Comment by dfxm12 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dfxm12 | Hacker News Reader

As someone who switches around between primarily Windows and secondarily OSX, and GDM3, I find OSX to have the most intuitive window manager. I don't like apps being maximized, and I feel like I can always intuitively find the window I'm looking for in OSX, just under the active window. I find myself arranging windows in Windows like OSX might arrange them. Maybe Apple is just using a different metaphor. I understand this is very subjective though.

Apple products are supposed to be revered the world over as the pinnacle of design, used by artists, engineers, professionals, and creators.

Is this still really the case? Most of what I hear nowadays is Apple's reputation is that their products are luxury status symbols rather than a tool for creative types, outside of maybe the camera on the iPhone. 10 years ago, you might have seen the coffee shop filled with macbooks, but that's not the case today. What artist is going to afford a $1900 monitor that can only be height adjusted with a $400 upgrade?

Funnily enough, for the ~5 years I used macOS, the Window Manager was the most frustrating aspect for me. I could not maximize apps (there was only a weird fullscreen/focus mode), I would accidentally end up dragging a window very often etc. All this gave ended up creating this feeling in my brain that the windows are just "floating" on the screen instead of being tightly bound to an arrangement.

You're not really 'supposed' to maximize or even tile apps on the Mac. In most cases it's a waste of screen space. The Mac has always been focused around the desktop metaphor. Historically applications were composed of multiple windows, and focusing a window in an application brought all of the other windows for that application to the front. You would manually arrange each of the windows/palettes of your application for multitasking, much like you would with physical pieces of paper.

At this point, my work is around tasks, not applications. I hardly ever need more than one window in the same application simultaneously. What I need is my browser open next to a document, or a spreadsheet open next to powerpoint.

Heavy Mac user here for many years, and I agree. I can't even think of the last time I "maximized" an app. All my apps sit around in a pile and I switch between them. If I were on a tiny screen, maybe I would dislike this, but at 27" a maximized app would be a pain in the ass.

So the menubar is worthless? Because the fullscreen mode kills it. Or is it some mental gymnastics in saying that it's a waste of space to only look at one thing?

Otherwise what you describe sounds like, basically every floating window system ever.

But that artist might be able to afford a thousand dollar MacBook Air with whatever cheap hand me down monitor they have lying around.

(But then the dongles they need to buy to attach to that monitor or keyboard or what have you is the straw that will break their financial bank!)

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