We, the old Windows developers, welcome you, the current Apple developers, to the 90's, when Windows was shittier and shittier with each version. Get ready for the next decade when workarounds and basically underground techniques will be your only survivability.
As MacOS becomes more popular, it seems it has to go to this shitty phase, as Windows did back in the day. We got rid of this phase with Windows XP release, so around 7 years. For you, who knows, hopefully shorter.
Windows is still shitty. After three years of using an M2 MacBook Pro for work and having my own M2 MacBook Air, using a Microsoft Surface laptop is a death by a thousand cuts
> Everything causes the hourglass cursor to pop up - even just clicking on a button in Outlook
As someone who had to use a very slow 10-year-old iMac recently, I would prefer if macOS showed more indicators that it was busy. The macOS UI seems to assume things are near-instant that in that environment weren't even close.
For example it "reopened" XCode after a reboot, and after a while it seemed the system was done doing background stuff. I clicked the System Settings and another app because I was going to need them, then tried to interact with XCode. Then the window turned gray and a spinner showed up that took a few minutes to disappear. It wasn't done at all. It turns out showing a screenshot to seem more responsive only works if you can very quickly back up the lie when necessary.
It isn’t so much a screenshot as it is the system suspending (parts of) apps that aren’t used or visible and aggressively compressing and decompressing memory.
So up until you tried to interact with it, it wasn’t frozen as far as the system was concerned, only then did it ran into an issue and did it convey that issue to you.
I don’t know by heart what the last macOS (or even OS X) version and Xcode version is that would be supported by a decade old iMac, but I can’t imagine it being a pleasant experience.
I have way more issues with MacOS than with windows and here just a small part of issues I must deal with:
- The keyboard layout and shortcuts are non-standard compared to other operating systems.
- Many keyboard shortcuts require more keystrokes than their Windows/Linux counterparts. For example, CMD+SPACE vs. WIN, OPTION+CMD+SPACE vs. WIN+E.
- I experience frequent system crashes—about twice a month, which is significantly more than I've had with high-end Windows laptops.
- Integration with Android devices is lacking due to the absence of apps like Phone Link.
- The window management is subpar. Third-party apps like Rectangle that attempt to improve this are buggy.
- Mouse scrolling defaults are reversed. If adjusted in settings, the touchpad scrolling direction is also inversely affected, without separate configuration options.
- The gaming library is limited.
- I experience glitches with my monitor optimized for Mac. About once every hour, the screen goes blank for a few seconds. This issue doesn't occur with Windows.
- Global environment variables are not available unless an app is initiated via the command line. This means apps started via Spotlight can't have assigned environment variables.
- Docker performance is suboptimal. For instance, a PostgreSQL backup that takes 5 minutes on Windows requires 2 hours on macOS due to slower write speeds to the host filesystem from inside Docker.
- I encounter issues with my non-Apple headset and need to disconnect its dongle from my MacBook approximately once daily to rectify it.
- Docker doesn't run in Parallels VMs. Unlike Windows, where nested virtualization can be enabled with a PowerShell command, macOS doesn't provide this flexibility.
- There's no straightforward method to turn off the laptop monitor when an external monitor is connected, without closing the laptop lid.
- Working with virtual machines is cumbersome. For example, the OS still reacts to some shortcuts even when a VM is in focus.
- Multi-user mode has significant shortcomings. Several brew programs malfunction when multiple users access the system. Docker, especially on the ARM version of macOS, exhibits issues in multi-user scenarios and doesn't function properly in VMs.
- To execute scripts via right-click, one must create a quick action and navigate to a secondary menu—a non-intuitive process.
- Several CLI utilities differ from their Linux counterparts. Making them GNU-compatible requires installing numerous utilities via brew and then prioritizing them over the native commands.
- Finder lacks the robustness and versatility of Windows Explorer.
- Hardware upgrades are exorbitantly priced. For instance, upgrading from 512GB to 2TB SSD costs €700, whereas a 2TB SSD can be found on Amazon for around €70.
- Post macOS updates, certain configurations, like fingerprint authentication for command-line apps, revert to default settings, necessitating frequent reconfigurations.
- macOS doesn't perform well on low-resolution screens, in contrast to Windows.
- The OS is restrictive. Outside of macOS, no other systems can be installed.
- My printer only operates wirelessly. USB-C connectivity fails, forcing me to disconnect from the internet to print.
- When connecting to a printer via WLAN, macOS often disconnects initially, mistaking it as a primary internet connection.
- The ARM architecture still exhibits flaws, especially when interfacing with virtual machines.
- Mouse acceleration isn't as refined as on Windows (excluding the touchpad).
- During Playwright e2e tests, tab navigation gets cluttered with icons from test browsers—a problem absent on Windows.
- An increased number of macOS software options are paid. For instance, while Windows offers free VM tools, macOS users might need to purchase Parallels.
- macOS lacks an official package manager akin to Windows' winget or Debian's apt-get, though third-party options like brew exist.
- The Windows taskbar offers superior functionality to the macOS dock, including hover previews.
- Apple doesn't provide convertible laptops or touchscreen devices.
- Some enterprise features are absent or underdeveloped.
- Legacy software support is limited, which might expedite OS development but poses compatibility challenges.
- The laptop tends to overheat during intense processes, seemingly prioritizing quieter fan operations over cooling efficiency.
- Unpurchased Apple Cloud Plans result in advertisements within System Settings and the Music App.
I think I can help you with a couple of those things if you're interested!
You can remap the keyboard shortcuts in macOS easily. Go to System Settings - Keyboard - Keyboard Shortcuts. The one you specifically mentioned for WIN + E is in the Spotlight section under 'Show Finder search window'. Double-click on the key chord shown and type in what you'd prefer. (Incidentally, the Finder search window is atrocious and I hate everything about it. But I get wanting a shortcut to just open Finder in general.) Another neat thing you can do here is assign keyboard shortcuts to any menu item in any application.
You might also look into BetterTouchTool for gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and a billion other things. One option BTT provides is inverting the scrolling for the mouse only. It's a quick and easy checkbox in the prefer-- settings.
Parallels is good and all, but I personally use VMWare Fusion. It's free and I've not had any issues with it that would compel me to pay a subscription for Parallels.
It's been 23 years (to the day!) since the release of the OS X public beta, and it's a mature product. I'm not sure it's getting "shittier and shittier," I think there are still refinements and improvements, they just aren't as big as they used to be.
Apple no longer appears to be able to keep a consistent focus on the Mac. They have some really great fits and spurts in particular areas (e.g. hardware, they’re absolutely nailing it with Apple Silicon at the minute) but it’s far too common for widely-reviled issues to linger unaddressed for literally years.
The new System Settings is an obvious one; Sonoma hasn’t really touched that at all despite its glaring issues. But Notification Centre has been borderline useless ever since they redesigned it back in what, Big Sur? I saw a Mastodon post recently [0] that highlighted how bad it is today compared to the old design, yet it’s barely been touched in 3 years.
macOS is stable and established and unlike iOS a lot of people rely on it to do actual work, I would rather them not mess with stuff than half-ass it and leave it unfinished.
For me, it certainly is getting less stable & more frustrating to use with each update. even elements of the ux, such as the settings app, has degraded over the years
That's just modern software in a nutshell, nothing is ever "good enough" for designers/companies and they must change it no matter what.
The settings app for example was perfectly fine, it worked well for what...near 20 years with only slight tweaks. Now I have to use the search bar for settings, because it's not obvious at all where to find a lot of them.
And yet things that would be useful like a volume mixer are still nowhere to be found.
I mean, there were definitely iterative improvements I think could have been made to the settings app, as with nearly all software. Instead, apple threw out the design for a ux that was clearly optimized for palm sized screens that you operate by touch in order to unify the interface between two entirely disparate forms of interaction.
Every time anything breaks in macOS, people come out to claim that the Mac is dying and Snow Leopard [which shipped with a bug that deleted lots of users' home folders] was the one true version. This wouldn't have happened if Steve Jobs were still alive. Netcraft now confirms that the BSD-based macOS is dying.
Strongly disagree. Apple’s obsession with making things like scroll bars and window chrome harder to see has been a usability nightmare for me over the last few releases.
Frequently these days, with lots of overlapping windows I try to click the top of a window only to find out I’ve clicked on part of the window behind.
Yes having everything one colour is lovely and ‘clean’ but horrible to use
also all the icons now being the same shape (like ios) i find myself scanning over and over missing apps i used to find so easily before... such a usability regression (though it does look pretty)
I will confess I miss skeuomorphism, but even if Apple never embraced flatness, Ventura's System Preferences.app is horrendous. I've become reliant upon the search bar to find most things in there, which I rarely had to do before.
Feels like this is true only for Apple Silicon macs. Intels are getting more are more terrible with each upgrade, most noticeable is insane UI latency when doing literally anything — opening an app or a window can take seconds. Changing the tab in Settings app takes a second before the new one is rendered! And that's with a fresh system installation and no resource-hungry apps opened. And it's definitely not just me — colleagues have the same issues and internet is full of such reports.
Yeah I moved to FreeBSD myself because macOS pissed me off too much. It's becoming too closed, too opinionated, too much like iOS.
What I loved about macOS originally was that it was a great Unix style OS but with a consistent UI and major desktop apps.
Also most major headline improvements in recent macOS releases rely on iCloud and because I've always been a multi-os person these are not something I can use. Some iCloud stuff works on windows but most doesn't. And pretty much none of it works on Linux or BSD. Any service I use must work on all.
So after years of getting more and more annoyed with Apple removing powerful options and replacing them with dumb on/off sliders I just can't deal with it anymore. I still use it for work but that's it. At the same time KDE is now mature enough to work great. And it doesn't eschew lots of configuration settings. So it's become my daily driver instead.
> We got rid of this phase with Windows XP release
I assume you were talking about consumer versions like Win 95, 98 and Me (the release we don’t talk about)?
The NT based ones like NT 4 and Windows 2000 seemed decent when they came out. I guess MS realized that as well and started using NT for the consumer releases as well with XP.
The lack of unification between NT and Win9x before XP was abysmal. Basically you had to have 2 partitions, one for gaming, one for business. NT was unable to have games, Win9x was unable to be useful for business due to sheer blue screens. So yeah, I include NT 3.5, NT 4.0 and W2k in that shitty phase as well. I know it very well because I've lived through it. XP ended that. Hence why, after 20+years, you still have the majority of ATM's and plenty of other KIOSKs around the world still running XP.
If you're concerned about this kind of thing, and OK with the reduction in surface, you may consider just using your browser as the way you are protected. With a normal browser, this doesn't exactly work, as obviously it doesn't change your IP, still tracks you, and any zero days still expose your machine.
But at dosaygo, we're working on something called a remote browser, which runs on a remote machine, and therefore you have a different IP address. You can incorporate a proxy service or VPN if you want but it already is 1 layer removed from your local machine, which is great for protecting you from browser zero days too. Check us out, we're open source but you can also get licenses for commercial use cases where you don't want AGPL-3.0: https://github.com/dosyago/BrowserBoxPro.git
Thanks! Oh geez, this is embarrassing. When I started the company I meant for it to be called : DO SAY GO...but somehow in the incorporation form I accidentally transposed it. I guess it still happens! :) haha
It's doubly bad because as unique as dosyago is, I think I still prefer the name dosaygo. I don't know how to change it tho! :..(
Lookup "doing business as". Also your product's name, your domain name. your marketing slogans, taglines, trademarks, etc. do not have to match your incorporated name. Just use `dosaygo` everywhere... not sure what made you think you have to match your incorporated name exactly.
Ah..might be too confusing. And I kind of what to have it correct so someone else can't have that.
And also just because I really like the original name, it's the values (do, say, go the most common verbs in many languages besides to be; and it's like I think the company should help people with what they do, where they go and what/how they say), but it shouldn't tell them who they should be so; for me it's really core) kind of important to get right ha ha
Isn't there some way to just change it? I don't know...
I think DBA would work for first-class products or whatever...but not for the name when it's so close.
Windows is still 100x shittier than macOS. Try to do anything like the repro demo from the command line on Windows as you'll immediately realise how terrible the OS is for simple tasks.
Feels fairly oscillatory for me, 95 98 nt*.0 were mediocre, 2k was great, me was horrible, xp was decent, xp64 was useless, vista was awful, 7 was better, 8 felt spammy, 10 was ok, 11 is bad again.
Not really. The biggest unpopular change was the polarizing UI that was simple to toggle off for those who hated it. Besides that, you just got win2k plus much better compatibility with apps written for the 9x series.
As MacOS becomes more popular, it seems it has to go to this shitty phase, as Windows did back in the day. We got rid of this phase with Windows XP release, so around 7 years. For you, who knows, hopefully shorter.