menu for moving a window between screens, which is also an option it has. (I also just found them in the Window menu if you prefer that. I dont; the options take an extra level of hovering to get to.)
- wingmanjd 6mo agoI just installed Kubuntu last week so I could get the additional shift-drag targets to split my 34" ultrawide into 3 sections, or bump to the edges for the half filled.
- cluckindan 6mo agoInstall i3wm, it will change your life.
- setopt 6mo agoI’m currently using Krohnkite [1] to get dynamic tiling in KDE, and Klassy [2] to get i3wm-like pixel borders instead of full window decorations. [1]: https://github.com/esjeon/krohnkite https://github.com/esjeon/krohnkite [2]: https://github.com/paulmcauley/klassy https://github.com/paulmcauley/klassy
- hombre_fatal 6mo agoSomething I realized after spending a few months in sway (i3) and then niri is that I only care about a few windows (code editor, terminal, browser, apps I use moment to moment). All the rest I'd prefer to just summon as-needed and then dismiss without navigating away from the windows I care about. sway/niri want me to tile every window into some top-level spot. Took me a while to admit it, but the usual Windows/macOS/DE "stacking" method is what I want + a few hotkeys to arrange the few windows I care about.
- opan 6mo agoIn sway, put the lower priority windows in another workspace, or the scratchpad, or in tabs/stacks. You can bind keys to focus specific programs by their appid/class also, so even if they're on another workspace or monitor it'll jump right there. It sounds like the scratchpad may be especially close to what you want.
- hombre_fatal 6mo agoYour sway solutions are hacks around the MRU stack of a stacking desktop environment though. I don't want to leave the workspace nor go find which tab/stack I've put Spotify just to use it. And scratchpad is no better since I'd have to do an explicit summon/dismiss cycle between workspace and scratchpad just to recreate behavior I already have on a normal desktop env.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- anal_reactor 6mo agoBrother, I have 42 inch 16:9 and I always maximize everything.
- leptons 6mo agoUltrawide without a virtual screen manager is a missed opportunity. Maximize window is still very useful with virtual screen areas on large screens.