The MacOS Thread - For unix users with disposable income.

[Pepe Cortisona]

I always have to inevitably touch the mouse with Windows but on macOS 95% is keyboard-only and fast.

I remember when a teacher in college taugh me the "Full Keyboard Support" way. It really was a game changer.

 

[robots.txt]

Ironically, Windows' window management is still in the stone age. If you have 10+ programs running, all with their own set of windows, it is hell trying to multitask constantly fighting with every window all the time. Grouping by application and Cmd+Tilde speeds things up tenfold. I always have to inevitably touch the mouse with Windows but on macOS 95% is keyboard-only and fast.

I was previously a life-long Windows user and if you were to ask me what Microsoft did well, it was windows snapping and alt tab functionality. It took me a long time to get fully used to the CMD + tilde window switcher on macOS, it was easier for me to sometimes just use mission control as a hot corner shortcut. I know there's a FoSS app called "Alt-Tab" but it's way too sluggish for me.

The other thing Windows does better is general taskbar coherence of what you have opened. For example: the taskbar icon showing as a stack if there are multiple windows of the same app running. There are a shit ton times on macOS where I'll have 5+ browser windows open without even realizing it.

I remember when a teacher in college taugh me the "Full Keyboard Support" way. It really was a game changer.

I've never messed with the full keyboard support out of fear of it messing up my shortcuts in other applications but that's really cool. I was using SKHD for a lot of keybindings but that's a whole can of worms on it's own.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

This is a point I would like to emphasize. Many retards will run MacOS on their PCs either natively or via VM and then act surprised pikachu when it performs like dogshit.

This doesn't go to the person you were replying to because they are reasonable, but to everyone else out there: If you're not running MacOS on Apple hardware it's not going to be a pleasant experience. This isn't Linux slop that can run on a fucking toaster, it's highly optimized and requires a very specific subset of hardware.

Even if you are using a Mac, if you have to use a dodgy third-party script or hack to install a newer version than the latest one Software Update serves you, it won't be a good experience.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

Even if you are using a Mac, if you have to use a dodgy third-party script or hack to install a newer version than the latest one Software Update serves you, it won't be a good experience.

I remember that someone released an install of Mountain Lion that could run on unsupported Macs like the MacBooks with Core2Duo and GMA950 graphics and it ran fine most of the time, but you had to manually install the official patches as Software Update crashed. It used an official video driver for those cards that Apple released on a developer's preview before dropping it on release if I'm not mistaken.

There's also a release of Leopard that has improvements from Snow Leopard that can run on PowerPC Macs that I haven't tried yet, but it seems interesting for tinkering with old hardware.

 

[khaine]

2025 and still not posix compliant

macOS is a certified UNIX

 

[khaine]

macOS has been going downhill over the last couple of years. The QOL bugs are growing in number and don't get fixed, while more crappy "features" get added. Apple needs to bring in some releases that focus on bug fixing

 

[Enig]

macOS is a certified UNIX

It’s funny to think of how many people got introduced to emacs by way of places listing the little games in it as an OS X specific easter egg in the terminal compared to finding it through linux distros.

 

[botrix_fan]

2025 and still not posix compliant

Windows NT 3.1 somehow was. This is not a serious standard.

 

[Pee Cola]

I was previously a life-long Windows user and if you were to ask me what Microsoft did well, it was windows snapping and alt tab functionality.

Windows Explorer shits all over Finder, which makes sense given that the way Finder works has barely changed over the last 40 years. If you don't believe me, try using a 1980s Mac.

Third party MacOS file explorers such as ForkLift are a godsend imo.

 

[Slav Power]

Windows Explorer shits all over Finder

And Total Commander+Everything shits all over Windows Explorer. The one Mac feature that doesn't have many good alternatives on Windows and Linux is Spotlight. Barely any good keyboard launchers with plenty of extensions that aren't shit in one way or another, and those really elevate your productivity by a tenfold.

 

[Pee Cola]

And Total Commander+Everything shits all over Windows Explorer.

True. Especially Everything, which is the best file search tool I've ever used.

 

[ellroy]

Windows NT 3.1 somehow was. This is not a serious standard.

Actually when Windows NT received POSIX certification, it was enough to scare Sun Microsystems in joining the anti-trust coalition silicon valley was forming to combat Microsoft's Internet Explorer threatening Netscape. That was a big deal because Microsoft was offering a much cheaper platform for network and web-servers in the 90s since it meant some compatibility with POSIX compliant UNIX and BSD software. Sun and the rest of boutique Sys V Unix vendors spent a lot of capital on RISC processor development and were genuinely worried that Wintel servers would flood the market like it did with desktops and they wouldn't be able to make up the investment they made in hardware. I would say only Sun and IBM along with their respectively RISC architectures managed to survive but Sun later got hosed by the dotcom bubble bursting and their expensive server equipment was plentiful on the second hand market. There just wasn't demand for their brand new stuff due to the price tag. Ironically enough, it wasn't Windows NT and Windows Server which brought about the end for the others but Linux getting installed on cheap x86 server hardware meant for Windows. In a way NT's POSIX compliance brought this on but they didn't deliver the killing blow.

POSIX is arguably dated now but it was considered a very serious standard until the 2010s. The OS X team applied and received the certification when they ported OS X to x86.

 

[False Emprah]

My preferred laptop for work has been a Mac for over 20 years at this point; it's a desktop Unix that doesn't suck. For coding/system administration it's perfect and for many years Windows laptops of similar build quality cost almost as much (I will grant the past few years the prices on Macs have gone full retard). Running an M4 Pro now and it runs like a dream.

I have a Windows desktop for gaming; my home server has moved from everything to VMWare to OpenIndiana to Truenas SCALE running Linux. Use the right tool/OS for the task.

I also have a Vision Pro and it's completely replaced both my work monitors and even my TV/144Hz gaming monitor (Moonlight streaming from Windows). Yes, it was incredibly expensive; no, I cannot recommend that anyone buy one or that it's a good value proposition for 99% of users. For me though it's everything I've ever wanted in an AR display.

 

[bindar dundat]

10.13.6 user checking in—been "stuck" on this OS due to an Nividia eGPU situation.

Been using MacOS since 9.x.

I have yet to find something like the preview application on macOS on other operating systems, for mass reading through papers/textbooks/etc in the pdf format. The only thing I can think of that might be close to the sheer ease of use and functionality is the current zotero beta which ofc isn't polished at all. I read and study ALOT so it's really a smooth worth flow with very little issues especially if you have a good/comfy mouse to bind macros.

Agreed—and the ability to edit PDFs (delete a page, reorder pages, move a page from one file to another)… is unmatched.

[tangent, anyone know of a PDF reader w/ the same ease-of-use?]

Re-Unixness:
I switched to macports from homebrew sometime during the blurry lockdown times… and can heartily recommend others do the same. It's nice.

Modern OS X can frig off.

edit: grammar

 

[Samuel Fuller]

10.13.6 user checking in—been on "stuck" this OS due to an Nividia eGPU situation.

Been using MacOS since 9.x.


Agreed—and the ability to edit PDFs (delete a page, reorder pages, move a page from one file to another)… is unmatched.

[tangent, anyone know of a PDF reader w/ the same ease-of-use?]

Re-Unixness:
I switched to macports from homebrew sometime during the blurry lockdown times… and can heartily recommend others do the same. It's nice.

Modern OS X can frig off.

There isn't anything I have encountered that is as good as Preview on other platforms. Sorry!

 

[Organized Derailment]

My preferred laptop for work has been a Mac for over 20 years at this point; it's a desktop Unix that doesn't suck. For coding/system administration it's perfect and for many years Windows laptops of similar build quality cost almost as much (I will grant the past few years the prices on Macs have gone full retard). Running an M4 Pro now and it runs like a dream.

I have a Windows desktop for gaming; my home server has moved from everything to VMWare to OpenIndiana to Truenas SCALE running Linux. Use the right tool/OS for the task.

I also have a Vision Pro and it's completely replaced both my work monitors and even my TV/144Hz gaming monitor (Moonlight streaming from Windows). Yes, it was incredibly expensive; no, I cannot recommend that anyone buy one or that it's a good value proposition for 99% of users. For me though it's everything I've ever wanted in an AR display.

You are a man with his shit together.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

I was happy to find out that Apple has released a Windows client for Migration Assistant, that will be handy for helping switchers move to Mac going forward.

 

[Organized Derailment]

I was happy to find out that Apple has released a Windows client for Migration Assistant, that will be handy for helping switchers move to Mac going forward.

That's awesome. Their Migration tools work really well from my experience.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

That's awesome. Their Migration tools work really well from my experience.

I always love showing someone how it works for the first time. The look on a user's face when their brand new Mac is set up to be their old Mac, but faster, is always great. Being able to do that for someone who may be nervous about moving into a new environment entirely will be awesome.

 

[Organized Derailment]

I always love showing someone how it works for the first time. The look on a user's face when their brand new Mac is set up to be their old Mac, but faster, is always great. Being able to do that for someone who may be nervous about moving into a new environment entirely will be awesome.

This is always a great feeling.