this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023

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Just because it’s better than windows doesn’t make it good (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/linuxmemes

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[+] [email protected] -8 points 1 year ago (6 children)

macOS is certainly not better than Windows.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You're getting ratio'd but you're right. Core parts of the user experience are steaming piles of dogshit while people praise MacOS for its many gimmicks.

Finder is an absolute pile of shit and gets first time users addicted to bad habits. It takes digging through hidden settings to even make it match the out of the box functionality that Windows Explorer offers and it still can't match the full potential of Explorer for file management. The integrated search is unpredictable and fuzzy so they went and made Spotlight its own thing.
Window management is a nightmare if you're actually trying to do multiple things at once without switching windows. Mac OS has not implemented window snapping for years and they still managed to make it suck when they did. Not once have they considered stealing great ideas from the tiling window managers, Apple simply decided to reinvent the wheel and make it square.
Got multiple applications running at the same time while minimized? Lol, get fucked. The only way to know what's actually running at a glance is the shitty little dot below the dock icon and restoring a specific window takes either way too many clicks or requires you to know the magic keyboard shortcut for untangling your windows (another gimmick they added later in order to actually make the OS ~~usable~~ bearable).
Got any sort of issue during startup? Here, take this black screen with a single icon. Not even a slight hint as to what the actual problem might be and if you should worry about it. MacOS might seem like a stable OS but that is mainly because it is very well integrated with the limited set of hardware it can actually run on. If any real issues do come up, the troubleshooting experience is basically just a giant "get fucked" sign pointing to the nearest Apple store.
Sometimes simplicity is a good thing, but usually designing something to be accessible means severely limiting the amount of depth you can go into as an experienced user. Every aspect of the OS and the tools that come with it share this overall problem that there's just not much depth to what you can do with it. Can't have a steep learning curve if there's just nothing to learn.

And I feel like none of these are unreasonable. I like using the right tools for the right jobs, which is why I run Windows for heavy productivity and engineering work. Desktop Linux has come a long way but it just doesn't (yet) have the required toolset to support engineering workflows. While programming of any kind and getting more complex data wrangling done is best done using Linux. My server needs are also best covered by Linux as most distributions can be run without all the bloat that Windows comes with. And I am sure as shit not paying for Windows Server.

I just can't find a valid reason for using MacOS. It seems to combine the worst of both worlds into an OS that's like a trial experience of actually using a computer to get things done.

[–] Pok 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What out of the box functionality are you missing? As for search, from context I'm going to assume you are not being sarcastic. Windows search has to be the single worst search I've ever fucking encountered. Say I made a picture of a bird. I called it bird.jpg, and saved it in my pictures folder. Now, I type 'bird' into explorer search, and it gives me a fucking DLL FILE called matrixRRT.dll. I waited literal minutes for this? Literally the advice on all over the internet for making windows search better is to use something else instead.

*Agreed, window snapping is better in Windows.

*It's been a hot minute since I used anything other than Expose to choose which window I want (Which is great, btw) but don't you just click and hold on the dock icon?

*Agreed, more troubleshooting on startup would be handy. But to be fair, I've had way more startup issues with my windows box than my Mac. In fact, the last Mac startup issue I think I had would have been about six years ago. Whereas I've probably had six in the last year alone on the Windows machine. Sample size of one, of course. shrug

*Have you met my good friend, the command line?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm not blind to the fact that Windows has a terrible search experience, but I won't say it's the worst. Out of the box it is fucking useless, but if you actually take the time to index specific paths and make use of the metadata options in Explorer you can actually get some decent results in reasonable time.

Apple had the right idea with Spotlight, it's just sad that both parties can't properly integrate the functionality into their file managers.

My search needs are mostly covered by Voidtools' Everything, which is able to scan through the whole NTFS partition in a matter of milliseconds for realtime results. The caveat being that you have to know the name of the file you're looking for. Otherwise I just use Powertoys Run for search and application launching needs, which is what Spotlight could have been if it was made by passionate nerds.

I do realise this makes my argument lose it's bite somewhat, but it comes down to user experience. MacOS has a terrible out of the box experience that can't be fixed, use something else instead. Windows has a terrible out of the box experience that can be fixed to some degree if you take some time to learn how it works, but you can still opt to not bother with any of it and use something else instead.

Linux was always going to be the clear winner here.

Now for the dock icon strategy: try doing that repeatedly with multiple instances/windows from the same application and compare the experience to the "never combine, show labels" taskbar in Windows. I guarantee there is going to be a clear winner in terms of usability. As always, under Linux is not an issue because you can just do whatever the fuck you want.

The troubleshooting bullshit a pattern seen in all of Apple's products. They have a habit of hiding all important information in case of an issue, and I have had this complaint about all the iDevices I've had the displeasure of touching over the years. iPhone update failed? Tough shit, have a red message saying "something went wrong, try again". Fan controllers randomly stuck on 100% speed on an iMac without the ability to get any information about the sensors. None of the system tools provide any information beyond the bare minimum. I've come to a point where I just refuse to help any family member having trouble with an Apple device because it turns into a multi-hour wild goose chase.

I'd argue having an overall stable experience with the occasional vague issues that can't be troubleshooted is worse than having slightly more frequent issues that actually lead to a solution. Apple's products by design teach the user nothing about technology because there's no entry-point to the knowledge itself. Meanwhile Windows, while flawed, does provide the user with an incentive to learn about proper maintenance and troubleshooting which leads to more competent users overall.

Last but not least, the command line: I love my experience using package managers on both Linux and lately also on Windows with winget. It has quickly become the main way I install and manage most utilities. MacOS has options but none of them are integrated neatly and have to be installed separately.

Even on Windows I use command line utilities where I can and GUI functionality where it makes sense. While the realm of possibilities is not as broad as the GNU/Linux world provides, I at least feel I have a great deal of control over what I do. MacOS is an impostor that has murdered a UNIX distribution and is wearing its skin. The terminal experience feels like it's a remnant from the early days that they never bothered to put any more love into but they can't get rid of it either. Just like some of those Windows 3.0 components you can still find in the modern versions of the OS.

I'm 100% done with Apple and their products because they make everything I'm trying to do slightly more difficult and annoying than the alternative. And those are just limited to my issues with the way they do software. I also have very valid issues with the way they design hardware and with the way they conduct business (ethics, monopolies, their overall effect on tech markets in general).

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