Sure. I don’t have opinions on Apple hardware, just their business practices.
I just thought it was interesting that one of his favorite features from switching is right there in Windows. :)
I have no problems with the window management on MacOS, per-se. I don’t use snapping on windows either, instead I just have multiple huge-ass monitors! But MacOS has native window snapping since El Capitan, and you can use Moom or Magnet to do it, alongside a bunch of other apps that all do it too.
My complaints with MacOS are as follows.
- I find the lack of “click-through” EXTREMELY annoying. This means that basically you need to click on an application’s window to focus it before you can actually do anything in that window.
I’ve gone to extraordinary measures to try to change this, including compiling this obsolete non-working code but nothing fixes it. Even after many months of MacOS use I just hate, HATE this.
Now I use a bunch of hacky shortcuts and hotkeys in the indispensable BetterTouchTool which have “apply to the window under the cursor and bring it to focus first” for things like ctrl-L to focus the URL bar in my browser and such. But I still find it annoying on an hourly basis, at least.
In fact, I use BTT to fix a metric crapton of MacOS annoyances. For example, I make the back and forward mouse buttons work in the finder, set ctrl plus scroll wheel to zoom in/out in a ton of applications, and remap a bunch of buttons to my muscle-memory. If I exclusively used MacOS I would just use its key combinations, but I don’t.
- When an app is open in the MacOS dock, left-clicking on that icon does nothing whatsoever. I want it to minimize to the dock. I went to a great deal of effort trying to make this happen and was ultimately defeated-- the only solution is to replace the dock with something like uBar which I tried and didn’t like.
Similarly, I really like using the windows key plus numbers to launch and then minimize programs on windows. I can map option plus a number to launch an app using bettertouchtool, but I can’t get it to minimize back down in the same manner. I miss that workflow.
- The cmd-tab switcher switches between applications, not windows as black female jesus intended. To fix this, I use Contexts.
I use “Witch” to fix the cmd-tab switcher
Yeah that’s another one. I preferred Contexts UX.
It has it now, but it’s rubbish.
You can also switch between windows within applications, if you enable it. But as described above, it only works when the windows are on the same desktop.
Bartender 2, Hazel, Cocktail and Superduper are 4 Mac utilities I’ve paid for.
Yes, I believe you do that by using option-tab, or cmd-option-tab. Either way, I want cmd-tab to switch between windows as feminine melanin-rich son of Jehovah believed it should be.
Bartender is certainly essential. I also can’t live without bettertouchtool. I could live without alfred, but it would be a mean existence indeed.
I use cmd-` to do that and have for years.
Yes but ` is not tab. Also I believe that only switches between windows of the active application, not all windows.
You sure about that?
I admire your dedication, but dude. Slow your roll.
I’m just trying to help you balance your 💖 man
Well yeah but that’s the point. If I have four terminals open but I want to get to safari I don’t want to alt tab four times, I just option tab once.
I’m not saying there isn’t a use-case for alt-tab working at the application level, just that it is an anathema under the eyes of God.
Wish I hadn’t read this thread, now I can’t get over the fact that clicking the icon on the dock does not minimise the app… damn…
Clicking the app icon in the dock brings its windows to the front as is right and proper.
Not all things require that extra click. Scrolling with the trackpad, for instance, works as long as your mouse pointer is over the window. If you click on the address bar of a browser, it is activated immediately, even if the app wasn’t the active one at the time.
I think OS X is perhaps more adapted to single-screen usage, with things working in a nice way if your workflow involves windows stacked on top of each other. The kind of workflow where I want to be able to click anywhere in a window to bring it to front without worrying what I’m activating. I use a multi-screen setup at work, and there these features are much less useful. But then I’m so used to them by now, I wouldn’t have it any other way. :)
I hate OS X, mainly because I still love OS 9 so much and hold an old, misplaced, grudge as to why that Lunix thing is still called “Mac”, but damn, am I in love with my Apple laptop.
I like to setup multiple virtual screens/workplaces whatever you want to call them, and switch between them using ctrl+arrow keys. Saves time compared to the usual “hide/show” waltz of windows.
Does anyone have a good solution for how all of the windows rearrange when plugging/unplugging a MacBook from an external monitor? I’m using Stay, but it’s like five years old and decidedly imperfect.
And I agree with Stusser that the lack of click-through (after ten years of not using anything but a Mac) is non-intuitive and very annoying.
Yes, that is the behavior in windows as well. But when the app is already focused, left-clicking on the icon does nothing at all. On windows, it minimizes the app. That’s the behavior I want.
Indeed, and that inconsistent click-through makes it worse for me! I never know if I need to double-click or not. I can be scrolling through a document with my mouse wheel, click on a button or whatever, and nothing happens because the window wasn’t focused.
[quote=“soundnfury, post:38, topic:130386”]
Does anyone have a good solution for how all of the windows rearrange when plugging/unplugging a MacBook from an external monitor? [/quote]
Yes! Moom will save your window placement based on the number of active screens and rearrange them exactly how you want them when you plug in your external monitor. It does a ton of other stuff but that’s primarily what I use it for.
My Airbook has replaced my desktop has main computer. It weights like 1KG. Is a good OS with a unix console. I can brew install. npm install. gulp css. ionic build ios. ionic build android. But is mostly the weight.
Is also nice that for most things everything runs fine in Mac. But I can’t care less for Apple or the Mac otherwise. I don’t know much about how to use a mac, and I don’t appreciate how macs work. To me mac is some weird linux distro with excellent hardware.